How to Run an Instagram Audit

Feeling like your Instagram growth has flatlined, or that you're just posting into the void? An Instagram audit is the best way to figure out what's working, ditch what isn't, and build a strategy that actually moves you closer to your goals. This guide breaks down every step of a thorough Instagram audit, providing you with an actionable checklist you can follow to refresh your presence and grow with intention.

Step 1: Define Your Goals and Review Your Profile Basics

Before you look at a single post's performance, you need to know what you're trying to achieve. An audit is most effective when it measures your efforts against a clear set of goals. Why are you on Instagram in the first place? Are you trying to:

• Increase brand awareness?
• Drive traffic to your website or blog?
• Generate leads and sales?
• Build a dedicated community around your brand?
• Position yourself as an authority in your niche?

Pick one or two primary goals. Everything you review from this point forward should be assessed on whether it supports these goals. Once your "why" is clear, you can focus on the first thing every visitor sees: your profile.

Assess Your Brand's First Impression

You have about three seconds to convince a new visitor to tap that "Follow" button. Your profile's core elements need to work together to make a compelling case.

• Profile Picture: Is it a high-resolution, easy-to-see version of your business logo? If you're a personal brand, is it a clear, professional headshot where your face is visible? Avoid busy images that are hard to decipher in that tiny circle.
• Username (@handle): Is your username simple, memorable, and consistent across other social platforms? Try not to use too many numbers, underscores, or confusing spellings. The easier it is to remember, the easier it is for people to find and tag you.
• Name Field: This is a powerful, searchable field. Don't just put your brand name here. Add a keyword that describes what you do. For example, instead of just "The Indigo Plant Co.," use "The Indigo Plant Co. | Rare Houseplants." Instead of "James Smith," use "James Smith | Fitness Coach."
• Bio: Your bio should answer three questions quickly: Who are you? What do you do/offer? And why should someone care? It should be concise and packed with value. Use emojis to add personality and break up the text, but don’t overdo it. Finish with a strong call-to-action (CTA) that tells people what to do next (e.g., "👇 Tap the link to shop" or "✉️ Get our weekly newsletter").
• Link in Bio: First, check if your link works. Then, ask if it's the right link. Does it support your primary goal? Whether you use a landing page tool like Linktree or send people directly to your website, ensure the destination is mobile-friendly and delivers on the promise made in your CTA.

Step 2: Dive Deep into Your Audience

You can create the best content in the world, but if it’s not reaching the right people, your efforts will fall flat. Your Instagram Insights hold the key to understanding who is currently following you. Navigate to your Professional Dashboard >, Account Insights >, Your Audience to get started.

Analyze Your Follower Demographics

Under the "Total Followers" section, you can find a breakdown of your audience demographics:

• Top Locations: Where do your followers live? This is valuable information for local businesses or brands considering shipping expansions or targeting ads. It also helps you understand cultural context.
• Age Range &, Gender: Does the data align with your target customer profile? If you're trying to reach Gen Z women and your audience is primarily Millennial men, there’s a major disconnect between your content and your goals. This isn't about exclusion, but about seeing if your message is landing with the audience you intend to serve.

Identify Most Active Times

Further down in the Audience tab, you’ll find a chart showing the "Most Active Times" for your followers, broken down by days of the week and hours of the day. This is a great starting point for scheduling your content. Posting when your followers are already online gives your content the best chance to gain traction.

However, a word of caution: these are the times when your current audience is most active. If you aim to attract a new audience segment (perhaps in a different time zone), you should experiment with posting outside these peak hours.

Step 3: Conduct a Thorough Content Audit

This is where you'll spend the most time - and for good reason: your content is the engine of your Instagram growth. The goal here is to identify patterns. What makes your audience stop scrolling, and what makes them scroll on by?

Analyze Post-by-Post Performance

Go to Account Insights >, Content You Shared. Here, you can filter all your content by type (Posts, Reels, Stories) and by metric over a specific time period (e.g., Last 90 Days). This is your treasure map.

Analyze your top-performing content by sorting for these key metrics:

• Reach: Shows how many unique accounts saw your post. Sort by Reach to see what content is grabbing the most new eyeballs. This is often driven by Reels and highly shareable content. What topics or formats were consistently at the top?
• Likes: While sometimes considered a "vanity metric," likes still indicate resonance. Which posts get a quick, positive reaction from your audience?
• Comments: Comments indicate a deeper level of engagement. Which posts sparked conversations? These are often posts that ask questions, state a strong opinion, or are incredibly relatable.
• Saves: Saves are one of the most valuable engagement metrics. A "save" means your content was so useful or inspiring that someone wants to come back to it later. Look at your most-saved content - it's likely educational, a how-to tutorial, a "listicle" in a carousel, or something deeply inspirational. This shows what your audience truly finds valuable.
• Shares: Shares show what content your audience is proud to associate with or wants to send to a friend. Memes, strong points of view, and highly relatable carousels often get a lot of shares.

Identify your top 5 and bottom 5 posts for each metric. What patterns emerge? Maybe tutorials get lots of saves, but behind-the-scenes photos don’t perform as well. Use this data, not judgment, to decide what to focus on and what to pause.

Audit Your Hashtag Strategy

Effective hashtags help categorize your content and improve discoverability. Are yours doing the job? Review the hashtags on your last 10-15 posts.

• Are they relevant? Don't just use generic tags like #marketing. If your post is about email marketing for small businesses, use #emailmarketingtips #smallbusinessmarketing. Be specific to the content in the image or video.
• Are you using a mix of sizes? An effective strategy includes broad tags (1M+ posts), niche community tags (50k-500k posts), and highly specific tags (under 10k posts). This allows you to rank in smaller pools while still reaching a broader audience.
• Are they working? On an individual post, click View Insights and scroll down to "Impressions." It will show you how many impressions came "From Hashtags." If these numbers are consistently low, consider testing new tags.

Above all, avoid copying and pasting the same block of 30 hashtags on every post. Not only is this ineffective, but it can also be flagged by Instagram as spammy behavior. Take a few minutes to customize your hashtags for each piece of content.

Step 4: Evaluate Your Brand and Profile Aesthetic

Your content's performance is crucial, but how everything looks together influences brand perception and follower loyalty. After all, Instagram is a visual platform.

The Grid Check

Go to your profile and look at your feed. Focus on your last 9 to 12 posts. Is there a cohesive visual identity? It’s not about creating a perfect, rigid pattern but about consistency.

• Colors &, Filters: Are you using a consistent color palette or set of filters? This creates a visual signature for your brand.
• Fonts &, Graphics: If you create graphics, are you using a consistent set of fonts and styles? When someone sees your graphic in their feed, they should recognize it as yours before they see your username.
• Content Mix: Does your grid reflect a healthy variety of content types? Is there a good mix of videos, graphics, and photos, or does it feel one-dimensional?

Voice and Tone Review

Branding is more than just visuals - it's also your voice. Read the captions of your last 10 posts aloud. Do they sound inconsistent? Is the tone jumping between funny, formal, and overly corporate without a clear reason?

Your brand’s voice should be authentic and consistent across all captions. A strong caption not only describes the visual but adds context, tells a story, provides value, and includes a call-to-action that encourages engagement. Make sure your captions contribute meaningfully.

Step 5: Put It All Together and Create an Action Plan

An audit without action is just data. This final step turns your findings into a clear, actionable plan for the next 30-90 days.

Create a simple document or spreadsheet with four columns:

• Area: The part of your Instagram you reviewed (e.g., Bio, Reels, Content, Hashtags, Grid).
• What's Working: A quick note on something positive (e.g., "Educational carousels get the most saves," or "Our consistent color palette stands out.").
• What Needs Improvement: Opportunities for growth (e.g., "Captions aren't asking questions," or "Hashtag reach is low.").
• Action Step: One specific, concrete action to implement (e.g., "Add a question to every caption for 30 days," or "Create 3 new hashtag sets to test.").

Based on this, set 1-3 measurable goals for the next quarter. Avoid vague objectives like "more followers." Instead, aim for concrete targets like "Increase Reel saves by 20%" or "Raise Story completion rate from 80% to 90%."

Final Thoughts

Running a comprehensive Instagram audit helps you cut through the noise, providing a data-driven roadmap based on your audience's behavior. By regularly reviewing goals, follower insights, top-performing content, and your overall brand aesthetic, you can make smarter decisions for sustainable growth.

Once you have an action plan, consistency is key. A modern social media management tool like our Postbase makes this easier. Its visual planner helps us layout our content calendar based on audit insights, and with its robust scheduler, we ensure all our videos - especially Reels - go live on schedule. It's a great way to turn insights into action without the manual stress.