Instagram has been making all the right noises in social media for some time. It not only sets a scorching rate of growth to cross the magic figure one billion monthly active users but also today boasts of the best engagement rate among all social media. https://business.instagram.com says that with more than 25 million business profiles set up by brands big and small, Instagram has been transformed into an intensely competitive platform for attracting user eyeballs and generating traffic to the websites for boosting conversions. While earlier it was difficult to make out whether your marketing campaign was on track to meet its objectives or not, today you have the convenience of using multiple third-party analytics tools that can help you to maximize the impact of your Instagram marketing. However, given the profusion of Instagram analytics tools, it can be quite difficult to select the one that is ideal for your requirements. The situation is compounded by the fact that Instagram itself is making frequent changes to its API and introducing new features on a continuous basis. Given the diverse features and different content types on Instagram, it can often be helpful to have a number of analytics tools to address all your priorities. A brief look at some of the most useful Instagram analytics tools:
Instagram Insights
Owners of business profiles on Instagram are provided automatic access to Instagram Insights, the analytics tool that is built into Instagram. The tool is quite versatile as it can show the times when your target audience is using Instagram, the popularity of your posts as well as data on the impressions and reach that your posts are being able to garner. Additionally, it is possible to undertake comparisons between normal posts with the promoted version of the same posts to see what impact the extra investment can bring to the table. Instagram Insights can only be used within the app on the smartphone, as it has no desktop compatibility. It provides all the essential analytics that you need to analyze the performance of your business profile; however, it is not exactly very user-friendly.
Squarelovin
Squarelovin is a free Instagram analytics tool that can provide you with all the insights into the performance of your Instagram account over the entire year. The tool can provide you with an analysis of your posts on a monthly basis, or even a breakdown as per the time interval that you select of the history of your Instagram posts. Further, you can figure out what the interests of your followers are and how to boost the level of engagement with them. By using the tool, you can find out the times when your followers are most active so that you can also schedule the publishing of your posts accordingly for a better opportunity to see and reach.
Phlanx
Phlanx is ideally suited for Instagram brand managers who don’t have the time to spend hours over analyzing the performance of the Instagram account. It incorporates an engagement calculator that works in a pretty straightforward manner to provide you the engagement rate of any post that you specify. It is possible for any business or even personal Instagram account to be analyzed with this tool even though it is being positioned as an analytics tool ideal for the use of influencers. By calculating the rate of engagement, which is essentially the number of real Instagram likes and comments received by a post divided by the total number of followers of the account, the tool enables you to figure out if any account has fake followers or followers who simply don’t engage with the content or the brand and rare, therefore, of no use. While there is no engagement rate that is sacrosanct, a figure of around 3% is considered good. If you are a brand manager, by using Phlanx, you can determine whether it is worth the investment required to engage a particular influencer. You can also find out the performance of your competitor accounts.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social has some of the most awesome features that you will find in Instagram analytics tools. Apart from being able to schedule your posts, the platform offers a detailed dashboard offering information on content and audience growth. It also has the capability of identifying the top performing posts so that you know exactly what your audience likes and can tweak your content strategy to boost follower count and engagement. Sprout Social provides reports on the top-performing hashtags so that you can drive engagement by using hashtags that are used more widely. Instagram Stories has become a runaway success with more than 400 million users publishing content on it on a daily basis. It is also a hot favorite with brands looking to engage their followers in a more informal manner. Sprout Social has all the analytics tools that will help you to track performance metric of Stories right from impressions and reach to comments, likes, and mentions in addition to taps and exits. Sprout Social enables you to monitor the performance of Instagram Stories over a longer period than the two-week period that Instagram typically permits so that you can take a long-term perspective on your Instagram Stories strategy.
Iconosquare
Iconosquare analytics tool for Instagram is especially suitable for brands or agencies that have to manage multiple Instagram accounts at the same time. In some ways, it is similar to Sprout Social in facilitating the tracking of the growth of followers and competitive hashtags. Apart from offering a full set of analytics tools for analyzing the account performance, it also offers users of business profiles a free audit. The scope of the audit is quite comprehensive and ensures that your profile is not lacking in any vital detail and adheres to the best practices of Instagram account management. In addition to the general account settings, the 30 most recent posts are also evaluated. The Iconosquare audit feature comes in very handy indeed as it can be quite useful to have a confirmation of the results the analytics have revealed.
Conclusion
Instagram analytics tools are vital for every business owner conducting an Instagram marketing campaign. By analyzing the performance of the posts across relevant metrics, you can constantly improve your strategy to meet your goals like conversions, brand awareness, community building, etc.