How to use instagram insights to maximise your marketing
You might not know this about us, but at Your AJency we LOVE data. I think it is the commercial retailer in me. I am also extremely competitive with myself so using Instagram Insights helps me check in on where we’re at and how we’re doing. One of our favourite moments is when a new account for a client hits 100 followers and we can start to see the Instagram stats! But having talked to a number of clients and fellow business owners, we were surprised at how few of you have unleashed the power of Insights to make sure you are giving your target audience more of what they want which in turn helps you to grow an engaged community who want to buy from you!
We’re kicking off with Instagram Insights as it’s our most-favored platform and the one we support most clients with. So, here’s our how-to for using Instagram Insights to maximise your marketing and how to use them to make strategic decisions for your brand.
Where to start?
Firstly, where do you even find Insights on Instagram? It’s important to know that this is available for business or creator accounts only so if you’re not already operating one of these accounts, you need to switch! You can do this by heading to the burger menu (the four horizontal lines in the top right-hand corner) on your profile page and clicking ‘Switch Account’.
Then once you’ve done that, it’s time to find your Insights!
Option 1: Head to the burger menu on your profile page in the top right hand corner and select insights on the drop down menu. You will land on a overview page for the last 7 days. This can be changed to last 30 days, last month and last 90 days, but note this is as far back as it goes in Instagram.
Option 2: You can also head to your ‘Professional Dashboard’ which will appear just beneath your bio on your profile page - hit this and it will take you to the same overview as described above.
What are your Insights showing you?
There’s a lot of information here - some of which is more useful than other parts! Let’s break down what each feature means…
Accounts reached – this is the number of unique accounts you have shown up in their feed that week.
Accounts engaged – this is how many people have engaged. This can be likes, comments, shares or saves.
Total followers – as suggested, your total amount of followers.
If you click onto any of the above they’ll expand to drill down into the detail you need!
How I can use insights to maximise my efforts?
So now you know where to find it, and what is being shown, welcome to your goldmine of data! Insights are brilliant and can really help you ensure that your current marketing strategy is being effective. We use this data (amongst other things) to support our clients when building their content strategy with them and evaluate the success of their social media marketing. Read on to find out how using these insights allows us to get more strategic with your content…
Reach – what is this actually telling us?
The higher the reach the better in most scenarios. If your content is being liked and engaged with, Instagram will start to push it out to more people and improve your brand awareness.
Audience demographics - who is looking at your account?
This will be more important for some accounts than others, particularly those with physical locations such as restaurants, doctors, beauty salons etc. The best thing is when you first start using insights you can establish whether your Instagram audience is in line with your target audience. This is where we often start when we’re working with a new client. Knowing your demographic audience means you can check your followers’ location, age range and gender. Then, if for example you don’t have a presence in a certain location, and you are planning to expand your business there, you’ll know that it could be worth geo-tagging the new location on more of your posts and using relevant location hashtags, so that you can start to reach more people in that area.
For the most success you want to ensure that the Instagram audience you are building have similar traits to those that are already buying from you. Unless you are planning a rebrand or want to tap into a new demographic to support your growth goals, use the knowledge you have of your current client base to reach more of the same people!
Content - are you posting at the right time?
Do you just post when you have time or when you think people might be on the relevant platform? Insights can help guide you on optimum posting times as it shows you hourly ranges of when your followers are online.
For those of you that use scheduling tools, or even if you’re manually posting each time, it’s important to remember that the first 10 minutes after posting is crucial. That’s when the algorithm decides whether to push out your content based on the reception it has received.
Tip: We use a content scheduler for our social media posts and often use the optimal posting times info to auto-post at the right times. This way you can batch-upload as well as batch-create. (Read our blog on why batch-creating content will also save you time as well as other expert advice here!) If you’re doing this, do remember that it is important where possible that you engage with other accounts prior to your own content going out in other account to maximise the reach. Instagram is a social network after all so make sure you’re being sociable on it!
How are people finding your content?
Do you know how people are discovering your content and what action they took? You can drill down into post insights in the reach tab and learn more about how people found your brand. Like here...
Here you can see whether it was seen by followers or non followers. Then how they saw it - was it from their home feed, your profile, hashtags or other. (Some accounts can now see if it is from the explore function!) This particular post was a collaboration, so for me this worked well as the post got in front of a lot of non followers. Another reason for to ensure that you are collaborating with the right target audience for you - their followers are your potential new followers so make sure you pick the right ones! Don’t be swayed by a big following as sometimes follower numbers don’t equate to new clients/customers. It is much more important to see what demographic they are reaching but also whether their audience is engaged.
(For tips on how to approach collaborators, check out this blog with Chicago-based influencer, Jess Roe @TheWindyCityMama)
What about Hashtags?
Hashtags are a key area on Instagram. At Your AJency, we always check to see whether they are working for the account or not. Although, you can’t get information about which specific hashtags have been helpful, it is still useful to see what percentage of your interactions is coming from them overall and works as a good overview. There is recent talk that hashtags aren’t as important but I think all these things go through trends, so stick with them.
Hashtags when used correctly are like 30 little doorways into your profile (you can use 30 hashtags per post/reel) so do make sure that on those best performing posts, you go back and check which hashtags were used to repurpose them on another relevant post.
Are you checking your engagement levels?
This is perhaps the most important things to check! Why? Well, it’s a clear sign that people are interested and have taken the time to respond to what you have posted. Always take your most engaged post and analyse all of it! See how you can create something similar that adds more value to those that have liked that content and attract new people to your page.
Also, if you’re looking at working with influencers this can be particularly important. Apps like Phlanx allow you to actually check what their engagement rate is versus the industry norm so that you know you’re working with an influencer with an engaged audience.
Unfortunately, people work out engagement rates in different ways but as long as you are using the same method consistently, then it will work as a good benchmark. We tend to look at the rate in the overview first and dig into the detail when needed.
Tip: if you are looking at boosting any posts, it is the most engaged posts that are likely to do best so spend your money here.
What format of content is working best for you?
Don’t be dazzled by the reach of a reel. Yes, reels do get generally get a higher reach than a usual post but tt doesn’t necessarily mean you are hitting the right audience and it doesn’t mean that this will then turn into future customers and clients for you and your business. Of course, there is the argument that a high reach gives you more opportunities to get in front of the right audience but you can’t look at it in isolation - just keep a bit of perspective.
is there a checklist for each time you post?
So you don’t have to have a physical list, but do try to post with intention and not just because you feel like it. Look at your posts and reels, even your stories. These are the questions you should have in your head - did I tag anyone in the post? What hashtags did I use? Is there a theme to the topics getting the most engagement? What was the length of the posts, reel, video? Start to notice patterns in the most effective formats. But ensure you are looking at ALL the stats including whether particular posts lead to followers.
How often should you check your Instagram Insights?
At Your AJency, we would say as a minimum to check monthly but its always good to check the overview quickly each week. We recommend checking insights especially before you plan to sit down and create content. Seek out where there has been the most engagement and see if you can create something similar or something else on the same topic, perhaps even repurpose in a new format. For example, you could produce a reel instead of a carousel for example.
All in all, Instagram Insights is a free tool that is ready for you to use. There are plenty of paid options that look at wider insights but as a starting point, Insights is an invaluable resource. Make sure you know what to look for and where to find it but most importantly, how you can use your insights data to plan your content strategy. It will save you time, effort and if done right, maximise your results too. If you’re still unsure of how best to use Insights or have other questions about your content strategy, then do get in touch with us via email or send us a message on Instagram.