The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Insights

So you have an Instagram business account but have no idea how to understand their most valuable feature? No need to fret, we’re here to run it down for you… you’re welcome ;)

When it comes to understanding your account’s performance as a whole, Instagram breaks everything down into three main points of interest: Activity, Content, and Audience.

Let’s break ‘em down, shall we?

ACTIVITY

The activity tab in Instagram Insights essentially reveals the overall influence your page has as well as how that influence is achieved.

It is broken up into two subsections: interactions and discovery.

1. Interactions measure the actions people take when engaging with your account. This includes the total number of times your profile has been viewed along with the number of taps your call-to-action buttons (website, call, & email) receive.

Interactions are measured on a weekly basis and are limited to showcasing the past 7 days of activity. But alongside the weekly insights are comparisons to your account’s previous activity.

You can also tap on the featured bar graph at the top to display the exact number of actions taken on your account for each day of the week.

2. Discovery insights measure how many people view your content and where/how they found it. This includes your reach and impressions.

Reach is the total number of accounts that have seen any of your posts. Instagram is smart though, so if a user opens your profile and looks at it multiple times in one day, they will only be counted once in your reach results.

Instagram notes that its reach metrics are estimated, not exact. So take them with a grain of salt, but understand that the number displayed is generally around how many individual accounts have viewed your content.

Impressions, on the other hand, are the total number of times all of your posts have been seen by other users.

They’re measured by how many times a user has scrolled by your content in their feed, clicked through your profile to view a post, viewed content directly (i.e., through a DM), and/or from searching and exploring hashtags.

Like interactions, you can also tap on the featured bar graph at the top of the discovery section to display your account’s reach for each day of the week.

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CONTENT

The content tab showcases individual insights for all posts featured on your profile from the past two years.

It is separated into three subsections: feed posts, stories, and promotions.

1. Feed Posts

This section helps explain what type of content performs best with your audience and features an overview of your posts, along with associated metrics that are customizable based on your needs and curiosities.

You can filter your feed content based on the type of material (photos, videos, carousel posts, etc.), type of metric (engagement, follows, reach, saves, profile visits, etc.), and how far back in time you wish to see post insights for.

Along with the overview of all feed posts, you can also click on each individual post to get more in-depth insights. These showcase each post’s total interactions, a breakdown of its engagement, and your posts discoverability.

2. Stories

The stories section of the content tab provides you with detailed insights into how users view and interact with your stories, which can be incredibly valuable in understanding what kind of content resonates best with your audience. These insights include impressions and reach as well as metrics catered specifically to stories.

These specific story metrics include:

• viewers: the precise number of viewers of a post on your story
• replies: number of responses to a particular post on your story
• exits: when a user leaves/closes out of your story midway through
• forwards: when a user taps to the next post(s) in your story
• backwards: when a user taps back to rewatch part of your story
• next story: when a user swiped past your story entirely to get to another’s

PRO TIP! Treat your story posts like a natural funnel. How many people watched your first story vs. how many people watched your last story? Why do you think that is? What made those people exit your story and what can you do to prevent that from happening again?

3. Promotions

This section showcases metrics relating to any promotions or paid ads you have either previously published or have running linked to your Instagram account.

These metrics include the number of profile visits the ad has driven to your account, the number of impressions, reach, and engagement, as well as specific details on the demographics of those who have seen your post.

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AUDIENCE

The audience tab is aimed to help you better understand your followers. It’s broken up into four key categories that break down every important detail about who your audience is, where they come from, and how frequently they interact with your account.

The four key categories include:

1. The top locations where your followers are concentrated
2. The age range of your followers
3. The gender distribution of your followers
4. Average times your followers are on Instagram

In our personal opinion, the most valuable insight that Instagram provides is the one that shows you when your followers are active. This not only helps you better understand when your posts will have the greatest reach but also can make post planning and scheduling a breeze.

BUT WAIT… What if you don’t have a business Instagram account but still want an inside look into your activity and engagement? Don’t you fret either! We got you covered. Check out our post on How to Set Up a Business Account on Instagram.