20 Essential Instagram Metrics Every Marketer Should Monitor in 2024
Instagram Analytics

20 Essential Instagram Metrics Every Marketer Should Monitor in 2024

Andreea Udescu
Andreea Udescu
Table of Contents

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms following TikTok. And that wonโ€™t change soon.

If you're considering promoting your business on Instagram, you're on the right path. However, you need to keep track of analytics data to find out what works and what doesn't.

Instagram metrics will offer you the actionable insights you need to develop a better social media strategy for your brand.

So let's have a look at 20 essential Instagram metrics you should be tracking in 2024.

Key Instagram metrics to track

  1. Why you should track Instagram metrics

  2. Top most important Instagram metrics to look at

    2.1 Instagram post metrics

    2.2. Instagram story metrics

    2.3. Instagram Reels metrics

  3. How can Socialinsider help you track your Instagram metrics


1. Why you should track Instagram metrics

When trying to increase brand awareness on Instagram, you need to keep tabs on all clarity Instagram metrics to measure growth.

Through Instagram analytics, you can keep tabs on key Instagram metrics that offer you valuable insights on how to further proceed with your social media strategy.

These metrics help you:

  • Measure your performance

You can easily track usersโ€™ interactions with all your Instagram content and assess how they resonate with your posts. High engagement, increased reach and a significant follower growth are all good indicators that you're on the right path.

  • Get to know your audience

To create a social media strategy that converts, you first need to learn as much as you can about your audience. What are they searching for? What needs do they express? And, most importantly, how can you satisfy them?

By checking Instagram metrics with the help of a third-party analytics tool, you get to see data for audience demographics.

This is how you find out where your audience is located and at what time they are most active.

  • Consolidate your strategy

When you look at Instagram metrics and check top posts to see how theyโ€™ve performed, you figure out what type of content attracts most of your audience.

This is what will determine you to consolidate your social media strategy, focusing on certain aspects that have already been proven effective.

You will be able to create engaging content based on what you know works best for your brand and increase brand awareness, leads and ultimately, sales.

  • Identify trends

By keeping an eye on Instagram metrics, you manage to learn more about the latest trends in your industry and keep up with them.

You have to always be aware of the latest trends and incorporate them in your content to attract a wider audience.

  • Make data-driven decisions

The insights provided by your Instagram metrics should motivate you to adjust your social media strategy based on what data indicates.

This way, your content will rely more on effective and efficient types of posts that have already proved to bring great results.

You will notice that your brandโ€™s performance on Instagram will increase, while also increasing ROI.

  • Develop social media reports

By focusing your attention on Instagram metrics that matter, you can easily create social media reports.

Based on the data in your social media report, you can further optimize your strategy to improve performance and increase metricsโ€™ values.

2. Top most important Instagram metrics to look at

2.1. Instagram post metrics

  • Engagement rate by followers

While engagement represents the total number of likes and comments youโ€™ve earned, the Instagram engagement rate shows what percentage of your followers resonate with your messages, and have taken an action to show it.

The engagement rate is a helpful Instagram metric to analyze than purely the raw engagement number because itโ€™s correlated with your follower count, helping you to evaluate your performance more accurately and realistically.

Here is how to calculate the engagement rate by followers

Do keep a steady eye on your Instagram engagement rate per post by followers, as it indicates what type of content is closest to your followers' hearts, and what they most often resonate with.

  • Engagement rate by reach

The reason why social media managers usually track engagement by followers is that the engagement rate by reach is an Instagram metric available only for owned accounts.

Since a brand can compare its performance with its competitors only through the engagement rate by followers, it is understandable why that Instagram metric is usually reported when it comes to engagement on Instagram.

And benchmarking against your closest competitors is actually highly recommended.

But, if you want a more in-depth look into your performance, you can always take a look at your engagement rate by reach.

Hereโ€™s how you can calculate it:

Here is how to calculate the engagement rate by reach

๐Ÿ‘‰ In Socialinsider, you have access to a variety of engagement data for the Instagram profiles you manage. You can find all the insights in the Engagement section:

instagram metrics engagement rate socialinsider
  • Reach

In a nutshell, this Instagram metric tells you how many people have seen your content, counting only the unique views.

Furthermore, rather than counting every person that your content was delivered to, you can check your average reach rate, which will display a percentage that will be much easier to analyze in correlation with your fan count.

To calculate your average reach rate, you'll have to divide the total reach of a post by the total number of followers and multiplying the result by 100.

This is a particularly important Instagram metric youโ€™ll need to track - especially for those campaigns whose main objective is to generate brand awareness.

Also, if youโ€™re looking for ways of getting your content viral, constantly monitoring your reach and adjusting your strategy accordingly is a must-do.

๐Ÿ‘‰ In Socialinsider, you can find all the reach data you need, including organic and paid reach, reach evolution, reach rate, Stories reach and more, in the Reach section.

instagram metric reach socialinsider
  • Impressions

Impressions stand for that Instagram metric showing the total number of views a piece of content has had. Which means, impressions include repeated views of a single user.

If you're looking for ways to increase both your reach and impressions, trending hashtags can be of great help. That's because they can increase your visibility potential when people search for particular hashtags.

Tracking impressions is easy in Socialinsider. Just navigate to the Impressions section in the app to discover all the insights you need.

instagram metrics impressions socialinsider
  • Followers growth

Since it's often considered a vanity metric, followers growth should not be your number one priority when creating your marketing strategy.

Of course, every businessesโ€™ dream is that its audience shows interest in their brand. But you should always focus on quality over quantity.

In the end, a massive following is not so valuable if users donโ€™t actually engage with the brandโ€™s posts.

Sometimes, business accounts with smaller audiences are the ones that can benefit the most out of their social media efforts.

For the times when you need to create a social media report with noteworthy Instagram metrics to showcase different results, you can check the native app for helpful insights.

๐Ÿ‘‰ For a more in-depth analysis of your account, you can rely on a social media analytics tool like Socialinsider to track your follower growth. You can find follower count and growth data in the Audience section of your Instagram analytics dashboard.

instagram metrics followers growth socialinsider
  • Audience demographics

Tracking the growth of your Instagram audience is useful, but it doesn't tell you the whole story. In order to create the best kind of content for your followers, you need to find out more about them.

That's where audience demographics come in. Through audience demographics, you can tap into useful insights such as geographics distribution, language, age and gender to figure out exact who you're sharing content for.

๐Ÿ‘‰ In Socialinsider, you can find in-depth audience demographics data in the Audience section.

  • Top-performing posts

Since Instagram Reels are the new trend on Instagram right now, when doing a post's performance analysis, you may discover this is some top-notch content for your account.

By analyzing your best-performing posts, you may discover, for example, that focusing more on Reels is likely to increase your engagement. If so, continue in that direction!

๐Ÿ‘‰ An Instagram analytics tool, like Socialinsider, for example - displays plenty of insightful Instagram metrics, including your top-performing posts, based on engagement.

Your top performing posts can be found in the Content section of your Instagram dashboard.

instagram metrics top posts socialinsider
  • Best-performing Instagram post types

Since Instagram now allows and encourage posting different content types (image, posts, Reels, Stories), it's wise to understand which one of these types of content perfoms better.

Looking at your top 3 posts can give you some pointers, but seeing which content type is the most popular amongst your audience will tell you everything you need to know about the future of your strategy.

๐Ÿ‘‰ To access this data for your own Instagram profile, you need to navigate to the Content section of your Instagram dashboard in Socialinsider.

top performing post types instagram metrics socialinsider
  • Best times to post

In order for you to deliver your message to your target audience, you must first find them when theyโ€™re online.

And social media analytics tools are your best friend when it comes to establishing whatโ€™s the best time to post on Instagram in order to maximize your social media efforts.

๐Ÿ‘‰ With Socialinsider, you can analyze your current and optimal time schedule alongside all the other important Instagram metrics to improve your social media strategy.

Simply look for the best time to post chart in the Engagement section.

instagram metrics best time to post
  • Instagram Saves

Most referred by marketers as being โ€œthe new likeโ€, this is the hottest, newest Instagram metric that brands are setting their sights on.

Through the pressing of the save button, people show you they really appreciate what you have to say, that they find your information useful, which is a win-win situation.

By including saves into the list of Instagram metrics that you need to track youโ€™ll get a hint on the type of content that your audience resonates to, and adjust your content planning accordingly.

When calculating engagement, besides liked and comments, some platforms also include saves. However, this is an Instagram metric publicly availably only for owned accounts.

  • Branded hashtag performance

Since hashtags are one of the topics that interest people the most when talking about Instagram, I thought they deserve a special spot in this list of top Instagram metrics.

Because, it is, after all, a way of measuring your businessโ€™ success, right?

For the sake of clarity, we're focusing on branded hashtags here.

Using a branded hashtag is an excellent strategy for raising awareness for your brand, especially when conducting a user generated content campaign.

The great benefit of having branded hashtags is that you can see what people are saying about your business.

Every time someone posts something on Instagram and includes your hashtags, youโ€™ll be able to see those posts and the results they generate.

A very important thing to know is that you can get Instagram insights about hashtags' performance only through an Instagram analytics tool.

For example, with Socialinsider, you can get an overview of the total posts that use the hashtags, the engagement and impressions received, posts evolution, and other top hashtags used together with your hashtag and their average engagement.

instagram metrics hashtag performance socialinsider
  • Traffic

Marketing may have a lot of goals, but ultimately every brandโ€™s main objective is to get conversions.

And since you want to know which ways can help get more leads, which channels are the most powerful to use so that you increase your revenue and what itโ€™s worth investing into, you have to always monitor your traffic.

For Instagram there are not so many options of including your websiteโ€™s links, except for the link in bio and those in stories.

By injecting some code pieces, which are called UTM parameters, you can link your Google Analytics account to your Instagram and track how many people land on your page from it.

  • Profile interactions

Profile interactions, another key Instagram metric, account for the number of views on your profile.

When a user reaches your profile for the first time after searching a certain hashtag, chances are this user can become your follower if they think the content and aesthetics are appealing enough.

Quality content that aligns with your brand's story can enhance brand recognition.

The number of visits on your profile will increase if they sense consistency and posts that reflect a well-built strategy.

2.2. Instagram story metrics

After the feature was first introduced on Snapchat, Instagram has seen the userโ€™s growing interest in stories and soon launched this feature on the platform as well.

After this release, Instagram stories started to steal the spotlight, and became one of the users' favorite ways of interacting with brands.

Given the audienceโ€™s interest and investment in a brandโ€™s Instagram stories, it becomes undeniable that a couple of insights about this Instagram feature should be analyzed before conducting any social media campaign.

instagram metrics stories data socialinsider

Hereโ€™s what you should consider when analyzing the performance of your Instagram stories:

  • Retention rate

Keeping your followers engaged enough to view all the stories youโ€™ve posted is not an easy job. It requires excellent content, tailored to your audienceโ€™s preferences.

But the good news is that you can actually draw powerful insights about what type of content stirs your audienceโ€™s interest by looking at your retention rate.

The retention rate is an Instagram metric that displays, under percentage form, how many people have watched your stories from the beginning to the very end.

instagram metrics stories retention rate reach socialinsider
  • Exit rate

If enough people abandon watching after the first story, this is a huge warning sign that something fails at delivering people what they expect from your brand.

And hereโ€™s where the story's drop off rate steps in. Thanks to this Instagram metric you can calculate how many people are quitting after seeing your first Instagram story (in case thereโ€™s more than one, of course).

If youโ€™re lucky and that percentage indicates a low number, congrats! It means youโ€™re doing something good.

But, in the opposite situation, you should start taking another angle on your Instagram stories, because the current approach is clearly not working.

The good thing is that you can always count on data to help you improve your social media presence.

If you understand how to properly analyse it and adapt your efforts based on that, the results surely wonโ€™t take long to appear.

  • Completion rate

This Instagram metric is important to analyse in order to discover how many people from your audience are your loyal fans, show interest and listen to everything you have to say.

The story completion rate is an Instagram metric that measures what percentage of viewers watch the entire length of your story slide, without clicking away, in fast-forward mode till the end.

It is calculated by substracting the number of exits from the number of impressions and then dividing by the impressions number.

  • Story link clicks

Instagram Stories are often the first type of content with which your audience interacts.

This is why you need to focus on creating stories that convince users to click on your profile and find out more about your product or services.

Including clickable links in your Instagram Stories can increase your traffic โ€“ which is awesome.

By clicking the links in your Instagram Stories, users will reach your website, where they can find out more about your products.

Once users get to your website, the chances of them completing a purchase are significantly higher.

2.3. Instagram Reels metrics

Every marketer should use content that suits their brand and appeals more to their viewers.

Depending on the number of followers, carousels and reels work best for certain profiles.

Reels attract more viewers, increasing the number of visits to the profile, even if they do not necessarily interact with their posts.

Therefore, the content of your Reel must be unique, sprinkled with helpful information and many relatable situations to make the audience feel connected to your brand.

  • Instagram Reels engagement

The Reels engagement metric accounts for your video's total number of likes, comments, shares and saves.

You should take advantage of the popularity of this new Instagram feature to explore new content strategies.

To ace Reels engagement, you have to take advantage of the new trends.

Posting Reels on topics people are already interested in, will help you increase your engagement rate.

You should also be ready to experiment with new ideas, depending on your audienceโ€™s interests.

To establish your engagement rate on Instagram Reels, you need to divide the number of Reels interactions by the number of Reels Plays and multiply by 100.

If you pay attention to whatโ€™s popular on TikTok, you will manage to have viral Reels by integrating whatโ€™s trending.

When analyzing Reels analytics, you should look at the most crucial metrics, like engagement, views, and reach.

๐Ÿ‘‰ To keep track of Instagram Reels stats, you can check engagement and impressions via Instagram analytics tools, such as Socialinsider.

instagram metrics reel impressions
  • Instagram Reels reach

Instagram Reels can be considered a fun type of content because they are reliable in building brand awareness.

Since Instagram Reels is a new feature, they have a greater chance to become viral because users tend to choose more visual content than posts filled with texts.

Usually, Reels have a higher reach compared to carousels and photo posts.

Moreover, Instagram Reels improve the aesthetic of your profile, making everything look professional and creative at the same time.

  • Instagram Reels views

The total number of views on your Reels shows how many Instagram users have looked at the video, irrespective of whether they are your followers or have simply seen your post in their newsfeed.

Your Reelโ€™s watch time is an important metric that shows for how long users look at your content. Since no one has much time to watch long Reels, you need to make sure you build suspense to determine users to stay on your Reel until the end.

To make your Instagram Reels viral, there are a few tricks you could use to increase the number of views. Using targeted hashtags can really change the game for your brand.

Your Reels will get noticed by a larger audience based on hashtag searches. Hashtags help you aim a certain group of users who will be interested in your content.

When posting your Reel, you have to be aware of the best posting time to make sure your post reaches usersโ€™ news feeds just in time.

3. How can Socialinsider help you track your Instagram metrics

Once you have your list of clarity metrics to check on Instagram and you know exactly how to calculate them, itโ€™s time to see how a third-party tool can help you stay on top of them at all time.

By using Socialinsider, you can check a variety of metrics for different content types. First, make sure you add your Instagram profile in your Project.

In the Summary section, right at the beginning, you can see a series of Key Metrics. You can customize this dashboard to show only the Instagram metrics and charts you're interested in.

instagram metrics customize dashboard socialinsider

From here, you can navigate to each one of the sections displayed in the left sidebar: Content, Engagement, Reach, Impressions, Audience, Posts, Stories, Ads to discover and track useful insights about all the Instagram metrics we explored above.

Final thoughts

The use of Instagram metrics when crafting or adjusting your marketing strategy is a blessing since you can roll out a better strategy.

By checking analytics, you will learn what changes are needed in order to increase brand awareness and attract a wider audience.

Hopefully this list of crucial Instagram metrics helps you understand what to look at when developing your social media report and what your focus should be.

Frequently Asked Questions about Instagram Metrics

1. Can you download Instagram metrics?

You can download a report covering key Instagram performance metrics that are relevant for your brand's strategy. As your Instagram reporting tool, you can use a social media analytics app like Socialinsider.

2. How do you see Instagram metrics for Stories?

You can see some data for your Stories in the native app (such as reach, engagement and navigation analytics) but for more in-depth, aggregate insights you should use a professional tool like Socialinsider.

Andreea Udescu

Andreea Udescu

I love helping people make sense of things. Especially data.

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