How To Use Instagram Insights

Do you see Instagram as a fun social media app for posting pretty pictures, and nothing more? To the average user, that may be the case; when you look at it from a business owner’s, manager’s, or digital marketer’s perspective, however, Instagram is one of the most effective marketing platforms with a lot of data and business insights to offer its users.

As a business owner or digital marketer, you should be using Instagram to your advantage – especially if you want to grow as an Instagram influencer or make money on Instagram. A great starting point is using Instagram insights from your Instagram business account.

Let’s take a look at what Instagram insights are, how your business can benefit from using them, and how you can access and use them to improve your marketing strategy on Instagram.

What are Instagram Insights?

Instagram insights are data that Instagram provides to users with business accounts to help them better understand their audience and performance on the platform. 

This data includes several insightful information on your audience, such as:

• How many people saw your post
• How many people engaged with your post
• The demographics of your audience
• When your audience is most active, and more! 

Instagram insights can benefit businesses of all sizes as they provide valuable information you can use to improve your marketing strategy. 

For example, if you notice that your posts and Instagram stories are getting a lot of engagement but not enough reach, consider using more hashtags or running an Instagram ad. 

On the other hand, if you notice that your posts have plenty of reach but not a lot of engagement, you may want to change up the content you’re posting or use more calls-to-action. 

The bottom line is that Instagram insights can help you better understand what’s working and not working on your Instagram account so that you can make the necessary changes to improve your performance.

Let’s dig deeper into how you can leverage Instagram to boost your business’s social media marketing efforts. 

How Can Instagram Help Your Business?

It didn’t take a long time for Instagram to turn into a powerful marketing tool. When Facebook bought it in 2012, it had 30 million users. The photo-sharing social media platform now boasts over two billion monthly active users and over two million business accounts. 

Eyeing Instagram’s user engagements and strong prospects as a social media marketing platform, businesses of all sizes have turned to the platform for promoting their products and services and monetizing their Instagram accounts. 

Here are some compelling reasons to use Instagram to promote your business. 

1. User engagement: Instagram is one of the most engaging social media platforms. The average time a user spends on Instagram is 30 minutes per day, giving you an excellent window of opportunity to promote your services. 
2. Vast user base: With an enormous user base of over two billion monthly active users, it is easier to find your target audience on the platform and promote your products or services.
3. Suitability for any business: Whether you have a small business or a large enterprise, you can use Instagram to reach your target audience. You can aim your posts for specific localities or make them global. 
4. Earning opportunities: If you have a large enough following , you can start earning money on Instagram by partnering with brands and promoting their products on your account.
5. Stories and other features: Instagram offers stories and other features that can help you promote your business in an interactive and fun way. You can use these features to run contests and giveaways or creatively promote your products. 
6. Partnering with influencers: If you don’t have a large enough following on Instagram, you can partner with an influencer in your industry to promote your products or services. 
7. Active engagement with customers: Instagram allows you to engage with your customers actively. You can respond to their comments, DMs, or reviews. Such active engagement will help you build sustainable relationships with potential customers and prospects. 
8. Following the competitors: You can use Instagram or even the Facebook Ad Library to watch how competitors promote their products and what works for them. You can also get some ideas from their mistakes. 
9. Great visuals: Instagram is an excellent platform for promoting your business because it is a visual platform. People may find it more tempting to engage with posts that have attractive visuals. 
10. Mobile friendliness: Most users access Instagram from their mobile phones. This makes Instagram a great platform for promoting your business, as it is mobile-friendly and always accessible. 
11. Global presence: Instagram is a global platform with users from all around the world. This makes it easier for you to promote your products or services to a global audience.
12. Hashtags: You can use hashtags to find relevant users and to make your posts discoverable. Instagram hashtags help you reach a higher number of relevant audiences organically. 
13. Paid advertising: You can also use paid advertising on Instagram to reach a larger audience with your promotions.
14. Organic engagement: With creative content and relevant hashtags, you can organically engage with your target customers and get them to notice your business.
15. Excellent insights: Finally, Instagram provides detailed insights into your posts, stories, and promotions. You can utilise these insights to improve your marketing strategy.

Now that we’ve looked at some of the reasons for using Instagram for business, let’s look at how Instagram insights can help you succeed as a professional marketer.

How Can You Access Instagram Insights?

Here are 5 easy steps you can follow to access your Instagram insights. 

Step 1: Switch to Professional or Business Account

Instagram Insights is only available for business or professional accounts – not personal ones. If you have been maintaining a personal account on Instagram, you first need to switch to a professional account on Instagram. This will allow you to use Instagram insights to improve your digital marketing strategy. 

Fortunately, the steps are not complicated, and you can do it for free. Here’s how: 

• Tap your profile picture at the bottom left of the home page.
• Navigate to the Instagram Settings menu from your Instagram app by clicking on the three vertical lines in the top right corner. 
• Navigate to Account.
• Here, you will find an option that says “Switch to Professional Account”.
• Once you click on it, the app will ask you for some additional confirmations, such as:
  • Indicate whether you are a business or a creator
  • Indicate if you want to receive promotional emails
  • Indicate if you want to connect your Facebook business page to your new professional Instagram account. 

If you already have a Facebook business account linked to your Instagram, you will be able to select it and convert your Instagram account to a business one. If you don’t have a business account on Facebook, you can create one directly from your Instagram app, as described above. 

Afterward, Instagram will switch your account to professional mode. 

Step 2: Find Instagram Insights

Once you have a professional account, go to your profile, click on the “Insights” button under your bio, and explore the data Instagram offers.

The app will take you to the professional dashboard, where you will see a bar chart showing your account reach for the last 30 days. You will find an option beside the bar chart that reads “See all”. Once you click it, you will find more detailed insights. 

Step 3: What to Discover from Instagram Insights?

Once you open the detailed insights panel, you can choose a specific date or range of dates to view the insights. For instance, you can choose the past 30 days, week, 90 days, etc. 

The Instagram insights section lets you access data related to the following topics: 

• Content: Get information on the type of content that performs well on your profile, the best time to post, and the optimal frequency of your post. 
• Audience: Learn more about the people who follow you, such as their age, gender, and location. You can also find out when your followers are active on Instagram. 
• Reach: See how many people have seen your posts and stories. 
• Activity: Check your profile views, website clicks, and how people found your profile.

Step 4: Instagram Insights for Specific Posts

If you want to view the Instagram insights for your specific post, you can do it from the “Content you shared” label on the insights overview page by clicking “see all”.  

Now you can view the content for specific post types, such as all posts, reels, stories, videos, and live videos.

Once you select any specific post categories, the following screen lists all your relevant posts. You can also sort and filter your posts based on audience popularity in ascending or descending order, post type, and metric on this screen.

Examples of metrics include post interactions, profile visits, business address taps, call button taps, follows, impressions, reach, saves, shares, video views, and website taps. 

Step 5: Accessing Instagram Insights from Individual Posts 

In addition to the insights menu, you can access your specific post insights directly from each of your posts. Once you activate your professional business account, the “View insights” label will appear under each post.

This section will show you the following four categories of insights related to the specific post:

• Overview
• Reach
• Content integration, and
• Profile activity. 

If you decide to run a paid campaign, you can do it from the same page. 

Let’s explore how you can use the information with your business promotions. 

How to Use Instagram Insights To Level Up Your Social Media Marketing?

The main benefit you will get from using Instagram insights is understanding your audience better. It will eventually help you tailor your marketing strategies appropriate for the audience and increase the marketing ROI. 

This information is essential because it will help you determine the best time to post, type of appropriate content, and how to get more followers. Instagram insights will also help you track your progress and see how your account has grown. 

Here are a few core benefits of using Instagram insights:

• Understanding audience demographics: Instagram insights will precisely tell you the age, gender, location, and other relevant demographic characteristics of your audience engaged with your posts. This crucial insight will help you develop more targeted advertising messages in future campaigns. 
• Traffic source: You will know exactly where your traffic is coming from, i.e., whether they are coming from the Explore page, hashtag pages, or your business profile. This will help you understand what strategies are working and where to focus your marketing efforts.
• Understanding conversions: The conversion data will help you understand whether your Instagram marketing drives sales or leads. If you see a high number of conversions, it means that your content is resonating well with your audience, and you are on the right track. In particular, you can easily differentiate the high-performing hashtags from the low-performing ones. 
• Taking post-specific actions: If you see that a particular post is performing well, you can take specific actions to improve its reach further, such as using more relevant hashtags, tagging other users, or running an Instagram ads campaign. 
• Identifying areas of improvement: If you notice that your posts are not getting much engagement, it is an indication that you need to work on your content strategy. Try posting more exciting and interactive content, using relevant hashtags and attractive visuals.
• Monitoring growth: By monitoring your account’s growth, you can track your progress and see if your marketing efforts are paying off. If you see a significant increase in your followers and engagement rate, your strategies are working, and you should continue with them.

Wrap-Up: Using Instagram Insights

Instagram Insights is an effective tool for improving your social media marketing. You can tailor your business strategies more effectively and increase your marketing ROI by better understanding your audience. Instagram Insights also enables you to track your progress and monitor the progress of your account. So, why not use this helpful tool to enhance your Instagram marketing as a business owner or an Instagram influencer? It’s easy, it’s free, and your follower count will thank you!