Instagram Analytics: 5 Tools You Should Know in 2025

To make it big as a creator on social media, you’ve gotta know your stuff — and knowing Instagram analytics is the key to success. Have you ever felt like it’s a roll of the dice as to which of your posts will get attention? Analytics reveal crucial engagement patterns, making it much less of a mystery. 

You can maximize your social media potential and grow engagement with the right analytics tools. This guide will explore the best options on the market.

What Are Instagram Analytics?

Instagram analytics are the examination of crucial engagement metrics. They provide information about your followers and how they interact with your posts. Analytics data can show post impressions, follower count, shares, and more. 

As you gain information through this analysis, you can keep track of which kinds of posts are most successful. This allows you to build and improve your social media strategy. 

A social media strategy is important so you aren’t left guessing which of your posts will be successful. An analytics report answers questions like:

• When’s the best time to post on Instagram so my followers will see my content?
• Does my audience like selfies or travel photos more?
• Are more males or females liking my photos?
• Which posts get the most comments?
• Does reposting content to my Instagram story bring more engagement?
• Are posts with trending hashtags performing better?
• Do my posts with good captions get more traction?
• What’s working with my current strategy and what isn’t?

By noticing patterns in engagement data, you can continue making posts that incorporate the most effective elements of your profile. Perhaps you notice that videos taken with your GoPro get the most likes and views. In that case, this kind of content might be your new go-to. Studying Instagram metrics helps you find your niche.

Why Are Instagram Analytics Important?

When you track Instagram metrics, it helps you work toward your primary social media goals. For Instagram business profiles and full-time creators who get paid for their content, this is crucial — paid creations only succeed when you understand your audience.

Potential goals might look like:

• Gaining a younger audience to promote a new bar.
• Monetizing Reels and getting brand deals as an influencer.
• Building a community around shared interests.
• Reaching a certain number of followers.
• Gaining online recognition in your industry to boost your career and credibility.

How can analytics help you with these goals? The data teaches you to work with the Instagram algorithm. The algorithm is what promotes your content to viewers. It uses artificial intelligence and engagement trends to predict what content users will enjoy.

Analytics reveal whether the algorithm is pushing your content to your ideal audience. The data will also reveal whether your current audience likes what you’re creating. If you need a change, switch up your content type or the hashtags. Then keep an eye on how engagement improves, stagnates, or decreases.

To further fine-tune your approach to posting, fine-tune your approach to posting use data to see which hashtags bring viewers to your page. Analytics also will tell you which of your posts have the lowest like-to-view ratio. Some tools can even identify when your followers are most active so you know when to catch their attention. 

Using Instagram Analytics To Identify Your Audience

Instagram analytics give you an insight into your audience’s demographics. Data like viewers’ age, gender, and location are valuable to you as a creator, so knowing how to work with this information is vital.

If the users who like your posts tend to be local, then tagging locations in your posts and stories can help you grow that audience. If you post travel content, you can cater your posts to destinations with your biggest follower base.

Let’s say you’re a creator who photographs and blogs about fashion, posting about both menswear and women’s styles. While your content about men’s clothing doesn’t go ignored, your followers are 78% female. To optimize engagement, you could either cater more to your female audience or build a strategy to bring more men to your account.

That’s where strategy comes in. While you steer the direction of your content, analytics arm you with the knowledge to map the journey. 

How To See Instagram Analytics

Using the Instagram app on your phone, you can access Instagram’s built-in analytics tools. This helps you understand your followers and viewers. To do this, you’ll have to first switch to a business account, as only those users can access the necessary features. But don’t worry — you don’t have to be a business owner or file for an LLC.

Follow these steps to create a business account and view your metrics:

1.  Go to your Instagram profile and tap on three lines in the upper right corner of the screen. This will take you to your account settings. 
2. Under “For professionals,” go to “Account type and tools.” Select the option that says “Switch to professional account.”
3. After switching to a business account, you can access the analytics by tapping on the three lines again and going to the Instagram Insights page. 

Here, you can see an overview section and a section called “Content you shared.” The overview shows you the number of accounts reached, overall engagement, and followers gained. You can sort each category by groups like followers, non-followers, and content type. In the followers section, you can view the demographics of your audience.

Types of Instagram Metrics To Track

There are several different metrics that you can use to gain insight into Instagram stats. Here are the essential types and how you can use them to fuel your growth.

Views

Your views define how many times your content was viewed on Instagram. It’s important to note that if one person views a video of yours five times, it counts as five views — not five viewers.

Reach

There’s a key difference between views and reach. Reach measures the total number of people seeing the content of your Instagram account. If you’re trying not just to boost views but also to expand your audience, you want this number to be high. 

Engagement Rate

Engagement rate describes the percentage of viewers interacting with your content. This could be through likes, saves, comments, or shares. It’s a good measure of whether your audience is interested in what you put out. 

Shares

Shares are a clear sign of enthusiasm. If someone shares your content, they love it enough to send it to friends or even repost it on their story. This is a nice compliment, and it can introduce your work to new viewers.

Saves

People save posts to reference them later. It might be to bookmark a travel destination, to use as style inspiration, or just to rewatch a hilarious video clip. If a post is getting a lot of saves, it’s likely an audience favorite.

Watch-Through Rate

The watch-through rate is how many people are viewing your videos all the way to the end. If it’s low, that’s a sign that you may need to make shorter content. This metric might also show you which type of content keeps viewers’ attention. 

5 Best Instagram Analytics Tools

The best Instagram analytics apps and tools give you a clear look at trends in your engagement and following. Here are five trusted go-tos for social media experts.

1. Instagram Insights

One of the best tools is Instagram’s built-in analytics feature. Free and convenient, it offers the basics without having to download another app. For creators who are just starting their account growth, it provides plenty of data. If you want a more in-depth analysis, there are advanced tools you can purchase. Depending on how important social media performance is in your life, it may be worth the investment.

Cost: Free

2. Hootsuite 

A great app for beginners, Hootsuite covers everything from post interactions to profile visits and follower growth. Businesses can even monitor their paid ads at a glance. Companies can also view their average response time to make sure their customer service is top-tier.

Hootsuite’s “best time to publish” feature takes the guesswork out of scheduling posts. It doesn’t just consider basic engagement times — the tool uses your unique data over time to recommend the best posting times for you.

Cost: Free trial and paid subscriptions starting at $32/month

3. Later

Later offers basic analytics along with the ability to preview posts. Its main selling point is the ability to schedule shares ahead of time. It also has a post time optimization tool and hashtag optimization. A major upside they offer: you can track a year of analytics data all at once. 

Cost: Paid subscriptions starting at $16.67/month

4. Iconosquare

If you want in-depth analytics, Iconosquare is a solid choice. They offer over 100 metrics and a customizable dashboard. Social media management professionals and marketing agencies love their tools. For example, agencies can assign social profiles to different team members. Iconosquare also prides itself on being collaboration-friendly. 

Like Later, this option lets you schedule posts ahead of time on their platform. If you make editorial calendars each month, you can do all your planning in one place. 

Cost: Paid subscriptions starting at $49/month

5. Keyhole

Keyhole is ideal for influencer marketing and brand campaigns. It has hashtag monitoring and can track mentions of your business. If you want to measure brand awareness, their metrics also include an analysis of your online presence. Keyhole also gives you the option to follow competitors.

Cost: Varies by campaign

Level Up Your Instagram Game With Captions

A key to social media success is a willingness to try new things and adjust your strategy. People are ever-evolving, so your content should be, too. But to do this successfully, you need to continuously monitor what’s working and what’s not.

If you’re looking for an advantage in the competitive Instagram market, Captions has additional tools for you. Our AI Video Editor makes creating Reels and stories a breeze. Captions offers automatic subtitles, language translations, and AI-generated video content, letting you fast-track your production workflow and share high-quality content every time.

Explore our creative studio and upgrade your Instagram content today.