It’s time to answer the age old question… is faceless marketing a scam? If you could make $50k a month on social media WITHOUT showing your face, would you quit your 9-5 job? For many, the answer is an easy HELL yes — and this easy yes is why many are toying with leaving the 9-5 behind.
Faceless marketing has dominated TikTok’s FYP and Instagram reels for months. With good reason. Creators have boasted about making thousands of dollars a week without ever showing their faces. Big money claims coupled with a dubious faceless method leaves a lot of people skeptical, understandably.
In fact, many are comparing it to an MLM. Today, we’re diving deep.
Is faceless marketing an MLM? Is it really a get-rich-quick scheme? If not, how are creators making life-changing money?
Let’s find out.
What Is An MLM?
An MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) is a business model where people earn money by selling products and by recruiting others into the business.
These recruits then also generate sales and recruit others, creating a pyramid like structure. Because of this, MLMs are often compared to pyramid schemes, an illegal business model that also focuses only on recruiting participants rather than selling products or services. So, what does that have to do with Instagram?
Why Do People Think Faceless Marketing is an MLM?
Faceless marketing is what it sounds like: creating an online presence and monetizing it without ever showing your face. Through the use of content banks, you can establish your own personal brand and sell products digitally without having to show up as yourself.
Now let’s address the elephant in the room. Faceless marketing does feel like a pyramid scheme, for multiple reasons. These include:
💠REASON 1: TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
$10k months? Work from anywhere? Live life on your terms? It’s giving red flag. Let’s face it, posting on social about an opportunity that sounds too good to be true gives off major MLM.
Faceless accounts thrive by sharing wild income claims and there’s no real way of verifying which are real and which are just stolen screenshots. Savvy creators are growing overnight by sharing blatant misinformation, essentially over-promising, under-delivering, and just oversimplifying faceless marketing. It is not easy, but it’s simple, and there is very little barrier to entry. This gives too good to be true vibes.
Faceless marketers make their money by selling a dream, and that mean’s posting about making ludicrous amounts of money. But that’s not realistic for 90% of new accounts. When starting, it’s not uncommon to earn nothing for the first few months.
💠REASON 2: NO PHYSICAL PRODUCT
Here’s where faceless marketing gets a little blurry. For the most part, people who make a living doing faceless marketing do it teaching others how to do the exact same thing. They buy a digital marketing course with master-resell-rights for $499. They then get to sell that course as their own for $499 minimum. Because of this, they talk a lot about how this course has changed their life and they are making $$$$ every day from selling it. When they do manage to sell it, the next person then does the same and before you know it you’ve got a never ending cycle of people selling a course that they never actually use.
💠REASON 3: PEOPLE TRUST PEOPLE
People trust people. They trust known faces and voices, and the very nature of faceless marketing means it’s harder to build that initial trust. You need to have a really distinct brand voice to cut through the noise and establish trust with an audience.
With that being said, it is possible.
So, Is Faceless Marketing a Pyramid Scheme?
No, faceless marketing is not a pyramid scheme. Faceless marketing is a legitimate marketing tactic – it’s just a new approach to social media and affiliate marketing. If you ignore the videos that advertise it as a get-rich-quick scheme, you’re left with an industry that offers incredibly profitable opportunities (that won’t necessarily change your life overnight).
Many accounts fizzle out because the creators realized that it wasn’t the overnight money-maker they expected. For those that were looking for a get rich quick scheme, they quickly lost momentum. Stick with it, and you’ll the reap the benefits in the long term.
Faceless marketing isn’t a scam. The biggest scam is your 9-5. Consider this: what if you didn’t have to spend 75% of your day doing a job you hate while not getting paid enough.
