Instagram's popularity with both users and businesses continues to grow.
The question is though, how do you know if it is a successful business generating tool for you?
In this article, we look at some of the most common free Instagram analytics tools which measure aspects such as engagement, website visits, profile visits, post performance, engagement rate, follower growth rate, hashtags and reach. We also look at the reasons why you should be checking up on your Instagram account's analytics.
Metrics To Measure On Instagram
To make the most of your chosen Instagram analytics tools, you need to identify the metrics you are interested in following details about. These can include:
- number of followers - follower growth rate
- hashtag trends - which hashtags are rising and falling in popularity, new hashtags
- conversions - how many sales have resulted as a direct result of an Instagram post
- audience metrics - age, gender, location and when the audience is online
- impressions - how many people see each of your posts
- engagement rate - metrics such as comments, likes and saves
Each of the Instagram analytics tools are different, recording different things and providing different ways of doing things. To help you understand which one(s) are right for you, we take a look at some of the most popular ones next.
Popular Free Instagram Analytics Tools
There are plenty of analytics tools available for Instagram, though the number of free ones is decreasing. We're hoping the following remain free or still offer some free services:
- Instagram Insights - from Instagram itself, this tool lets you see insights from your business account.
- Hashtagify - gives you a free daily hashtag search where you can see results on popularity trends over the last week and month.
- Socialbakers - offering a free performance report, you can see how successful your profile is to your competitors.
- SocialStats - providing multiple different analytics, all for free.
- Later - as well as letting you schedule posts, the free plan also gives you some free analytics, including three months of tracking of Instagram stories. It also tells you what the best times are to post to help you boost engagement.
Why Do I Need to Check My Instagram Analytics?
With over 200 million people using Instagram each day, it is a powerful website traffic generation tool business owners cannot ignore. But simply posting regularly or liking the posts of others just isn't enough. You actually need to understand how your account is doing to get the best results. Checking your analytics regularly allows you to check:
- you are targeting the right audience
- driving the right traffic to your site
- understanding the best times to post
- finding opportunities to brand engagement
- see which ads are working effectively
Take a read of our article Instagram Hashtags: What Are They & How Do You Use Them? for more details on using Instagram.