Instagram statistics – KPIs & analysis tools

Online marketing and measuring success go hand in hand. If you want your marketing measures to be worthwhile and contribute to the company’s long term success in a sustainable manner, then you need to be able to identify exactly if and when a campaign is performing well. And if this is not the case, then you need to find out why and what needs to be optimized. Each marketing strategy requires a commitment of resources. It doesn’t matter whether these are of a financial or personnel kind, their use must prove to be worth their while, i.e. the return on investment (ROI) must be positive.

The approach to Instagram is in no way different. You might be familiar with sophisticated analysis functions from other social networks, and Instagram has also integrated its own analysis function. We'll show you what valuable information Instagram Insights can provide you and what other Instagram analysis tools you can use.

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Which KPIs are relevant?

If you want to be successful on social media, whether on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, you should keep an eye on the so-called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These provide an indication of the progress made towards the marketing goals set. Marketing measures should also be monitored in the social media sector: Does the content strategy work? Is community management effective? Which is the right influencer for my brand? For Instagram users, there are four areas: the success of a post, the success of the entire account, the results of Instagram Stories (the format around short-lived videos and images), and the success of advertisements.

KPIs for individual posts

  • Impressions: Instagram uses the term “impressions” to describe how often users have seen the post - regardless of whether they are followers or users who have reached the post in other ways. Even if users see the post several times, the system considers this as impressions.
  • Reach: Multiple impressions by the same user are excluded from the range. This KPI therefore shows how many people you have actually reached with each post.
  • Engagement: Post interactions are an important measure of success. If users leave likes and comments, this is a good sign that the strategy is working. An engagement rate is often calculated as well. This indicates how strongly your followers interact with a post. The rate is calculated by dividing the collected interactions by the number of followers.

Success measures for Instagram Stories

  • Impressions: How often was the story viewed? Repetitions by the same user are also included here. If a user has viewed a story several times, this indicates an interesting post.
  • Reach: The reach of Instagram Stories also shows how many people or accounts you can reach with your posts. The ratio between the number of your followers and the range of your posts and stories is also interesting.
  • Engagement: Likes do not play a role in Stories. Instead, you can see how often users skipped individual parts of the story or even skipped the whole story. If the number is particularly high, this isn’t a sign of good content. The opposite is true for tap backs, i.e. interactions in which users have looked at a part of the story again. Another way to analyze is to see how often the user swiped up. You can use these actions, for example, to present your website to users. However, it is also possible that users send you direct comments on the story.

Measured values for the Instagram account

  • Channel growth: Regardless of the success of individual posts, it is interesting to observe the Instagram account’s growth. This way, you notice quite early when your follower numbers stop increasing or decreasing. Do strategies and campaigns need to be adapted?
  • Hashtag usage: Similar to Twitter, Instagram’s reach is increased to a large extent through the correct use of hashtags. For this, it is important to track the use of these hashtags. If you create your own hashtag, you should also monitor how much it is used by others.

KPIs for Instagram ads

  • Click-through rate: In paid ads, Instagram allows companies to place links on their website. The number of website clicks indicates how interesting the post was. How many users wanted to know more about the offer?
  • Conversions: In the end, it’s often (but not always) the revenue you get from an ad that counts. Did the visitor make a purchase after visiting your website or did the user at least leave an e-mail address for further marketing measures?

Instagram analysis: Instagram Insights

If you change from a standard personal Instagram account to a business one, you will automatically have access to the integrated Instagram statistics function. With this, the social network is giving its users the opportunity to learn more about their followers, and also all users who react to their uploaded pictures and videos.

There is a lot of different data available. You can find out about users’ basic demographic information: Who are the followers? Is your audience made up of mostly men or women? What is the average age of the users who like your posts? What is their geographic location? Additionally, you can also get a better insight into how well individual posts have performed. Which posts achieved the most impressions, and which photos or videos generated the most interactions in the form of comments and likes?

How do you access the Instagram analysis?

You can see whether your business account is set up (read about how to do this in our article on Instagram for business by checking to see if there is a bar chart symbol on your own Instagram account. Clicking on this symbol will bring you directly to the Instagram analysis section for business clients. At first you will see the account statistics from the last seven days. Along with impressions, reach, and profile views, you can also view the most popular posts and get more information on followers. Bear in mind that Instagram assesses the most popular posts based on impressions and not interactions.

While the Instagram statistics relating to reach and impressions are theoretically available after a single like or click, in reality you actually need at least 100 followers to be able to access statistically relevant information on your demographic.

Instagram statistics for posts

It is also possible to view the statistics of an individual post. Underneath each picture and video in a business account, there is the option of clicking on ‘View Insights’. Here is where you will find information relating to impressions, reach, and number of interactions. If you have used the Instagram ad feature in order to push a post, you will be able to view the figures for the original photo/video, as well as those for the “artificially pushed” one. A help feature briefly explains what these numbers are about.

Instagram follower statistics

In addition to the performance of your own posts, an Instagram follower analysis is also part of the statistics function. Alongside pure follower numbers, Instagram also provides comprehensive information on the demographic of your followers, including:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Location

Most businesses are aware of who their potential target group is, and therefore will not encounter any major surprises here. However, it is still interesting to observe how a following on Instagram differs from that of Facebook. Getting this insight can raise questions such as: Do I need to optimize my Instagram strategy to better suit the platform? Should I design my content and advertisements differently from those on Facebook?

These statistics on followers also answer questions like: when are your followers online and, on average, how much time do they spend on the app? Among other things, this may lead to you reconsidering your posting rhythm and your content planning to suit this new information. Despite the new algorithm, the Instagram feed still has a tendency to swallow up new posts on a daily basis, leading to many followers never even seeing them. It’s much better to know exactly when the bulk of your followers are online, and to measure the Instagram reach to track success or failure more easily. 

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6 alternative Instagram analysis tools for measuring success

Thanks to the statistics functions, an analysis within the platform is possible, similar to Facebook. Instagram analysis is a handy feature that gives a comprehensive overview of the most important statistics and figures. But to gain an even more comprehensive and detailed analysis, many companies utilize additional Instagram tools.

The ever-growing significance of Instagram in the online marketing sector has meant that there are now many special Instagram analysis tools available from a wide selection of providers. These third party providers offer convenient user interfaces, with which it is possible to analyze user data, as well as track entire campaigns and pick out the best hashtags. As a marketer, this allows you to discover how well or how badly Instagram marketing campaigns are doing – and how they can be improved.

Iconosquare

One of the best-known analytics and management platforms for Instagram is Iconosquare, formerly known as Statigram. The tool offers a dashboard for all Instagram activities, reads through a feed, and follows new interactions and comments. This allows users to track their follower numbers on a daily basis, keep an eye on growth and decline, and identify their top followers.

Additionally, it is possible to analyze posts, compare recent posts with older ones, and identify the best hashtag combinations and the ideal time to post. Checking out the competition is also possible with Iconosquare – with the help of the search function you can track the profile or individual hashtags of competitors.

New customers can register on the website and avail of a free 14-day trial. Once this is over, you have a choice of several different packages, ranging from Plus to Enterprise.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Possible to manage several accounts

Fee-based

Content management directly via the platform

Can plan posts in advance

Can monitor the competition

The most important features:

  • Available as an app
  • Competition monitoring
  • Publishing function with advance planning
  • Hashtag monitoring
  • Tips on best time to post

Squarelovin

Squarelovin is a platform for the organization of user-generated content, but also acts as a good free analytics tool for Instagram. Squarelovin users get a clear overview of their followers, account growth, and how posts perform. The tool measures user engagement and analyzes the exact performance of all posts, both individually and overall. As is the case with other tools, the results of these analyses opens up the possibility of further optimization. It’s possible to identify the best time for uploading new posts and find out what the ideal filters and hashtags are. Squarelovin analyzes the complete history of an account and draws attention to particularly good posts.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Free

More a service for content curation

Help with planning posts

The most important features:

  • Content curation
  • Filter use analysis
  • Monthly Instagram analysis
  • Tips on best time to post
  • Copyright management

Keyhole

With Keyhole, you have the possibility to monitor both your Instagram account and hashtags. The service compiles clear graphs of posts and user engagement and shows the most successful self-created posts and hashtags used. Keyhole offers automatic reports, competition monitoring, finds influencers, and displays demographic Instagram follower statistics. Keyhole also suggests the best time to publish your posts. All statistics are delivered in real-time. The service comes in different price classes and provides users with a free trial period. In addition to Instagram, Keyhole also enables you to analyze your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

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Advantages

Disadvantages

Verification of hashtags

Relatively expensive

Competitor analysis

Influencer marketing

Also for Facebook and Twitter

Real-time analysis

The most important features:

  • Influencer marketing
  • Tips on best time to post
  • Competition monitoring
  • Onboarding via telephone
  • In addition to Instagram, Twitter & Facebooks are also supported

Klear

In order to measure your own Instagram range, you can use Klear. The fee-based tool is actually intended to locate influencers on social media, but also offers free tools. Klear analyzes how committed the followers are to your content and provides information about demographics and user interests. In addition, Klear calculates an influencer score: How much do you influence people compared to others? To do this, you can add other social media to investigate your influence beyond Instagram. The free test gives good insight. But in order to practice real influencer marketing, you need to invest in the premium offer.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Free tools

Instagram statistics is a by-product

Influencer marketing

Cross channel analysis

The most important features:

  • Influencer marketing
  • Influencer score
  • Cross channel analysis
  • ROI analysis
  • Follower demographics

Union Metrics

Union Metrics addresses professional marketing agencies. The service is not only suitable for Instagram statistics, but also supports users in campaigns on all kinds of social media. The scope also includes detailed analyses of your own accounts as well as that of the competition. The relatively high cost is not surprising, as the offer is mainly aimed at marketing professionals. Union Metrics also offers a free Instagram account checkup, which provides information on the best times to publish posts, statistics on hashtags, and account information.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Free checkup tool

Relatively high costs

Analyses of many social media networks

Competitor analysis

Cross channel analysis

The most important features:

  • Campaign analysis
  • Cross channel
  • Competition monitoring
  • Market analysis

Plann

The Instagram statistic app, Plann, is intended for users who want to appear more professional with their Instagram account. The app not only reveals the best times to publish images, but also an analysis of the most successful color schemes: Which color scheme is particular popular with your followers? A competitor analysis is also included. But Instagram statistics isn’t the only thing the app can do. Plann also helps you post images and stories, lets you organize past posts, and provides a planning feature for future posts. A very minimal version of Plann is free. In addition, you can choose from three different fee-based offers.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Available as an app

Real analyses only available in fee-based packages

Free beginner version

Color scheme analysis

Support when posting images & stories

The most important features:

  • Color analysis
  • Competition monitoring
  • Planning & managing posts
  • Instagram strategies
  • Tips on best time to post

Instagram analysis tools at a glance

Some of these services have different content focuses and offer different features. You can find out which service is the right one for you thanks to our table.

Multiple profiles

Demography

Cross channel

Competitor analysis

Hashtag analysis

Help with planning posts

App

Free offer

Iconosquare

Squarelovin

Keyhole

✔  (+ Premium version)

Klear

✔  (+ Premium version)

Union Metrics

✔  (+ Premium version)

Plann

✔  (+ Premium version)

Instagram in the marketing mix: social media monitoring tools

Instagram is now no longer a niche marketing channel and part of many larger social media monitoring solutions. Among these, the best known ones are Socialbakers and Hootsuite. The handy thing about a tool that caters for more than just one social media channel is that it allows for a direct comparison of performances across all platforms.

Nowadays in the online marketing sector, it is the case that comprehensive monitoring tools are indispensable, forming the basis of every social media marketing strategy. They allow you to acquire valuable information about your audience and to get to know your followers better. Tools like this also help to optimize your strategy, prepare posts better, as well as make these posts more prominent.

A different analytics strategy is required when we are dealing with non-organic reach but with reach that is paid for, i.e. advertisements. You can read about how to advertise on Instagram, as well as how to measure and optimize the performance of Instagram ads in the next part of the series.

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