Instagram analytics: What are they and why do they matter?

Social media platforms like Instagram have become essential tools for businesses, influencers, and marketers seeking to build their brand and connect with their desired audience. With a vast number of daily active users, Instagram offers unparalleled potential for engagement through Instagram stories, posts, and reels.

However, it is not enough to just post and hope for the best. Whether you are a social media influencer or an Instagram business, understanding and utilizing social media analytics is crucial to making data-driven decisions that drive growth and increase your reach. Luckily, there is no need to pay for an Instagram analytics tool when there is a free tool created for viewing insights and Instagram metrics built into the app.

This in-depth guide to Instagram analytics will show you how to identify patterns, track performance, and uncover valuable insights that will help you stand out from the crowd. Utilizing this information effectively can lead to an increase in followers, deeper engagement, and ultimately, the success of your presence on this popular social media app.

Summary/Overview

What are Instagram analytics?

Instagram analytics provide valuable information about the performance of your account and content. Instagram insights track metrics such as follower count and growth, Instagram hashtag performance, engagement rate, reach, and so much more. This all-in-one native analytics tool offers users real-time information about their Instagram performance. By monitoring and understanding key metrics, businesses, influencers, and individuals can make educated decisions based on actionable insights to optimize their varied social media strategies.

The basics of Instagram analytics

In this section, we will explore the four basic features that Instagram offers in their free analytics tool and how they can be used to optimize your Instagram marketing strategy.

1. Audience demographics: Instagram provides detailed information about your audience, including age, gender, location, and interests. Instagram analytics also generates information about your audience's behavior, like when they're most active on the platform and what types of content they engage with the most. By understanding your audience and their behavior, you can optimize your content strategy to reach them at the right time and with the right content.
2. Unique account interactions: Instagram analytics provides valuable information about how many people have interacted with your content. This metric is known as reach, and it measures the total number of unique accounts that have seen your posts or stories. Instagram analytics also provides information about different types of reach, including organic reach and paid reach. By analyzing your reach data, you can identify which types of posts, stories, or reels are resonating with your audience and which ones are not.
3. Audience engagemen t: Instagram analytics also supplies detailed information about how your audience is engaging with your content, including likes, shares, saves, comments, and more. Instagram analytics also shows your engagement rate, which is the percentage of people who engage with your content compared to the total number of people who see it. By tracking your engagement over time, you can identify trends and patterns in your audience's behavior and adjust your content strategy accordingly.
4. The performance of individual posts: Tracking the performance of individual posts gives you valuable insights into how your content is resonating with your audience. Instagram analytics has information on the number of likes, comments, shares, saves, and views for each individual post. This data can be used to determine which posts are performing well and which ones are not.

15 Key Instagram analytics metrics to track

From engagement metrics to audience demographics, there are a range of free Instagram analytics and metrics that can help you make well-informed decisions about your Instagram marketing strategy. In this section, we'll explore the different types of metrics and analytics available on Instagram and how this information can be used to drive more successful outcomes.

Instagram account metrics:

1. Total followers: Instagram analytics informs you about the total number of people who follow your account. Knowing your number of Instagram followers is important for evaluating the growth of your account and identifying areas for improvement in your content strategy.
2. Follower growth rate: This measures the rate at which you are gaining or losing Instagram followers. It is important to track your average monthly growth rate as a reflection of whether your account is continuously reaching and resonating with new people or if you are stagnating. You also might notice if a particular campaign is linked to growth or loss of followers.
3. Reach: This is the number of unique accounts that have seen your content at least once. Reach is a vital metric that shows the level of brand awareness and buzz that your content is generating on the platform. Track your reach so you can evaluate the effectiveness of your content strategy and adjust your approach to better access your target audience. Additionally, analyze reach data over time to identify trends in your content performance and learn from them.
4. Engagement rate: This is the number of unique accounts that have interacted with your content, including likes, comments, shares, and saves. It's important to note that engagement rate is not just about the number of likes or comments a post receives, but rather the level of engagement relative to the size of your audience. The account engagement metric is important for evaluating the effectiveness of your content strategy and understanding how your audience is engaging with your content. Additionally, Instagram’s algorithm promotes accounts with high levels of engagement, so this is an especially crucial metric to keep track of and understand.
5. Audience demographics: Knowing information about your Instagram audience is crucial to optimizing your content. Instagram collects demographic information about your audience such as geographic information, age, and gender. Knowing your audience demographics on Instagram helps you understand who your audience is, whether you are effectively reaching them, and how to optimize your posting times to reach them when they are the most active.
6. Best time to post: Finding out when your followers are most active allows you to schedule your content to reach them at the most optimal times. By analyzing this data, you can better understand when your followers are most active on the platform and in turn potentially update your posting schedule.
7. Website clicks: Knowing your website clicks on Instagram is critical, especially if you are trying to drive traffic and sales to your website. Website clicks are a valuable metric that indicates the number of people who are clicking on the link in your bio and visiting your website. By tracking website clicks on Instagram, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your call-to-action and adjust your content strategy to better drive traffic and sales.
8. Ad information: Instagram analytics gives additional data for posts that have been boosted or paid for as part of paid advertising on the platform. This includes information about ad performance, such as the number of clicks, conversions, and revenue generated by the ad. Through this data, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your paid advertising campaigns and optimize them for better results.

Instagram post metrics:

9. Post interactions: This includes information about your Instagram posts including likes, comments, shares, and saves. This metric measures the total number of actions people take when engaging with a specific post. Through this data, you can better understand which types of content are driving engagement with your audience.
10. Post impressions: This metric measures the total number of times that an individual post was served to users. This is a good indication of the reach of your account and how well you are promoting your content.
11. Post reach: As mentioned before, this metric measures the total number of unique accounts that have been exposed to an individual post.

Instagram video metrics:

12. Plays: This metric tells you the number of plays of a particular video and includes both active clicks and auto-plays. By analyzing this data, you can better understand how your audience is engaging with your video content and adjust your content strategy to create more effective video content.
13. Video interactions: This metric measures the total number of likes, comments, saves, and shares of Instagram stories, reels, and videos.
14. Shares: This metric measures the number of users who have shared your reels, stories, and videos.
15. Watch-through rate: This metric measures the percentage of people who watched your content from the beginning all the way to the end compared to the number of people who stopped watching your reel, story, or video before it ended.

How to see Instagram analytics

In this section, we'll explore how to view and access Instagram analytics, as well as ways to apply them to your marketing and content strategies.

How to set up Instagram analytics

The first step to setting up Instagram analytics is to set up a business or creator account on the platform. This allows you to access a range of features, including Instagram analytics, that are not available on personal accounts. First, determine whether you want to create a new account or convert an existing account.

• Create a new account: To set up a creator or business profile on Instagram, you need to have a Facebook page. From your Facebook page, you can create an Instagram account and choose the creator or business account option. Once you set up your account, you can start using Instagram analytics to track the performance of your content and campaigns.
• Convert an existing account: If you already have a personal Instagram account and want to access Instagram analytics, you can simply convert your account to a business or creator account. First, make sure your account is set to “Public” — only “Public” accounts have access to Instagram analytics. Once your account is set to “Public,” click on your profile photo and then click on "Settings." From there, click on "Account," and then "Switch to Professional Account." You'll then be prompted to choose between a business or creator account and asked to provide additional information about your account, such as your business category and contact information. Once you've completed this process, you'll have access to Instagram analytics.

There are two different ways to view these insights on Instagram:

1. Go to your profile and click on the "Insights Action" button located below your bio section. This will take you directly to your account insights where you can view data about your audience, content, and activity.
2. Click on the "Menu" button located in the upper right corner of your profile page. From there, click on "Overview" and you'll be taken to your account insights dashboard.

How to use Instagram insights

The main Instagram insights screen showcases your latest posts and your past week's content. This screen provides an overview of your recent activity and engagement rates, allowing you to quickly evaluate the effectiveness of your content strategy. The main screen includes data about your top posts, including the number of likes, comments, and shares, as well as data regarding your audience demographics.

The main insights screen is divided into three tabbed sections: Content, Activity, and Audience. Each section provides information about your account performance, allowing you to evaluate the effectiveness of your content strategy, track your activity, and better understand your audience.

• The Content tab provides insights into your top posts, including the number of likes, comments, and shares. You can also view data about your stories, including the number of views and engagement rates.
• The Activity tab displays your account activity, including the number of profile visits, website clicks, and emails sent from your profile.
• The Audience tab provides insights into your audience demographics, including age, gender, and location. You can also view data about your audience's interests and behaviors, allowing you to better understand with whom your content is resonating.

To see all of the analytics related to your posts, click on "See all" in the Posts section of your Instagram insights dashboard. This will take you to a screen that displays data about all your posts, including engagement rates, reach, and impressions.

From this screen, you can sort your posts by a variety of metrics, such as likes, comments, or saves, and adjust the time frame by selecting a date range to view data about your posts over a specific period.

How Instagram analytics can inform your marketing strategy

Understanding and utilizing social media analytics is a crucial aspect to optimized social media management. Because Instagram analytics provides such valuable insights into how your audience is engaging with your content, that information can significantly inform your social media marketing strategy. By analyzing data about your audience demographics, behavior, and engagement, you can create more effective content. Instagram analytics also helps you identify trends and patterns in your audience's behavior.

In this section, we'll explore how Instagram analytics can be used to shape your social media marketing strategy and drive an overall success for your digital marketing goals.

Identify successful posts and campaigns

By using Instagram analytics, you can set KPIs and track the performance of individual campaigns, providing insights into which campaigns are driving the most engagement and conversions. For example, if you're running a sponsored post campaign, you can use Instagram analytics to track the number of clicks, conversions, and revenue generated by each post.

Hashtag analytics are another key metric to keep track of if you are creating or promoting a hashtag-based campaign. Set a benchmark and track the growth of the campaign over time. Do not underestimate how valuable a successful hashtag strategy can be to the overall growth of your Instagram profile.

By identifying successful posts and campaigns, you can replicate that success in future content and campaigns. On the other hand, by identifying failures, you can make enlightened decisions about how to adjust your content strategy or campaign tactics to achieve better results.

Optimize your publishing schedule

Instagram analytics can help you determine the best times to publish your content, maximizing the likelihood of reaching your target audience and increasing engagement rates. By analyzing data about your audience behavior, you can identify the times when your followers are most active on the platform and adjust your content schedule accordingly.

You'll also learn about when your followers are most active on the platform, allowing you to schedule your content to reach them at the most optimal times. For example, if you find that your audience is most active on Instagram during the early morning or late evening, you may want to schedule your posts to go live during those times to maximize engagement.

Also, with Instagram analytics, you can track the performance of individual posts, bringing insights into which types of content perform best at different times of the day or week. By analyzing this data, you can adjust your content schedule to publish specific types of content at the times when they're most likely to drive engagement.

Improve your understanding of your target audience’s preferences

Instagram analytics provide valuable data that helps you better understand your audience's preferences, interests, and behaviors. By analyzing data about your audience demographics, engagement rates, and content preferences, you can shape your marketing strategy and create better content.

You'll also learn about your audience's age, gender, location, and interests, so you can tailor your content to their specific preferences. For example, if you find that the majority of your audience is interested in travel, you may want to create more content related to travel to increase engagement rates.

In addition, Instagram analytics provides insights into which types of content are driving audience engagement. Analyze this data about your post performance to identify which types of content are most popular with your audience and adjust your content strategy accordingly.

Determine how to expand or refine your niche

Using Instagram analytics can help you determine how to expand or refine your niche by providing valuable data about your audience demographics, interests, and engagement rates. Examine this information to identify areas for growth and adjust your content strategy to reach new audiences while still maintaining your brand identity.

If you find that a particular type of content is performing well with Instagram users, you may want to make more content related to that topic to expand your niche. Alternatively, if you find that your audience is not engaging with certain types of content, you may want to refine your niche and focus on making content that connects with your audience more.

You can also get insight into your audience's interests and behaviors, allowing you to identify new opportunities for growth and expansion. If you find that your audience is interested in a particular topic or trend, you'll want to make content related to that topic to connect with new audiences.

For example, if you run a garden nursery and usually offer information on plants, and you see that a reel about adding organic matter to your garden is popular, you might decide to expand your offerings to include composting-related products and demonstration reels. This is but one small way you can use Instagram analytics to your advantage and spur growth.

Instagram analytics are a valuable tool for businesses, influencers, and individuals who want to optimize their Instagram presence and drive more engagement and growth on the platform.

By providing valuable data about the performance of your account, including engagement rates, reach, impressions, and audience demographics, Instagram analytics can help you make well-educated decisions about your content strategy, identify trends in your audience behavior, and drive more successful outcomes overall on the platform. Analyze Instagram analytics regularly to stay ahead of the competition and create content that resonates with your audience, driving growth and success on Instagram for years to come.

This post was updated on July 18, 2023.

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