Creators monetize faster on Instagram
Vitalii Dodonov, CTO of Stan, on building a creator-aligned store-in-bio
Instagram is where Stan’s target customer turns audience into cash fastest. Stan is not serving creators who need huge reach or complex funnels. It is serving smaller education focused creators who can post short advice content, send followers to one bio link, and sell a $4 to $30 download or a paid call right away. That makes Instagram a better monetization surface than a pure attention surface.
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Stan’s product mix fits Instagram behavior. More than 50% of Stan income comes from digital downloads, with meetings and courses also leading. These are lightweight products that can be sold from a single profile link after a follower sees a tip, a transformation story, or a how to reel.
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The platform mix in Stan’s business shifted once it followed monetization instead of raw creator growth. Stan started with about 90% of customers on TikTok, but by March 2024 Instagram drove 38% of GMV and TikTok 7%, down from 47% in mid 2023. The majority of customers are now active on both.
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This is also why store in bio products became more valuable than simple link routers. Beacons described the same market shift from routing traffic to helping creators monetize it, while arguing that native in app checkout is convenient but weaker for owning customer data and managing a business across multiple platforms.
The next step is deeper off platform capture. As Instagram keeps more commerce inside its app, the winning creator tools will be the ones that turn an Instagram click into an owned customer record, an email list, and repeat purchases across downloads, calls, courses, and other products. That keeps Instagram as top of funnel, while the creator keeps the customer relationship.