How to Use Instagram Analytics

Wading through your Instagram data can feel like you're trying to read a different language, but inside those numbers is the exact roadmap you need to grow your account. This guide will walk you through exactly how to find, understand, and use Instagram Analytics to create content that your audience actually wants to see.

First Things First: Getting Access to Instagram Analytics

Before you can get into your data, you need to tell Instagram that you're using your account for more than just personal scrolling. This means switching to a Professional Account (either Business or Creator), which is free and only takes a minute to set up. You can't access in-depth analytics with a Personal Account.

How to Switch to a Professional Account

If you haven't done this already, it's simple. Here's how:

• Go to your Instagram profile.
• Tap the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner.
• Tap on Settings and privacy.
• Scroll down to Account type and tools.
• Tap Switch to professional account.
• Instagram will guide you through the next few steps, where you'll choose a category that best describes what you do (e.g., Blogger, Entrepreneur, Artist).
• Lastly, you'll choose between a Creator or Business account. Creator accounts are great for public figures, artists, and influencers. Business accounts are better suited for brands, retailers, and local businesses. The analytics are nearly identical, so don't stress too much over this choice.

Once you’ve made the switch, you won't see historical data, but Instagram will start tracking your performance from that point forward.

Where to Find Your Analytics Dashboard

With a Professional Account, a new button will appear on your profile. Simply go to your profile page and tap the Professional dashboard button right below your bio. This is your gateway to all your performance data, or what Instagram calls "Insights."

Decoding Your Instagram Insights: A Guided Tour

Your Professional Dashboard can seem a little overwhelming at first. Don’t worry. We’ll break down the three most important sections you need to know: Accounts Reached, Accounts Engaged, and Total Followers. These three areas tell you almost everything you need to know about your performance.

1. Who Are You Reaching? A Deep Dive into Your Audience

The "Accounts Reached" section is all about how many unique eyeballs see your content. It looks beyond your own followers to measure your content's total visibility on the platform. Click on Accounts Reached to see the details.

Key Metrics to Watch:

• Reach vs. Impressions: These two are often confused. Reach is the number of unique accounts that saw your content. Impressions is the total number of times your content was seen. If one person sees your post five times, that counts as 1 for Reach and 5 for Impressions. A high impression-to-reach ratio can mean your content is being shown to the same people multiple times, which is a good sign!
• Follower vs. Non-Follower Reach: This is a powerful metric. It shows you how much of your reach comes from your existing community versus people who don’t follow you. If your Non-Follower reach is high, it means your content is effectively showing up on feeds like the Explore page, Reels tab, or through hashtags. This is how you grow.
• Top Cities and Countries: This tells you where in the world your audience is. Are you a local cafe with a surprisingly large audience in a neighboring city? Maybe it's time for a targeted ad or a pop-up. Are you an online brand with a following in Australia? Consider posting at times friendly to that time zone.
• Top Age Ranges and Gender: Understanding your audience demographics is marketing 101. If you think you’re creating content for 25-34 year-old women but your data shows a growing audience of 18-24 year-old men, you might need to adjust your content strategy - or lean into this unexpected new audience.

Actionable Advice from Reach Data:

If your reach to non-followers is low, it’s a sign your content isn't spreading beyond your current audience. Focus on creating more shareable content, like relatable memes, helpful infographics, or jaw-dropping Reels. Use high-quality, relevant hashtags to help Instagram categorize your content and show it to new users.

2. Are People Actually Connecting? Tracking Your Engagement

Reach is great, but engagement is what builds a loyal community. The "Accounts Engaged" section tells you what people are doing when they see your content. This is where you find out if your posts are resonating or just being scrolled past.

Key Metrics to Watch:

• Accounts Engaged: Like reach, this is the total number of unique accounts that have liked, commented, saved, or shared your content.
• Likes & Comments: These are the classic vanity metrics. They’re good to see, but they don't tell the whole story. A comment is generally more valuable than a like because it requires more effort from the user.
• Saves & Shares: Pay close attention to these! A Save is someone saying, "This is so valuable, I want to come back to it later." This is a huge signal to the Instagram algorithm that you’re creating high-quality, useful content. Think tutorials, tips, inspirational quotes, or beautiful photos. A Share is even better. It’s a direct recommendation, where a user sends your content to a friend or posts it to their Story. This is organic marketing at its finest.

Actionable Advice from Engagement Data:

If a post gets a lot of Saves, that's your audience telling you exactly what type of content they find useful. Make more of it! If a particular Reel gets tons of Shares, ask yourself why. Was it hilarious? Relatable? Awe-inspiring? That’s the emotional chord you need to strike again. Your engagement data is a direct line of feedback from your community.

3. Growing Your Community: Analyzing Your Follower Data

This section is straightforward but powerful. Under "Total Followers," you can track the health and habits of your audience. This isn't just about watching the number go up, it's about understanding the people behind the follow button.

Key Metrics to Watch:

• Follower Growth Chart: This graph shows you your net follower growth over time, detailing how many people followed and unfollowed you each day. Did you see a sudden spike in follows on a certain day? Go look at what you posted. Odds are, it was a Reel that went viral or a post that resonated deeply. A big dip in followers? Maybe you posted something off-brand or controversial. This chart helps you connect content to audience growth.
• Most Active Times: This is a game-changer. This chart shows you the days of the week and the hours of the day when your followers are most active on Instagram. Posting your content during these peak times gives you the best possible chance of getting seen and engaged with right away. Don’t guess when to post, use this data to be strategic.

Actionable Advice from Follower Data:

Check your “Most Active Times” at least once a month and adjust your posting schedule accordingly. If your audience is most active Tuesdays at 6 p.m., that’s a premium time slot for your most important content. Use the follower growth chart to double down on your wins. If posting user-generated content every Friday results in a consistent follower bump, make that a permanent part of your content plan.

What's Working (and What's Not): Analyzing Individual Content

Overall trends are helpful, but the real insights come from digging into the performance of individual posts, Reels, and Stories. To do this, simply navigate to any piece of content on your profile and tap the View insights button below it.

Post & Reel-Specific Insights

For grid posts and Reels, you'll see a detailed breakdown of performance:

• Reach: See exactly how many people your post reached and what percentage were non-followers.
• Engagement: It shows you the standard metrics - Likes, Comments, Shares, and Saves. You can quickly see which posts are earning the most saves or shares and start looking for patterns.
• Profile Activity: Did this post lead people to visit your profile or tap the link in your bio? This tells you if your content is successfully driving action.

Story-Specific Insights

Stories have their own unique set of metrics. Swipe up on any active Story or look in your archive to find them. Here, you'll see things like:

• Reach & Impressions: How many people saw your story.
• Replies: A strong indicator of engagement.
• Sticker Taps: How people interacted with your polls, quizzes, or question stickers. This is fantastic for direct audience feedback.
• Navigation: Metrics like "Back," "Forward," "Next Story," and "Exited" tell you how people moved through your Story. A lot of "Back" taps can mean people wanted to re-watch a frame, while a high number of "Exits" can indicate that a particular slide wasn't engaging.

Turning Data into Action: Your New Content Strategy

Looking at data is one thing, using it is another. Your Instagram Analytics should directly inform your content strategy. Here's a simple framework to get started:

1. Commit to a Weekly or Monthly Review: Set aside 30 minutes every week or every month to go through your Insights. Don't let it become an afterthought.
2. Identify Your Winners and Losers: Look at your top 3-5 posts from the period by reach, engagement, or saves. What do they have in common? Was it the format (carousel vs. single image), the topic, the caption style, or the time of day it was posted?
3. Form a Hypothesis: Based on your top posts, form a simple theory. For example, "My audience seems to love behind-the-scenes Reels." or "Carousels with 3 helpful tips get the most Saves."
4. Test and Repeat: In the next week or month, create more content based on that hypothesis and see if the pattern holds. If it does, you've found a content pillar. If not, go back to the data and form a new one.

This simple cycle - review, hypothesize, create, and test - is how you build a data-driven content strategy that continuously improves over time. You stop guessing and start giving your audience more of what they've already shown you they love.

Final Thoughts

Instagram Analytics transforms your content creation process from a guessing game into a clear conversation with your audience. By regularly checking your Insights, you gain direct feedback on what inspires, entertains, and helps your community, allowing you to create more effective content that truly connects and grows your brand.

Once you get comfortable tracking these metrics, doing it across multiple platforms can feel like a chore. That's why we built Postbase with a clean analytics dashboard that brings all your performance data into one place. You can see what’s working across Instagram, TikTok, and more, helping you make smarter decisions without ever getting lost in the numbers.