Instagram analytics: an overview of key metrics
Due to its high reach and engagement, Instagram is an effective customer engagement tool. The platform also offers opportunities for social commerce, making it an ideal source of leads. Instagram analytics, which helps develop and optimise an advertising strategy on the platform, deserve special attention.
Analytics provides access to data that helps to gain a deeper understanding of the current situation on the page. The service also helps you to identify effective ways of interacting with your audience.
How to set up the analytics service
To start using analytics, you need to create a Business or Creator account. These professional accounts provide access to all the metrics you need, which may vary depending on your advertising goals, business specifics and other factors. Some of the key metrics that will help you evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy include:
1. Sources of views. The service breaks down views into categories – subscriber and third-party. This gives you an idea of how interesting the content is to people who are not subscribers.
2. Profile Visits. It shows the number of users who have visited the company’s profile.
3. Transitions. The indicator tracks clicks on third-party links and the company address.
4. Interactions. It helps you understand the level of user activity.
5. Number of subscribers. Thanks to this indicator, you can assess the growth of the audience or its outflow.
You need to work with in-depth analytics to get the most out of Instagram. For example, an important indicator is the number of views. This information gives an understanding of how relevant the content is to the audience. The service takes into account all of the social network’s formats, including stories and reels. In addition, the number of views can be tracked using scheduling tools such as Buffer. By analysing the metrics, you can see how the platform’s algorithms are promoting publications to subscribers and other users.
Key metrics of Instagram analytics
One prerequisite for a successful marketing strategy is a high audience reach. This metric provides a more complete picture of engagement with content than the number of views. Specifically, reach shows how many users actually interacted with a post (e.g., clicked on a link or liked it).
When analysing an account, it is also important to look at the level of engagement. This metric reflects how users respond to content. Engagement by subscribers is different from engagement by impressions. Engagement by subscribers is calculated as the sum of likes, reposts, comments, and other activity divided by the number of subscribers multiplied by 100. Engagement by impressions is calculated similarly, but in this case, it is divided by the number of impressions.
Another benefit of analytics is the ability to obtain demographic data about the target audience. The company can find out the age, gender and interests of the users. This information can be used to tailor the marketing strategy to the needs of specific groups.