How to See Who Clicked Your Link on Instagram Story

You’ve crafted the perfect Instagram Story, found a compelling call to action, and added that all-important link sticker. Now, you’re watching the views pile up and asking the big question: Who, specifically, is clicking my link? We'll get straight to the point with the direct answer, and then show you the smart ways to measure the impact of those links beyond just a simple click count. This guide will walk you through how to find your link click data, understand its limitations, and use clever strategies to get a much clearer picture of who's engaging with your content.

The Direct Answer: What Instagram Actually Shows You

Let's get this out of the way first: Instagram does not show you a list of the specific people who clicked your link sticker. It's a question marketers, creators, and curious users have asked for years, but due to user privacy policies, this information is kept anonymous. When a user clicks a link in your Story, they are leaving the Instagram app to visit an external website, and Instagram does not provide a person-by-person report of that activity.

So, what can you see? You can see the total number of link clicks. This metric is a solid indicator of how many times your call to action was compelling enough to make someone tap. While it doesn't tell you if your best friend or a new follower clicked the link, it’s still valuable data. Knowing 150 people visited your blog post from a single Story is a powerful insight. The secret isn't about identifying individuals, but about understanding the broader performance and learning how to get more insights from the data you do have.

How to Find Your "Link Clicks" in Story Insights

Finding the total number of clicks you received is straightforward. You just need to know where to look inside your Story analytics. This feature is only available for Business or Creator accounts, so if you're on a Personal profile, make the switch in your settings to unlock these insights.

Here’s the step-by-step process:

1. View Your Active Story: Open the Instagram app and tap on your profile picture at the top left to view your active Story. You can also do this for past Stories by going to your Archive.
2. Access the Viewers List: While watching your Story slide, swipe up from the bottom of the screen. You can also tap the "Activity" icon in the bottom-left corner, which looks like a small bar chart.
3. Find Your Story Insights: This screen initially shows you who has viewed your story. At the top, tap the bar chart icon to switch to the Insights panel.
4. Locate "Link Clicks": You'll see a section for "Sticker Taps" or "Navigation." In that area, you'll find the “Link Clicks” metric with a total number next to it. That number is the total tally of taps your link sticker received.

This count is your primary piece of direct feedback from Instagram. It's a clean, simple metric that tells you precisely how many times your audience took action. Keep an eye on this number every time you post a link. You'll start to notice patterns - maybe a certain product photo gets more clicks than a behind-the-scenes video, or a big, bold call-to-action performs better than a subtle one. This is the foundation of your link strategy.

Creative Ways to Figure Out Who Might Be Clicking

Since Instagram won't give you a name-by-name list, you have to get a little creative. The goal here is not to find definitive proof, but to gather strong clues and encourage interaction from the same people who are interested enough to click your link.

1. Use Interactive Stickers as a Follow-Up

Interactive stickers are your best friend here. A few hours after you post your Story with the link, add another Story slide with a Poll, Quiz, or Question sticker. This gives your most engaged followers a direct way to identify themselves.

• For a Poll: Ask a simple, direct question related to the link. If you linked to a new product, your poll could be, "Checked out the new collection? Yes! or On my way!" Anyone who answers "Yes!" is telling you they likely clicked.
• For a Quiz: Create a fun, one-question quiz about the content you linked to. If you shared a blog post titled "5 Tips for Better Morning Coffee," your quiz could be, "What was tip #3 in our new blog post?" Only people who clicked and read will know the answer.
• For a Question Sticker: Use this to invite feedback directly. Post a sticker that says, "What did you think of the new article/product?" Engaged users who clicked may send a direct reply, giving you both their username and valuable feedback.

2. Keep an Eye on Your DMs and Story Replies

People who take the time to click a link are often genuinely interested. It’s very common for them to slide into your DMs with a question, a comment, or feedback about what they found. When someone replies directly to your Story with the link, it’s another strong signal that they clicked through.

Monitor your direct messages and Story replies in the hours after you post. This is qualitative data perfection - not only do you learn who is engaged, but you also learn what they think. Pay attention to their specific questions, as they can reveal friction points on your website or opportunities for clearer messaging.

3. Cross-Reference Your Viewers List

This method isn't scientific, but it's another layer of context. After using interactive stickers or checking your DMs, go back and look at your original Story's viewer list. You can't draw a direct line between every viewer and a click, but you can look for patterns.

Are the people who always view your stories first the same ones responding to your polls? Are the followers who consistently engage with your other content appearing at the top of your viewer list? This helps you build a mental "profile" of your most active audience members, who are very likely the same people driving your link clicks.

Power Up Your Tracking with External Tools

Instagram's built-in insights are great for a quick overview, but if you're serious about your marketing or brand building, you need more detailed data. This is where external tracking tools come in. They take a little more setup but give you a much clearer picture of what happens after the click.

1. Use UTM Parameters for Google Analytics

The term "UTM parameters" might sound technical, but it’s actually quite simple. They are small snippets of text you add to the end of your URL that tell analytics platforms, like Google Analytics, where your website visitor came from.

For example, instead of using yoursite.com/product, you'd use a link like:

yoursite.com/product?utm_source=instagram&,utm_medium=social&,utm_campaign=story_promo

This tells Google Analytics that anyone arriving via this exact link came from Instagram (source), specifically from a social media channel (medium), as part of your Story promo (campaign).

How to create one:

• Go to Google’s free Campaign URL Builder.
• Fill in the fields:
  • Website URL: The original link (e.g., https://www.yoursite.com).
  • Campaign Source: instagram
  • Campaign Medium: social or story
  • Campaign Name: A name to identify the specific content, like fall_collection_launch_23. This helps you tell different promotions apart.
• The tool will generate a new URL. Copy it and use this as your link in the Instagram Story sticker.

Now, inside your Google Analytics dashboard, you can go to Acquisition >, All Traffic >, Source/Medium and see exactly how many people came to your site from that specific Story link. While still anonymous, it connects your Instagram effort directly to your website traffic data.

2. Use Link Shorteners with Dashboards (Like Bitly)

If you don't use Google Analytics or want a simpler overview, a link management tool like Bitly is a fantastic option. When you shorten a link with a service like Bitly, it becomes a new, trackable link.

The process is easy: just paste your long URL into Bitly, and it will give you a short link (e.g., bit.ly/3rABCdE). When you log in to your Bitly account, you can see performance data for every link you've created, including:

• Total number of clicks over time.
• Geographic location of clicks (by country or city).
• Referrer information (where the click came from, e.g., Instagram).

This is often much faster than digging into Google Analytics and gives you a clean dashboard perfect for social media analysis. The key benefit is tracking performance in a centralized place, especially when you’re using the same link across multiple platforms.

Final Thoughts

While you can't see the specific usernames of people who clicked your Instagram Story link, a smart creator has plenty of tools to measure performance. By using a combination of Instagram's native insights, engaging interactive stickers, and powerful external tracking methods like UTM links or Bitly, you can get a remarkably clear picture of who your active audience is and what drives them to take action.

Seeing how your link clicks trend is just one part of your overall content strategy. At Postbase, we designed our platform to help you see the bigger picture. Our analytics dashboard gives you a clean view of what’s working across all your content - from Stories that drive clicks to Reels that get saves. We believe that understanding performance shouldn't be complicated, so we made it easy to pinpoint your best content and create more of what makes your audience feel connected.