If you want to grow your Instagram account, taking a look at your Instagram analytics is a great place to start.
With analytics on your side, you can target the right audience, improve your content strategy, and reach your goals.
In this ultimate guide, we’ll walk through everything you need to get started — including key metrics to track and a free reporting template.
Table of Contents
What Are Instagram Analytics and Why Do They Matter?
Instagram analytics are the best way to understand who your audience is, when they’re most active, and what type of content they engage with.
This is important for creating a content strategy that drives results for your brand or business — without it, you’re essentially working in the dark.
However, finding the right metrics to track, as well as knowing how to interpret them, can be easier said than done.
Feeling stuck on your content strategy? Never underestimate the power of analyzing your analytics — and don't forget to continually experiment.💥
— Later (@latermedia) February 19, 2021
Every brand or business has unique goals (from growing followers to increasing clicks) which means that the most important metrics differ on a case-by-case basis.
But once you’ve clarified your goals, you’ll be able to get so much more from your Instagram analytics — as you’ll have clear objectives to monitor in your social media reporting.
TIP: Discover what content resonates most with your audience with Later's in-depth Instagram Analytics tools — create an account today.
10 Key Instagram Metrics to Track in 2024
If you’re new to the world of data and analytics, knowing which Instagram metrics to track can seem like a daunting task.
But once you’re up to speed, understanding and analyzing these 10 metrics can be revolutionary for your brand’s growth:
Reach: The number of unique accounts that have seen your post, and therefore how much awareness and value you’re gaining.
Engagement rate: This is a calculation that shows what percentage of your following has interacted with your content. If your followers are commenting, liking, saving, and sharing your content, your engagement rate will show it.
Traffic: The amount of clicks your website, CTAs, and Instagram Stories link stickers drive — a jackpot for understanding what motivates your audience.
Saves: The number of times your post has been bookmarked.
Shares: Shared content indicates how many times a post was sent to another user through Instagram — and that’s a very telling metric.
Audience growth: Thanks to Instagram’s “followed” and “unfollowed” metrics — you can see exactly how many followers you gain and lose each day.
Watch through rate: Your Instagram Stories, Reels, and video watch-through rate measures the percentage of people who followed your content from beginning to end.
Instagram Stories views: Each story slide posted to Instagram will have its own metrics — including replies, impressions, and navigations. You can use the metrics for each story slide to learn what holds your audience’s attention, what they tap back to, and what causes them to skip away from your content.
Instagram Reels engagement: Similar to your overall engagement rate, but measures your Reels specifically — including content interactions and plays.
Best time to post: Posting at your personalized best time to post on Instagram increases the likelihood of followers actually seeing and then engaging with your posts.
By understanding what resonates with your audience, you can tailor your content plan around this — and grow your community on Instagram.
With Later's Best Time to Post feature, you'll discover your account's unique best time to schedule content. Start using it now.
How to Find Instagram Insights and Analytics in 2024
Let’s face it, growth on Instagram doesn't happen overnight.
To see a spike in followers, engagement, and sales on the platform you’ll need some mighty Instagram analytics tools on your side.
Here are two to help get you started:
Instagram Analytics Tool #1: Later’s Instagram Analytics
Not to toot our own horn but if you’re looking to increase engagement, optimize stories and Reels, and drive traffic, Later's Instagram Analytics feature is your new best friend.
If you’re not yet acquainted, Later’s Instagram Analytics gives you a visual overview of how your posts are performing — all in an easy-to-use dashboard.
The tool lets you track up to 12 months’ worth (depending on your Later plan) of Instagram analytics so you can see exactly what's performed best — and filter by key metrics, such as likes, reach, comments, and more:
You can also tap into your Instagram audience analytics and discover where your audience is based, their demographics, as well as when they are most active.
These are all valuable indicators for optimizing your Instagram posting strategy:
Plus, you’ll have access to Later's Hashtag Analytics tools so you can track key insights about your hashtags — including a breakdown of which are driving the most likes, comments, saves, and reach on your Instagram posts:
NOTE: Later's Instagram Analytics are only available for Instagram Business and Creator profiles.
Ready to start tracking your performance more efficiently? Sign up to Later and explore the Instagram Analytics dashboard today.
Instagram Analytics Tool #2: Instagram Insights
Instagram’s free native analytics tool, Instagram Insights, is also full of useful data.
Whether you’re looking for your Instagram audience analytics or data on specific posts, Instagram Insights has got you covered.
NOTE: To access the feature, you’ll first need to switch to an Instagram Business or Creator account. You'll only see analytics for content published after you've switched.
Once that's taken care of, tap the menu icon in the top right corner of your Instagram profile, and tap “Insights.” This will bring you to a page overview of your account’s analytics.
Here you can peruse a myriad of metrics ranging from accounts reached, accounts engaged, and total followers:
To get a closer look at how your content is resonating with users, tap the drop-down menu from the top left corner and filter by time frame (up to 90 days), and see specific post performance:
This is a great way to gain a holistic view of the content that has performed best over a set period of time — which can help inform your strategy.
TIP: You can also open any Instagram post and tap the “View Insights” button in the bottom left corner to see metrics for that specific post too.
How to Track and Report on Instagram Analytics in 2024
As you can see, there are countless Instagram metrics you can track and report on — but trying to tackle them all might not be the best use of your time.
Having a clear view of your brand goals and key Instagram metrics that will help achieve them, is often a more efficient approach.
Once you’ve clarified your goals, it’s worthwhile to create a social media report to track your progress in a visually powerful and digestible way.
Why?
Tracking your Instagram analytics over time will give you a better understanding of what type of content is working, so you can build on your success in the future.
Test out different tactics, experiment with content types, and see what sticks. The results may surprise you — in a good way.
Create an account to start measuring your results on Instagram with Later's tools today.
