How to use Instagram Insights to improve content

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

In the digital universe, understanding and making the most of the tools available is crucial to standing out. In this context, the Instagram Insights emerges as a powerful tool, offering valuable insights into the performance of your posts.

In this article, we'll dive into Instagram Insights data analysis, discovering not only what works, but also how we can improve our content strategies to reach new heights of success.

Access to Instagram Insights

Open the Instagram app on your mobile device and go to your profile by tapping your photo. In the top right corner of your profile, you will see an icon of three horizontal bars. Tap this icon to open the options menu.

Scroll down the menu and look for the “Insights” or “Statistics” option. Depending on the version of the application, the nomenclature may vary slightly.

When you enter the Insights section, you will have access to various metrics including reach, impressions, interactions, demographics, and more. Explore this data to better understand how your posts are performing.

Remember, to access Instagram Insights, your account must be a business or creator account. If you haven't already made this change, you can do so in your account settings.

Key Instagram Insights metrics

To truly improve content, we need to understand the fundamental metrics offered by Instagram Insights and how important each of them is. The platform offers a variety of valuable metrics that provide detailed insights into how your posts are performing and your audience engagement.

Let's explore some of the key metrics available:

Reach:

• What is it: Indicates the total number of unique accounts that viewed your posts during a specific period.
• Importance: Reveals the extent of your posts' impact, helping you understand how many people potentially saw your content.

Impressions:

• What is it: Represents the total number of times your posts were seen, including repetitions by the same person.
• Importance: Indicates how often your content is viewed, providing insights into the effectiveness of your visibility strategy.

Interactions:

• What is it: Includes likes, comments, saves and shares on your posts.
• Importance: Measures the level of audience engagement, indicating which posts generate the most interactions and which type of content resonates best.

Followers:

• What is it: Shows the number of new followers acquired during a given period.
• Importance: It helps you understand the growth of your audience, identifying periods of increase or decrease in the number of followers.

Profile Impressions:

• What is it: Indicates how many times your profile has been viewed.
• Importance: Provides information about general interest in your account, highlighting the popularity and attractiveness of your profile.

Clicks on the Website:

• What is it: Records the number of times external links in your posts were clicked.
• Importance: It evaluates the traffic directed to your website, which is crucial for measuring the effectiveness of campaigns or promotional links.

These metrics provide a comprehensive view of your account performance, enabling strategic adjustments based on hard data. They are not exactly as shown above, but the concepts are what we are showing, varying with each Instagram update. Next, we'll cover other essential concepts for you to get the most out of Instagram Insights.

Understanding your target audience

Instagram Insights not only reveals numbers, but also valuable demographic details about your audience. Let's explore how to use this information to better understand who's on the other side of the screen:

Increased relevance:

By personalizing content based on demographic details, your brand becomes more relevant to different audience segments.

Improved Engagement:

Content tailored to demographic preferences tends to generate greater engagement as followers identify more deeply.

Public loyalty:

Understanding demographics allows you to build a stronger community by meeting the specific needs of different groups.

Greater campaign effectiveness:

Targeted campaigns based on demographic details are more effective, ensuring a higher return on investment.

Building authentic relationships:

Demographic understanding allows you to create more authentic connections, showing that your brand values diversity and respects the particularities of your audience.

This way, by using demographic details from Instagram Insights, you transform data into personalized strategies, strengthening your relationship with your audience and boosting the success of your content.

Best publishing times

Now that we understand our audience, it's time to make sure our posts are seen. Let's find out how to identify peak activity times to maximize reach. After all, posting at the right time not only increases visibility but also the likelihood of meaningful interactions.

When accessing Instagram Insights, clicking on Followers, scrolling to the end of the options there is the information “Most active periods”. The graph will give you the times on each day of the week where followers are most active. This will help you make the most of each post, using the Instagram algorithm more efficiently. Furthermore, you will be able to increase the probability of conversions, clicks, as well as optimize your efforts and resources.

Analysis of publication performance

Each post has its own story. Therefore, analyzing individual performance helps you refine the style of content that best resonates with your audience.

In the “Content you shared” section you will be able to observe the metrics for each type of publication, whether Reels, Stories or Posts. Tap a specific post to get detailed data.

Look at general metrics like reach, impressions, and interactions and identify performance patterns over time. Compare these metrics to understand the distribution effectiveness of each post, identifying which content is most interesting to your audience. Check total engagement, which includes likes, comments, saves, and shares, and analyze which types of interactions are most prevalent.

This way, by applying a thorough analysis to the performance of your posts on Instagram Insights, you create the basis for a more effective content strategy that is aligned with your audience's interests.

Performance comparison over time

Instagram Insights isn't just about the present moment; It is a tool for sustainable growth. Therefore, identifying patterns over time allows proactive adjustments, ensuring an ever-growing digital presence.

Therefore, put together a spreadsheet with the information collected from Instagram Insights and carry out a comparative analysis. It is also important to consider seasonality, as at times like Black Friday, for example, there may be more important movements on social media.

In short…

By applying data-driven strategies, you are on your way to maximizing the potential of your content and building a truly impactful digital presence. Staying committed to ongoing analysis is the key to dynamic, relevant, and engaging content. This way, by understanding and applying Instagram insights, you will be able to build a successful digital presence.

But be careful. We understand the data, but effective change is a gradual process. Small changes allow for smooth adaptation and a clearer understanding of the real impact on performance.

Make specific adjustments to be able to understand whether there really were changes in the results, instead of radicalizing and adjusting all points at once.

Do you want to learn how to do digital marketing on your own, from A to Z? Purchase the e-book Uncomplicated Digital Marketing – A Guide for Beginners in the Virtual World!