How to Use Instagram Analytics to Grow Your Reach

You’ve probably heard of Instagram analytics before from either myself or other marketing experts out there, but have you figured out how to use it to grow your account? How do you even find it? And once you do, what do all the numbers mean? We will go over all of this and more in this post! Here’s how to use Instagram analytics to grow your reach.

 

 

Before we jump into the Instagram insights tutorial, I want you to know I’m here for you as a business coach and friend. I know how hard it is to start and grow a business–especially with kids in the house. It’s a fine balance that is constantly challenged. If you feel a burning passion to grow your business but are feeling alone in doing it, let me help.

I have several resources that will lighten your load as a business owner and/or content creator. A great place to start is signing up for my weekly newsletter HERE! You’ll get weekly trending audios and pro tips to help market your biz on Instagram and beyond. If you’re ready to commit to even more help, join my Insta Social Society where you’ll get access to bonus strategies and resources to grow your business. Check out the details HERE!

OK, now that I’ve shared how I can help you and your business, let’s dive in! The tips and strategies I share in this post are tried and tested by myself, the people I am coaching, and my clients. I know these strategies work because I’ve seen them bring success to my people over and over again. (Even with different niches and business sizes!) 

 

 

Instagram Post Insights

You can look at your insights on your Instagram as a whole and within each one of your posts. To look at the insights of a certain post, click on the post, and then right underneath it you should see the blue words “View Insights.” 

These post insights will show you how many people have liked, commented, shared, and saved that particular post. Next, you’ll see how many accounts your post reached. This number reflects how many people saw your post. Next, you’ll see how many accounts engaged with your post–meaning liked, commented, shared, or saved it. The last stat in this overview is profile activity. This number reflects how many people went to your profile after seeing your post. 

 

Instagram Post Insights: Reach

As you keep scrolling through the post insights, you’ll see a circle with three different values surrounding it. At the top of the circle, you’ll see the total number of accounts reached. To the right of it, you’ll see a number that reflects how many people saw your post who do NOT follow you. To the left of the top number, this value represents how many people saw your post who DO follow you.

If your number of non-follower views makes up the majority of your total accounts reached, this tells you that your post probably showed up on Instagram’s explore page and Instagram is pushing that content out to people who may be interested in it. This is a huge sign that’ll help you know what type of content to keep creating, so you can keep having Instagram organically push out more of your content.

You’ll also be able to tell that the type of content you created for this post is an attraction piece of content that probably helped you get a lot of followers. (Don’t know what I mean by attraction piece of content? Check out my post HERE that explains it.)

 

Instagram Post Insights: Profile Activity

This section of the post insights will show you how many people viewed your profile after seeing your post, how many people followed you from this post, and how many people tapped on an external link (which probably means they clicked on the link in your bio). 

This is super helpful information as well because you can tell how successful your post was and how many new followers it brought you. As you compare this content with other content, you’ll be able to see which type of content to create more of because that’s what people are mostly interested in. 

 

 

Comparing Instagram Post Insights

Not only will comparing post insights help you know which type of content performs the best, but it’ll also help you determine what type of content is considered attraction and nurture. If you haven’t heard these terms before, check out my post HERE, which explains the three types of content you should create as part of your Instagram content strategy. 

When you see the insights for a post that has more engagement from followers rather than non-followers, you can infer that that post is a nurturing piece of content. This means that the post resonates with the people who already follow you and it helps them feel even more connected to you. This type of content builds their trust with you and that you’ll produce valuable content for them. 

 

Instagram Reels Analytics

Reels analytics looks a little different than the analytics you look at for single or carousel posts. The main difference to note is audience retention. Instagram keeps track of how long your viewers stay to watch your reel. Do they watch the entire thing or just the beginning few seconds? It also shows you how many plays and replays your reels get. 

As you analyze your reels analytics, you will be able to figure out which reels were more effective and how you can improve the ones that were not as popular as others. For example, I have a reel where people stopped watching about 10 seconds in. This tells me that I should put another hook at that 10-second point that will make people want to keep watching. 

 

 

Overall Instagram Account Analytics

To view the analytics for your overall Instagram account, click on “Professional Dashboard” located just beneath your bio. Here, you can check your insights for accounts reached, accounts engaged, total followers, and content you shared. 

I like to view the “content you shared” section because this is where I can narrow down which content is doing better for the different levers I can pull. At the top of this section, you’ll notice a filter where you can make adjustments to view the insights over different periods of time. 

Once you make the adjustments, you can see which of your posts is getting the highest reach. This helps you know what type of content to create that will help you get in front of more people. It also helps you differentiate your content between attraction and nurture. 

Strategy Pro Tip: Posts with higher views equal attraction content. Posts with higher engagement equal nurture content. 

 

Follower Insights

Here you can see how your followers have increased over the last 90 days, but again you can change that filter to your desired time period. You can also see your most recent trends in this section as well. 

You can even see what areas of the world your followers are from, demographics (men and women), and when your followers are most active (what days and times of day). This stat will help you get to know your audience better and how you can better serve them. 

 

 

How to Use Instagram Analytics to Grow Your Reach

How can you use this new-found knowledge going forward? Looking at your Instagram analytics will help you figure out what type of content will get you the type of results you want. 

To improve your attraction content, analyze the types of content that had the most reach and make a plan to create more content similar to that. Look at the topic of the post, how it was delivered (reel vs. carousel), and your call to action. Then think of other content you can make similar to that. 

To help with your nurture content, do the same practice but look at your accounts engaged analytics. Here, you can see which posts performed the best and then you create more content like that one to keep nurturing your audience. 

Using this amazing Instagram tool will help you have an analytics-driven content strategy rather than an emotion-driven one. It’s never a good idea to only post based on how you’re feeling that day. You want to look at your insights and see what your audience actually wants. This is what will help you grow your reach the fastest!  

Alright, friend, these tips on how to use Instagram analytics to grow your reach set you up for success this year, I can feel it! If you want some extra help with this tutorial, make sure to check out my YouTube video HERE or scroll to the top of this post! 

P.S. Grab my FREE 131 Hooks Guide HERE so you will never run out of powerful hooks to use in your content. And make sure you’re following me on Instagram @iammichellegifford to keep getting amazing tips and strategies like this post!