When was the last time you looked at your Instagram numbers? Sure, you may know how many likes you get in a 30-day timeframe, or how much your followers grow each year, but when was the last time you really looked at your analytics data?
The best way to determine if your Instagram account analytics is doing its part for your social media marketing campaigns is by closely monitoring your analytics.
Instagram has more than a billion monthly users and with so many people spending time on the platform, you really can’t afford to miss out on chances because you didn’t track your analytics.
So, how do you make the most of your Instagram analytics? Let’s find out.
Why Instagram Analytics is Important
Instagram analytics plays a core role in monitoring your account’s health and growth. When you’re building and implementing campaigns, you must keep your finger on the pulse of every element of your account.
Who viewed your profile? Who saw your ads? Are your posts performing as well as they should? Do they get the kind of engagement you planned? What value does your account offer users?
These are just a few of the questions you have to answer when determining the effectiveness of marketing strategies.
And without good analytics data, it’s impossible to give accurate answers that you can use to enhance and improve your marketing.
If you fear that you’ll be overwhelmed by all the information you’ll have to go through, use an Instagram dashboard. Such tools make the data a lot easier to view and take in.
Of course, knowing that you need to track analytics and what your social media goals are and actually knowing how to do that are two different things.
Well, stick around because you’re about to learn just how to make the most of the best Instagram analytics!
How to Access your Instagram Analytics
Instagram Analytics online is only available to creator or business profiles, so if yours is currently not one of those, it’s time to make the switch. Just keep in mind that you’ll only have analytics data for anything you did after switching.
Once that’s done, head over to the ‘Insights’ tab in your Instagram app. You will be presented with the analytics data of your profile.
You can also access your analytics from the ‘Insights’ tab on your profile page.
You’ll find many different metrics and information for your Instagram Stories, your audience demographics, and your posts.
The Different Elements of Instagram Analytics
How to look at Instagram analytics? Marketing on Instagram can be quite a complex matter, so it’s only natural that the metrics and analytics are just as intricate. There are several elements that you’ll have to keep track of for a clear idea of your profile’s performance.
1. Instagram Audience Analytics
Your Instagram audience analytics is your most important element. If you didn’t have one, what would you be doing on Instagram in the first place?
You should pay attention to a few factors, so you’ll know how close to your target audience you are.
Here are a few:
Age
Instagram, fortunately, makes it easy to find out how old your followers are. Typically, ages are broken down into small segments between 13 and 65+.
Location
You should be able to see the top five countries and cities where your account’s followers are located.
Gender
Instagram analytics lets you see the gender of your followers so you can determine if you’re targeting the right group. If gender isn’t a factor for you, this is one less thing to worry about.
Active Hours and Days
It’s very useful to know when your audience is active so that you know the average time of day they’re online.
Source: Hootsuite
2. Instagram Post Analytics
Your posts are how you reach your audience, so getting them in front of the right people and getting the right reactions from them is important.
Here are a few of the statistics you need to pay attention to:
Discovery
The discovery feature can help your content get viewed by people you might not otherwise have reached.
Follows
This is pretty simple — how many new people have followed you?
Comments
This is the number of comments that were made on your posts.
Interactions
The actions taken directly on your posts are interactions, and this can include clicking on links, using the email button, and visiting your profile.
Impressions
Instagram uses this metric to indicate how many times your posts were viewed. You can also see whether the posts were viewed from hashtags, from home, your profile, or other sources.
Reach
This metric shows you how many unique accounts your posts were able to reach.
Source: WordStream
3. Instagram Stories Analytics
Your Instagram Stories also have their own analytics that you can look at. These help you to grow in popularity and increases your account’s reach.
The metrics that you track on Instagram Stories are:
Exits
These are the number of times people left your story without finishing it.
People Insights
Here you have the accounts that saw a particular component of your Instagram Stories.
Replies
The number of replies that your Stories got from viewers.
You can also see Impressions and Reach.
Source: WordStream
4. Instagram Reels Analytics
If you’re using Instagram Reels (and you should), you can learn quite a bit from the insights that the platform offers.
To see the Instagram Insights of a specific Reel, open that Reel and tap on the three dots icon.
You will be given information about comments, likes, shares, saves, reach, and plays.
5. IGTV Analytics
As is the case with Instagram posts, you can check on the performance of your IGTV Videos with Instagram’s Insights.
You can view this data by scrolling to ‘Content You Shared’ and tapping the arrow next to the videos you want to know about. You’ll also be able to filter and rank your videos based on several metrics.
These metrics include views, likes, reach, shares, comments, saves, and interactions.
Once you know which videos got the most attention, you can use that information to create more engaging content later on.
6. Instagram Shopping Analytics
If you’re using Instagram for eCommerce, you’re likely tagging products in your posts with Instagram Shopping.
To understand which posts are driving the most sales, you’ll have to keep track of their performance.
You should go to the content you’ve shared and filter your posts by product-specific metrics to get an idea of how well your marketing strategies have worked.
7. Instagram Live Analytics
Your Instagram Live analytics can be reached through the ‘Insights’tab and will show you metrics such as shares, reach, comments, and peak concurrent views.
As you do with analytics information on all the other features of Instagram, use this information to learn what your audience engages with and what kind of content is bringing nothing to the table.
8. Instagram Guides Analytics
Instagram Guides is a mixture of blogs and Instagram Carousels, and for now, there aren’t any metrics you can follow just yet.
As the popularity of this kind of content increases, Instagram will likely add metrics sooner or later.
Important Data to Track
In addition to the important elements that you need to track, you also need to keep a constant eye on data such as your lead generation and brand awareness.
1. Brand Awareness
Instagram can be a brilliant platform for building brand awareness, especially for a business new to social media marketing.
There are several metrics that matter when you’re trying to increase your brand awareness. By focusing on the following, you’ll be able to understand how well you’re achieving this marketing goal:
Impressions
You want your posts and content to be seen by as many people as possible — that’s how you grow brand awareness.
Followers
If more people are following your account, it means they’ve noticed you, and that’s a good indicator of healthy brand awareness.
Reach
This metric tracks the number of views your content and account have received. The difference between impressions and reach is that reach is focused on unique accounts and doesn’t count the same account’s engagement more than once.
Source: Cure Media
2. Lead Generation
Lead Generation plays a vital role in marketing, and how it’s done can vary from one industry to the next. Lead generation strategies that work for SaaS businesses, for example, might not be as effective for an online shop.
With that in mind, Instagram can work regardless of your industry, but you need to measure and analyze the right metrics.
Be sure to keep tabs on:
Email/Call Clicks
Emails and phone calls can be good indicators of conversions, and an increase shows that your lead generation is working.
Follower Engagement Times
If you know when your audience is most active, you’ll know when to share your content and run your ads, which will lead to improved lead generation.
Website Clicks
Your ads and content aim to get people to visit your website, and if you’re getting more clicks, your efforts are paying off.
3. Community Stats
Part of social media marketing is building a community that will support your brand and is loyal. Getting this right is trickier than it sounds — social media users can be very scrutinizing of brands.
Make sure you share only valuable content and use good-quality images that are professionally edited and designed to attract more community engagement.
Also, don’t misbehave and have some policies in place to ensure your content never rubs anyone the wrong way.
Remember, even social media has some etiquette that brands are expected to follow; it’s not the wild, wild West of the internet.
To measure the success of your strategies, monitor the following metrics:
Story Replies
Stories offer a nice way for your community to engage with you, and if they’re leaving many replies, you’re doing something right.
Comments
An active community talks often. Your content should be getting lots of comments.
Engagement
Engagement is a critical part of community building. Track the likes, shares, and other forms of engagement on your profile, posts, Stories, and ads.
Instagram Analytics Tools to Use
We all get busy and have to use tools to help us out every now and then.
There are some cool analytics tools that you can rope in to help you, and it’s recommended that you use one of the following:
1. Hootsuite Analytics
Hootsuite Analytics is a comprehensive tool that will make it easy to track your Instagram analytics in detail. You’ll get more than just the native insights, which can help push your marketing to the next level.
Hootsuite will generate custom reports that you can download at use anytime you need them away from the tool’s dashboard.
You can also look at specific post performances for more in-depth analysis.
2. Keyhole
Keyhole is a popular choice with marketers everywhere, and this tool has a special knack for Instagram hashtag analytics. It’s also really good at keyword tracking in addition to the metrics you get on Instagram.
If you want to monitor Instagram contests, branded hashtags, or promotions in real-time, Keyhole is a good way to do that.
3. Facebook Ads Manager
Facebook Ads Manager is a great resource for analytics if you plan to run paid campaigns. You will get cost and performance information for all your ads.
Although Instagram will provide you with performance data, it’s a good idea to use the Ads Manager as well for more detailed feedback.
Source: lineardesign.com
Use Analytics Data to Build Killer Instagram Campaigns
There are many Instagram metrics that you need to track and monitor to determine the success of your account. It might seem like a daunting and difficult task, but it’s a vital part of effective marketing. Meanwhile, change Instagram password often to keep it secure from unauthorized access. So set a strong password for your account.
You’ve been shown all the most important metrics and data you need to keep an eye on; the ball is in your court now. Go and analyze all your Instagram analytics and use the information to build great marketing strategies.