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Instagram Story analytics: how to track the right metrics for your brand

February 10, 2024


In today’s digital age, social media has become an indispensable tool for businesses to connect with their target audience and build their brand presence. Among the various platforms available, Instagram stands out as a popular choice, with its engaging features like Stories. These temporary snippets of content have revolutionized the way brands share their stories and engage with their followers. However, to truly leverage the power of Instagram Stories, it is essential for brands to track the right metrics. In this article, we will delve into the world of Instagram Story analytics and explore how businesses can effectively measure the success of their Stories, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and achieve their marketing goals.

How do you get metrics on Instagram stories?

To get metrics on Instagram Stories, you can access the built-in analytics feature provided by Instagram. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Insights: Instagram offers a detailed Insights section for business accounts. To access it, you must have a business profile or a creator account. Switch to a business account by going to your profile settings and selecting “Switch to Business Account” or “Switch to Creator Account.”

2. Story Metrics: Once you have a business or creator account, you can view metrics for your Instagram Stories. These metrics include impressions, reach, taps forward/backward, replies, and exits. Impressions represent the total number of times your story was viewed, whereas reach indicates the number of unique accounts that saw your story. Taps forward/backward show how many times viewers tapped to skip or revisit parts of your story. Replies represent the number of direct messages sent in response to your story, and exits indicate the number of times users left your story to return to their feed or exit Instagram.

3. Accessing Metrics: To access your story metrics, open the Instagram app and go to your profile. Tap the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner, then select “Insights.” In the Insights section, navigate to the “Content” tab and scroll down to find the “Stories” section. Here, you will see a summary of your story metrics for the past 14 days. Tap on “See All” to get a more detailed breakdown of individual story metrics.

4. Analyzing Metrics: Instagram provides various graphical representations to help you analyze your story metrics effectively. You can view metrics by day, week, or month and compare them with previous periods. Additionally, you can filter metrics by specific stories to gain insights into their performance individually.

5. Understanding Audience: Instagram’s Insights also provide demographic information about your story viewers. You can see their age range, gender distribution, and top locations. These audience insights can help you understand your target audience better and tailor your content accordingly.

6. Exporting Metrics: If you need to share your Instagram story metrics with others, you can export them as a CSV file. This allows you to analyze the data further or present it in a different format.

By utilizing Instagram’s built-in analytics, you can track and analyze the performance of your Instagram Stories, allowing you to refine your content strategy and engage better with your audience.

How do you measure metrics on Instagram?

To measure metrics on Instagram, there are several key factors and tools that can be utilized:

1. Follower Count: This metric represents the number of people following your Instagram account. It is a basic measure of your account’s popularity and reach.

2. Engagement Rate: This metric measures the level of interaction and engagement your posts receive from your followers. It includes likes, comments, shares, and saves. A higher engagement rate signifies a more active and involved audience.

3. Reach and Impressions: Reach refers to the number of unique accounts that have seen your content, while impressions represent the total number of times your content has been viewed. These metrics help determine the visibility and exposure of your posts.

4. Profile Views: This metric indicates the number of times your Instagram profile has been viewed. It provides insights into the effectiveness of your content and whether it is driving curiosity and interest about your brand or content.

5. Stories Metrics: Instagram Stories have their own set of metrics, including views, replies, and exits. These metrics help analyze the performance and effectiveness of your stories in capturing viewer attention and driving engagement.

6. Hashtag Performance: Monitoring the performance of hashtags used in your posts is essential. Instagram Insights provides data on the reach and impressions generated by specific hashtags. This helps identify which hashtags are driving more visibility and engagement.

7. Website Clicks: If you have a website linked to your Instagram account, tracking the number of clicks and visits generated from Instagram can help assess the effectiveness of your posts in driving traffic to your website.

8. Audience Demographics: Instagram Insights provides valuable data on your audience’s demographics, including age, gender, location, and active hours. This information helps tailor your content to better resonate with your target audience.

To measure these metrics, Instagram provides an in-built analytics tool called Instagram Insights. It offers detailed data and analytics for business accounts, including impressions, reach, engagement, and audience insights. Additionally, there are various third-party analytics tools available that offer more advanced features, such as competitor analysis, hashtag tracking, and content scheduling.

Regularly monitoring and analyzing these metrics can provide valuable insights into your Instagram performance, allowing you to make data-driven decisions to improve your content strategy, engagement, and overall growth on the platform.

How do you track Instagram stories?

Tracking Instagram stories can be done through various methods and tools. Here are a few ways to track Instagram stories:

1. Native Instagram Insights: If you have a business or creator account, Instagram provides built-in analytics called Insights. Within Insights, you can access data on your story’s reach, impressions, taps forward/backward, replies, and exits. This helps you understand how your stories are performing and what resonates with your audience.

2. Third-party Analytics Tools: Several third-party analytics platforms offer more advanced tracking features for Instagram stories. These tools provide in-depth metrics, engagement rates, viewer demographics, and even sentiment analysis. Popular options include Iconosquare, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Later.

3. Story Views: Instagram displays the total number of views on each story. By checking the viewers list, you can get an idea of who is watching your stories. However, keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive, as it only shows the users who have viewed your story after the first 50 people.

4. Swipe-Up Links: If you have a business or creator account with at least 10,000 followers, you can add swipe-up links to your Instagram stories. By tracking the number of users who swipe up, you can measure the effectiveness of your call-to-action or drive traffic to specific landing pages.

5. Hashtag Tracking: If you include hashtags in your stories, you can monitor their performance by tracking the engagement and reach of those hashtags. This helps you understand which hashtags are driving more views and interactions to your stories.

6. Story Insights Stickers: Instagram offers interactive stickers like polls, questions, and quizzes for stories. These stickers not only engage your audience but also provide insights on how many people interacted with them and their responses. This data can give you a deeper understanding of your audience’s preferences and interests.

Remember, tracking Instagram stories allows you to analyze trends, identify successful content strategies, and make data-driven decisions to improve your overall Instagram presence.

What is the retention metrics for Instagram stories?

Retention metrics for Instagram stories refer to the measurements used to analyze how well users engage with and retain interest in the stories posted on Instagram. These metrics provide insights into the effectiveness and impact of stories on the audience. Here are some aspects to consider:

1. Completion rate: Completion rate indicates the percentage of users who watched the entire story from start to finish. This metric reflects the level of interest and engagement in the content. Higher completion rates suggest that the story was captivating and held the attention of viewers.

2. Tap-forward rate: Tap-forward rate measures how frequently users tap on the screen to skip or fast-forward through a story. A higher tap-forward rate may indicate that the content was not engaging enough, prompting users to move on quickly.

3. Exit rate: Exit rate represents the percentage of viewers who exited the story before it ended. A higher exit rate suggests that users lost interest or found the content unappealing, causing them to leave the story prematurely.

4. Backward taps: This metric counts the number of times users tapped to go back and re-watch a specific part of the story. Frequent backward taps indicate that users found certain segments interesting or engaging enough to view again, highlighting the effectiveness of those elements.

5. Replies and interactions: The number of replies, reactions, and interactions received on a story can also be considered a retention metric. Higher levels of engagement, such as comments, direct messages, or sticker reactions, indicate that the story sparked interest and encouraged users to actively engage with the content.

Analyzing these retention metrics helps content creators and businesses assess the effectiveness of their Instagram stories, identify areas of improvement, and tailor future content to better engage and retain their audience.

In conclusion, Instagram Story analytics provides valuable insights for brands to track the performance of their Stories and make data-driven decisions. By understanding the right metrics and analyzing them effectively, brands can gain a deeper understanding of their audience, content performance, and overall engagement.

The first step in tracking the right metrics is setting clear goals and objectives for your Instagram Stories. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, or boosting engagement, having a clear goal will help determine the relevant metrics to monitor.

Measuring reach and impressions is essential to understand how many unique users are viewing your Stories and the total number of times they are being seen. This data can help brands gauge the overall reach and impact of their Stories.

Engagement metrics such as taps forward, taps backward, and exits can provide insights into how users are interacting with your Stories. Monitoring these metrics can help identify which content resonates well with your audience and which needs improvement.

Tracking completion rates gives brands an idea of how many users are watching their Stories until the end. This metric can help identify the effectiveness of your storytelling and whether your content is captivating enough to maintain viewers’ attention.

Additionally, monitoring the number of replies, shares, and sticker taps can give brands insights into the level of engagement and interaction their Stories are generating. This data can help identify the type of content that drives conversations and encourages users to share it with others.

Lastly, don’t forget to track the link clicks within your Instagram Stories. By using the swipe-up feature or adding clickable stickers, brands can drive traffic to their website or specific landing pages. Tracking these link clicks can help determine the effectiveness of your call-to-action and the overall impact on your website traffic.

In conclusion, Instagram Story analytics provides brands with a wealth of information to measure the success of their Stories. By tracking the right metrics, brands can optimize their content strategy, improve audience engagement, and ultimately drive better results for their business. Utilizing these insights effectively can help brands stay ahead in the competitive world of Instagram marketing.