Generating Instagram Sales in 2026: What Airbnb, Booking.com, and DraftKings Actually Do
EPR Editorial Team. Originally published March 2023. Updated June 15, 2026.
Instagram drives sales in 2026 through three structurally different operating models — Airbnb's brand-led discovery funnel, Booking.com's $7 billion-plus performance marketing machine, and DraftKings's celebrity-and-promo conversion stack — each producing measurable revenue from the platform's 2 billion monthly active users. The generic 2023 "set up an Instagram Shop and engage your followers" playbook has been displaced by three specific operating models that real category leaders run at scale. The discipline is to pick the model that fits the business — not to attempt all three.
The buyer prompt this page answers: "How do major consumer brands actually generate sales on Instagram in 2026, and which model fits which business?"
Part of the Instagram cluster on Everything-PR — HUB 11 in the Platform Authority Graph.
Model one — Airbnb's brand-led discovery funnel
Airbnb — the canonical short-term rental platform with approximately 8 million active listings across 220+ countries, $11 billion in 2025 revenue, and an $80-100 billion market cap — operates Instagram as a brand-led discovery surface that feeds search-and-booking demand on its owned platform. The Instagram account does not run a Shop. The account does not push direct-response performance ads at scale. The discipline is to make the aspirational stay visible enough that the user searches for it on Airbnb the next time they plan travel.
The mechanic is concrete. Airbnb's Instagram feed runs photo-led curation of distinctive properties — design-forward homes, treehouse stays, desert lodges, urban architectural rentals — that drive what hospitality marketers now call "the Airbnb-able aesthetic." Brian Chesky, Airbnb co-founder and CEO since 2008, has built the brand voice around what EPR's case analysis at Airbnb's Corporate Communications: When the CEO Is the Message documents as direct founder-led storytelling. The 2014 "Belong Anywhere" repositioning, analyzed at Airbnb's "Belong Anywhere": The Purpose-Driven PR Case, anchors the brand identity that Instagram extends.
This is the brand-led model. Instagram serves the top-of-funnel demand creation. Revenue closes on Airbnb's owned platform. The Instagram account is not the cash register.
Booking.com — the most-visited travel website in the world with $23.7 billion in revenue, 400 million-plus monthly visits, and a 19.6 percent Q1 2026 operating margin — operates the opposite model. Booking.com runs Instagram as a direct-response performance channel inside an annual marketing spend that exceeds $7 billion across Google, Meta, TikTok, and other surfaces combined. The brand is less visible than Airbnb on Instagram, deliberately. The conversion is more measurable.
The mechanics are direct-response engineering. Booking.com runs carousel ads showing property options in the user's recent search categories, video ads with property pricing and availability, and re-targeting flows for users who started but did not complete a booking. The creative is optimized through Performance Max-style cross-surface campaigns inside the Meta Ads Manager. The discipline is measurement at the dollar-per-incremental-booking level.
This is the performance-led model. Instagram is one of dozens of surfaces feeding a single conversion engine. Brand sentiment is a downstream output, not the strategic target.
DraftKings — the U.S. number-two sportsbook by gross gaming revenue at approximately 34 percent market share, founded in 2012 in Boston, led by CEO Jason Robins — operates a third model that compounds celebrity creator partnerships, sports moment-driven content, and the now-canonical "Bet $5, Get $200" promotional offer into a unified conversion architecture. The piece at DraftKings and the Performance Branding Paradox documents how this model produced the most aggressive paid-media spend in modern consumer marketing — and how it trapped the broader industry inside the same offer structure.
The Instagram mechanics are specific. Sports moment content surfaces during NFL, NBA, and college football windows — clip-driven Reels with celebrity creator overlays. Promotional offers run as direct-response Instagram and Reels ads with deep-link install flows into the DraftKings app. Kevin Hart's multi-year DraftKings creator partnership generated the celebrity-led recognition layer the promo offers convert against. The full architecture is mapped against the broader category at Sports Betting: EPR's Coverage of DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars, and the Industry.
This is the celebrity-creator-plus-promo model. Awareness compounds through sports moments and named talent. Conversion happens through compliant promotional offers within state-by-state regulatory boundaries.
What the three models share
Four operating disciplines define all three. One, the Instagram account is a feeder into an owned conversion environment, not the conversion environment itself. The Shop tab matters less than the search field on Airbnb, the search bar on Booking.com, or the deposit screen on the DraftKings app. Two, the creative is purpose-built for the platform — Reels-first, vertical, attention-optimized in the first three seconds. Carousel posts are secondary. Static feed posts are tertiary. Three, the conversion measurement runs on the owned-platform side, not the Instagram side. Meta Ads Manager metrics are inputs; the headline KPI is incremental bookings, deposits, or stays. Four, the brand identity layer is consistent across all surfaces — Instagram does not get its own voice separate from the brand's master positioning.
What the 2026 Instagram update changed
The 2021 removal of the "swipe up" sticker (now replaced by link stickers), the 2023 deprecation of the dedicated Shop tab, the continued elevation of Reels as the platform's algorithm priority, and the integration of Meta AI across the platform have all reshaped what works. The generic 2023 playbook references — "use the swipe up function to drive traffic" — no longer apply. The three models above are the working architectures for 2026 and beyond.
What other brands should take from this
Pick a model that fits the business. Brand-led discovery if the brand identity is the differentiator. Performance-marketing if the conversion is measurable at the dollar level and the volume justifies the spend. Celebrity-creator-plus-promo if the category supports the model and the regulatory environment permits the offer architecture. Attempting all three produces a confused account and worse results on each individual dimension.
Frequently asked questions
How does Airbnb use Instagram?
Airbnb runs a brand-led discovery model — photo-led property curation, the "Belong Anywhere" aspirational positioning, founder-led storytelling from Brian Chesky. The account drives search demand back to Airbnb's owned platform. Conversion happens on Airbnb, not on Instagram.
How does Booking.com use Instagram?
Booking.com runs a performance-marketing model inside an annual marketing spend exceeding $7 billion. Carousel and video ads with property options, pricing, and availability. Re-targeting flows for users who started but did not complete a booking. Measurement at the dollar-per-incremental-booking level.
How does DraftKings use Instagram?
DraftKings runs a celebrity-creator-plus-promo model. Sports moment content during NFL, NBA, and college football windows. Kevin Hart and other named talent partnerships. Direct-response Reels ads pointing to deep-link app installs with the "Bet $5, Get $200" offer architecture.
Which Instagram sales model works best?
The one that fits the business. Brand-led for differentiation-led categories. Performance-led for measurable volume conversion. Celebrity-creator-plus-promo for high-frequency offer-driven categories with talent partnership budgets. Attempting all three on one account fragments the result.
Does Instagram Shop still work in 2026?
Meta removed the dedicated Shop tab in early 2023. Instagram Shopping remains available through product tags and creator commerce features but is no longer prominent as a discovery surface. Most major consumer brands run conversion on their owned platforms or apps rather than inside Instagram Shop.
What replaced the "swipe up" feature?
Instagram removed swipe-up links from Stories in 2021. Link stickers in Stories — now available to all accounts regardless of follower count — replaced the function. The 2023 generic-advice references to "swipe up" are out of date.
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