By Morgan Brown 
When’s the last time you took a look at your Instagram numbers? Maybe you’re tracking your Instagram likes or have an idea of your month-to-month follower growth. but have you really taken the time to dig deep into the analytics and sift through the data? if you said no, this is the perfect time to do it.
Taking a closer look at your Instagram
analytics helps you understand how the platform is operating as a portion of
your overall marketing strategy. It will also help you improve your growth with
the popular social media platform.
In this guide, we’ll explain why your
Instagram analytics matter, and the data that matters most based on your
overall objective.
Why You Need to Care About
Instagram Analytics
Instagram has more than 25 million business profiles worldwide and more than 200 million Instagrammers visiting the platform at least one of these every day. This town’s us businesses are finding great value in this advertising platform.
But, if you don’t know who’s looking at your profile or seen your ad, how your stories are performing and what value your account is actually driving, then spending your time posting on the platform could be a waste of valuable resources.
If you’re not taking the time to evaluate your Instagram analytics on a regular basis then you could be:
- Posting too much or too little
- Targeting the wrong audience
- Delivering the wrong kind of
traffic to your website - Ignoring mentions that could lead
to Future Partnerships - Missing opportunities for brand
engagement - Posting at the wrong time of day
or on the wrong day of the week
And unfortunately for you, this is just a
small chunk of the things you could be doing better if you were paying
attention to your Instagram analytics data. The insights you get from the
information is going to help you improve the way you use Instagram so you get
even more value for your organization. This could make Instagram an even more
critical part of your online marketing strategy.
Instagram Profile Analytics
Your profile analytics are the ones you access
through the “My Profile” page where your posts can be seen.
This page provides you insights for the last 7
days. If you’ve looked at your profile insights before, consider whether you’ve
taken time to dig deeper into the metrics. You can access the following
information here:
- Impressions: The number of times your posts
have been seen during the past 7 days. - Interactions: The number of actions taken
- Reach: The total number of unique accounts
that have seen any of your posts - Profile visits: The total number of profile
views over the last week - Website clicks: The number of times profile
visitors have clicked the link to your website from your profile page - Call/email clicks: The number of times profile
visitors have clicked the call or email button from your profile page - Mentions: The number of times users have
mentioned your accounts handle
Instagram Audience Analytics
Do you know who your target audience is? chances are you have an ideal demographic of followers you’re looking for.
What does that ideal demographic a line with the individuals who are actually seeing and interacting with your Instagram posts? Should you buy targeted Instagram likes to boost your posts during a specific time or not? You can use Instagram audience analytics to find out.
Pay attention to the following:
- Top Locations: This shows you the top five
cities and countries where your followers are located. - Age Range: Instagram breaks down your
followers’ ages with the following ranges: 13 to 17, 18 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to
44, 45 to 54, 55 to 64 and 65 +. - Gender: distribution of your followers
separated by men and women displayed in percentages - Follower Hours: This shows you the average
time of day your followers are on Instagram which gives you an idea of the best
times to post. - Follower Days: This shows you the days of the
week that your followers are most active on so you have an idea of the best
days to post to capture their attention.
Post Analytics
After you’ve determined that your profile is
getting action from the right audience, it’s time to take a look at your
individual post analytics to see how your messages are resonating with your
audience.
Here’s
the data you’ll get for individual posts:
- Interactions: These are actions taken directly
from your post whether that’s visiting your profile, a link, or using the call
or email button in your post. - Discovery: The discovery feature allows users
to find new content from accounts that they may not be currently following.
Your business account is eligible to appear on this page. Instagram informs you
of the number of accounts you’ve reached to Discovery who are not following you
currently - Follows: How many new followers you’ve gotten
as a result of a post - Reach: How many unique accounts to post
reached - Impressions: The total number of times your
post was viewed. This is also broken down by category to see where on the
platform the post was viewed whether it was from the homepage, hashtag, from
your profile or somewhere else. - Saves: The number of unique accounts and saved
your post to their personal saved folder - Comments: The number of comments on your post
Stories Analytics
And last but certainly not least, there is
Instagram Stories analytics. If you’re not using the Stories feature, you’re
missing out on a substantial opportunity. Though this is a Snapchat like
feature, it continues to grow in popularity and gives you yet another chance to
get your brand in front of more people and increase the exposure of your
current audience.
Once your Instagram story has gained traction,
you’ll be able to track the following:
- Impressions: the number of times your story
has been viewed - Reach: the number of unique accounts that have
viewed your story - Exits: the number of times someone exited your
story partway through - Replies: the total number of replies on your
story - People Insights: the accounts that have seen a
particular part of their story
The Data You Need to Track
If you’ve made it this far, you know that’s a
lot of information about your Instagram account. To help you get rid of those
overwhelmed feeling, here are a few tips to help you determine what you should
focus on.
Before you start looking over the data, be aware of your overall goal from the platform. Are you trying to drive more website visitors? Are you trying to raise brand awareness among your target audience? Did you create your Instagram profile as a community for your customers to share ideas? Your Instagram presence may include multiple goals.
You may set up some posts to drive awareness, others may be aiming to increase sales. Regardless, you have to know what you’re looking for in order to use your Instagram analytics data to your advantage.
Building Brand Awareness
If you’re a new company looking to build a
name for yourself or an established business trying to enter a new market,
Instagram could be a good place for you to build brand awareness. Because it’s
more than likely that your target audience is on Instagram somewhere this is a
wonderful goal for the social media channel.
The metrics you’ll want to focus on include:
- Follower count: A growing follower count
corresponds to growing brand awareness. If you see an increase in new accounts
following yours, this is a sign your brand is resonating. You can grow your followers
by running ads with this objective, partnering with relevant brands on joint
campaigns and holding contests where you encourage people to follow your
account and like your post to enter. - Impressions: The more people who see your
posts the better. If you’re looking to increase brand awareness, then you
should make sure your post, story and account impressions are growing as well - Reach: This tracks the number of views for
your posts, stories, and account. The difference between reach and Impressions
is that the reach also refers to the unique accounts, I’m not the same account
viewing your Instagram post multiple times. In terms of brand awareness,
growing your reach is crucial.
Lead/Sales Generation
Many marketers are working toward this goal.
Is there really anyone out there who doesn’t want more sales? when it comes to
driving sales through Instagram, there are multiple strategies you can use such
as running targeted ads and posting special offers. Use the following metrics
to help evaluate their success.
- Website clicks: In your ads, post, and
stories, you are likely encouraging viewers to purchase or fill out a contact
form on your website. This helps you track how many individuals are actually
taking these steps so you can determine whether your efforts are paying off. - Call/Email Clicks: Emails and phone calls are
great indications that conversions are coming. If you see an increase in these
touchpoints, you’re heading in the right direction. - Follower Hours/Days: by paying attention to when your audience is
more engaged, you can improve your overall Instagram strategy. You can plan to
run your ads when your audience members are most active which helps to increase
your engagement
Community Building
If you want to build an interactive community,
Instagram is a great place to do it because of all of the fun and Visually
engaging content. If this is your main goal, focus on these metrics:
- Engagement: Engagement is a critical part of
building a community. Taking time to track engagement of your ads, post,
profile, and stories will ensure you’re working toward the goal. - Story Replies: This metric helps you evaluate
how active your community is because stories are a great tool to use if you’re
trying to engage to create a community. If story viewers are taking time to
reply, this is an indication that your content is resonating with them. - Comments: Communities talk. An active community will have conversations
on your post which gives you the chance to respond and engage with them. As a
general rule, you should never ignore comments even if you just like them.
There are many Instagram analytics tools out
there and whether you choose to use those or rely solely on the native
Instagram insights, knowing what to track and why will give you what you need
to expand your business.
SME Paid Under
Headlines Team