IG Metrics 101: A Comprehensive Instagram Analytics Guide

When you’re trying to grow your Instagram page, you can’t just post a random photo and hope for the best. It’s like swinging blindly and expecting a home run. No matter how good you are at producing creative posts, your content strategy still needs to be backed by data. In this Instagram analytics guide, we’ll show you exactly what insights you can use to improve your online presence.

Content may be king on Instagram, but data-driven decisions are its queen. You can’t just guess what kind of posts your fans will love and cross your fingers each time you post. By having a firm grasp of your previous content’s performance metrics, you can optimize your content so it’s more successful. Let’s take a deep dive into analytics on Instagram and how to use it to improve your content, shall we?

What Are Instagram Analytics?

First things first—what are Instagram analytics? Analytics refers to the insightful data you can extract from your Instagram page to see how your content is performing. By looking through analytics data, you can learn more about your performance online. You can even check data for individual posts, from photos to Reels to Instagram Stories (but more on those later!).

At the most basic level, this might include the number of content interactions or views your post gains. But more advanced analytics will provide key metrics such as reach, watch times, link clicks, engagement rates and many more. All these metrics give you an idea of how well your target audience receives your content and whether it’s engaging.

Analytics reports help you assess what type of content works for you and which doesn’t really resonate. It’s a tool you can use to see how you’re doing on the platform and strategize how you can get even better.

Instagram Insights is the app’s built-in analytics tool that is available to brands and creators. It has accurate data updated in real-time and tons of metrics, making it the best analytics Instagram has to offer. Here, you can see your total page performance, check each post’s insights, and discover more about your followers. If you run ads, you’ll see their stats there, too.

Reading and analyzing data on Insights allows you to measure the success of the posts you work so hard on. It shows you whether certain campaigns were able to meet your objectives.

Analytics in Instagram can also be a springboard to better creative ideas and a new and improved content strategy. It gives you a firm grasp of your strengths and weaknesses. From that intel, you can make more data-driven decisions on what to do next on Instagram to improve your presence.

How Do I See Instagram Analytics?

The next question that’s probably on your mind is, how do I see Instagram analytics? Well, the first thing you need to know is that not everyone can access their posts’ analytics. Instagram Insights is a tool exclusively available to those with professional accounts, aka creators and business profiles only. So, if you want to see your analytics data, switch to a pro account first.

You can easily find the Insights page in your professional dashboard if you already have a business page. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open the Instagram app and go to your profile.

2. Click on the three horizontal lines at the top right hand of the screen.

3. Under the “For professionals” section, tap Insights to start seeing hard numbers about your page!

From there, play around with the different tabs and metrics. You can see analyses of individual posts, audience data, or just a general overview of your page’s analytics. Note that you can only see the insights for posts you publish after switching to a professional page.

Instagram Analytics Metrics 101: What Do These Parameters Mean?

There are plenty of Instagram analytics metrics that help you measure your posts’ performance. And because there are so many of them, it can be intimidating trying to grasp and understand them all. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Let’s break down what key metrics you can expect to see on Instagram Insights and what they mean.

Instagram Metrics in the Account Overview

When you open the Insights dashboard, the first thing you’ll see is your page-level Instagram metrics, aka your account overview. You’ll see charts showing trends of your follower growth over time, how many people visited your profile recently, and more.

When viewing your insights, you can choose a specific timeframe from which the app pulls data. It can be as recent as the past seven days or even the previous three months.

Two of the most important metrics you’ll come across in this section are “Accounts reached” and “Accounts engaged.” The former tells you the number of unique users that have seen your content on the platform. Meanwhile, the latter shows you how many people actively interacted with your posts through likes, comments, clicks, and shares. These key metrics give you an idea of how well you’re promoting your page and how relevant your content is.

Metrics in Post-Level Insights

IG Insights also allows you to see metrics at a per-post level. Here’s how to access your individual posts’ data, step by step:

1. On the Instagram app, head to your profile.

2. Open the post you want to see insights on.

3. Click View Insights at the bottom of the post.

From there, you can see insightful metrics that tell you how your post has been performing. These include your reach, video views, and content interactions (aka how much engagement you got).

With your interaction count, it’s easy to calculate another pertinent metric that isn’t available on Insights—your engagement rate. This measures how much traction you drive in relation to your follower count. To compute this rate, divide your total post interactions by your follower count and multiply by 100.

For example, let’s say you’re an influencer with 5,000 followers. You post a photo that garners 250 likes and 25 comments. Applying the formula, you get a rate of 5.5%. (Note: according to Hootsuite, rates that range from 1% to 5% are very good!)

Analytics for Instagram Reels

You can access your insights for IG Reels the exact same way as above. But aside from reach and interactions, you’ll see a few metrics unique to the short-form video format. Here are just several of them:

• Views: The total number of times your video was played on a user’s screen, including replays.
• Watch time: The cumulative amount of time your video was played by all users.
• Average watch time: The average time a user spends watching your Reel. The higher your average watch time, the more you were able to captivate and hold the attention of your audience.
• Follows: The number of accounts that followed you after watching your video. This tells you how effective your Reel was at driving interest in your brand.

Instagram Story Analytics

Want to see how your Story content is performing? You can find out with Instagram Story analytics. This data will be available in your Insights dashboard for viewing up to one week after your Story expires.

In this section, you’ll be able to backtrack how many likes, reactions, replies, and sticker interactions each Story drove. These will give you a grasp of what types of Stories people engage with and what they ignore or skip. You’ll also see topline metrics such as reach and impressions.

Other Data Available About Your Audience

In the “Audience” tab of IG Insights, you’ll be able to see demographic data about your followers. This includes a precise gender split of your fanbase, an age chart, and information on the cities they live in. With these bits of information, you can tweak your content strategy to tailor it to their distinct preferences and tastes. Because you’re brainstorming specifically for your audience, you can expect more content interactions each time you post!

This section of the analytics report also shows you your audience’s most active times of the day on the platform. It paints an accurate picture of when your fans are online. This info gives you an idea of the best time to post on Instagram to get instant engagement.

Pro Tip: You Can Also Use Third-Party Instagram Analytics Tools

In addition to IG Insights, you can invest in trustworthy third-party Instagram analytics tools for even deeper post insights.

These tools might have their own technologies and algorithms to give you even more comprehensive data on your content. They might even have additional features that are not available on Instagram, such as competitive analyses, customizable reports, influencer insights, and more. So, while Instagram’s built-in analytics reports are sufficient, these extra tools might be worth checking out.

The good news is there are also tons of analytics tools that give you in-depth insights absolutely for free. One of these is the Path Social Profile Analyzer. This free, advanced analytics tool gives you all the essential info you need to know about any public Instagram account.

Using it is super easy. All you need to do is type in the username of the profile from which you want to glean insights. Then, at the touch of a button, you get a plethora of metrics and data about them at your fingertips. You’ll see pertinent info like engagement rates, average user activity, posting frequency, impressions, popular post times, top hashtags, and more. 

The Path Social Profile Analyzer is an awesome, convenient way to take a peek into any brand’s Instagram health!

Instagram Tag Analytics Might Be a Good Idea, Too

Using the right IG hashtags according to your niche is key if you want your posts to reach your target audience. To choose the perfect ones for your post, take advantage of Instagram tag analytics.

Hashtag analytics is exactly what it sounds like—metrics and data about the performance of certain tags on Instagram. Tag analytics reports will show you how popular and engaging a hashtag is. By understanding how specific tags perform, you can conjure up the right combo of hashtags for posts for maximum visibility.

You can find hashtag analytics in trusted third-party tools, such as Sprout Social, which tracks which tags your audience uses. But you can also use tons of free tag analytics tools to save some money. Path Social’s Hashtag Generator is an excellent option for that.

The Hashtag Generator lets you see the most important stats and metrics related to any tag on Instagram. Just enter a hashtag, and we’ll present you with the juiciest and most helpful info you need to know about it. That includes the number of posts with that tag, average posts per day, and even difficulty ranking on top.

We even provide related hashtags you can use in conjunction with that tag to copy and paste into your caption! Essentially, it’s your one-stop shop for analyzing and choosing the right tags for any Instagram post.

Frequently Asked Questions

Bookmark This Instagram Analytics Guide for Future Reference!

Sure, creative content is what will capture your target audience’s attention when they come across your page. However, with analytics from Insights and other third-party tools, you can see what’s been working and what hasn’t for your page. This insightful data is the secret sauce to success on Instagram. Use it to your advantage, and you’ll be well on your way to stellar engagement rates and Insta-fame.

Still intimidated by analytics reports? Bookmark this Instagram analytics guide and come back to it for reference whenever you need to. Until then, focus on doing what you love most—churning out relevant, impactful, entertaining content!

Need help getting that content out into the world? You can count on Path Social to help. We use proven promotional strategies—from influencer tie-ups to newsletter shout-outs—to make relevant noise about your brand. We ensure this reaches your niche audience, potentially letting you gain more followers for your page. 

Double your followers and engagement like Modern Fit did with the help of Path Social today!