Track metrics using Instagram Insights to learn more about your followers and understand the photos and videos your community cares about.
3 steps to understand your performance and audience on Instagram
Businesses have different goals on Instagram, like finding new customers, building an engaged community or driving sales. Whatever your goals may be, learn about the metrics that can help track growth progress by using Instagram Insights.
If you have never accessed Instagram Insights, learn how you can do it here.
Step 1: Think about your business goals and decide which metrics you want to select.
Below are a few examples of goals and metrics to track progress against. If you aren’t sure what a metric in Insights means, tap
in each category to learn more about what the metric is tracking.
• If your goal is to increase your brand awareness, select metrics like profile visits, impressions, reach and follows, which you can find in the Content or Activity tab, and number of follows by day or week in the Audience tab. These metrics allow you to track the number of people who are viewing your profile, posts and stories. You can also tap ‘View Insights’ on a specific post, so you can also learn where people are discovering your posts whether that be from hashtags, home, or your profile. Learn how you can do that here.
• If your goal is to connect with your community, select metrics that measure engagement on your content such as likes, shares, comments, and saves, which you can find in the Content tab of your Insights. These metrics allow you to track how people are interacting with your photos and videos. In addition, you can also take a closer look at metrics like emails, texts, and/or calls to learn how people prefer to communicate with your business.
• If your goal is to drive sales, a metric you can select is website clicks, specifically whether people are clicking the link on your bio. You can also track specific metrics on your shopping posts like outbound clicks and product opens. These metrics allow you to see whether people are going to your website, and which products they’re most interested in. Learn how you can set up Instagram Shopping here.
Step 2: Determine whether your Instagram audience matches your customers.
Get information on the top cities and countries, age ranges and gender of your followers in the Audience tab of your Insights. Use this information to determine whether your Instagram audience matches your customers. This way, you can find more people on Instagram like your current customers.
Step 3: Evaluate your metrics over time and adjust how you use Instagram.
Now that you know what metrics you want to prioritize, make sure to track those metrics over time. Don’t be discouraged if you see your numbers fluctuate from time to time. Focus on growth over a longer period of time like instead, like a few weeks or a month. Adjust your goals as your account continues to grow.
If there are certain areas you want to improve on, don’t forget you can try some tips, like how to get discovered on Instagram or better communicate with your customers.
Now that you’ve been regularly sharing photos and videos about your business, use Instagram Insights to tailor your content specifically for your community with these 4 tips:
Look for trends across your posts and stories.
Try to spot patterns across your photos and videos that are performing well, especially for metrics that are relevant to your business goals. For example, if your goal is to connect with your community, look at the photos and videos that are getting the most engagement by tracking metrics such as likes, saves and shares. Once you have identified trends across posts and stories that have performed well, integrate them into the photos and videos you’re creating to tailor them specifically to your community. Remember to try some creative tips, like creating playful and interactive stories and writing captions that keep people reading.
Keep your audience demographics in mind as you create photos and videos.
Now that you know information like the top cities and countries, age ranges and gender of your followers, keep that in mind as you plan your content. For instance, the majority of your followers are 23-28 years old in Sydney. Incorporate elements in your photos and videos that this audience appreciates, like using local language or referencing current local trends. This way, your photos and videos can speak to the people that make up your community.
Post when your followers are active.
Use Insights to see when most of your followers are on Instagram to learn when you can post your photos and videos. This way, you can maximize the number of people seeing and interacting with your photos and videos.
Advanced tip: Turn your most engaging posts into ads and update the content based on performance.
