Level Up Your Instagram Content with AI
- Marcos Navarro
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Blogger’s Note: The following blog on using AI to create Instagram posts was curated with information from other blogs. These sources include HubSpot, Pretty Little Marketer, and Social Media Examiner. This post is intended to inform and educate aspiring marketers on the use of AI for content creation on Instagram.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer just a novel futuristic thought or a plot point for the cinema. It’s here and it’s going to change the way we live our lives both professionally and personally. Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, AI has proven to be a game-changer in the way we function and process tasks in the workplace. As marketing professionals, we must be at the forefront of new trends and tools necessary to excel in our jobs, with AI being no different. Creating social media posts for platforms such as Instagram can be a laborious task when you factor in all the steps it may take to produce a single piece of content. Instagram posts don’t just pop out of nowhere. They involve strategy, creativity, designing, and scheduling to produce. When you factor in all the various tasks we may be assigned as social media marketers, such as performance analysis and community engagement, you begin to realize we may sometimes be stretched a bit thin, and a little help from a tool such as AI may be essential.
The basic components of an Instagram post are simply an image and a caption. Instagram rose to prominence on its main feature of allowing users to share photos and images, and a caption or copy is provided below for some context. Though other formats such as stories, reels, and the text companion Threads have been introduced to the platform, images remain a key component of the Instagram experience. There are many ways AI can help you with social media marketing, but this blog will focus on how A.I. tools can help you create and optimize images and copies for Instagram posts.
AI Tools to Help You Generate Images
There are many Generative AI tools out there to help you create content on Instagram or any other platform. Below, I’ve curated the benefits of some of the free tools featured in Ramona Sukhraj’s HubSpot blog, AI Image Generators: I tested 12 of the Best. Here’s the Scoop for Marketers. Keep in mind though these tools may be free, they also offer additional features and use with the purchase of a premium plan. When ultimately deciding on the A.I. tool that’s best for you for creating your Instagram posts, bear note of the qualities that make an image generator good. They must be easy to use, quick, produce quality images, portray diversity and variety, and offer customization options.
Microsoft Designer
Price: 15 free image generations per day, premium plan starts at $20/month
Pros + | Cons - |
Delivers 4 high-quality images per prompt | Images are all square by default |
Diversity in both the people and settings displayed | “Photo realistic” prompts have an illustrative look |
Produces accurate portrayals of people |
Good for: Great tool for Social Media Marketers and teams. Easy to produce images for content creation.
Adobe Firefly
Price: 25 free credits per month with premium features starting at $4.99/month
Pros + | Cons - |
Free & fast | Must inspect for flaws in the picture, no scanning feature to track mistakes |
Delivers 4 high-quality images per prompt | Lack of styles |
Crisp & detailed photorealistic images | |
Diversity in people and settings is displayed | |
Can edit specific details on image |
Good for: The Tool is very accessible for anyone to use, including marketers. Able to generate photo and artistic design images in square, portrait, landscape, and widescreen.
Canva Magic Design
Price: 10 free Magic Designs per lifetime with premium features for Pro, Non-Profit, and Educational use starting at $120/month
Pros + | Cons - |
Fast & easy to use | Photo-realistic results not so |
Up to 20 visual styles | Inaccurate depictions of human anatomy (hands, eyes, fingers) |
Offers video |
Meta AI
Price: Free to all Meta platform users (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp)
Pros + | Cons - |
Free and fast | Watermarked images |
Delivers 4 high-quality images per prompt | Unable to do specific edits |
Diversity in people and settings is displayed | |
Can animate results with a click |
Good For: Great for producing small digital graphics for social media use.
5. Gemini
Price: Free, and Google AI premium plan starts at $19.99/month.
Pros + | Cons - |
Free, fast, & easy to use | Only 1 result per prompt |
Extremely high quality images | Not many customizable options |
Good For: Great tool for social media, website, or blog image production.
Use what works for You
This was just a brief overview of the AI image generating tools currently available. Ultimately, the matter of choosing the best one for your business is somewhat subjective. It would be best to experiment with the free options available to see which tools best serve your business marketing needs.
With that being said, every good Instagram post needs a great image and a great caption or copy.
Train A.I. how to write copies for your brand and marketing goals
There are plenty of AI tools currently available to help you write copies for your Instagram content. These include ChatGPT, Perplexity, OpusClip, and CastMagic. They all have their unique advantages, however, besides just choosing a platform, you must train your A.I. Copywriting Persona.
Below are the steps needed to train an efficient A.I. Copywriting Persona curated from the Social Media Examiner blog Advanced AI Copywriting: How to Train A.I. to Write like a Pro by Michael Stelzner.
Step 1: Collect Content Training Data
First, you’ll need to gather at least 100 examples of the best-performing content copies. Take these copies and transfer them into a spreadsheet. For each post, also be sure to include the platform (in this case, Instagram), engagement (number of likes, comments, and shares), tone (funny, serious, sarcastic, etc.), and the topic of each post.
Step 2: Prep your Audience Personas and Brand Voice
Now you’ll want to gather the audience personas for your target audience. Be sure to be as detailed as possible and include demographics, psychographics, pain points, desires, behaviors, and motivations. Export this data to a PDF.
To help your AI models understand your brand voice, input your company’s brand, mission, and values. For starters, if you are contracted by a firm, start with the info found on their “About Us” page. Export this data to a PDF as well.
Input your data to train your A.I. Copywriting Persona
Lastly, here you will input your Instagram copy samples, your buyer personas, and your brand voice into the A.I. tool of your choosing. Be sure to specify what you have imputed and what you expect back from the AI model. For example, input something like this.
“I have given you 3 sets of training data. One is 100 examples of my best-performing content on Instagram, the other is the buyer persona for my target audience, and the last is my company’s brand voice. You are a master copywriter and will be able to create high-performing Instagram posts on the topics I provide.”
Now You Are Ready to Use Your AI Copywriting Persona
Your A.I. Copywriter is all set and can ask it to create content. Effective copies will be the result of inputting the correct prompt. So here are some tips.
Be simple and direct ( Write me a copy about how tasty my donuts are to accompany this image on Instagram)
Mention specific outcomes ( I need the post to drive traffic toward my website and delivery page to sell more donuts)
Indicate the desired length ( IG captions are ideally 138-150 characters)
Request variations ( Produce 3 possible copies for this post)
Review the output and provide feedback
Now, Put your AI Tools to Good Use
You should now be equipped with the tool, knowledge, and skill set to have AI assist you in crafting images and copies for your Instagram content. Surely, finding the correct tool and output will require a little experimentation and refinement, but I’m sure you got this. You’re the expert after all. Whether you're a marketing veteran or an expert in training, such as a college student, there's always more to learn. For more info on how AI is changing the landscape of social media marketing, be sure to read my colleague Mike Martin's article right here.
Be sure to comment and share below how A.I. has taken your Instagram content to the next level, happy marketing.
Resources
O'Reilly, D. (2025, April 3). AI tools for marketers. Pretty Little Marketer. https://www.prettylittlemarketer.com/blog/ai-tools-for-marketers
Stelzner, M. (2024, October 8). Advanced AI copywriting: How to train AI to write like a pro. Social Media Examiner. https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/advanced-ai-copywriting-how-to-train-ai-to-write-like-a-pro/
Sukhraj, R. (2024, May 31). AI image generators: I tested 12 of the best. here’s the scoop for marketers. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-ai-image-generator
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