How to Analyze Instagram Video Performance

Stop guessing if your Instagram videos are working. Knowing how to analyze your performance is the difference between content that disappears without a trace and content that builds your brand. This guide will show you exactly what metrics matter for Reels, Stories, and in-feed videos, where to find them, and how to use that data to create more of what your audience loves.

Why Bother Analyzing Your Instagram Videos?

Tracking performance isn't just about chasing bigger numbers. When you do it right, analyzing your video data gives you a powerful roadmap for growth. Here’s why it’s so important:

• Refine Your Content Strategy: Data tells you what resonates. Do your quick, punchy tutorials get more Saves than your day-in-the-life vlogs? Does a certain type of audio consistently lead to higher reach? Analytics answer these questions, helping you double down on a winning formula instead of throwing things at the wall and hoping they stick.
• Understand Your Audience on a Deeper Level: Metrics are a reflection of your audience's behavior. A high number of Shares means your content is relatable. Lots of comments suggest you're sparking conversation. These aren’t just numbers, they’re clues about what your followers find valuable, funny, or useful.
• Prove Your Social Media ROI: If you're managing accounts for clients or reporting to a boss, you need to show that your efforts are paying off. Clear video analytics - like link clicks from Stories or a spike in profile visits after a popular Reel - provide tangible proof that your social media strategy is driving real business results.

The Foundation: Where to Find Your Instagram Insights

Before you can analyze anything, you need to know where the data lives. First things first: make sure your account is set up as a Business or Creator account. Personal accounts don't have access to these deeper analytics. Once that's settled, you have two primary ways to access your metrics.

1. Through the Professional Dashboard

This gives you a big-picture view of your entire account's performance over a specific time period. It’s perfect for spotting overall trends.

1. Go to your Instagram profile.
2. Tap on "Professional Dashboard" right below your bio.
3. Under "Account Insights," tap "See all."
4. From here, you can filter by content type (like Reels or Stories) and time frame (like the last 30 or 90 days) to see your top-performing videos.

2. Through an Individual Video Post

This is where you'll find the detailed, valuable metrics for a single piece of content. This is essential for understanding why a specific video succeeded or failed.

1. Navigate to the specific Reel, Story, or in-feed video you want to analyze.
2. Tap the three-dot menu (...) on your Reel or tap "View Insights" below your in-feed video. For Stories, you can just swipe up while viewing it.
3. This will open a screen with all the performance statistics for that specific post.

Decoding Instagram Reels Metrics: What Really Matters

Reels are the primary engine for organic growth on Instagram right now, so understanding their performance is non-negotiable. Don't get overwhelmed by all the numbers, focus on these key categories.

Reach & Engagement Metrics

These metrics tell you how many people saw your Reel and how they actively interacted with it.

• Plays (or Views): This is the total number of times your Reel has been played. It includes replays from the same user. While it’s a nice vanity metric, it’s not the most important one.
• Reach: This is the number of unique accounts that saw your Reel at least once. This is a much better indicator of growth than Plays. High reach means the algorithm is showing your video to new people beyond your existing followers.
• Likes & Comments: The classics. Likes are a quick thumbs-up, but Comments are a much stronger signal to the algorithm. They show that your content was engaging enough to spark a conversation. Always aim for comments.
• Saves: This is a super-engagement. When someone saves your Reel, they’re telling Instagram, "This content is so valuable, I want to come back to it later." The algorithm loves this. Educational content, tutorials, tips, and relatable humor often get high saves.
• Shares: Even better than a Save. A Share means a viewer found your Reel so compelling that they put their own reputation on the line by sending it to a friend or posting it to their Story. This metric is a powerful indicator of virality.

Audience Retention Metrics

These are the secret-weapon metrics that don’t always get the attention they deserve. They tell you how effective your video was at grabbing and holding attention - something Instagram’s algorithm is obsessed with.

• Watch Time & Average Watch Duration: Instagram doesn't show you these numbers directly, but they are arguably the most important ranking factors for Reels. You can infer performance by looking at other cues. The goal is to get people to watch as much of your Reel as possible, ideally all the way through. A strong hook in the first 1-3 seconds is the key to improving your watch time. If your Plays are high but everything else is low, your hook worked but the rest of the video didn’t deliver.
• Initial Plays vs. Replays: In your Reels Insights, you'll see a line for Initial Plays and one for Replays. A high number of Replays means your video was so good that people watched it again. This could be because it was super fast, incredibly satisfying, or packed with information. A high Replay count is a massive positive signal to the algorithm.

Analyzing Instagram Stories Performance

Stories function differently than Reels. They are less about reaching new audiences and more about nurturing your relationship with your existing followers. Your analysis should reflect that.

Navigation Metrics

These tell you how people moved through your Story sequence.

• Forward Taps: How many times viewers tapped to skip to your next story. A lot of Forward Taps suggests your content was boring or too slow.
• Back Taps: How many times viewers tapped to go back and re-watch the previous story. This is a great sign! It means something caught their eye, and they wanted a second look.
• Next Story Swipes: The number of swipes to the next account’s Story. This is different from a "Forward Tap." This means they moved on from you entirely. Pay attention to the slides where this number spikes.
• Exits: How many times a viewer left Stories altogether from your slide. This is your biggest red flag. It tells you exactly where you lost people's attention.

Interaction Metrics

These measure direct engagement with your Story's features.

• Replies: A direct line to your audience's inbox. A high number of replies is golden for community-building.
• Sticker Taps: This shows how many people interacted with your Polls, Quizzes, Question boxes, or Emoji sliders. It tells you if your calls to interaction are working.
• Link Clicks: For accounts with the link sticker, this is one of the most important metrics. It measures how effective your Story was at driving traffic off of Instagram.

For example, if you post a tutorial Story and see a lot of "Back Taps" on a specific slide and very few "Exits" overall, you know the format was successful. If a long, talking-head series of Stories has high "Forward Taps" and a major spike in "Exits" on the second slide, that's your cue to make your point much faster next time.

Beyond the Numbers: Turning Data into Strategy

Looking at Instagram's dashboards is just the first step. True analysis happens when you step back, look for patterns, and put the numbers in context.

Read Every Comment

Your comment section is a free focus group. What are people saying? Are they asking follow-up questions? Are they tagging their friends? These comments give you qualitative data and incredible ideas for your next wave of content. If several people ask the same question, turn the answer into a new Reel.

Track Your Own Trends in a Simple Spreadsheet

Instagram Insights are great, but they don't easily show you long-term trends. Create a simple spreadsheet to track your videos. Log just a few key details for each piece of content:


Date | Video Topic | Format (Tutorial, Trend, B-Roll, etc.) | Audio Type (Trending/Original) | Reach | Saves | Comments | Shares


After a few weeks, you'll be able to sort this spreadsheet and see clear patterns. You might discover that all your videos on Topic A massively underperform, but your quick-tip tutorials always get a ton of saves, regardless of the topic. This is how you build a content strategy based on evidence, not assumptions.

Context is Everything

Don't analyze a video's performance in a vacuum. Consider external factors. Did you post it during a major holiday? Was the audio you used brand new and trending, or was it played out? Did one Reel do well simply because it was part of a series that built momentum? Comparing the performance of an original talking-head Reel to one piggybacking on a simple trend isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison. Understand what *type* of video you’re looking at to understand its potential.

Final Thoughts

Analyzing your Instagram video performance regularly is the most reliable way to accelerate your growth. It transforms your approach from reactive to strategic, allowing you to create content that deeply resonates with your audience, builds community, and helps you achieve your social media goals methodically.

We know jumping between apps and manually logging data in spreadsheets to find these patterns can be draining. That’s why we built the analytics dashboard in Postbase to pull all of your key cross-platform metrics into one clean, simple report. This helps our users instantly see what’s working - and what’s not - so they can focus on making great video content instead of getting lost in the numbers.