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Influencer Management in 2026: A Deep Dive Into Instagram’s Explore Page Algorithm

Updated: Dec 19, 2025



For modern influencer management, Instagram’s Explore page is no longer a “nice-to-have.”It’s a key discovery engine for creators in 2026.


If your talent isn’t consistently landing on Explore, they’re invisible to a wave of new fans.


This article is a deep dive into how Instagram’s Explore algorithm actually works, why it exists, and how talent managers can intentionally engineer content to trigger it — instead of hoping for luck.



About The Author: William Shoe



William Shoe
William Shoe

Over the past decade, I’ve helped talent managers and agencies across the UK, Europe, and the US build successful talent brands and secure high-value partnerships.​​

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Having worked at LVMH, and run my own talent agency (Talent Village), I know first-hand the daily challenges that talent managers face today – and what it takes to succeed. I believe that the pillar of great talent management is not only in representing talent, but helping them to actually grow their audiences and achieve more than they could have without you.




What Is the Instagram Explore Page?


The Instagram Explore page is where recommendations happen.


It’s a grid of content — Reels, posts, and carousels — that Instagram algorithmically selects and surfaces to users who do not follow the creator yet.


This is crucial for influencer management because:

  • Explore is where non-followers first discover creators

  • It’s algorithmically curated, not chronological

  • It’s interest-based, not popularity-based

In simple terms:

Explore is Instagram deciding who deserves distribution to specific audiences.

And when your talent lands there, they’re placed directly in front of an audience that didn’t know they existed — but is highly likely to engage.


That’s why follows spike fast when Explore hits.

Why Does the Explore Page Exist? (From Instagram’s Perspective)


Instagram doesn’t surface content randomly.


Explore exists to solve one core problem:


👉 Keeping users on the platform longer.


To do that, Instagram needs to show users content they are highly likely to engage with — even if it comes from creators they’ve never seen before.


So Explore is built to:

  • Predict user interest with high confidence

  • Reinforce content consumption loops

  • Reduce friction in discovering new creators

For influencer management, this is crucial. Instagram only rewards creators it understands.


If the algorithm can’t confidently answer:

  • Who is this content for?

  • What niche does this creator belong to?

  • What behaviour does this content trigger?

It won’t distribute it on Explore.

How Instagram’s Explore Recommendation System Works (2026 Breakdown)


Landing on Explore isn’t about virality in the traditional sense.

It’s about signal alignment.


Instagram’s recommendation system evaluates content based on a layered process:


Step 1: Audience & Content Classification

Before performance even matters, Instagram classifies:

  • What the content is about

  • What niche it belongs to

  • What type of user would enjoy it

This classification is based on:

  • Visual patterns

  • Text overlays

  • Captions

  • Audio usage

  • Historical performance of similar posts

If your content is inconsistent or vague, this step fails — and Explore distribution never really starts.

Step 2: Initial Performance vs Baseline

Every post is tested against two groups:

  1. Your existing followers

  2. A small non-follower test audience

Instagram measures whether the post performs above baseline for that content type and niche.

Not raw numbers — relative performance.

This is why influencer management strategies focused only on follower count fail.



Step 3: Predictive Engagement Modelling


Instagram then asks: “If we show this to more users like this, will they care?”

This prediction is built on signals like:

  • Saves

  • Shares (especially DMs)

  • Rewatches

  • Profile taps

  • Time spent on post

If these signals are strong, Instagram expands distribution into Explore.

If not, it stops.



What Key Signals Trigger Explore Distribution?


Explore isn’t triggered by likes or comments anymore.

Those are soft signals.

In 2026, Explore is driven by intent-based engagement — actions that require effort and indicate real interest.

The Most Powerful Explore Triggers

  • Saves → “I want to come back to this”

  • Shares (DMs) → “This is valuable to someone else”

  • Rewatches → “This held my attention”

  • Profile taps → “I want to know who this is”

  • Time spent → “This kept me here”

From an influencer management standpoint, this changes everything.


You’re not optimising for reach —you’re optimising for engagement depth.



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