A profound grasp of social media analytics is indispensable for businesses to enhance their sales, customer service, and community engagement. Instagram analytics stands out as one of the valuable instruments available for unraveling insights about your social media audience.
Whether you're an experienced analyst or a marketer daunted by the abundance of data and need help determining where to begin, this in-depth exploration of Instagram analytics will provide you with comprehensive knowledge.
Aside from that, this post will also introduce you to Archive, a tool that can help you repurpose content and expand your reach. If you’re ready to take the plunge, dive in.
Key Takeaways
- You need a business or creator account to use Instagram Insights.
- After switching to a business or creator account, Instagram may take up to 24 hours for Instagram analytics tools to collect data for your account.
- You must have at least 100 followers to get information about your audience.
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What Is Instagram Analytics?
Also known as Instagram Insights, Instagram Analytics is an in-app solution that gives account holders information about their posts and accounts. It tells them how many followers have seen their content, whether or not it's engaging, and how their account is growing.
People with social media savvy use Instagram Insights to view and improve their posts. Instagram has a massive user base. With over a billion monthly users, it significantly impacts brands wanting to market on the platform.
It is renowned for its captivating visuals and concise, engaging messages, making it an iconic presence on social media. Given its widespread popularity, businesses aiming for success must have a strong presence on Instagram.
What the researchers say
Instagram's research shows that 90% of its users follow at least one company on the app, and 87% say they act after seeing a product advertised there. Instagram is their go-to platform when seeking information about a product or service.
According to data from Facebook, 81% of surveyed individuals utilize Instagram to explore new products, while 83% rely on it to uncover fresh items they can purchase.
These statistics clearly show how important Instagram is in connecting consumers with businesses and highlight how much people value brands that create genuine content on Instagram.
It's a chance for creative companies to express their message visually and make a lasting impact on customers. But how can you make your message stand out with more than 200 million active business accounts trying to get people's attention?
This is where social media management comes in and adds value.
How Instagram Insights helps businesses
Instagram Insights can help you understand how your target audience engages with your content, allowing you to view insights into the little details that can help you grab and hold people's attention. This in-app tool provides information about specific posts, stories, videos, reels, and live videos.
Like other social media analytics and management tools, such as TikTok analytics, Instagram Insights gives you stats that sum up how well you're doing, including info about new followers, views, reach, clicks, and your audience.
Who Can Access Instagram Analytics
Instagram analytics are available to users with business profiles and creator accounts. Fortunately, these types of accounts are free. Switching to a business or creator account may take 24 hours for your Instagram metrics to become visible.
Instagram has three account options: personal, business, and creator. Business and creator accounts are designed for professionals. These account types provide access to Insight Analytics, the Creator Studio, and other advanced features not accessible with personal accounts.
Content creators, artists, public figures, and influencers prefer creator accounts. Business account users enjoy the most features, including access to Instagram's Shop features. Conversely, only users with personal accounts can keep their profiles private.
Using free Instagram analytics comes with many benefits. It helps you make better content and keep an eye on your competitors. It also makes your posts, Instagram stories, and other Instagram marketing strategies effective, increasing your conversion and engagement rate.
Instagram analytics allows users to assess the effectiveness of your hashtags. Leveraging these insights from Instagram analytics grants mastery over your data and enhances your control over your social media strategy.
Understand what your Instagram audience likes
Social media, like the Instagram app, can be tricky to navigate due to its ever-changing rules. To determine what content your audience enjoys, look at your data. Use this information to create more of the content that your audience likes.
Also, share how well your account is doing with your coworkers, bosses, and people interested in your account. Delve deeper into your audience's demographics, including age and geographical location, to foster a deeper understanding of them.
This knowledge will aid you in discerning their content preferences and identifying the optimal times when they are most active on the platform.
Identify Instagram performance trends
Analyzing Instagram data lets you spot patterns in your account's growth, engagement, and reach. For instance, are reels getting better results than your regular posts? Is your follower count steadily increasing? How often are you posting? Your statistics will provide insights on how to manage your account effectively.
Evaluate your Instagram competitors
Assess your performance compared to others in your industry by watching your Instagram competition. Marketers need to back their choices with concrete data, and an Instagram competitors' analysis can unveil content areas where your brand can improve.
Different Kinds of Instagram Analytics
Instagram analytics come in various categories, each centered on different content formats. You can access per-post data for photos, stories, reels, and videos.
Additionally, overview analytics offers a comprehensive view of your account's performance, encompassing audience demographics, engagement, and reach.
Located at the top of your bio page is a link to a dashboard, providing a performance summary and easy access to advertising tools, branded content features, and shopping options. This dashboard also includes helpful tips and resources for maximizing your Instagram presence.
In Instagram account Insights, you can filter and sort your content based on one or multiple performance metrics. You can analyze data for any specific time frame within the last 90 days. Let's explore the various metrics available in Instagram Insights and tips on leveraging this data to enhance your marketing strategies.
Instagram Insights Overview
Understanding the following metrics can help you improve your social media marketing strategy to get better results.
Accounts reached
The total number of unique Instagram accounts that have seen your content (posts, stories, reels, videos, and live videos) at least once. It's essential to bring this number as close to your follower count as possible to reach a broader audience.
Accounts engaged
This metric tracks how your target audience interacts with your content, including liking, saving, commenting, sharing, or messaging about your content. High engagement is crucial as Instagram's algorithm prioritizes content with strong engagement.
Total followers
This means the number of accounts that followed you, minus those who unfollowed or left Instagram during a given period. This metric helps you gauge your follower growth, indicating whether your efforts attract more or fewer followers.
Content you shared
This section provides statistics on the total number of content you've shared since switching to a business or creator account. Personal account content is not included.
Post interactions
Like engagement, interactions include likes and comments. Instagram subtracts unlikes, unsaved, and deleted comments to calculate overall interactions. You can access this metric by clicking "Accounts Engaged" and scrolling to "Content Interactions."
Instagram profile insights
This metric offers data on how your audience interacts with your profile page. You can access them at the bottom of the reach page. You'll need at least 100 followers to access this data. This page also provides all-in-one shortcuts to your top content (posts, stories, reels, videos, live videos, and impressions).
Analyzing Your Instagram Audience
The audience analytics feature on Instagram furnishes valuable insights into your Instagram follower base. It offers information about your followers' demographics and geographic distribution. To access these metrics, navigate to the Insights Overview page and select the "Total Followers" option.
Tracking follower growth
Follower growth analysis on Instagram involves monitoring the influx of new followers and those who unfollow or depart from the platform within a specified time frame. This metric is crucial for gauging your profile's visibility and assessing the impact of particular campaigns on your follower count.
Discovering top locations
Instagram offers a breakdown of your followers by geographic location, presenting the top five cities and countries with their respective percentages. This valuable information lets you fine-tune your Instagram strategy and social media marketing efforts to cater to specific regions or locales.
Examining age range
Age range data allows you to assess the age demographics of your followers, helping you evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns targeting specific age groups. For instance, if your goal is to reach both men and women aged 25 to 34, this metric aids in gauging the resonance of your marketing strategies with your intended audience.
Analyzing gender distribution
Instagram provides insights into your followers' gender distribution. This demographic data is particularly beneficial for brands whose products or services are predominantly used by one gender, enabling them to tailor their marketing approach accordingly.
Identifying most active times
Understanding when your followers are most active on your account is crucial for optimizing your content posting schedule. Instagram presents this information as a bar graph illustrating follower activity throughout each hour of the day.
You can also switch to the "days" view to identify the days with the highest engagement potential. This data assists experts in scheduling posts at times when their audience is most active, thereby increasing the chances of meaningful engagement.
Analyzing Instagram Post Analytics
When you delve into Instagram post analytics, you gain insights into the impact and performance of your posts. Here's what each of the critical metrics means:
Reach
This metric estimates the number of unique accounts that have viewed your post at least once. It distinguishes between your followers and non-followers. It's important to note that reach does not count multiple views from the same account.
This metric is often more insightful than impressions because it eliminates repeat views, providing a clearer picture of your post's visibility.
Impressions
Impressions represent the number of times your post was displayed on a screen. Impressions include all views, including repeat views. You can further categorize them into:
- Home: The number of times the post appeared in someone's feed.
- Hashtags: The count of times someone saw the post while browsing posts with a specific hashtag.
- Profile: This number represents how often someone saw the post when visiting your profile page.
Post Interactions
These are straightforward counts that help you compare the engagement of one piece of content with another:
- Likes: The total number of likes on the post.
- Comments: The total number of comments left on the post.
- Shares: The number of times others have shared the post.
- Saves: Times the post was saved by users, indicating content of value or interest.
Profile Activity
This section reveals how many users visited and interacted with your profile after seeing the post. It includes:
- Follows: This metric measures how well a single post converts viewers into followers. A post with a higher-than-average follow count indicates that the content engaged users effectively. Consider incorporating successful post elements into your future content.
- Profile Visits: This shows how often users visit your profile after viewing a specific post. Posts that pique curiosity and prompt users to learn more about your content tend to have higher-than-average profile visits.
Ad
If you've boosted the post with advertising, this section provides data on how many people the post reached due to the boost.
Analyzing these essential metrics can help you fine-tune your Instagram content strategy, track hashtag performance, and make data-backed decisions to boost your social media presence.
Analyzing Instagram Reels Analytics
When diving into Instagram reel analytics, you gain insights into the performance of your short video content. Here's a breakdown of key metrics and what they signify:
Reach
This metric indicates how many distinct Instagram users have viewed your reel at least once. A reel with above-average reach suggests that many viewers have seen it, and Instagram's algorithm may even feature it in other users' feeds. However, a low reach may indicate issues with content or posting timing.
Plays
The "Plays" metric represents the number of times users have played your reel. It's worth noting that this number can be higher than "reach" because it includes repeat views.
Reels Interactions
These metrics gauge user engagement with your reels, and "shares" can be incredibly insightful. Here's a quick overview of interaction metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs):
- Likes: This is the count of likes your reel has received, reflecting user appreciation and engagement.
- Comments: This refers to the number of comments on your reel. Reviewing comments, responding to audience queries, and moderating inappropriate content or negative comments is essential.
- Shares: This metric reflects the number of times users have shared your reel.
- Saves: This metric refers to the number of times users have saved your reel. A high save count suggests that users find your content valuable and wish to revisit it.
Optimizing Instagram Analytics: Best Practices
To make the most of Instagram analytics and harness valuable insights for your brand or business, consider these best practices recommended by Instagram experts:
Regularly check analytics
Make it a routine to check your Instagram analytics. Some experts suggest monthly checks, but more frequent monitoring is even better.
Stay Organized with Spreadsheets
Use spreadsheets to maintain a structured record of your monthly metrics. Consistency is essential. Data provides a clear picture of your performance, helping you make data-driven decisions to enhance your content.
Leverage Instagram's Sorting Feature
Instagram allows you to sort your posts based on crucial interaction metrics such as comments or likes. Consider sorting your posts by "follows" to determine which content led to the most follower growth.
You can then replicate the success of these individual posts to accelerate your growth while conducting further in-depth data analysis for more refined strategies.
Analyze high and low-performing content
Examine both your top-performing and underperforming content. This comparative analysis can reveal valuable insights about what resonates with your audience and what doesn't. Understanding these patterns can inform your content strategy.
Implement an optimization loop
Instagram Insights should be an integral part of an ongoing optimization process. Create and test new content, identify high-performing content, and use this knowledge to create similar content for sustained success. Continue to experiment and refine your approach over time.
Pro Tip: Diversifying your post types on Instagram by including live broadcasts, stories, reels, carousel posts, and single images is essential for effectively maneuvering through the platform's algorithms. Utilizing various content formats expands your reach to a broader audience and offers a valuable method for repurposing content.
Elevating Your Instagram Analytics Game
Consider diving deeper into your data if you're serious about accelerating your Instagram growth and achieving a more substantial presence. While native Instagram analytics provide valuable insights, third-party tools like Sprout Social can take your analysis to the next level.
For more tips about Instagram analytics and other social media marketing strategies, visit Archive. Aside from being a valuable tool to improve conversion rates through repurposed content, Archive has a repository of guides to help you streamline your marketing campaigns.
The initial step in leveraging the power of Instagram Analytics is discovering the best and most appropriate content to represent your brand. With Archive, you can repurpose your content and widen your reach. Improve your conversion rate with the right tools!
FAQs on Instagram Analytics Tips
How does Instagram's “ghost mode” operate?
Ghost mode on Instagram refers to the functionality provided by the "Insta Ghost" browser extension. This extension allows users to view Instagram stories discreetly without notifying the story poster that their story has been seen.
With this extension, you can anonymously check stories by activating ghost mode on Instagram without triggering the "seen" receipt. It's important to note that the extension operates without accessing or intercepting your personal data, ensuring privacy while using this feature.
Can you view users who liked your Instagram story after 24 hours?
To see who has viewed your stories, simply swipe up from the story panel. Once 24 hours have elapsed, the story will disappear from your story tab, making it inaccessible.
However, there's a way to access the list of story viewers still up to 48 hours after you've posted it, thanks to Instagram's archives feature.
How can you access Instagram Insights in the updated app?
To access Insights on Instagram, you can follow these steps:
- Ensure that your Instagram account has been switched to a business or creator profile, as Instagram can only provide analytics for content published after this switch.
- Tap your account’s menu icon.
- Select "Insights" from the menu options. This will take you to an overview page displaying your account's analytics.
