Hashtag analytics: Your complete guide to tracking hashtag performance

Are hashtags still important? As algorithms change, there’s been debate around whether hashtags’ relevancy have changed with it. Truth is, hashtagging is still one of the most powerful organic social media strategies.

Implementing the right tags will drive people to your content and get them talking about your brand. Relevant tags also make it easier for your target audience to find your content and help brands find relevant content to share.

This guide contains everything you need to know about hashtag analytics so you can increase your brand’s reach and engagement on social media.

What is hashtag analytics?

Hashtag analytics refers to the collection of metrics and data for hashtags within a social media network such as X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram and YouTube. Hashtag analytics fall under the umbrella of social media analytics that brands use to inform strategy and make decisions.

How to track hashtags

Track hashtags natively using X analytics and Instagram analytics or use a social media management software.

Use a native app

You can use X analytics to measure your engagements, impressions, replies, shares and other important metrics. You can access the native analytics dashboard using the X analytics website or via mobile device. You can access Instagram analytics via desktop or mobile as well.

Native analytics are free tools, but a social media management software like Sprout will keep track of all your social media analytics in one platform.

Use Sprout Social

With Sprout, you can view hashtag analytics for multiple networks in one central location, saving you time from running analytics natively on each app.

In our Instragram Business Profile report, track your frequently used hashtags and the ones getting the more engagement. This helps you know which ones to keep using to maximize your reach and engagement.

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And Sprout’s Social Listening helps you find out how frequently people are talking about your topic, the related terms and hashtags they’re using and the sentiment around the topic.

Adding those keywords and hashtags into your posts will help generate more engagement and conversation around your brand online. From finding the most relevant hashtags for your brand to tracking social post performance, Sprout will help you effectively analyze your strategy.

Important hashtag metrics to track

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 helps define 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 help you measure the impact of your campaigns.

Users

Who, specifically, is using the hashtags? Make sure you’re seeing 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 this sentiment to identify hashtags that are likely to positively impact how your brand is perceived. It can also help you figure out if your content is resonating positively or negatively, enabling real-time optimizations to campaigns.

Types of hashtags to track

There are several different types of hashtags that you’ll be using 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 internationally. Region-specific hashtags help you connect with your target audience in relevant locations. For example, if you’re a West Coast athleisure brand, you might use the tag #californiafitness.

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.

Branded hashtags

These types of hashtags are created to encourage tagging your business directly and usually include a brand name, product or service. For example, Pretty Little Thing uses #EveryBODYinPLT and #PrettyLittleThing as a way to promote their clothing on Instagram.

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.

For example, Starbucks uses campaign hashtags each time they’re promoting a new drink.

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 relevant to your content and brand voice will extend your reach and awareness. By reviewing analytics, you will be able to 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 help you understand customer perceptions, identify trends and get ahead of potential crises.

e.l.f. Cosmetics’ UK Instagram account uses the branded product-specific #SqueezeMeLipBalm in posts promoting its exclusive lip balm set. 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.

Why is hashtag research critical for 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 research 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 research 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Hashtag tracking tools to use

There are a heap of social media management tools like Sprout that offer hashtag tracking.

Sprout Social

Sprout’s hashtag tracking tools and automated data reports make tracking and monitoring hashtag analytics more efficient so you can increase your reach and grow your audience faster.

Sprout’s Tag Report enables you to track your hashtags across networks over time to analyze growth. Our Listening tool enables you to dig deeper into conversations using certain hashtags and keywords to understand user sentiment and engagement around particular topics related to your brand, competitors or industry.

For Instagram, track top hashtags by engagement and add key hashtags to track within social media feeds to see who they’re being used by. Plus, you can follow tags relevant to your brand to help ensure you’re interacting with important conversations and trends.

TagFinder

TagFinder helps you generate and discover hashtags across various platforms. Identify trending topics in your local area or country, and the top related, similar or combined hashtags based on your keyword. It also maintains statistics on popular hashtags by country and a list of banned hastags on Instagram.

All Hashtag

All Hashtag aids brands in generating, analyzing and tracking the performance of hashtags across platforms. It suggests hashtags based on keywords you enter and evaluates the popularity and reach of specific hashtags. It also monitors trending hashtags across social networks and has a counter to keep track of the number of hashtags in your post text or caption.

Hashtag research tools to use

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 discover hashtags that are trending right now, increasing the likelihood of your content being seen by a wider audience.

Display Purposes

Display Purposes takes your brands 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.

The tool goes a step further by categorizing the suggested hashtags. This helps you create a balanced hashtag strategy with a mix of high-competition, moderate-competition and niche hashtags. This diverse approach maximizes your visibility across different audience segments.

Uncover insights with hashtag analytics

Now that you’ve got more know-how about native and non-native tag tracking tools, don’t wait another day to test and track your hashtag analytics. Sign up for a free trial or demo to experience how Sprout’s hashtag tracking tools will help you iterate your social strategy.