# Buying X followers: the risks, and what to do instead

> By Martin Vos, Founder, X Ad Campaign. Published 2026-09-23. 10 min read. Comparison.
> https://www.xadcampaign.com/blog/buying-x-followers/

Buying followers is cheap, fast and easy to find. It is also against X’s rules, regulated in the U.S., and almost always useless for the thing a business wanted followers for.

**TL;DR.** Bought followers are bots or empty accounts: they do not buy, they drag engagement rates down, and they break X’s platform manipulation rules. In the U.S., the FTC now bans buying fake indicators of influence for commercial purposes. X Ad Campaign uses followers campaigns and content worth following instead, and points out when followers are the wrong goal altogether.

## Should you buy Twitter or X followers?

No, and not only for the obvious reason. X Ad Campaign is asked about bought followers regularly, usually by businesses that want an account to look established before they start advertising. The short answer is that bought followers fail at the job they were bought for, carry real risks for the account and, in the U.S., can break consumer protection law.

The appeal is easy to understand. A new account with a handful of followers looks empty, and sellers offer thousands of followers for less than a dinner. The problem is what those followers are. They are bot accounts, abandoned accounts or accounts run in bulk by one operator, and none of them will read, reply, click or buy. They make a number bigger and everything behind the number worse.

The rest of the answer is about why that is, what the law now says, and the routes to a following that is actually worth something.

## What do you actually get when you buy followers?

Accounts that exist to be counted. When regulators in New York investigated Devumi, a large seller of followers, they found that the followers and activity it sold came from bot accounts and sock-puppet accounts[^1], one person pretending to be many. Some of them were worse than empty: Devumi supplied fake accounts that copied real people's profiles, names and pictures[^1] without their knowledge.

| What you bought | What it does | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| bot followers | adds to the count, nothing else | lower engagement rate on every post |
| inactive or abandoned accounts | adds to the count, then often disappears in a clean-up | the money, and an awkward drop later |
| accounts copied from real people | adds to the count using someone's stolen identity | legal and reputational exposure |
| bought likes and reposts | makes single posts look popular | misleads anyone who checks, and the algorithm |

None of these can become a customer, because there is nobody behind them who could.

## Why do bought followers hurt an account?

Because the platform and real readers measure more than the count. Every post goes first to a slice of the account's followers, and how they respond helps decide how far it travels. When a large share of followers are bots that never respond, each post starts with a weak signal, and the engagement rate (engagements divided by impressions) falls across the board.

That has three knock-on effects. Real followers see fewer of your posts, because the posts seem less engaging than they are. Analytics become hard to read, because the baseline is polluted by accounts that will never act. And promoting posts later costs more, because ad auctions reward ads that people engage with, and the account's history says its content does not get much engagement.

There is also the clean-up risk. X's rules against platform manipulation forbid artificially inflating follower counts, and fake accounts are removed in waves. An account that bought followers can see its count fall sharply overnight, which is more conspicuous than the small number it started with, and repeated manipulation can lead to restrictions on the account itself.

## Is buying followers illegal?

In the U.S., it can be. In August 2024[^2] the Federal Trade Commission finalised a rule on fake reviews and testimonials that also covers social media influence. The rule prohibits anyone from selling or buying fake indicators of social media influence[^3], such as followers or views generated by bots or hijacked accounts. The ban applies when the buyer knew or should have known the indicators were fake and uses them to misrepresent influence for a commercial purpose[^3], which describes a business buying followers to look bigger than it is. The rule lets the FTC seek civil penalties against knowing violators[^2].

The rule built on earlier enforcement. New York's Attorney General settled with Devumi in what the office described as the first finding by a law enforcement agency that selling fake social media engagement is illegal[^4], alongside the use of stolen identities.

In the EU, the rules on unfair commercial practices also treat fake consumer endorsements as misleading. The exact reach for follower counts depends on the case and the country, so a business in Europe should not read the absence of a dedicated follower rule as permission. The safe reading everywhere is the same: a business that pays to look more popular than it is misleads its customers.

## What should you do instead to grow followers?

Earn them, and pay to speed it up where it makes sense. The routes below all produce followers who are real people, which is the only kind that can become customers. The full playbook, organic and paid, is in [how to get followers on X](/blog/get-followers-on-x/).

| Route | How it works | Speed and cost |
|---|---|---|
| Followers campaign (X Ads) | promotes the account to people likely to follow it | fast; a few dollars per follower[^5] in WebFX's benchmarks |
| Promoting your best posts | pays to show posts that already work to a wider audience | fast; followers come as a side effect |
| Consistent posting on a clear topic | gives people a reason to follow: they know what they will get | slow; costs time, not money |
| Replies and conversations | joins discussions where your buyers already are | slow; builds visibility in the right circles |
| Collaborations and guests | appearing with accounts your buyers already follow | medium; depends on the partner |
| Cross-promotion from other channels | links from the website, email and other profiles | medium; costs nothing |

The paid routes are honest versions of what a seller of followers promises: real accounts, chosen by targeting, following because they saw something they liked. They cost more per follower than a bot service, and each of those followers is worth more than a thousand bots.

## How does a followers campaign on X work?

It shows the account, usually through one of its posts, to people the targeting selects, with a follow button attached. You pay for the follows it produces, so the price per follower is set by the auction, the audience and how appealing the account looks. WebFX puts the typical cost at two to four dollars per follow[^5].

Three things make it work better. First, the account should be worth following before the campaign starts: a clear bio, a pinned post that says what the account offers, and recent posts that show it. Second, the targeting should describe the people you want as customers, not just people likely to follow anything; keyword and interest targeting around your topic usually beats broad targeting. Third, the post used in the campaign should be one of the account's best, because the follow decision is made on that one impression.

A followers campaign is worth running for a limited time, to give a new or quiet account a base of the right people. It is rarely worth running indefinitely. Once the account has a real audience, the money usually does more promoting posts or driving visits directly. How the objectives differ is in the [campaign objectives guide](/guides/campaign-objectives/), and the overview of how X Ads work is in [X Ads explained](/blog/x-ads-guide/).

## What about growth services and engagement groups?

They are the same idea with a softer label. Services that promise "organic growth" by following and unfollowing accounts automatically, mass-liking posts or running your account through automation tools generate attention by breaking the platform's rules on automation and spam, and the followers they produce are mostly people who followed back out of politeness and never look at the account again.

Engagement groups, where members agree to like and reply to each other's posts, are subtler. The engagement comes from real people, but from people who are not buyers and who engage because they promised to, not because the post interested them. That inflates the engagement rate the platform reads, which can push posts to audiences who then ignore them.

The test for any service is simple. Ask who the new followers are and why they followed. If the answer is "people interested in what you sell, who saw your posts", the service is a form of advertising or content work. If the answer involves automation, exchanges, packages of a fixed number or guarantees of growth regardless of what you post, it is a version of buying followers, with the same risks to the account.

## How do you spot an account that bought followers?

The pattern is visible to anyone who looks, which is part of why buying followers backfires. A large follower count with very low engagement on every post is the first sign: thousands of followers, a handful of likes. Real audiences do not behave that way consistently.

Other signs show up in the followers list itself: many accounts with default profile pictures, random-looking handles, no posts of their own and a following count far larger than their follower count. Sudden jumps in follower count, without a viral post or press mention to explain them, point the same way.

This matters for businesses on both sides. If you are choosing an influencer, creator or partner to work with, these checks protect your budget. If you are tempted to buy followers yourself, assume that journalists, partners and customers can run the same checks on you.

## Are follower counts worth chasing at all?

Less than they seem. A follower count is a lagging signal: it reflects past attention, not current interest, and it says nothing about whether those followers ever become customers. For most businesses, the numbers that matter are visits, sign-ups, sales and their cost.

That changes what to measure. Instead of follower growth, watch the engagement rate on posts, clicks to the website, and conversions tracked from X. WebFX's benchmarks put typical click-through rates on X ads at one to two percent[^6], which is a more useful yardstick for a campaign than any follower total. The [X Analytics overview](/blog/x-analytics/) covers which metrics deserve attention and which are context.

## When is a followers campaign the wrong move too?

When the business does not plan to post. Followers gained by a campaign only matter if the account gives them something to read afterwards. An account that goes quiet after the campaign has paid for an audience it does not use.

When the real goal is sales. A business that wants customers from X usually does better paying for website visits or conversions directly. Followers can come along as a side effect of good ads; they are a poor detour on the way to a sale.

When the budget is small. A small budget spent on followers produces a slightly larger number. The same budget spent on a focused test of one offer, measured properly, answers whether X can bring customers at all, which is the question that decides everything else. What that test should cost is in [what X ads cost](/blog/x-ads-cost/).

## Quick answers

### Should you buy Twitter or X followers?

No. Bought followers are bots or inactive accounts that never buy anything, they break X’s rules against platform manipulation, and in the U.S. buying fake influence for a commercial purpose is now banned by the FTC. X Ad Campaign recommends a followers campaign or content worth following instead: slower, but every follower is a real person.

### Is buying followers illegal?

In the U.S., the FTC’s rule on fake reviews and testimonials prohibits buying or selling fake indicators of social media influence, such as bot followers, when the buyer knew or should have known they were fake and uses them to misrepresent influence for a commercial purpose. New York’s Attorney General had already found selling fake followers to be illegal deception.

### What does a real followers campaign on X cost?

WebFX puts the typical cost per follow from X ads at a few dollars per follower. The price depends on the audience, the content and the competition for it. Unlike a bought follower, each one is a real account that chose to follow after seeing your posts, so it can see future posts and become a customer.

### Is a big follower count worth paying for at all?

Rarely on its own. Follower count is a lagging and easily faked signal; what pays the bills is the number of people who visit, sign up or buy. A smaller following of the right people beats a large one of the wrong ones, and money spent on reaching buyers directly usually does more than money spent on followers.

## Sources

[^1]: The fake followers and activity Devumi sold came from bot accounts or sock-puppet accounts, and in some instances from fake accounts that copied real people’s profiles, names and pictures without consent. Office of the New York State Attorney General, "Attorney General James Announces Groundbreaking Settlement With Sellers Of Fake Followers And “Likes” On Social Media" (press release, 2019), https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2019/attorney-general-james-announces-groundbreaking-settlement-sellers-fake-followers (read 2026-10-02).
[^2]: The FTC announced the final rule on 14 August 2024; it allows the agency to seek civil penalties against knowing violators, and becomes effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Federal Trade Commission, "Federal Trade Commission Announces Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials" (press release, 14 August 2024), https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/08/federal-trade-commission-announces-final-rule-banning-fake-reviews-testimonials (read 2026-10-02).
[^3]: The FTC’s final rule prohibits anyone from selling or buying fake indicators of social media influence, such as followers or views generated by a bot or hijacked account; the prohibition is limited to situations in which the buyer knew or should have known that the indicators were fake and misrepresent the buyer’s influence or importance for a commercial purpose. Federal Trade Commission, "Federal Trade Commission Announces Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials" (press release, 14 August 2024), https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/08/federal-trade-commission-announces-final-rule-banning-fake-reviews-testimonials (read 2026-10-02).
[^4]: The New York Attorney General’s settlement with Devumi over the sale of fake followers, likes and views on platforms including Twitter and YouTube was the first finding by a law enforcement agency that selling fake social media engagement and using stolen identities to engage in online activity is illegal. Office of the New York State Attorney General, "Attorney General James Announces Groundbreaking Settlement With Sellers Of Fake Followers And “Likes” On Social Media" (press release, 2019), https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2019/attorney-general-james-announces-groundbreaking-settlement-sellers-fake-followers (read 2026-10-02).
[^5]: WebFX puts the average CPC of X ads at $0.50 to $2, spiking to $3 to $5 for competitive topics or events, and the average cost per follow at $2 to $4, from its in-house performance data and third-party intelligence. WebFX, "X (Twitter) Marketing Benchmarks for a Winning 2027 Strategy" (14 November 2025), https://www.webfx.com/blog/social-media/x-twitter-marketing-benchmarks/ (read 2026-09-30).
[^6]: WebFX reports typical rates for X ads of a 1% to 2% click-through rate, a 0.5% to 1% engagement rate and a 1% to 3% ad conversion rate, from in-house performance data and third-party intelligence. WebFX, "X (Twitter) Marketing Benchmarks for a Winning 2027 Strategy" (14 November 2025), https://www.webfx.com/blog/social-media/x-twitter-marketing-benchmarks/ (read 2026-09-30).

---
*X Ad Campaign, https://www.xadcampaign.com/. Free to read, index, quote and cite with attribution and a link.*