Simple Guide to Instagram Analytics for Marketers

Instagram analytics let you track and assess your account’s effectiveness. These tools offer insightful data on your audience, engagement levels, and content success that you can use to optimize your social media strategy and broaden your audience.

Instagram has tremendous untapped potential for your business to connect with customers, expand its reach, and boost revenue. But merely posting great content and waiting for the likes to roll in isn’t enough — knowing the numbers may help you hone your approach for maximum success.

Being in the industry for 25+ years, we’ve seen firsthand how integrating Instagram analytics can transform a business’s success. Metrics like reach, impressions, and engagement have helped us determine the most successful content genres and optimal posting times.

So we created this guide to serve as a primer on Instagram analytics and provide insight into how to use them to direct future marketing strategies. First, let’s cover the fundamentals:

• What are Instagram analytics?
• Why are Instagram analytics important?
• Key Instagram metrics to track with analytics
• How to use Instagram analytics to improve engagement
• Best Instagram analytics tools 

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What are Instagram analytics?

Instagram analytics are the data and insights gathered from the platform that assist you in understanding how your content is doing. These analytics may contain information about your following, engagement rates, reach, and impressions.

Why are Instagram analytics important?

Instagram analytics are crucial since they give you critical information about your audience and their engagement with your content. Without analytics, you would have to rely on intuition about what is and isn’t working, making improving your content and accomplishing your objectives challenging.

You can gain insight into the following areas by examining the data:

• What types of content does your audience prefer?
• What time of day are they most active?
• What hashtags are driving the most engagement?

You can utilize this data to refine your strategy and create more engaging posts for your readers. Tracking the success of your campaigns and determining your return on investment (ROI) is made much easier with Instagram analytics, allowing you to more convincingly make a case for the worth of your marketing efforts to stakeholders.

Key Instagram metrics to track

So far, we’ve discussed the significance of evaluating your Instagram data and the insights it may bring. So what metrics should you monitor to ensure your marketing efforts’ success?

Instagram analytics offer a wealth of information about your audience and content through several vital indicators. Among these are:

1. Profile analytics
2. Audience analytics
3. Post analytics
4. Story analytics

The following table provides information on these metrics and how they can help evaluate the success of your Instagram advertising efforts. But how should you approach the table?

For instance, the profile analytics in the first column provides information on your mentions, impressions, reach, and other factors.

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How to use Instagram analytics to improve engagement

In today’s highly connected digital world, your business must pay attention to the growing importance of social media platforms to communicate with its consumers. Instagram provides helpful metrics for tracking the performance of your postings and increasing follower engagement.

Here are the steps to use Instagram analytics to improve engagement:

1. Link your Insta business profile to your Facebook page
2. Access Instagram Insights through the “Settings” menu
3. Analyze your content’s performance data in Instagram Insights
4. Identify patterns in your content’s reach and engagement metrics
5. Experiment with different types of posts to optimize engagement
6. Monitor your progress using the Instagram insights

1. Link your Insta business profile to your Facebook page

You’ll need to register for a business account on Instagram before accessing Instagram Insights, which shows you detailed information about your account’s activity. These are the measures to take:

• Go to the settings on your Instagram profile
• Click on “Accounts”
• Select “Switch to Business Account” to create a business account
• Connect your account to a Facebook page through the request link that appears

You must complete this step to validate your company and unlock additional features, including running ads, adding a call-to-action (CTA) button, and Instagram shopping.

Once you’ve connected your account to a Facebook page, you can personalize your profile with pertinent company details and upload content that appeals to your target market.

You can track your campaigns’ and posts’ effectiveness with the help of insightful analytics available if you have a business account.

2. Access Instagram Insights through the “Settings” menu

After you activate your business account, you’ll have access to audience demographics, engagement rates, and post-event feedback. This data will help fine-tune your content and advertising approaches for maximum impact.

Here are the steps to access Instagram Insights:

1. Click the three vertical dots in the top right corner of your profile
2. Select “Settings”
3. Tap “Account”
4. Then select “Insights”

This tool can view metrics like impressions, reach, and details about your following. Understanding your target demographic better will allow you to write content that resonates with them.

A business account also grants you access to Instagram’s advertising platform, which enables you to develop targeted ads to attract prospective clients.

3. Analyze your content’s performance data in Instagram Insights

Next, utilize these insights to decide what content to upload and when to post it. For example, if your posts have the highest engagement on Mondays at 7 p.m., you could aim to plan future posts around that time.

Use this feature to monitor your follower growth and observe which posts bring in the most new followers. Metrics like follower count, profile views, and website clicks fall within this category. You can spot patterns in your audience’s behavior by observing these data sets and modifying your content accordingly.

For instance, you could reconsider the caliber of your content or the potency of your CTA if you see a substantial rise in profile views but no matching increase in follower growth. Instagram Insights can help you understand your audience and improve your social media campaign efficacy.

4. Identify patterns in your content’s reach and engagement metrics

Now it’s time to spot trends in your content’s reach and engagement analytics and utilize this information to evaluate what kinds of posts engage with your audience. By examining the data supplied by Instagram Insights, you may acquire valuable insights into your followers’ activity and preferences.

For example, you can tailor your content strategy to create more visually attractive posts if you find that they elicit a higher level of engagement from your target audience than articles that don’t include photographs of your items.

You can optimize the posting schedule for the trends you observe while monitoring your reach and engagement metrics. By doing this, you can expand your social media campaign’s reach and increase its overall effectiveness.

5. Experiment with different types of posts to optimize engagement and reach

See what works best with your audience by sharing different types of content, including videos, carousel posts, and tales. Experiment with novel ideas, be bold and think outside the box.

You can alter your approach based on the performance of different types of posts by using Instagram Insights.

You can develop a social media strategy that connects with your target demographic and generates tangible benefits for your company by testing different approaches and assessing the outcomes.

Working with prominent figures in your field can also increase the number of people who see your content. Reaching out to influencers in your industry may be a great strategy to expand your consumer base and earn their confidence.

Try to find influential people whose views and those of their followers coincide. You can work together on projects like giveaways and sponsored posts or even let them take over your account for a day.

By doing so, you can access their readership and raise brand awareness. In the interest of full disclosure with your audience, please label any sponsored posts as such.

6. Monitor your progress using the Instagram insights

Keep a close eye on your social media campaign’s performance and make any necessary amendments — measure interaction, exposure, and outcomes using analytics tools. Tracking content engagement levels and adjusting based on your findings is vital.

Moreover, interact with your followers by quickly replying to their comments and messages. Establishing an excellent social media presence takes time, but it can be valuable for expanding your company with the appropriate strategy.

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Instagram has more than 1 billion monthly users

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Best Instagram analytics tools

Having access to the appropriate tools is crucial for maximizing your Instagram performance. The following list of the top Instagram analytics tools allow you to monitor the development, popularity, and overall performance of your account on the social media network:

1. Sprout Social
2. Hootsuite Insights
3. Iconosquare
4. Socialbakers 

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an all-inclusive platform for managing your social media accounts, and it features robust Instagram analytics tools. Audience breakdown, interaction rates, after-show analysis, and hashtag monitoring are just some of its capabilities.

You can maximize your content’s reach and engagement by posting at optimal times, which Sprout Social helps you determine. The platform provides user-editable reports and a straightforward dashboard for convenient monitoring and analysis.

You can better understand your Instagram audience with Sprout Social and take action based on data to increase your performance on the platform.

2. Hootsuite Insights

Hootsuite Insights allow you to keep tabs on your following, how frequently people engage with your posts, and the performance of your hashtags using this tool. In addition, it provides sentiment analysis, which reveals how people feel about your brand and ads.

Hootsuite Insights also includes competition analysis, so you can see how you stack up against similar businesses. This tool might help you determine what you’re doing well and where to progress most.

The tool’s adaptable reports and dashboards allow you to share your findings with your team or clients easily. Hootsuite Insights gives you the information you need to make educated decisions and evolve your Instagram approach.

3. Iconosquare

Iconosquare is another robust Instagram analytics tool with various options for fine-tuning your Instagram approach. You can measure the effectiveness of your content, keep tabs on how many people are engaging with it, and see your follower count rise using Iconosquare.

The platform allows you to monitor the competitor’s accounts and determine which of your hashtags are the most successful.

In addition, Iconosquare provides insights into your audience’s demographics and geography, so you can better cater to them with your content. Ultimately, you can improve your Instagram performance with the data and insights provided by Iconosquare.

4. Socialbakers

Another robust option for analyzing your Instagram activity is Socialbakers. Its helpful features allow you to fine-tune your social media marketing approach.

Use Socialbakers to monitor your audience’s actions, keep tabs on your brand’s reputation, and measure the success of your Instagram marketing campaigns.

You can improve the efficacy of your Instagram advertising efforts using the information provided by this tool. Moreover, Socialbakers offers customized recommendations and insights based on your performance data, allowing you to spot weak spots and fine-tune your strategy.

Using this potent tool, you can get a leg up on the competition and increase your Instagram campaign’s engagement, conversions, and income.

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Get more from Instagram analytics with WebFX

WebFX is a full-service Instagram marketing agency specializing in content creation and social media marketing. We can help you analyze your current Instagram campaign to determine if it’s thriving or could use a spring cleaning.

Our team can optimize your Instagram strategy for maximum impact by analyzing your engagement rates, follower growth, and post-performance.

Plus, we monitor the Instagram algorithm updates that may affect your content, so you’re always one step ahead of the curve.

Ready to get started?

Contact us online or call 888-601-5359 to speak to a strategist about how we can optimize your Instagram presence.