When you’re trying to grow your Instagram page, you can’t just post a random photo and hope for the best. That’s like hitting a home run. No matter how good you are at producing creative posts, your content strategy needs to be backed up by data. In this guide to Instagram analytics, we’ll show you exactly what data you can use to improve your online presence.
Content may be king on Instagram, but data-driven decisions are queen. You can’t just guess what kind of posts your fans will like and cross your fingers every time you post. If you have a deep understanding of your past content performance metrics, you can optimize your content to be more successful. Let’s take a deep dive into Instagram analytics and how to use them to improve your content, shall we?
What are Instagram Analytics?
First off, what are Instagram analytics? Analytics are the deep data you can pull from your Instagram page to see how your content is performing. By looking at analytics, you can gain more insight into your online performance. You can also check data for individual posts, from photos to Reels to Instagram Stories (more on that later!).
At the most basic level, this might include the number of interactions or views your post gets on your content. But more advanced analytics will provide key metrics like reach, watch times, link clicks, engagement rates, and more. All of these metrics give you an idea of how well your target audience is receiving your content and whether it is engaging.
Analytics reports help you assess what type of content is working and what is not resonating. It is a tool you can use to see how you are doing on the platform and to study how to improve further.
Instagram Insights is the in-app analytics tool for brands and creators. It has accurate, real-time data and tons of metrics, making it the best analytics tool Instagram has to offer. Here, you can see the overall performance of your page, check the insights of each post, and learn more about your followers. If you run ads, you can also see their stats.
Reading and analyzing data on Insights allows you to measure the success of the posts you have worked hard on. It shows you whether certain campaigns were able to reach your goals.
Instagram analytics can also be a springboard for better creative ideas and a new and improved content strategy. It gives you a solid understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. Armed with this information, you can make more data-driven decisions about what to do next on Instagram to improve your presence.
How do you see Instagram Analytics?
The next question that will probably come to your mind is: how do I see Instagram analytics? The first thing to know is that not everyone can access the analytics of their posts. Instagram Insights is a tool available exclusively to those with a professional account, meaning only for creators and business profiles. So, if you want to see your analytics, switch to a professional account first.
You can easily find the Insights page in your professional dashboard if you already have a company page. Here's how:
- Open the Instagram app and log in to your profile.
- Click on the three horizontal lines at the top right of the screen.
- In the "For Professionals" section, tap Insights to start seeing your Page numbers!
From here, you can play around with the different tabs and metrics. You can see analytics for individual posts, audience data, or just a general overview of your page analytics. Note that you can only see insights for posts published after you upgraded to a professional page.
Instagram Analytics Metrics 101: What Do These Metrics Mean?
There are many Instagram analytics metrics that help you measure the performance of your posts. And because there are so many of them, it can be overwhelming to try to grasp and understand them all. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Let’s look at the main metrics you can expect to see on Instagram Insights and what they mean.
Instagram Metrics in Account Overview
When you open the Insights dashboard, the first thing you see is your page-level Instagram metrics, which is your account overview. You'll see graphs that show your follower growth trends over time, the number of people who've recently visited your profile, and more.
When viewing insights, you can choose a specific time period for the application to pull data from. It can be as recent as the last seven days or as far back as the last three months.
Two of the most important metrics you will find in this section are "Accounts Reached" and "Accounts Engaged." The first indicates the number of unique users who have seen your content on the platform. The second, instead, shows how many people have actively interacted with your posts through likes, comments, clicks, and shares. These key metrics give you an idea of the effectiveness of your page promotion and the relevance of your content.
Metrics in post-level insights
IG Insights also lets you view metrics at the individual post level. Here’s how to access individual post data, step by step:
- In the Instagram app, go to your profile.
- Open the post you want to see insights on.
- Click View Insights at the bottom of the post.
From here, you can see the most important metrics that indicate how your post is performing. These include reach, video views, and content interactions (i.e., engagement).
With interaction counting, it’s easy to calculate another relevant metric that isn’t available in Insights: engagement rate. This metric measures the amount of traffic you get relative to your number of followers. To calculate this rate, divide the total interactions on your posts by the number of your followers and multiply by 100.
For example, let's say you're an influencer with 5,000 followers. You post a photo that gets 250 likes and 25 comments. Using the formula, you get a rate of 5.5%. (Note: According to Hootsuite, rates between 1% and 5% are very good.)
Analytics for Instagram Reels
You can access your IG Reels insights exactly as above. But in addition to reach and engagement, you’ll see some metrics unique to the short video format. Here are a few:
- Views: The total number of times the video has been played on a user's screen, including replays.
- Watch Time: The cumulative time the video has been played by all users.
- Average Watch Time: The average amount of time a user spends watching your Reel. The higher the average watch time, the better you have captured and maintained the attention of your audience.
- Following: The number of accounts that followed you after watching your video. This indicates how effective your reel is at generating interest in your brand.
Instagram Story Analysis
Want to see how your Story content is performing? You can find out with Instagram Story analytics. This data includes the number of views, replies, and link clicks. You can also see how many people viewed your story and how many abandoned it before it ended. All of these metrics help you understand how your audience is engaging with ephemeral content.
Other publicly available data
In addition to content performance metrics, Instagram Insights also offers a variety of information about your audience. You can see where your followers are located, their age range, gender, and the time of day they are most active. This information helps you create more targeted content and post it at the times when your audience is most active.
Tip: You can also use third-party Instagram analytics tools
While Instagram Insights is a powerful tool, there are also other third-party analytics tools that can provide additional insights. Some of these include Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Iconosquare, and Keyhole. These tools offer additional features such as competitor comparisons, hashtag analysis, and more.
Instagram Analytics tags could also be a good idea
Another interesting metric to keep an eye on is tag analytics. These tell you how many people have seen and interacted with your posts based on the tags you use. This can help you understand which hashtags work best to reach your audience.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to read Instagram analytics?
To properly read Instagram analytics, it is important to focus on key metrics such as reach, engagement, and conversion rate. These indicators will tell you how well your content is reaching and engaging with your audience.
How do you measure Instagram analytics?
To measure Instagram analytics, you must first define your goals. Then, you can monitor relevant metrics such as follower count, views, engagement, and link clicks to see if you are reaching your goals.
How do you manage Instagram analytics?
To manage your Instagram analytics, you should regularly analyze your data, identify trends and strengths/weaknesses, and then use this information to optimize your content strategy. Keeping a journal of key metrics will help you track your progress over time.
How many followers do you need to see Instagram Insights?
To access Instagram Insights, you must have a professional account, which can be a business or content creator profile. There is no minimum number of followers required to see Insights.
How accurate is the GI analysis?
Instagram analytics are generally pretty accurate, especially for basic metrics like views, engagement, and reach. However, there can be some discrepancies, especially for more advanced metrics like conversion rate. It’s important to use this data as a guideline, not as the absolute truth.
Bookmark This Instagram Analytics Guide for Future Reference!
This comprehensive guide to Instagram metrics has given you an in-depth overview of all the tools and data available to you to analyze your page's performance. Remember to save this article for future reference, so you can come back to it whenever you need to. need to better understand your Instagram analytics.