As a business, an influencer, or an individual, if you’re serious about your Instagram engagement then consider getting your analytics right. First things first, it is close to impossible to make any sort of progress with a personal profile. Business profiles have access to analytics from which useful insights can be extracted.
While it is not entirely complicated to switch to a business profile, it isn’t exactly easy either. Several online tools and software help track performance and provide valuable information to boost the performance of a profile. We take a look at some of the best available analytics platforms for Instagram in this blog.
The Need For Analytics
Instagram is an established marketplace for businesses and brands to build a fanbase as over 1 billion users use Instagram today. These insights help users track who they’re engaging with and how they’re engaging. This is extremely useful to course-correct their strategy to further target the desired audience and build brand loyalty. Without analytics and metrics, most brands are shooting in the dark.
Paying attention to Instagram analytics helps determine the effectiveness of marketing strategies and campaigns to further improve them. These insights also help you identify the right demographic and geography of the audience, as well as the time and days when they are most likely to engage with content on Instagram.
For an in depth read, check out our blog: Why Do Businesses Need Analytics to Succeed?
Business Accounts Vs Personal Accounts
As both possess the same ability to post stories and posts, it might be difficult for the average user to tell the difference between the two. The biggest game-changer in business accounts, however, is access to analytics.
Business profiles come with a ‘View Insights’ button that opens up a whole new world of data that is designed to help you thrive. Digital marketing survives on a foundation of data. Of the billion daily Instagram users, over 200 million visit at least one business profile every day. This lets you use every marketing dollar effectively and gets you the reach you so desire.
These influencers got their analytics right! Learn from the best in our blog, Top 30 Instagram Influencers To Take Inspiration From.
Obtaining Instagram Analytics
As discussed above, the ‘View Insights’ button opens up Pandora’s box of data that might be confusing at first but is the ultimate key to optimizing the performance of a page. It provides invaluable data regarding the page’s performance and audience.
Once you’ve got a business or creator profile, one needs to click on the ‘Insights’ action button available on the profile. This can also be accessed from the 3 horizontal lines icon on the top right corner.
Under the ‘Overview’ section, the ‘metrics’ section gives users a detailed breakdown of their performance. This data, however, is only available for the content shared since converting to a business profile. The data can be accessed in a 7-day format or 30-day format, based on whether the user is more comfortable with monthly or weekly insights.
For a complete overview of web analytics, read our blog: How To Create Data-Driven Customer Journeys With Web Analytics.
Instagram Analytics Vs External Analytics Tools
Instagram’s analytics are the ‘in house’ version of insights, available for free on business or creator profiles. For a small to mid-range business, this provides enough data to extract insights from including follower count updates, demographics summary, story insights, and data on paid promotions.
While this should be enough, it isn’t as in-depth as some external tools that require a digital marketing expert to comprehend.
Best Tools For Insta Analytics
1. Iconosquare
o Key USP: Works great for agencies that handle multiple accounts on Instagram
o Price: Free 14-day trial. Premium begins at $29 per month
o Why Iconosquare?
Iconosquare is the best option for brands seeking advanced analytics to optimize an overall brand strategy. Along with monitoring performance and tracking trends, Iconosquare also lets you schedule posts.
The competitor analysis and hashtag tracking is a great option for brands in a competitive marketplace. The insights provided cover all major metrics like engagement, reach, impressions, audiences for both Instagram posts as well as Instagram stories.
Figure 1: Iconsquare Instagram tool. Source: Inconsquare
2. Hootsuite
o Key USP: Holistic social media marketing (SMM) system that provides the most extensive insights
o Price: 30-day free trial followed by $19 per month
o Why Hootsuite?
Hootsuite goes the extra mile with its social listening ability and analytics tools. It gives users the option of creating unlimited reports with an analysis of historical data to keep an external eye on the brand’s overall performance.
It is designed to optimize team performance for greater collaborations by tracking team members from pre-assigned teams. It also comes with a customizable dashboard that displays only the analytics most pertinent to you.
3. Hypeauditor
o Key USP: Helps analyze influencers and audiences for different industries
o Price: No free trial. Premium begins at $299 per month
o Why HypeAuditor?
HypeAuditor boasts of a vast database that is powered by artificial intelligence and provides in-depth analysis of influencer performances based on millions of indexed entries. Based on the sector, it calculates an influencer’s engagement rate and an audience quality score, thereby assessing the overall score of a marketing campaign quantitatively.
The main reason this platform was built was for fraud detection. It can assess if comments and engagement are real or fake. Moreover, it doesn’t just provide metrics but assesses the quality of the metrics and their authenticity.
4. Squarelovin
o Key USP: Analytics for best time to post
o Price: Free to use
o Why Squarelovin?
Squarelovin is a solid analytics tool without any unnecessary bells and whistles. Apart from a monthly analysis of the data with regards to your posts, it can also break the insights down by hour, day, month, or year.
It also provides time-related data from the audience’s perspective, thereby helping brands analyze the best time to post and when audiences are most likely to engage with content. It also helps optimize content with data about the hashtags and filters used.
Figure 2. Squarelovin Instagram Tool. Source: Squarelovin
5. Keyhole
o Key USP: Real-time tracking of all metrics
o Price: Premium begins at $99 per month
o Why Keyhole?
Keyhole is the perfect balance of historical and real-time data related to the analytical performance of an account. Be it previous posts or new posts, one can keep tabs on all metrics related to hashtags, mentions, keywords, and URLs. It compares these metrics with the other top-performing metrics from similar accounts of the same audience, based on the audiences that interact with them.
This allows brands to maintain a competitive edge, and track the engagement and growth of their closest competitors to inform their own KPIs.
6. Pixlee
o Key USP: Intuitive and shareable weekly reports
o Price: Free to use
o Why Pixlee?
Pixlee goes above and beyond traditional analytics tools that monitor content and provide insights based on performance by also suggesting and generating content strategies to be used. The intuitive reporting system allows brands to stay on top of their game weekly while the platform allows users to connect with influencers as well as advocates of their brand.
The hashtag tracking feature identifies content that is the most engaging while simultaneously tracking the growth of followers.
7. Union Metrics
o Key USP: Graph API for tangible insights
o Price: Premium begins at $49 per month
o Why Union Metrics?
Union Metrics is constantly monitoring performance on a day-to-day basis providing daily insights around profile analysis, keywords, campaigns, competitors, and market research. It helps identify top content based on performance, and which resonates the most with your target audience. It also helps suggest the best time and day post to juice the maximum engagement out of all content among new and existing followers.
Influencers no longer have the liberty of second-guessing their online performance. There is a wealth of tools available online to precisely predict and analyze user behavior and performances. With the above-mentioned Instagram analytics tools, users can go above and beyond the base-level insights of Instagram to accurately predict various metrics and optimize their marketing efforts to grow exponentially. Begin your journey with these tools today for a successful future on Instagram.
Here’s everything you need to know about Instagram success, in our blog: Ultimate Guide To Becoming An Instagram Influencer.
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