Any successful strategy requires four components: goal-setting, implementation, analysis and refinement. Instagram analytics address the analysis portion of this equation for social marketers.
Good Instagram analytics tools help you understand how your Instagram efforts are paying off. You can learn what’s working and what’s not. Then you move onto the refinement portion of the strategy, tweaking your efforts to boost your results and improve ROI.
Let’s look at some of the best Instagram analytics app options, and the most important Instagram metrics you need to track.
1. Instagram Insights
If you’re using an Instagram Business or Creator account, you have access to this built-in Instagram analytics app.
This native analytics tool within the Instagram app provides insights into your account performance, including reach, engagement, followers, and Instagram ads. We’ll show you exactly how to see Instagram analytics using Insights later in this post.
Insights is a great Instagram analytics free tool, but it may not be the best Instagram analytics app for serious social marketers. For more robust, longer-term tracking, or to export your data for a social media report, you’ll need to look at other Instagram analytics tools.
2. Hootsuite Analytics
Hootsuite Analytics allows you to track Instagram analytics in more detail than the native Instagram Insights.
Sure, we may be biased, but for the record, here are some things that the Hootsuite Analytics dashboard can do that Instagram can’t:
- Show you data from the distant past
- Compare metrics over specific time periods to get a historical perspective
- Generate downloadable custom reports
- Look at specific post performance using your preferred metrics
- Monitor your account’s response time in customer service conversations
- Rank Instagram comments by sentiment (positive or negative)
3. Hootsuite Impact
Hootsuite Impact allows you to compare metrics for different social accounts side by side. It also provides detailed ROI analysis for both organic and paid Instagram activity, including IGTV.
Remember how we said right up at the top that refining your strategy is a key part of using analytics to improve? Hootsuite Impact can provide custom recommendations for refining your strategy based on your specific goals.
4. Creator Studio
This is another native Instagram business analytics tool. However, instead of being built into the mobile Instagram app, Creator Studio works on your computer.
Creator Studio gives you access to most of the same metrics as Instagram Insights, but only for a seven-day window.
One neat analytics feature of Creator Studio is the Calendar view, where you can see at a glance exactly when you posted to Instagram.
If you’re a member of Brand Collabs Manager, you can also track your brand collaboration metrics here in Creator Studio. We’ve got a full blog post on how to use Creator Studio that walks you through all the ways you can use it with your Instagram Business or Creator account.
5. Iconosquare
Start with Iconosquare’s Instagram audit for business accounts. This Instagram analytics free tool provides data on your reach, engagement, likes, saves and more. It also provides information on how your Instagram metrics stack up against the average rates on the platform.
Iconosquare also offers a free trial of their pro dashboard. You’ll get all the standard metrics: engagement rates, follower stats, Stories data, et cetera.
6. Keyhole
Keyhole specializes in Instagram hashtag analytics and keyword tracking, along with all the usual Instagram metrics.
It’s useful for tracking promotions, branded hashtags, and Instagram contests in real-time. It’s also a useful tool to track Instagram analytics when you work with influencers.
7. Phlanx
Phlanx offers a free, easy-to-use Instagram engagement calculator. The handy thing is you can use it to check your own account, or someone else’s. That means you can use it to pre-screen potential influencers and brand ambassadors.
All you have to do is type in any Instagram handle to see total followers, engagement rate, and average likes and comments per post.
8. Facebook Ads Manager
If you’re running paid campaigns on Instagram, Facebook Ads Manager is a key resource in your analytics toolbox. It provides performance and cost information for all the ads you place on the Facebook family of products, including Instagram.
You can get performance information for your Instagram promotions within Instagram Insights, but to perform a thorough cost analysis, you’ll want to incorporate Ads Manager as well.
