Instagram is one of the most used Social Media platforms on the Internet with over one billion monthly active users. With so many active users and different communities, there is much to learn about the platform. Especially, if you want to grow and monetize your account.
An essential part of the learning process is to understand Instagram analytics and use this information to optimize your Instagram strategy and grow your business. You can use Instagram Insights to optimize your profile, learn more about your audience, track the performance of your content, and increase the number of your followers. However, to do that you will need to know where to look and what to measure.
Today, I will go over the most important Instagram metrics you need to know about to grow your IG profile faster.
Note: Instagram Insights are only available for Instagram Professional accounts. In order to access the metrics, you will need to convert to a Business or a Creator account.
Before I get into this article, make sure to check out my Instagram Guide: Master the Art of Instagram where you can learn everything about Instagram.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
- Post Insights (Impressions)
- Growth Metric
- Engagement Rate
- Best Time to Post
- Story Insights
- Profile visits, Saves & DM Shares
- CTA links
Post Insights (Impressions)
Under each one of your Instagram posts, you will see Post Insights, where you can find information about the performance of your individual Instagram posts. But most importantly, you can see how people find your posts – from Post Impressions.
Instagram Post Impressions are the number of times your post has been viewed over a specific period of time. These Impressions can come from Home – your followers’ feed; Profile – people who’ve visited your Instagram profile; Location – people who clicked on your post from the location tag you’ve added; Hashtags – people who have seen your content from hashtags and from Explore page.
There is one more way to get Instagram Post Impressions – “from Other”. “Other” is everything not mentioned above. It is a mix of multiple subcategories. It includes the number of people who saved your post and shared it through DMs. It also counts traffic coming from shares outside of Instagram as well as traffic from people who visited your profile from another post where your Instagram name has been tagged/mentioned.
You can use Instagram Post Impressions to get information on how your audience discovers your account. Or to examine how successful is your hashtag strategy.
Growth Metric
Growth metric is one of the most important Instagram metrics you need to keep an eye on. It gives you daily information about the number of your followers – how many have followed and unfollowed you over the last 7 days. Why is it so important?
With the Instagram Growth metric, you can identify the peaks and lows of your Instagram accounts. This metric will help you understand which content attracts the most engagement and followers to your Instagram account. You can use it to establish a pattern and understand what your audience likes to see the most from your content.
What’s the best way to grow your Instagram? And what’s the worst?
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Engagement Rate
The engagement rate of your Instagram account is another key component to measure in order to ensure your Instagram account is growing at the speed rate you want. It can be used to determine how engaged and invested is your Instagram audience in your content.
The engagement rate metric is not accessible from Instagram UI, but it is a very important metric for the Instagram algorithm. Ideally, you want to have a high engagement rate as possible on your IG account. A high engagement rate will help your post to circulate more on the platform. Because Instagram rewards posts that receive a high engagement rate by increasing their exposure and potential reach. In fact, these are the only posts that get on the Explore page and the Top Posts of your hashtag selection. And vice versa. It limits the reach of poor-performing posts.
Best Time to Post
Posting at the time when your followers are most active will help you get more interactions on your latest post which will increase your accounts’ engagement rate. One great way to keep it high is to post at the time your followers are most active. So many people want to know the answer to this question – What is the best time to post on Instagram?
And the answer is simple – it varies from account to account. But if you have a Professional account and at least 100 followers, there is a metric that will tell you the best time to post on the platform. This important metric, you can find in Instagram Insights > Audience. With the help of it, you will be able to determine the best time to post on every day of the week.
Story Insights
Similar to Post Insights, you can use Story Insights to measure the performance of your Instagram stories. If Instagram stories are part of your Instagram strategy, you need to pay attention to the metrics the app offers to analyze interactions received from stories – Story Insights.
They can be a great indicator of how engaging your followers are with your Instagram account. With Story Insights, you can get access to analytics such as how many people visited your profile and reacted to your story. You can also use them to find out how many people have clicked or interacted with a sticker you’ve added or to track website links (Swipe up) you’ve received from the specific story.
Last, but not least, you can find Insights about your story even if it is not available anymore (up to 14 days before the data vanishes). To do, you will have to go to your profile > Instagram Insights > Content.
Profile visits, Saves & DM Shares
If you pay regular attention to how your latest Instagram posts are performing, you will soon get an idea of how many interactions you get on average in terms of likes, comments, follows, saves, and DM shares. This will give you an estimation of what to expect when you share a post. The more engaging content you share, the more profile visits, posts Saves, and DM share you will receive. Analyzing and monitoring these metrics can give your Instagram account an advantage – you will be able to determine if one post is going to get high engagement and have the viral element or not once the content is posted. How?
By paying close attention to the number of Saves & DM shares your post received in the first 30 minutes of posting. Depending on the number of your followers, you will start receiving likes as soon as your post is published to Instagram. The more people save it and share it through Instagram DMs, the better results you can expect
CTA Links
Call To Action (CTA) such as email links, website links, and get directions clicks can give your business a lot of information. Use this metric to elevate your Marketing efforts by determining the type of content that brings you the most clicks.
Monitor these metrics and examine how your Instagram is performing. Pay attention to how your content is performing – which posts get the most traction. Understand your audience and learn about their preferences – what do they like. Track your engagement rate occasionally and test how engaging your audience is with Instagram stories. Keep an eye on your Post Insights too. Especially Post Impressions. Use them to identify how people discover your content. This will help you understand Instagram better and grow your followers.
These are only some of the most important metrics you need to pay attention to in order to grow your Instagram account.
Learn how to build, grow and monetize your Instagram account with my book – Master the Art of Instagram (MTAOI)
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