How to See Dashboard Views on Instagram

Ready to move past surface-level metrics like likes and followers? Your Instagram Professional Dashboard is the control room for your account’s growth, offering a treasure trove of data that tells you exactly who your audience is, what content they love, and how your strategy is performing. This guide will walk you through exactly how to find your dashboard, understand what you’re looking at, and turn those powerful insights into real-world growth.

First Things First: Do You Have a Professional Account?

Before you can get access to any performance data, you need to make sure you're using an Instagram Professional Account. This dashboard is exclusive to Creator and Business profiles, so if you’re still using a Personal Account, it’s time to make the switch. Don't worry, it's free and only takes a minute.

A Professional Account unlocks access to analytics, contact buttons on your profile, and the ability to run ads. You're not losing any features, only gaining the tools necessary to grow your presence effectively.

How to Switch to a Professional Account:

• Go to your Instagram profile and tap the three horizontal lines (the "hamburger" icon) in the top-right corner.
• Tap Settings and privacy.
• Scroll down to For professionals and tap Account type and tools.
• Tap Switch to professional account.
• Instagram will guide you through a few quick steps to choose a category that best describes what you do (e.g., Artist, Blogger, Digital Creator, Entrepreneur) and decide whether you’re a Creator or a Business.

Generally, a Creator account is best for public figures, content producers, and influencers, while a Business account is suited for brands, retailers, and service providers. The core analytics features are similar for both.

How to Access Your Instagram Professional Dashboard

Once you’ve got your Professional Account set up, finding your dashboard is straightforward. Instagram places it right on your profile page for easy access, so you'll never have to dig through menus to find it.

Here’s where to look:

1. Open the Instagram app and navigate to your main profile page (the icon in the bottom-right corner).
2. Underneath your bio and before your Story Highlights, you will see a prominent link that says Professional dashboard.
3. Tap on it, and you're in!

This dashboard is your one-stop-shop for performance metrics, growth tools, and creator resources. Let’s break down what you’ll find inside.

A Guided Tour of Your Professional Dashboard

When you first open the dashboard, you’ll see several sections. While the layout might change slightly over time, the core components generally stay the same: Account Insights, Your Tools, and Tips and Resources. We'll focus on the first two, as they contain the actionable data you need to grow.

Account Insights: Your Performance at a Glance

This is the heart of your dashboard. Tapping See all next to "Account Insights" takes you to your main analytics screen. Here, you can toggle the date range to see data from the last 7, 14, 30, or even 90 days. This overview is broken down into three primary categories: Reach, Engagement, and Followers.

1. Accounts Reached

This metric shows the total number of unique accounts that saw any of your content at least once. It’s a very different metric from "Impressions," which counts the total number of times your content was seen. For example, if one person saw your Reel five times, that counts as 1 for Reach and 5 for Impressions. A high Reach signifies you're successfully getting your content in front of new and existing eyeballs.

Inside the Reach section, you can see valuable audience demographics:

• Top Cities and Countries: See where your audience is physically located. This is incredible information if you're a local business wanting to confirm you're hitting a local audience, or a global brand looking to identify new expansion markets.
• Top Age Ranges and Gender: Understand the demographic breakdown of your audience. Are you reaching the generation you thought you were? This data helps you tailor your content, references, and tone to the people who are actually listening.

Actionable Tip: If you notice a surprise surge in followers from a specific country, dig into the content you posted around that time. Did you use a particular audio or hashtag that's popular there? This is how you spot opportunities to connect with a new audience segment.

2. Accounts Engaged

Engagement measures actions. This number reflects the total of unique accounts that have interacted with your content through likes, comments, saves, shares, and other direct interactions. This is a powerful measure of how resonant your content is - people didn't just see it, they were moved to do something about it.

Inside this section, you can view breakdowns in Audience Engagement for:

• Likes
• Comments
• Saves
• Shares

High engagement signals to Instagram's algorithm that your content is valuable, which can lead to increased reach. Pay close attention to Saves and Shares. A like is a passive nod, but a save means your content was so helpful or inspiring that someone wants to return to it later. A share is the ultimate endorsement - they liked it enough to vouch for it to their own network.

3. Total Followers

This section provides a simple overview of your follower activity during the selected time period. You’ll see a clean chart showing your total number of followers, how many people followed you, and how many unfollowed you. It's a great way to monitor growth trends and correlate spikes in follows (or unfollows) with specific posts or strategies.

At the bottom of this section is one of the most useful pieces of data on the entire dashboard: Most Active Times. Here, Instagram shows you the hours and days when your followers are most active on the platform. This is a game-changer for scheduling your content to go live when your audience is most likely to see and interact with it.

Content Deep Dive: What's Actually Working?

General overview metrics are great, but the real power comes from analyzing individual pieces of content. From the main "Account Insights" page, scroll down past the overview charts to where your content is displayed.

Here you can filter your content by format (Posts, Stories, Reels), metric, and time period. This is where you connect the dots between what you create and what resonates.

• Want to know which posts brought new people to your profile? Filter your Posts by Reach.
• Curious which Reels are sparking conversation? Filter your Reels by Comments.
• Trying to figure out which content provides the most value? Filter your Posts by Saves.

For example, a business coach might find that their Reels with quick "myth-busting" tips get the most Shares, while their carousel posts offering a detailed 5-step framework get the most Saves. This tells them exactly what kind of content to create for different goals: Reels for audience growth and brand awareness, and carousels for nurturing their existing community with high-value, educational content.

Your Tools: Beyond the Numbers

The Professional Dashboard is also home to a suite of practical tools designed to help you monetize and manage your account more efficiently.

• Ads & Branded Content: Promote your posts or manage brand partnerships directly.
• Saved Replies: An incredible time-saver for anyone who gets a lot of the same questions in their DMs. You can set up pre-written responses for FAQs like "What are your hours?" "Do you ship internationally?" or "How do I sign up?" This frees you up from typing the same thing over and over.
• Monetization Status: Check your eligibility for various monetization features like Badges (which fans can buy during live streams) and affiliate marketing opportunities.

Okay, I Have the Data. Now What?

Interpreting analytics can feel overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. The best approach is to ask simple questions and let the data provide the answers. Here’s how to translate those insights into a smarter content strategy.

1. Identify Your Top-Performing Content Pillars

Go to your content breakdown, set the time range to the last three months, and filter by your most important metric (maybe it's Reach, maybe it's Engagement, or perhaps Saves). Look at your top 5-10 posts. What are the common themes? Are they tutorials? Behind-the-scenes looks? User-generated content features? These are your proven content pillars - make them a recurring part of your content calendar.

2. Optimize Your Posting Times

Check your "Most Active Times" under the follower insights. Start by scheduling your most important content to go live an hour or so before these peak times. This gives the algorithm time to start distributing your post so it's hitting its stride right when most of your audience logs on. Remember, this is a starting point, not a magic formula - always test and see what works best for you.

3. Double Down on Winning Formats

Is Instagram showing your Reels to more non-followers than your static posts? This is a strong hint that Reels should be your go-to format for attracting new audiences. Do your Stories with polls and question stickers get way more engagement than the ones where you're just talking to the camera? That's your audience telling you they want to interact. Give the people what they want.

4. Speak Your Audience’s Language

Review the demographics in your "Accounts Reached" section. If you discover a significant portion of your audience is in a specific city or speaks a different language, consider giving them a shout-out or creating content focused on them. Small, personal touches go a long way in building a loyal community.

Final Thoughts

Your Instagram Professional Dashboard does more than just show you numbers, it tells you a story about your content, your audience, and your brand. By regularly checking these analytics and using them to ask thoughtful questions, you can move from guessing what works to knowing what works, allowing you to create content more efficiently and effectively.

Looking at this data is a great foundation for any social strategy, and turning those learnings into a consistent plan is where growth really takes off. At Postbase, we designed our tool to bridge that exact gap. We provide a clean visual calendar to plan your content, rock-solid scheduling for the formats that matter now - like Reels and video - and a unified inbox that brings order to your community engagement. Our goal is to help you put your insights into action, without the frustration of tools that are stuck in the past.