How to measure your Instagram performance

Are you using Instagram for your business, but not sure how to tell if your efforts are actually paying off? You need to make sure you are tracking your performance to know whether the content your posting is actually resonating with your audience.

So what metrics should you be measuring, and what are the best tools to use?

Metrics to measure

Before you think about how you’re going to measure your performance, consider what you’re going to be measuring. Metrics you should consider measuring include:

• Comments received: this gives you an insight into how engaging your content is, as it takes more effort to leave a comment than a like.
• Hashtags: looking at the hashtags that perform well are a great way to know which hashtags you should use too. People already know these hashtags exist and are more likely to use them.
• Engagements: compare how many followers you have to how many engagements you get. You want to aim for an increase in your engagement levels.
• Followers: this lets you know the potential reach of your posts, and gives you an ego boost when more people follow you.
• Referrals: how much traffic do you receive because of Instagram? Include your URL in your bio or captions to increase traffic flow to your website.

So now you know what you should be measuring, the question is how you can measure it. You can use Instagram’s own data, but that is extremely limited. Instagram’s insights tell you how many impressions your posts made, reach, profile views and website clicks. It also compares this information to the previous week, so you can track your progress. You can also check your top posts, and sort by impressions, reach, engagements, likes, comments and saved. However, this data is fairly limited when compared to analytics tools available within other social media websites. Furthermore, you can only access this information through the mobile app, there is no way to view this on the desktop website. If you’re wanting more in-depth information, you’re going to need to use a third party tool. Fortunately, there are numerous tools available which you can use to gather data from Instagram.

Tools to use to track your Instagram performance are:

1. Iconosquare  

Iconosquare, formerly known as Statigram, is an easy-to-use analytics tool aimed at both businesses and agencies. Iconosquare allows you to see your follower growth, daily gained and lost followers and where your followers are located. You can even see how your posts perform in real-time, the amount of likes and comments received, impact of filters and hashtags, engagement levels, and discover your best time to post. You can even track your competition, compare your performance with theirs and gain insights into their performance. And that’s just some of the data that’s available through Iconosquare.

If you’re looking to sign up to a tool that does more than just analyse data and produce graphs, consider Iconosquare. Not only can you get data insights, but you can also manage your Instagram activity, search, gather and organise your content, schedule and manage your posts and find the best influencer for your business.

Iconosquare has a free 14-day trial, and then has four different payment plans, with one available for everyone from Instagram beginners to enterprises. Payments come with options of monthly or yearly payments, with a 25 percent discount on yearly payments.

2. Command Analytics & Stats for Instagram    

If you’re an iOS user, this app is for you. Command undertakes competitor research, presents hourly statistics in graph formats and gives global statistics. Your data will be analysed and suggestions made in relation to metrics including followers count, ratio, engagement rate and post frequency, to name a few. You can even receive recommendations about what times of the day is best to post and on which day of the week.

Payments are charged to your iTunes account on a monthly basis. The app costs $9.99, or $4.99 for legacy subscribers.

3. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an Instagram management tool that allows you to have control over multiple accounts. It goes further than just offering data, and includes scheduling, engagement tools and of course rich analytics. You can even use the scheduling tool to plan and publish your Instagram posts. Instagram monitoring allows you to manage your comments and leave replies, monitor your hashtags and track posts from certain Instagram locations.

Sprout Social gives you a free 30-day trial, after which you have to select one of three payment options - premium, corporate or enterprise, which is billed per user per month. The plans are flexible, so if you decide you don’t like the one you picked, you can easily choose another one.

4. Union Metrics

Union Metrics is a web-based tool that will give your Instagram account a much-needed checkup. In just two minutes, Union Metrics will give you information on metrics including the best time to post, engaging hashtags, what you should post more or less of and who your top fans are. This analyses the past 30 days of your Instagram activity to help you improve your account.

Best of all, Union Metrics’ Instagram checkup tool is completely free. So you’ve got nothing to lose by downloading this app.

5. Simply Measured

Simply Measured is a comprehensive tool that gives you high-level analysis of your Instagram activity. Simply Measured allows you to understand your audience’s interests, influences, interactions, and intents. The tool produces graphs with information about your influencers and audiences, social analytics to help improve your strategy, content share tracking, and conversion tracking. You can even request a demo to see whether you like it before signing up. The cost of this tool varies depending on the needs of the individual businesses needs.

These metrics and analytics tools will ensure your business never posts an Instagram post that doesn’t connect with the audience and continue to grow your reach and engagement.

Got any thoughts? Let us know in the comments.