Hashtag analytics: Your complete guide to tracking hashtag performance

As algorithms evolve, so does the debate around hashtag relevancy. But let’s be clear: while platforms like TikTok now prioritize factors like watch time, effective hashtagging remains a powerful tool for organic social media growth. The question isn’t if hashtags are important, but how you use them to drive results.

Hashtag strategy isn’t one-size-fits-all. Each social media platform has its own nuances, and understanding them is critical for success. For example, LinkedIn prioritizes personal connections over hashtags, so fewer, highly relevant tags perform best.

Hashtags on X (formerly known as Twitter) revolve around real-time conversations and events. Instagram prioritizes content based on user behavior, making it essential to find hashtags that align with your audience’s genuine interests.

When you strategize with these nuances in mind, implementing the right tags drives people to your content and gets them talking about your brand. They offer a relevant way for brands to categorize content, join conversations relevant to their audiences and track campaign impact.

Finding the right hashtags for your account requires a dual approach: diligent research and continuous hashtag analytics.

This guide breaks down everything you need to know about hashtag analytics. Use it to increase your brand’s reach and drive engagement on social media.

What is hashtag analytics?

Hashtag analytics is the process of collecting and analyzing metrics for hashtags used on social media platforms like X, Instagram and YouTube. It’s a key component of any social media analytics strategy. Brands use hashtag analytics to track campaign performance, identify emerging trends and gauge audience sentiment.

This real-time feedback on engagement and visibility makes hashtag tracking an invaluable tool for making swift, data-driven decisions.

How to track hashtags

Track hashtags using native features on platforms like X or Instagram. But for deeper insights and a more efficient workflow, a social media management platform like Sprout Social is the superior approach.

We explain how to track natively and within Sprout Social below.

How to natively track hashtags on X

You can use X analytics to measure your engagements, impressions, replies, shares and other important metrics. Most of these more advanced native hashtag analytics tools are now only available if you have X Premium.

If you don’t have X Premium, you can still natively track hashtags manually in a few ways. You can search for hashtags in X’s search bar to find popular posts using a hashtag.

You can also use X’s Trending list to see topics generating conversations. Clicking on each topic will reveal popular posts, where you can find more relevant hashtags.

Use X’s Lists feature to join groups and track key industry experts. Regularly monitor your lists to find relevant industry talking points and identify popular hashtags that are being used.

With many of X’s hashtag analytics tools behind the X Premium paywall, native tracking has become more challenging. Manual tracking is free but incredibly time-intensive. A comprehensive social media management tool like Sprout Social is a more effective solution, allowing you to track hashtags across X, Instagram and other platforms from a single, unified dashboard.

How to natively track hashtags on Instagram

Monitor your Instagram hashtags natively using Post Insights, which is only found in Instagram Business.

To access Post Insights, select the individual post you want to track, then select the View Insights button. Instagram will then give you all of the insights information for your chosen post; think likes, comments, shares and other information.

If you scroll down, you’ll see how many impressions your post received from your chosen hashtags. This shows you how effectively your chosen hashtags performed. Use a spreadsheet to track your hashtags and their performance over time, so you make adjustments when necessary.

Remember, this native data is aggregated from all your hashtags. You’ll see total impressions ‘From Hashtags,’ but you can’t track individual hashtag performance. While you can manually test, a dedicated social media management tool is necessary for a full range of hashtag analytics on Instagram.

How to track hashtags using Sprout Social

Sprout Social provides hashtag tracking support through its social listening tools.

By using Sprout’s Conversation Breakdown widget within Social Listening, you can visualize the leading conversations around your current Listening topics. You can then specifically search for hashtags within Conversation Breakdown.

This shows you the top hashtags your followers are using in real time. Track trending hashtags within specific conversations and analyze their sentiment. Sentiment analysis categorizes conversations as Positive, Neutral or Negative, revealing how your audience perceives your brand and campaigns.

Break down your hashtag analytics further by volume or engagement. This reveals both the most-used hashtags around a topic and the ones that drive the most interaction. Tracking both gives you a powerful mix of tags for future content.

Sprout Social unifies your hashtag tracking across platforms. This gives you a comprehensive overview of hashtag performance from a single dashboard, saving you from switching between different social media platforms.

This combined data makes it easier for you to plot an overarching hashtag strategy, alongside platform-specific approaches. It also saves you time when tracking hashtags across several different accounts.

How to track hashtags on social media content and messages using Sprout Social

Use Tags to tag any scheduled social messages across all of your profiles with a unique hashtag. Once published, use Sprout Social Tag Report to see how your content performs. This supports tracking the performance of individual campaigns, events, content categories and more.

Also use Tags to group inbound messages that contain the same hashtag. This gives you a clear view of how your audience uses hashtags to communicate directly with your brand. For example, during a UGC (user-generated content) campaign, you can track your unique hashtag to measure participation and engagement.

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Key metrics for your hashtag analytics

​​Tracking hashtags is important to determine if a hashtag is working for your social strategy. Here are a few top social media metrics that’ll help you determine the success of a hashtag.

Popularity

Hashtags that are used often tend to be searched often, so it’s a good idea to include tags that have proven to be popular. Just make sure you’re not spamming your followers with irrelevant, trending hashtags for popularity’s sake. Popularity also supports defining the success of campaigns. If you notice a campaign hashtag is popular among your target audience, you know it resonates.

Reach

Reach is an important part of your hashtag analysis because it measures how many people actually see your content. If your reach isn’t very high, you’re probably not using the best hashtags for your campaign or strategy.

Engagement and interactions

Not only do you want to make sure people are using and seeing your hashtags, you want to make sure people are also interacting with them. Posting hashtagged content that gets users sharing will expand the reach of your campaign. Engagement metrics also support measuring the impact of your campaigns.

Remember that different types of interactions offer different insights. Likes are useful for tracking basic engagement, shares show how willing people are to share your hashtagged topics with others‌ and replies can show you how well a hashtag creates conversations. You can also go one step further and track comment sentiment.

Users

Who, specifically, is using the hashtags? Make sure you see users within your target audience using and searching for the same hashtags in your posts so your message resonates.

Sentiment

Hashtags often represent specific interests or communities. Tracking the sentiment associated with a hashtag gives you insight into what your audience cares about, likes or dislikes. Use sentiment analysis to identify hashtags that can positively impact how your audience perceives your brand. It also supports figuring out if your content is resonating positively or negatively, supporting real-time optimizations to campaigns.

With Sprout Social’s Listening tools, you track hashtag sentiment instantly. Analyze conversations around a topic and filter related hashtags by Positive, Negative or All Sentiment. This gives you immediate insight into audience perception.

The different types of hashtags to track

There are several different types of hashtags that you’ll use in your social media content. Here’s why it’s good practice to track each one.

Location hashtags

Use location hashtags to scale your strategy and connect with local audiences. For example, a London-based restaurant using #londonrestaurants taps into a massive, geographically-relevant conversation on Instagram. This supports connecting directly with your target audience in specific locations.

Event hashtags

If you want to incorporate industry hashtags, consider using event hashtags. You can use these tags when your brand hosts an event, attends a conference or if you’re posting about a national or international event (i.e. big sporting events). You can use these tags to live post, which can help generate traction around your event and increase reach and engagement on your content. Pre-event hashtags are best to create anticipation before an event and can start a month or so before the event to build hype. Live event hashtags on the day will be more frequent and allow participants to react, engage and collaborate with real-time updates.

To capitalize on the buzz surrounding the Oscars season, Sprout used the #Oscars on our Instagram account to promote our content that shared which talking points were trending during the event.

Branded hashtags

These types of hashtags are created to encourage tagging your business directly and usually include a brand name, product or service. Barbour, a UK clothing brand since 1894, has their own hashtag, #BarbourWayOfLife, and encourages their customers to tag themselves for a chance to be featured on their socials.

Tracking branded hashtags—especially campaign-specific hashtags—is a great way to see how many people are talking about your business specifically.

Campaign/ad hashtags

A campaign/ad hashtag is a hashtag that your company creates for a specific campaign, launch or digital advertisement. This helps to generate buzz around one specific thing that your business is doing.

To promote the new season of The White Lotus, HBO Max is promoting #TheWhiteLotus across X. They use the hashtag in their account bio and when posting content related to the show. By creating and using this hashtag, they’ve also encouraged other accounts on X to use it when talking about the popular new series, furthering the reach of the hashtag and building the buzz around the show itself.

These hashtags are ideal for tracking since they’re specific to each campaign’s focus compared to recurring brand or content hashtags. Use social listening to monitor your campaign hashtags and how well they’re catching on with your audience.

Trending hashtags

You can review trending hashtags natively on X and Instagram’s Explore pages via desktop or mobile by tapping the magnifying glass icon. Instagram will show the volume of people talking about or using the trending hashtags, and X will show if the hashtag is popular or trending.

Not all trending tags will be relevant to your brand or industry, but analyzing them will help you identify the best tags to incorporate into your strategy or campaign. Using trending hashtags, like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt or #Barbenheimer, that are relevant to your content and brand voice will extend your reach and awareness. By reviewing analytics, you’ll see how trending hashtags differ from other ones.

Product and service hashtags

A product- or service-specific hashtag is often used to promote a particular offering and track social discussions related to it. It can be a generic hashtag (e.g. #makeup) or branded (e.g. #DuoChromeEyeShadow). Analyzing the conversations and engagement around these hashtags helps you understand customer perceptions, identify trends and get ahead of potential crises.

e.l.f. Cosmetics’ UK Instagram account uses the branded product-specific #ThirstBurstDrops hashtag when promoting its skin hydration product. This enables them to monitor the reach and impact of their product marketing campaign promoting the release of new scents to their lip balm collection through careful research.

Why hashtag analytics is critical for your business

Beyond campaign and content optimization, hashtag research can impact your social media strategy and the entire business in several ways. Here are five specific reasons why hashtag analysis is critical.

• Understand your audience: Hashtags are like signals on social media that draw specific people. Monitoring who’s engaging with your hashtag can reveal if that audience aligns with your target market. Use those insights to help build personas and guide your content development to better meet customer needs and extend your reach through the right hashtags.
• Keep your competitive edge: Hashtag analysis can help you keep an eye on the competition. By looking at competitor hashtags, you can figure out what is and isn’t working for them and within your industry. These insights help you stay ahead of the competition by learning from them. And if you want to take this a step further, set up a competitor hashtag tracking list in Sprout.
• Analyze sentiment: Hashtags can help identify the feelings expressed by your audience in relation to specific topics or brands. This enables you to understand public perception of your brand, industry, competitors and more in real-time. Use this research to tailor your content to better resonate with your audience, and address any emerging issues.
• Stay relevant: Find new trends by looking at popular or emerging hashtags related to your industry or your audience’s interests. Then tailor your content and campaigns to align with the trending hashtags most relevant to your brand. This will help increase visibility and your brand’s relevance in the market. Hashtag research should be part of an ongoing process as trends will change over time.
• Find influencers and advocates: Find your biggest fans or influencers that align with your audience and brand. Research hashtags to uncover people who are frequently posting influential content related to your products or services, and engaging actively with your brand. Recognizing and collaborating with these brand advocates can help increase visibility, credibility and broaden your reach while strengthening brand loyalty.

What are the best practices for tracking hashtags?

Your hashtag strategy is only as good as the data behind it. Tracking and analyzing hashtag performance gives you a direct line into audience engagement, emerging trends and brand amplification. These best practices will help you transform raw data into actionable insights that drive reach and resonance.

• Monitor influencers and competitors: Analyze the hashtags used by competitors and relevant influencers to understand their engagement strategies and keywords.
• Identify trending hashtags: Use hashtag tracking tools to identify trending hashtags relevant to your content, helping your posts gain immediate or long-term visibility.
• Find related hashtags: Explore more specific, related hashtags by using platform search bars, which can help connect you with a more targeted audience.
• Analyze past post performance: Track successful hashtags from previous posts to identify trends and incorporate high-performing tags into your future content.
• Utilize social listening and hashtag analytics tools: Employ tools such as Sprout Social to research effective hashtags for different networks and stay informed about trending industry topics.

To help you maximize your reach and engagement, explore these detailed guides on effectively using hashtags across popular social media channels:

• How to use TikTok hashtags
• Guide to LinkedIn hashtags
• How to use hashtags on Twitter
• Complete guide to YouTube hashtags
• How to find the best hashtags for Instagram
• How hashtags work on Facebook
• Hashtags for Holidays

Hashtag analytics tools to streamline your research

Researching hashtags is much easier if you use a hashtag research tool. These are some of the best options available today if you’re looking to streamline how you handle hashtag research.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social’s hashtag analytics tools and automated reports make tracking and monitoring more efficient. This empowers you to increase your reach and grow your audience faster.

Our Listening tool lets you dig deeper into conversations around specific hashtags and keywords. Use it to understand sentiment and engagement related to your brand, competitors or industry. This research is the foundation of a powerful hashtag strategy.

Use Sprout to research the most popular hashtags on the social platforms you’re using. Also research leading hashtags that are relevant to your particular market or industry. Gather data using Sprout’s detailed reports, and use this research to inform which hashtags to track and how to improve your wider hashtag strategy.

RiteTag

RiteTag provides real-time hashtag suggestions for images and text on social media platforms. It also offers a “hashtag comparison” feature that allows you to compare the performance of different hashtags.

The hashtag research tool analyzes hashtag performance in real time, providing you with data-driven suggestions for optimal reach and engagement. This means you’ll identify hashtags that are trending right now, increasing the likelihood of your content being seen by a wider audience.

Display Purposes

Display Purposes takes your brand’s specific needs into account when researching hashtags. By analyzing your Instagram profile and the keywords you provide, it generates hashtag suggestions that are relevant to your content and target audience. This ensures you’re reaching the right people and increasing your chances of engagement.

Meta Hashtags

Meta Hashtags is used to research and analyze hashtags across Instagram. When you search for a specific hashtag, you’ll be given several more relevant keywords as well as data on how the hashtag is used. You also navigate directly to examples of content using a hashtag, so you see how the content appears on Instagram itself.

Meta Hashtags offers more advanced analytics and features for Instagram hashtags on its paid plans. These include being able to perform more advanced searches with more filters, and being able to track your competitor’s hashtag use.

Keyword Tool

Though it’s mainly used for keyword strategies, you also use Keyword Tool to research hashtags. Keyword Tool assists with hashtag research across YouTube, X, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

When you search for a related keyword, the tool will also provide you with suggested hashtags. You can go one step further by using its “negative keyword” filter to remove any hashtags or keywords that you don’t want to appear. This is useful to remove any keywords that have negative connotations or which are directly linked to your competition.

Uncover insights with hashtag analytics

Stop guessing and start making data-driven decisions with your hashtag strategy. Sprout Social’s comprehensive suite of hashtag analytics tools gives you everything you need to move beyond simple tracking. Uncover emerging trends with our Listening tools, measure campaign performance with detailed Tag Reports and understand audience perception with real-time sentiment analysis. Transform your hashtag analytics from a chore into a strategic advantage. See how by starting a free 30-day trial today.

Hashtag Analytics FAQs

How do you do a hashtag analysis?

To perform hashtag analysis, select relevant hashtags and use an analytics tool to track their performance. Focus on metrics like reach, impressions, and engagement. Analyze sentiment and identify top-performing posts to understand what resonates with your audience. Regularly compare results to optimize your social media strategy.

What tools can be used for hashtag analytics?

Various tools can assist with hashtag analytics. These include social media management platforms like Sprout Social, and the native analytics provided directly by platforms like Instagram, X, and TikTok. Additionally, dedicated hashtag tools such as Hashtagify and Keyhole offer deeper insights into performance, trends, and audience engagement.

What is a good hashtag research strategy?

A good hashtag research strategy involves using a mix of relevant, niche, and popular hashtags to reach your target audience. Research the hashtags that your audience and competitors are using. Don’t overload posts; aim for a focused few (e.g., 3-5 on Instagram, 1-2 on X). Continuously monitor performance and adapt your strategy based on analytics.