If you use Instagram for your brand and are wondering how to measure the success of your campaigns and ensure your ROI, keep reading! Of all the social media platforms, Instagram is the one that keeps growing massively, and that’s not about to change in 2021. To ensure that you are not wasting time and...
If you use Instagram for your brand and are wondering how to measure the success of your campaigns and ensure your ROI, keep reading!
Of all the social media platforms, Instagram is the one that keeps growing massively, and that’s not about to change in 2021.
To ensure that you are not wasting time and resources on a strategy that is not working, it is crucial that you track key performance indicators (KPIs) on Instagram. And when I say indicators, I don’t mean the number of followers or the number of likes, I mean more detailed and relevant indicators that will help you achieve your goals.
In this article, I share with you 9 essential Instagram KPIs to follow in 2021 to build a solid and effective social media strategy.
Reach
Reach measures the number of unique users who see your content. This metric is used to analyze your brand awareness, but also to analyze the performance of your content and implement new actions to improve it.
For example, if you find that a post has more or less reach than usual, you can use these results to determine what works best, and what doesn’t, for your future posts.
What hashtags did you use? Did you publish when your community was most active? Are there differences in the types of images you shared?
All these factors can have a direct impact on the reach of a post. It’s important to note any changes that may contribute to an increase or decrease of your reach.
Note: Don’t confuse reach and impressions – impressions refer to the number of times a user sees your post. Both are extremely important, but will need to be analyzed separately depending on your objectives.Partages & Enregistrements
Shares & Saves
It may come as a surprise, but yes, shares and saves are THE metrics to take into account in 2021 – especially since Instagram has decided to remove likes for some of us.
But this is not the only reason. Shares and saves have become important metrics for brands that want to boost their visibility and engagement but also to track their conversions.
Here’s the reason: when a post is shared, your community helps you ensure that the post is seen by others that you might not reach otherwise. Saves are also a strong indication that your post has been perceived as valuable content that the user wants to keep for later.
Comments
Comments are a great indicator that your content has hit a nerve in some way, encouraging people to take time out of their scrolling to type out a message.
And they’re extremely valuable because they’re one of the ways to start building relationships with your community.
Many conversations take place in the comments section of an Instagram post!
It’s where you can get deeper into your relationship with your followers, answer their questions and get to know them better.
So if someone leaves you a comment, don’t ignore it – answer them, ask questions, show them that you appreciate the time they spent engaging with your post.
You never know… they could be potential customers!
Engagement
Your engagement rate on Instagram is a key indicator of how your audience engages with your content.
Keeping an eye on this indicator is the key to long-term success because you can identify exactly what resonates with your audience – and use this valuable information to adjust and improve your content strategy.
Please note that when it comes to video content, engagement rates can be misleading – in fact, people most often interact by watching the video rather than liking it. For video content, use metrics such as reach (number of views) or comments instead, to get a more reliable analysis.
Traffic & Sales
When you create content on Instagram, you must also ensure that it will generate traffic and sales on your website.
There are many ways to generate traffic for your website from Instagram – from clicks on your Stories to the link in your bio but also by using the various shopping features.
If you have more than 10.000 followers on Instagram, you can add links to your Stories. With Instagram’s statistics, you can monitor the number of clicks a Story receives and use it to understand what motivates your audience.
Also, it makes sense to monitor the number of clicks your link in bio receives, as this is a key placement for generating traffic.
But the biggest breakthrough for sales came with the new shopping features. Instagram has become a true showcase for brands and the ideal way to connect with an active community of buyers. There are now several ways to make purchases on Instagram: click on a product tag, save items to your wishlist, or buy directly with the Buy on Instagram feature (currently only available in the U.S.).
The last two Instagram KPIs in this article are Story statistics – fundamental to the growth of your account and are critical to analysis in 2021.
Retention rate
If you’re wondering where you were when retention rate appeared on Instagram analytics, don’t worry, it didn’t.
Although retention rate is not something Instagram calculates for you, it is an indicator you should follow, and it’s very easy to calculate. Here’s how:
Retention rate = impressions of the last Story ÷ impressions of the first Story
Retention rate is an indicator of the attractiveness of your Story as a whole. And a good retention rate is a signal to the Instagram algorithm that your content is valuable.
Currently, Iconosquare is the only platform that offers Story analysis, which you can find in the Analytics → Stories tab.
Replies
The second Instagram Stories metric to monitor is replies – you can easily find them in your Instagram analytics.
Replies are important to track because getting your followers out of your Stories and into your inbox is critical to deepening your relationship with them.
As a business, the best way for you to start generating leads through Instagram and converting them into customers is the DMs. There you can have conversations with your community, get to know them so you can find out how to better sell your products to them.
Conclusion
Now that we have reviewed the key Instagram KPIs to analyze in 2021, remember that regular analysis of your brand account is essential. It allows you to make changes, maintain best practices, and avoid mistakes, so that you can adapt your strategy to achieve your goals – if you miss crucial information, you could be in for a real shock.
But no need to panic, of course, it’s possible to automate all of this and get a more comprehensive overall picture of your performance, easier to analyze. By using a tool like Iconosquare, you’ll save time by getting in-depth reporting and analysis of your Instagram account.