Social media platforms are one of the simplest and most effective ways for marketers to promote their brands. This is due to the sheer global popularity of these platforms. Instagram is one such platform that has taken the social media world by storm.
Instagram was launched in 2012 for both Android and iOS platforms, and it has since become one of the most popular social media platforms. Instagram is a massive benefit for marketers because it offers a one-of-a-kind feature called Instagram Insights.
Instagram Insights is a powerful and beneficial feature for marketers. It analyzes potential customer reactions to your posts, stories, and pages. You can use this type of analytics to help understand the behavior patterns people exhibit when they interact with your content on social media.
This article will teach you about Instagram Insights and how to use analytics to increase your followers and engagement. It also discusses four ways to use Instagram Insights to improve your marketing effectively. Read along to find out about this innovative technique to gain Insights.
- What Is Instagram Insights?
- Where to Find Instagram Insights
- How to find Instagram account Insights
- How to Use the Analytics to Increase Follower and Engagement
- 1. Measure your account reach
- 2. Track profile activity
- 3. Determine your audience demographics
- 4. Evaluate Instagram Stories Data
- 5. Examine Paid Promotions Data
- Conclusion
What Is Instagram Insights?
Instagram Insights is a native analytics tool that provides information about your followers’ demographics and actions, as well as information about your content. You’ll get insight into how each piece of content is performing with metrics like:
- Reach. This is the total number of people who saw your content.
- Impressions. This is the total number of times your feed content was loaded. (For example, if your reach is 100 and 50 of those people see your Instagram post twice, you’ll have 150 impressions.)
- Increase in audience size. Increasing your Instagram follower count is probably high on your priority list. When promoting your products or services via the app, the more followers you have, the more likely you are to make money. Use this data to determine whether your strategy is effective.
- Interactions. View the number of likes, shares, comments, and profile visits received by your content, which can range from regular feed posts to Reels, IGTV videos, and Stories.
Where to Find Instagram Insights
You must first confirm that your account has already been converted into a business or creator account before you can access Instagram Insights.
If you don’t yet have a business or product to sell, go with a creator account. It’s the best account type for bloggers, influencers, artists, writers, and other public figures, whereas a business account gives businesses additional features to sell products and services through the Instagram app.
Instagram Insights isn’t available for personal accounts, regardless of account type, so you’ll need to convert your personal account into a creator or business account to access your analytics.
Here’s how to do it:
- Open the Instagram app on a mobile device.
- Go to your company/creator profile page and click the three lines in the top right corner.
- Select “Account” from the Settings menu.
- “Switch to a Professional account” should be selected.
- Fill in the form fields with your information (such as your company’s category and contact information).
- Click the “Done” button.
How to find Instagram account Insights
It’s now time to look for Instagram Insights. To accomplish this, first:
- Open the Instagram app on a mobile device.
- Go to your profile page and click on the three lines in the upper right corner.
- Choose “Insights.”
From there, you should be able to see data on your entire Instagram account, including how many people your content has reached, the number of interactions it has, and your follower growth over time.
To view analytics for a specific post, go to the post and tap View Insights in the bottom-left corner.
To view data for a story, open the story and tap the names in the bottom-left corner.
How to Use the Analytics to Increase Follower and Engagement
Now that you know understand how to gain access to Instagram Insights, here’s how to find the data that matters to your business.
1. Measure your account reach
One of the most important metrics in Instagram Insights is your Instagram reach rate. It informs you of the number of unique accounts reached by your content (or profile) over a specified time period. The higher your account’s visibility, the better.
Because Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes content that users find interesting, the higher your reach, the more likely your followers are to enjoy the content you’re sharing.
However, don’t put this figure in a box. You can see an exact breakdown of how many followers versus non-followers saw your Instagram content in the Reach tab of Instagram Insights.
When you reach more non-followers than followers, it means you’re doing a good job of reaching out to new audiences. Remember that the algorithm prioritizes high-quality (as well as high-engagement) content in a user’s news feed and the Explore tab. If more people see your content than follow you, you’re on the right track.
2. Track profile activity
While you’re still in Instagram Insights‘ Reach tab, take a look at what happens when people visit your profile. Instagram business accounts can include a call-to-action (CTA) button on their page. This can range from a “visit website” button to an “email” button.
Using Instagram analytics data, determine how many people click on those buttons. Look for “Profile activity” at the bottom of the Reach tab. You can track the effectiveness of CTAs by looking at the number of:
- Profile visits.
- Website clicks.
- Calls.
- Emails.
Note that if you see zero for any of these, don’t panic. You need a CTA set-up for these actions before people can complete them.
Beneath those figures is a percentage showing an increase (or decrease) in how many people took a particular action over a given time period. Use this data to get a holistic view of your Instagram content strategy and the results of tweaking it a bit.
3. Determine your audience demographics
If you’re trying to figure out who your current audience is, Instagram Insights is a great place to start. Inside your analytics dashboard’s Audience tab, you’ll find information about your followers’ demographics, such as:
- Age range.
- Location (by country, town, or city).
- Gender.
- Online times (hours and days)
Consider this when developing your Instagram content strategy. If you discover that your top location is, say, San Francisco, consider reposting user-generated content from customers in that city. When reposting to your own profile, geotag the location so that your branded content reaches more people in the area.
4. Evaluate Instagram Stories Data
Insights for your Instagram stories can be accessed via the Insights homepage or directly from an individual story post.
View Insights for Multiple Stories
When you access story data from the Insights homepage, you will see all of your stories’ posts from the previous two weeks. This view only displays aggregate data; you cannot click on individual posts.
Instagram displays impressions data for your stories by default and you can adjust it by yourself.
Tap one of the range filters at the top of the page to filter story data by time (24 hours, 7 days, 14 days until the last 2 years) and action. The actions are:
- Reach
- Impressions
- Forward
- Follows
- Replies
- Shares
- etc
Analyze this data to determine which stories’ content resonates with your audience. Use these insights to help shape future story content.
View Insights for an Individual Story
To view data for a story, open the story and tap the names in the bottom-left corner.
From here, you can see who saw the post, how many impressions and reach it received, and what actions were taken in response to it. The actions include replies, swipes away, and clicks on stickers and tagged accounts.
5. Examine Paid Promotions Data
The Promotions section can be found at the bottom of the Insights homepage. Here you can create an Instagram promotion and view active promotions.
Click See More to view a list of previous promotions. Tap a promotion to see the following metrics:
- Visits to profile
- Number of people who viewed the promotion
- Number of impressions
- Number of engagements
- Audience demographics
- Amount of money spent
This information provides a quick overview of impressions vs. engagement and clicks to profile on a promotion. You can also see a breakdown of who saw this promotion by gender, age range, and location.
Conclusion
With Instagram Insights, you don’t have to rely on your gut instinct to determine how well your Instagram marketing strategy is working. The Instagram Insights dashboard reveals vital information about your account and the content you’ve shared, such as which formats receive the most engagement and how people found your content in the first place.