How to See Links Clicked on Instagram

Posting a link on Instagram and then wondering if anyone actually clicked it is a feeling every creator and marketer knows well. You put in the effort to direct your audience somewhere important, but it can feel like shouting into the void without the data to back it up. This guide will show you exactly how to see links clicked on Instagram, from using the platform's native tools to leveraging more powerful analytics to understand what truly moves your audience to action.

Why Bother Tracking Instagram Link Clicks?

Before we get into the "how," let's quickly touch on the "why." Tracking link clicks isn’t just about satisfying your curiosity, it's a fundamental part of a smart social media strategy. When you understand your click data, you can:

• Measure What Matters: Clicks are a direct line from Instagram to your business goals, whether that’s driving traffic to a blog post, boosting product sales, or growing your email list. It's one of the clearest indicators that your content is converting followers into potential customers.
• Understand Your Audience: Which posts drive the most clicks? Is it the behind-the-scenes Reel or the polished graphic about your new service? Your link click data reveals what content topics and formats resonate enough to make people take that extra step.
• Optimize Your Strategy: Without data, you're just guessing. By tracking what works (and what doesn't), you can confidently double down on successful content themes, tweak your calls to action, and stop spending valuable time on strategies that aren't performing.

Method 1: Using Instagram's Built-in Insights (Business/Creator Accounts)

The most straightforward way to see link clicks is directly within the Instagram app, but this feature is only available for Business or Creator accounts. If you're still using a Personal profile, switching is free and unlocks a ton of useful analytics. This method is great for getting a quick, high-level overview of your performance.

How to Switch to a Professional Account

If you haven't already made the switch, it only takes a minute:

1. Go to your profile and tap the hamburger menu (☰) in the top right corner.
2. Tap Settings and privacy.
3. Scroll down and select Account type and tools.
4. Tap Switch to professional account and follow the prompts. You can choose either "Creator" (best for public figures, artists, and influencers) or "Business" (best for brands, retailers, and service providers).

Step-by-Step: Finding Your Professional Dashboard Clicks

Once you're set up with a professional account, you can see the total number of clicks on the link in your bio.

1. On your profile page, you'll see a button that says Professional Dashboard right under your bio. Tap it.
2. Inside the dashboard, look for the Account insights section and tap See all.
3. Under the "Overview" tab, you'll see metrics for Reach, Engagement, and more. Look for Account Interactions. In this section, you should see Link clicks.
4. You can adjust the timeframe in the top left corner (e.g., Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days) to see how your clicks have trended over time.

This number represents the total number of times people have tapped the URL in your bio. It’s a great starting point, but it's not very detailed.

Tracking Clicks from Individual Stories

What about links you share in your Stories using the link sticker? Instagram makes that easy, too.

1. Go to an active Story that has a link sticker on it (or find one in your archive).
2. From the live Story, simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
3. You'll see Story insights, including the number of accounts reached and, right there with the sticker interactions, a clear metric for Link clicks.

The Limitations of Native Insights

While helpful for a quick check-up, Instagram’s built-in analytics have some clear drawbacks:

• It's just a total: The "Link clicks" metric on your dashboard is a single number. It doesn't break down where those clicks came from or who was clicking.
• No individual link data: If you use a "link-in-bio" tool with multiple links on a landing page, Instagram can't tell you which of those links received the clicks - only that someone tapped the main URL in your profile.
• Lacks deeper context: It won't tell you the geographic location of the user, what device they used, or any other valuable marketing data.

To get more granular, you'll need to use some external tools.

Method 2: Gaining Deeper Insights with Link-in-Bio Tools

Link-in-bio tools (like Linktree, Beacons, Koji, etc.) have become standard for a reason. They solve the "one link" problem by letting you create a simple mobile landing page that houses all your important links. A major bonus is that most of these services come with their own built-in analytics that go far beyond what Instagram offers.

Why Use a Link-in-Bio Tool for Tracking?

Moving your tracking to one of these platforms unlocks a new level of detail:

• Individual Link Tracking: This is the biggest advantage. You can see how many clicks your latest YouTube video got vs. your Etsy shop link vs. your free resource download. This allows you to measure the performance of specific calls to action.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Many tools show you not just the total clicks but also the CTR - the percentage of people who viewed your landing page and then clicked a specific link. A high CTR signals a very compelling offer or link.
• Historical Data & Location Info: These platforms store your data over the long term, so you can track performance month over month. Many also provide basic demographic data like the geographic location of your clickers.

How It Works: A General Walkthrough

While each platform is slightly different, the process is generally the same:

1. Sign up: Choose a provider and create an account. Many offer robust free plans.
2. Add Your Links: Populate your landing page with button links to your website, blog posts, affiliate products, social profiles, and more.
3. Customize: Add your brand colors, profile photo, and a short bio.
4. Grab Your URL: Copy your new, unique link-in-bio URL (e.g., linktr.ee/yourusername).
5. Update Your Bio: Paste this URL into the "Website" field in your Instagram profile settings.
6. View Analytics: After a few days, log back into your link-in-bio tool's dashboard. You’ll find an "Analytics" or "Stats" section showing total views and a detailed breakdown of clicks for each individual link on your page.

Method 3: The Ultimate Tracking Powerhouse - UTM Parameters & Google Analytics

If you're running a business and driving a significant amount of traffic to your own website, this is the gold standard. It might sound technical, but the concept is simple. By using special tracking links called UTM parameters, you can see exactly what your Instagram visitors do after they click your link and land on your website.

What Are UTM Parameters? (A Simple Explanation)

UTM parameters are short bits of text you add to the end of a URL. They don’t change the destination of a link, but they act like a name tag, telling Google Analytics (or other web analytics tools) precisely where that traffic came from.

Here’s a breakdown of the three main tags:

• utm_source: The platform the traffic came from. For us, this would be instagram.
• utm_medium: The type of traffic. This would often be social or bio-link.
• utm_campaign: The specific campaign, post, or drive you're running. This could be q3-flash-sale or new-blog-post-promo.

A final URL with UTM tags might look like this:

https://yourwebsite.com/new-product?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=summer24-launch

When someone clicks this, Google Analytics logs their entire journey on your site and attributes it to your "summer24-launch" campaign from Instagram.

How to Create and Use UTM Links

You don't need to build these daunting-looking links by hand. Google provides a free Campaign URL Builder tool that does all the work for you.

1. Go to Google’s Campaign URL Builder.
2. Enter the destination URL (e.g., your product page).
3. Fill in the fields: utm_source (instagram), utm_medium (e.g., story or bio), and utm_campaign (e.g., august_promo).
4. Scroll down, and the tool will automatically generate your full UTM link. Copy it.

Because these links are long and clunky, it's best to shorten them using a free tool like Bitly before putting them in your link-in-bio tool or Instagram Story sticker. This gives you two layers of analytics: the click data from Bitly/your bio-link tool, and the on-site behavior data from Google Analytics.

Finding the Data in Google Analytics 4

To see your results, log into your Google Analytics 4 account and navigate to:
Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition. Here, change the primary dimension to Session campaign. You will now see a report with all your campaign names, showing you exactly how much traffic each generated - along with user engagement, conversions and more.

Bonus: Creative Workarounds for Tracking from Your Feed

Of course, Instagram feed posts (photos and Reels) don't allow for clickable links in the caption. But you can still measure interest and action from them using a couple of clever tricks.

Strategy 1: Unique Coupon Codes

If you're an e-commerce brand, create a promo code that's exclusive to a specific Instagram campaign or even a single post. For example, in a caption promoting a new dress, you could say: "Shop the link in bio and use code SUMMERIG15 for 15% off!" By tracking how many times that specific code is used, you get a solid, indirect count of how many sales were driven by that social effort.

Strategy 2: The Direct Link Swap

For a major product launch or sale, you can temporarily change your link in bio to that one exact page - not your link-in-bio landing page. In all your feed post captions, use a strong call to action like, "It's live! Tap the link in our bio to shop the new collection." For the next 48 hours, every click logged by Instagram Insights or your URL shortener can be directly attributed to that campaign. Just remember to swap your regular link back in when the promotion is over.

Final Thoughts

Tracking Instagram link clicks evolves from basic curiosity to a powerful strategy tool. Whether you start with the simple metrics inside Instagram's Professional Dashboard, graduate to a link-in-bio tool for more detail, or master UTM codes for a full website picture, an in-depth understanding of what drives action is necessary for growing on the platform.

Here at Postbase, we know that getting people to click is only half the battle. You also need to know what’s working across all your platforms so you can create more of it. That’s why we built our analytics dashboard - to give you a clean, simple view of your performance without burying the important information. You can compare content, see what drives engagement, and make smarter decisions for your brand with Postbase.