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For brands the importance of Instagram for marketing their products is growing all the time and having the right Instagram analytics tools can make a big impact on your results. Having a presence there is almost an essential prerequisite for some industries, with an incredible 25 million+ businesses on Instagram. Therefore, Instagram analytics tools are crucial for brands including using an analytics tool to improve performance, and can form part of a robust eCommerce analytics tools database. Here we bring you our comprehensive guide to Instagram analytics tools, aimed at helping your brand fulfil its marketing potential on Instagram including our top 5 tools.
These Instagram analytics tools, offer indispensable resources for businesses and creators looking to harness the full potential of the platform. By leveraging data-driven insights, users can refine their content strategy, boost engagement, and achieve tangible results in today’s competitive social media landscape. Whether you’re a small business seeking to expand your online presence or an influencer aiming to connect with your audience, investing in these tools can unlock new opportunities for success on Instagram.
Renowned for its robust suite of social media management tools, Sprout Social offers advanced analytics specifically tailored for Instagram. From monitoring hashtag performance to tracking competitor activity, Sprout Social equips users with actionable insights to fuel growth and engagement. The platform’s unified dashboard provides a holistic view of Instagram analytics, allowing users to identify trends, measure campaign effectiveness, and optimize posting schedules. With features like sentiment analysis and audience demographics, Sprout Social empowers businesses to craft targeted content that resonates with their audience.
Buffer Analyze stands out as a comprehensive Instagram analytics tool that simplifies data tracking and reporting. With its intuitive interface, users can effortlessly monitor key metrics such as follower growth, post performance, and audience engagement. The platform offers detailed insights into reach, impressions, and top-performing content, enabling users to refine their content strategy for maximum impact. Moreover, Buffer Analyze provides customizable reports, making it easy to share data with stakeholders and demonstrate ROI.
Hootsuite is a versatile social media management platform that offers robust analytics capabilities for Instagram and other major social networks. With Hootsuite Analytics, users can track key metrics such as follower growth, post engagement, and audience demographics. The platform provides customizable reports and real-time monitoring, enabling users to gain valuable insights into their Instagram performance. Additionally, Hootsuite offers features like content scheduling, social listening, and competitor analysis, making it a comprehensive solution for managing and optimizing social media presence.
Iconosquare is a dedicated Instagram analytics and management tool trusted by businesses, agencies, and influencers worldwide. The platform offers a range of features to track performance, including post engagement metrics, audience demographics, and hashtag analytics. Iconosquare’s advanced analytics dashboard provides actionable insights to improve content strategy, identify growth opportunities, and measure campaign effectiveness. Moreover, the platform offers competitor benchmarking and influencer identification tools, empowering users to stay ahead of the curve in their industry.
Later is a popular Instagram marketing platform that offers intuitive analytics tools to help users optimize their content strategy and drive results. With Later Analytics, users can track metrics such as engagement rate, follower growth, and top-performing content. The platform provides visual reports and in-depth insights, allowing users to identify trends, schedule posts for optimal engagement, and measure the impact of their Instagram campaigns. Additionally, Later offers features like Instagram Stories analytics, hashtag suggestions, and user-generated content curation, making it a valuable resource for businesses and creators looking to maximize their Instagram presence.
Flowbox’s social media analytics provide a unique perspective on Instagram performance by focusing on UGC. By leveraging Flowbox, businesses can track the impact of UGC campaigns, monitor user interactions, and measure the ROI of influencer collaborations. The platform offers insights into UGC engagement, conversion rates, and content effectiveness, enabling businesses to harness the power of authentic content to drive brand awareness and customer engagement. With Flowbox’s social media analytics, businesses can unlock new opportunities for UGC marketing and enhance their Instagram strategy.
Let’s talk about the 3 most important points to keep in mind when talking about Instagram analytics…
Engagement is at the very heart of social network design and purpose. It’s all about community and interaction. In particular, Instagram gives businesses of all sizes the opportunity to reveal a more human side by communicating directly with their audience through images, videos and comments.
Brand engagement is an excellent metric for measuring how much a brand’s audience actively consumes the content that they post. It gives us a strong indication as to how much influence a brand has on its followership. An actively engaged audience is more likely to respond to the marketing efforts of a brand on Instagram, and in turn they are more inclined to increase the brand’s exposure by posting with the brand’s hashtag.
So how can you measure engagement and what does it really mean for your brand?
To measure engagement rate, it’s useful to look at 3 different metrics: daily engagement rate, engagement rate by likes on brand posts and engagement rate by comments on brand posts. All of this helps you understand how much your audience really interacts with the content that you post.
For a better understanding of what these 3 metrics really mean, here’s a brief description for each.
It may sound daunting, especially without an Instagram analytics tool, but you can quite easily calculate these metrics on your own! And with this information, mixed with Top Brand Photos, you will be able to develop your understanding of what content your customers are interested in seeing from your brand.
Now, what can you do to make sure that your content is getting you the kind of engagement you’re looking for?
Before we dive into the detail of how to push the engagement level of your brand, it’s important to understand a little about how engagement levels vary on Instagram. Engagement is normally measured as the proportion of your followership who like and/or comment on your brand’s posts. An engagement rate of 5% on Likes would mean that 1 in 20 of your total followership are clicking ‘Like’, and thereby engaging with your content.
As a brand increases its followership, it becomes progressively harder to engage one’s audience. If we take a look at the Instagram analytics, there is no well defined reason for this, but it is likely to do with difficulty communicating to larger groups, and the perception of larger brands. Sustaining a two way communication channel with 10,000 followers is pretty tough. Let alone 100,000+! So nurturing this social interaction at scale takes real effort!
This problem is confounded by the user’s perception of large brands on Instagram. Research suggests there is a tipping point at which account size becomes, in some way, a disadvantage. This leads to a perception that the brand will be non-responsive to interaction, which in turn reduces the number of attempted interactions [1] [2] [3].
In other words as followership increases, the trend is for engagement to decrease. Something to keep in mind when you’re working to engage your customer base on Instagram! In any case, let’s think of ways we can ensure that you’re putting your best foot forward on this platform.
Most brands have a distinct image, a consistent recognisable style. And, of course, the Instagram account of your brand should reflect this style. Brands should look to define their personal identity on Instagram and stick to it. This can be achieved with the use of colour themes, image filtering, image context. It could be minimal, colourful, monotone, black and white, natural, still life, the list goes on. The point is that your brand should not project the random look of a personal account where someone documents their life. This doesn’t mean impersonal, but it does mean consistent and considered.
Teva, Fjallravenofficial, Lululemon, Mochi, Love Stories, NAKD, Victoria Beckham, Gucci, ASOS, For Love & Lemons, Lala Berlin.
This point brings us back to the ‘social’ component of social media. The ongoing conversation with your audience should work both ways. Where possible, the brand should be an active part of conversations by encouraging positive comments and replying to questions quickly. And when your audience sees that comments are acknowledged by the brand, they are more likely to engage in conversations themselves.
What’s more, the evidence that we have suggests that Instagram’s algorithm is designed to encourage this type of positive interaction. So, the more active you are, the more likely you are to appear higher on people’s Instagram feed. It’s a win-win for being socially active and taking part in the conversation.
To get a better understanding of how the Instagram algorithm works, this audio is worth a listen.
It can be tricky to know exactly how much to post as there is no defined best practice. However, our data does indicate that it doesn’t negatively affect your reach to post frequently throughout the day (up to 5 times is a good cut-off). It’s all about finding a formula that works for your brand and sticking to it (you can use an Instagram analytics tool like Sprout Social for that).
But remember, when all is said and done, only post if you have something worth posting. There is no value in posting junk content, so get organised. To be truly professional in this space it’s important to build a library of quality content that is suitable for your account, then you can choose to post it exactly when you want.
Posting at the right time means posting when your audience is most active on Instagram. This of course helps to maximise the number of likes and comments, because your content is simply seen more often. And in a slightly cynical feedback loop, Instagram’s algorithm will push posts with the most engagement further up a user’s feed, leading to even more engagement, and even more exposure. At the end of the day, it’s all about visibility. If you have some amazing content, you want everyone to see it, right?
So, find out your optimal posting times based on the timezone of your core followership. You might think 7-9pm, it’s obvious! But this isn’t always the case.
Hosting an Instagram contest on Instagram might just be the most effective way of gaining the most followers in the shortest time possible. If humans ever need an excuse to do something, a bit of healthy competition never hurt! So if you want a whole array of people posting on your hashtag, try starting a competition. This will drive the creation of high quality content, and really engage your audience. Of course, running the best possible competitions with real long term benefits for your brand requires careful planning.
Instagram Stores are, of course, Instagram’s response to the rise of Snapchat, and with more than 500 million users on Instagram Stories alone it’s definitely here to stay. So, as a brand, what can Instagram Stories offer you? Well, opportunity is the answer!
Instagram Stories gives brands an opportunity to get a step closer to their audience. The short 24hr life of each story allows brands to post a less curated ‘behind the scenes’ look at their world. Stories can be creative, funny, or surprising without adversely affecting your brand’s image.
Unlike Snapchat, Instagram Stories also offers you the chance to include links and mention users. This encourages a sense of community and inclusion, which makes the brand appear more open and approachable.
Finally, through Stories, brands have an opportunity to appear right at the top of a users feed, which of course maximises exposure and engagement. Brands should look to push themselves on Instagram through both moving image and still image, so don’t wait around. Start recording!
For further reading on brands using Instagram Stories, try these resources. [1] [2]
There are a ton of services offering bot systems that claim to increase your followership and engagement, without any effort on your part. However employing this lazy approach is not wise for 2 main reasons.
1) Many bots designed to increase your followership will do so by automatically following, and unfollowing specific types of accounts. The problem here is that the type of followers you gain from this strategy tend to be largely disinterested in your account, and as such not engaged at all with your content. As a result, they in fact lower your engagement rate by increasing your follower count with users who are not engaging with your content. Followers of this type are fake, and no brand is founded on a fake audience. As a general rule, your followers on social media should all be potential customers, who at the very least aspire to buy your products.
2) Instagram is constantly updating its algorithm, improving its ability to detect the activity of bots. You might ask, sure – but what does it matter if Instagram finds out? Well, this year they have started to act. You may remember all the fuss at the beginning of 2017 about Shadowbans. Although still unconfirmed by Instagram, the consensus is that Shadowbans occur when accounts (especially business accounts) are found to behave in a ‘spammy’ way. This includes the use of bots for gaining likes, comments, or followers. So, it’s simple, don’t do it.
These are all great ways to get your engagement rate! And if you still haven’t measured what your engagement rate is – what are you waiting for? Grab an Instagram analytics tool like Iconosquare and get started!
On Instagram, hashtags are the single most effective tool at your disposal for pushing your brand to a wider audience. At a basic level, they provide a system of organisation that allows users to find the content they want to see through organic searches. And for your brand, hashtags provide a means of labelling content so that it’s discoverable by the right kind of people. With an impressive 7 out of 10 Instagram hashtags now being branded, if you are not using them effectively for your brand you had better get on board.
Using the right combination of hashtags can really help expose your brand to a large, targeted audience. And, if you doubt the importance of the humble hashtag then you’ll be reassured to know that Instagram posts with at least 1 hashtag receive an average of 11% more engagement than those with no hashtag – so they really do work!
An Instagram analytics tool can help you measure hashtag power. Good metrics to look out for are number of hashtag posts, number of likes on hashtag, and the number of unique users on the hashtag.
To once again give you a better idea of what this really means to your brand, here’s a more detailed description of each:
With these metrics, you get everything you need to ensure that your hashtag is performing well with your audience!
Now it’s time to consider what you can do to maximise the effectiveness of your brand’s hashtag(s) on Instagram.
Hashtags make it easy to collect UGC. Want to benefit from an advanced UGC platform like Misako? Book a demo of Flowbox and discover how it can transform your eCommerce store!
There are no restrictions on the number of different hashtags a brand can promote, however there is a limit to the number of different hashtags your audience is going to actively engage with. Most brands will promote a primary (or branded) hashtag, which is either their brand name, or something similar. In addition some brands will also promote community hashtags, designed to connect like-minded users around a particular topic which is related to the brand.
We recommend using no more than two hashtags at one time. This means one primary hashtag, which never changes, and one community hashtag which you can change whenever appropriate, perhaps for a new season or special promotion for example.
The crucial point is not to over saturate your audience with different messages from the brand. For brands with multiple hashtags we recommend using the hashtag which is posted on most frequently.
You don’t need an analytics tool to answer this question!
Whilst you should be careful not to promote lots of hashtags simultaneously, this doesn’t mean you have to use just these hashtags on your posts. The categorising function of the hashtag can be extremely useful to get your images in front of the right audience.
If you are actively trying to promote and grow a smaller brand through Instagram, by all means use numerous hashtags that are related to your brand and/or the particular image, but tread with caution. As a general rule, when it comes to Instagram best practices, we recommend not using more than 10 Hashtags in a single post (even under 5 will sometime do the trick), otherwise there can be a perception that your posts are spammy, and this is an absolute no-no for any brand.
The right hashtag for your brand isn’t always the most obvious. As your primary hashtag it might seem ideal to use the brand’s name, but this doesn’t always hold true. When a brand’s main hashtag has a common meaning, users searching on the hashtag will see many images which will be unrelated to the brand.
For example, if you type ‘#Apple’ into Instagram, you don’t just see shots of shiny computers and related Apple products, you’ll also see a lot of fruit! This problem of hashtag crossover highlights the importance of selecting a unique hashtag for any brand.
Choosing a community hashtag can be a little more complex. However, it’s not something to lose any sleep over. Some brands have a permanent message that they promote alongside their brand, such as Nike with their famous ‘Just Do It’ slogan. Whilst other brands will change their community tag frequently for different promotions.
An excellent starting point when creating a community hashtag is to look at your audience and any related accounts. See what themes they frequently post on, and use this as a basis for creating your own. But don’t be afraid to get creative, try things out, push the boundaries a little. This is an area where you can express a bit of the brand’s personality, and find the messages that your audience connect with best. You never know, you might stumble on something unexpected that really takes hold with your audience.
At Flowbox, we take a keen interest in hashtags as they form the filters that allow us to collect all the of the User Generated Content for any brand. Knowing how to create a hashtag for your brand is an important skill to master.
Whatever hashtag(s) you decide upon for your brand, it’s important to stick to the message of your brand. Since 2017, there has been more speculation than ever before about the logic behind Instagram’s algorithms. And, in response, Instagram has been cryptic.
However, as the mini statement below suggests, it’s best to stay ‘on topic’. Use your own unique hashtags as much as you like, this is your personal message. However, avoid overusing the same generic hashtags over and over. These might gain you extra likes in the short term, but many people now believe that this strategy can in fact lead to posts being hidden from users who do not follow our account. This ’shadowban’ as it has become known renders hashtags useless as it prevents your posts from being searchable by a wider audience beyond your own followership.
Whatever type of hashtag you choose, the bottom line is that you want people to use it. The more it gets used, the more your brand and its associated images will be spread organically throughout Instagram. So, there is no point having a hashtag if you don’t let anybody know about it.
First things first, mention your hashtag(s) in your bio! You would be amazed at how many brands completely ignore this, and assume that their followers know exactly how you would like to be tagged. So, don’t leave any room for doubt. Spell it out, loud and clear, making sure all your content is easily discoverable through accurate hashtags.
If you are really serious about embracing social media this means including your hashtag on more than just your Instagram page. Think about including it on the homepage of your website or integrating it into your digital advertising campaigns. You could even go a step further and print it on your branded packaging, reminding your customer of exactly what hashtag to use when they get that product home. Social media is most effective when your audience is interactive, so don’t be afraid to promote this interactivity in the real world.
Once you have nailed the creation of hashtags and successfully encouraged your audience to post amazing images of your products, what are you going to do with all of that content? Well, ‘nothing’ is not the answer… to really take advantage of the content your audience has diligently produced, you need to collect it, and use it.
As a brand you want to make sales, right? So let’s use this content to maximise your online conversion rates and increase sales, by positioning this User Generated Content on your eCommerce site, right in front of your would be customers. These real-life images provide an element of social proof, which can give the extra confidence needed to turn a browser into a buyer.
At Flowbox, this is exactly our area of expertise. Our advanced platform allows you to collect, filter, and curate any content posted on your brand’s hashtags. From here, you can label products and send the images directly to your eCommerce site, giving your audience a different, truly authentic angle on your brand. What’s more, you can credit your contributors by direct message and link to their original images from your own site, helping to make your audience an active part of the brand.
If you want to explore how Flowbox can help you harness UGC for your brand, come request a demo with us here. We firmly believe that in order to market your brand effectively through Instagram, you need a way of measuring your performance through Instagram analytics.
User Quality describes the overall ‘quality’ of all the Instagram users who have posted on your brand’s hashtag. These are users who have not just liked one of your brand’s images, but they have actually gone to the effort of posting a photo and tagging your brand. For simplicity, we could call this group the audience of your hashtag. Currently we are unable to gather data relating to User Quality since the deprecation of the Instagram API in April 2018. However, this guide to improving your user quality is still important for maximising the success of your brand on this essential social network.
Much like the real world, within the image conscious space that is Instagram, who you associate with, and how this audience views your brand, reflects strongly on your image. And image, like it or not, really matters! Here we teach you how you can influence this, the most subjective of elements to the Instagram puzzle.
First of all, we need to explain what we mean by ‘quality’ in the context of Instagram Users. Whenever we look at an Instagram account we are given a whole array of information and, when organised properly, this information can be used to infer the ‘quality’ of the user. In other words, we want to know what their overall level of likability and influence is over their audience. Then by associating with your brand, do these users have a positive effect on your overall image. If the answer is yes, that’s great! And of course, the more high quality users you have posting on your brand’s hashtag(s) the better.
In short, a high quality user will have very positive follower/followee ratio, and a comparatively high engagement rate. Plus, in the interest of your brand, they will post frequently using your hashtag, making them a type of evangelist.
As a general rule, if you have lots of active, well-liked, engaged, users on your hashtag, then you are onto a good thing. If you have lots of inactive, disengaged users, then perhaps you have some work to do.
To have low quality users posting your brand’s hashtag is not overtly detrimental. However, they do not provide much added value through your association with them. By contrast high quality users can reflect well on your brand, and actively improve your brand’s image and boost growth. Therefore, you want to employ a strategy that actively encourages high quality users to post frequently with your brand’s hashtag(s).
As a brand, you should try to maintain an overview of the content that is being posted on your hashtag(s). Who is posting? What images are posted? What hashtags are used alongside yours? What’s the general sentiment towards your product? This monitoring process might seem a little over the top, but this is the professional way to take care of your brand on Instagram.
Within this monitoring process there is the opportunity to identify high quality users. When you see that great picture, which makes you think: wow they look great with our product! Don’t just flick past it. Instead, take the time to look through the user’s account. See how many followers they have and find out what other brands they like. A couple of minutes looking through someone’s profile will give you enough information to make a judgement call as to whether you want to open a conversation with this user.
Firstly, if the content on your brand is great, then of course credit them – say thanks at the very least. But, if they are someone who you think can add some value to your brand, then why not start a dialogue. If the user in question has a good followership and posts great content on your brand, then they could really help you, perhaps more than you think.
Users like this are genuine fans of your brand, ready made evangelists who are already helping you out even before you make contact. So encourage these people to post more for your brand. Comment on their images. Send them private messages to say thanks. Send free products enticing them to post more images. Your goal is to maximise their potential as a vehicle for promoting your brand. What’s more, nobody minds getting their photos praised or receiving free products, so you create a win-win situation for both parties!
This strategy of recruiting these ‘super-micro’ influencers is effective for brands of all sizes. For larger brands, it provides a more personal and/or local touch point with your customer, something which is impossible through other forms of marketing. And for smaller brands, it provides cost effective means of growing your audience by taking advantage of Instagram’s networking power.
Of course, to do this properly takes time and effort. However, here at Flowbox we have found that many customers use our platform to facilitate this whole process. At its most fundamental level, our software allows brands to monitor and organise all the content that’s posted on our clients’ hashtag(s). We can then filter this data in various different ways, helping to quickly identify those users of interest who could help your brand. Learn more about how the Flowbox platform can help you get the most out of User Generated Content for your brand.
Without a doubt the most direct way to enhance your brand’s image, is to use real Influencers. However, this is not cheap; Influencers with over 100,000 followers can easily charge $1000 for a single post while those with over 1 million followers can change over $10,000.
So, unless you have an unlimited budget (which we guess you don’t), it’s important to plan your influencer campaigns carefully. This means picking the right influencers for your brand and organising the timing of each post carefully.
Selecting influencers for your brand can be an intimidating process. With so many people now claiming influencer status, it’s important that you pick authentic people who work professionally. A lot of the selection process is largely subjective, based on the image that you want your brand to convey. But authenticity is a little more objective. As a general rule, if a person has more than 500,000 followers, an engagement rate of less than 1.0% is low. 1.5%-2.5% is fairly normal, above 2.5% is good, and anything higher than 5% is excellent.
Check how much people comment on their posts, and whether they are prepared to interact themselves. Many ‘real’ influencers will have an online presence elsewhere, such as their own blog. And don’t be afraid to ask questions of their credibility. A good influencer is more than just a photo album.
Plus, use an analytics tool like Fullscreen to help!
Well, yes is the short answer. But it all depends on what message you would like your brand to convey. Research suggests that the perception of influencers on Instagram varies according to the size of their followership.
As a general rule smaller influencers (otherwise known as micro-influencers) are seen as more unique by virtue of their more ‘exclusive’ followership. Meanwhile, larger influencers are seen as more generic and conforming, even if their image appears somewhat alternative. The collective brain of the average Instagram user makes strong assumptions about the person behind the profile, based on the numbers they can see. Someone with 3 million followers is just never going to appear very unique, as they are just too popular.
To put these ideas into context, brands should think about whether their overall image is one of conformity or uniqueness. Then, with this in mind, they should take into account an Influencer’s followership when planning out any form of influencer campaign. For example, a large generic brand like Gap will have little concern for appealing to a sense of exclusivity or uniqueness, and hence they will fit comfortably with some of the biggest influencers, without compromising their brand image. Conversely a brand like American Apparel, known for their controversial advertising campaigns, might want the strongest possible sense of exclusivity, and focus their attention on smaller scale, less well-known influencers.
To some, this might seem like an excruciating level of detail for an Instagram marketing campaign. However, with brands investing more and more into this form of marketing, the pressure to get things just right is rising all the time.
For more detail on the issue of Micro vs Macro Influencers we wrote our own research piece, which you can find here.
Finally, we hope this guide has given you real actionable advise, so that your brand can reach it’s full potential on Instagram. In order to grow we firmly believe you need to measure first. So find an analytics tool that works for you and get started!
