Instagram can be a gold mine for businesses trying to grow their accounts. There are more than a billion active users, many of which are your target customers. If you want to have the largest impact on those potential customers, you need a good handle on your Instagram metrics.
Keeping a close eye on certain metrics can help you measure your success and track areas of improvement. Here are the top six metrics worth tracking on Instagram.
1. Traffic
If you want to know the return on investment you’re getting for a certain piece of content or an advertisement, you need to know what kind of traffic Instagram brings to your website.
Unfortunately, you can’t see this information on Google Analytics where you get other information about your website performance because Instagram is solely a mobile application. You’ll need to download your Instagram analytics tool directly to your phone to see how much direct traffic comes from Instagram.
It will identify which posts are generating stagnant traffic as well. You can then analyze the different elements of each post to determine what is generating or preventing referral traffic. Since most businesses use Instagram as a tool to increase traffic on their websites, this is essential to a successful strategy.
2. Followers
Although it’s not the only metric to measure that can measure the success of a certain Instagram account, your follower growth rate is the simplest metric to watch. If you have a lot of followers and are adding more all the time, you’re obviously doing well.
Most importantly, you need to monitor the growth rate, meaning the number of followers you’re adding or losing over a certain time period. Monitoring this percentage is more effective than your actual follower count because it indicates the success or stagnation of your current Instagram strategy.
Most Instagrammers struggle to increase their following and tracking this metric can show these businesses exactly what’s going wrong. The analytics dashboards can show you how many new followers you’re adding or losing over a given time period. If you’re adding them at a rapid rate, you know that your current marketing efforts are working.
If you’re losing them rapidly, you know that you’ve either posted something offensive or you’re simply not doing enough to keep them engaged. Keep a close eye on your growth percentage rate so that you can measure it against your current Instagram campaigns.
3. Engagement Per Follower
Instagram’s algorithm is a fickle mistress, particularly where businesses are concerned. If you don’t do everything just right, your posts run the risk of never being seen by your target audience. In fact, did you know that as many as 70 percent of Instagram posts go unseen on a given day?
To make sure that your posts are being seen and doing the work that you intended, watch how much engagement each post receives. You’ll get up-close insights into your audience’s interest—if they’re not interested, Instagram won’t even show the post to them.
Again, don’t look at the raw numbers of your engagement rates. You want to measure the amount of engagement your posts see on a monthly or weekly basis to identify a pattern. This will help you work with the algorithm and meet your followers’ interests more accurately.
4. Hashtag Engagement
Hashtags are an essential part of any Instagram strategy because they make your posts discoverable by your dedicated followers. Posts with hashtags tend to see more engagement than posts without, and tracking that engagement can help you determine how effective each hashtag is alongside your posts.
Hashtags with more engagement are likely to bring more traffic to your page, so keep an eye on rates of traffic, comments, and likes for each post containing a hashtag. Remember that you can use multiple hashtags (up to 30) in any post, so put together a list of the most relevant hashtags.
Use a combination of branded hashtags and popular tags that are relevant to your industry. Go through the list to see which bring in the most attention. This will help you further your reach, make your brand easy to discover, and increase your follower growth rate.
5. Peak Post Times
Did you know that the typical Instagram post receives the most engagement it will ever get within a few hours of you posting it? After that, the Instagram algorithm shows it to fewer people, and engagement drops off significantly.
To ensure that your targeted audience will see your posts, monitor the peak times that followers engage with your content. By looking at your analytics, you’ll see the times of day that your followers are online and engaging with your content. This is the best way to identify peak posting times because it analyzes your actual followers.
However, if you need a launching point to help you reach more people, you can look at general analyses of when people tend to be on Instagram. There are a variety of charts and graphs that show when a certain demographic is more likely to be online and ready to engage. Use this to help you get started posting at the right times, but then listen to your followers to curate more accurate posting times. Instagram analytics 3rd party tools also show you what times your posts perform best.
6. Reach
You need to know who sees your posts—is it just your engaged followers or do your posts extend to others who could be interested in your content? You’ll never grow your following if you’re unable to extend your reach beyond your current followers.
Reach analytics show information about views for unique posts, Instagram Stories, ads, and videos. Most analytics will also show you the number of people who saw your post who weren’t already following you. This is the number you want to keep in mind to help you potentially grow your following.
Don’t confuse your reach numbers with your impression metrics. Reach measures the number of times a person views your post once, and impressions tell you how many times a post has been seen total, even if each person watched it 10 times. Both numbers are useful in their own right, but your reach rate will help you grow your following beyond what you already have.
from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/social-media-marketing/6-metrics-you-should-be-tracking-on-instagram/
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