9 Instagram analytics tools to master performance

Instagram used to be a black hole in terms of third-party marketing tools.

Fast forward to 2019 and times have changed. From social listening to engagement metrics, businesses on Instagram are spoiled for choice when it comes to Instagram tracking apps and tools.

Zeroing in on the right Instagram analytics tools can be tricky, though. The platform’s recent surge in popularity coupled with frequent changes to its API makes it difficult to find a reliable, long-term solution.

Listen: we totally get it. That’s why we put together a comprehensive list of Instagram analytics apps and tools you can use in tandem with the top social media management tools to master your key marketing metrics.

Given the diversity of the platform and its content, it’s oftentimes best to have multiple sources of Instagram insights on deck based on your priorities.

Maybe you’re focused on Stories and user-generated content. Perhaps you’re frequently running ads and influencer campaigns.

Regardless of your goals, the following combination of free and paid Instagram reporting tools can help you step up your Instagram analytics game ASAP.

Use these Instagram analytics tools to become a power user

1. Sprout Social
2. Iconosquare
3. Phlanx
4. TapInfluencer
5. Curalate
6. Union Metrics
7. Bitly
8. Keyhole
9. Instagram Insights

1. Sprout Social

While we may be the ones bringing you this list, there’s no denying Sprout Social’s powerful Instagram analytics.

In addition to empowering you with intuitive Instagram scheduling and publishing features, as well as supporting engagement through real-time monitoring, Sprout enables you to quickly analyze Instagram data at both the post and profile level. With Sprout, you can dig even deeper into your Instagram data with interactive graphs and metrics.

The analytics within Sprout’s Sent Messages and Instagram Profiles reports are extremely helpful in discovering what we do well and how we can improve our customers’ overall experience with Wahl.

Lance Wahl
Global Vice President of Professional Products

Want to identify top posts based on engagement during specific timeframes? Looking to spotlight which industry influencers are interacting with your posts? Curious as to how your video content stacks up?

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Sprout’s got you covered with analytics right out of the box and an option to increase the power of your data with Premium Analytics. With Premium Analytics you can dive headfirst into your Instagram insights and surface trends within the metrics that matter most.

And with a suite of intuitive reporting options, it’s easy to create a custom detailed, presentation-ready report with the data that matters most to you.

Whether you’re examining hashtag trends to inform future content or evaluating team performance to optimize operations, you can do it at scale by measuring everything from follower growth to engagement across different products, brands or locations simultaneously.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a complete solution without a focus on Instagram’s other important content types like Stories and IGTV.

Along with metrics specific to Stories, such as clicks, saves and replies, Sprout helps you make sure your Stories are impactful in the long run by giving you long-term insights versus the two-week snapshot Instagram provides natively.

You can also compare how your IGTV views and comments are stacking up to the rest of your Instagram feed by checking out these metrics all in one place with Sprout’s unified solutions.

2. Iconosquare

Iconosquare is an Instagram analytics tool that’s tailored for agencies and brands managing multiple accounts. The platform’s features include competitive hashtag and growth-tracking not unlike that of Sprout.

Beyond its full-blown analytics platform, Iconosquare also offers a free Instagram audit for business profiles. This tool ensures that your profile is “complete” and sticking to the platform’s best practices. The audit assesses your 30 most recent posts as well as your general account settings.

Considering how competitive Instagram has become, it never hurts to have a sort of “second opinion” on your presence.

3. Phlanx

Unlike some of the more in-depth Instagram reports on this list, Phlanx is pretty straightforward.

Phlanx’s engagement calculator analyzes the engagement rate of any given Instagram account. Although the tool is marketed as being for influencers, any personal or business account can be plugged in.

Engagement rate is calculated by dividing the number of likes and comments a post receives versus an account’s follower count. There is no magic number in terms of what a brand of influencer’s engagement rate should be, although a ballpark of ~3% is considered good to average.

Tools like Phlanx are invaluable for spotting accounts with fake followers or determining whether an influencer’s posts are receiving legitimate engagement. Phlanx can likewise be used to track competitor engagement in addition to your own account.

4. TapInfluence

Speaking of influencers, Instagram analytics apps can be used to identify social media influencers directly.

And that’s exactly what TapInfluence does.

TapInfluence’s platform analyzes a database of over 50,000 influencers to help brands find the right fit for their influencer campaigns. Businesses can search by industry or specific tags based on what they’re looking for.

The platform then provides a snapshot of various influencers, including their rates and cost per engagement. Having all of this data in one place helps saves a ton of time when vetting influencers.

 

TapInfluence also provides real-time benchmark reports based on industry data to help brands understand how their own influencer campaigns stack up.

5. Curalate

The boom of social selling via user-generated content signals the need for Instagram analytics tools that keep you informed on your best-selling products.

Case in point, you’ve probably seen a “Like2Buy” bio link, haven’t you?

These links belong to Curalate, a platform which curates user-generated content to help brands sell their products directly from Instagram. The trackable “Like2Buy” link enables brands to track the ROI of their social campaigns. In addition to engagement and sales metrics, Curalate monitors tags and mentions, making it easy to spot UGC in the wild.

Dedicated social selling platforms like Curalate do double duty of determining your most valuable content while also assessing the direct financial returns from your Instagram campaigns.

6. Union Metrics

Union Metrics is a robust marketing intelligence platform that helps brands track their owned media and industry trends.

Aside from Union Metrics’ full suite of features, brands can take advantage of the platform’s free Instagram Account Checkup tool. The checkup provides a detailed report including your top hashtag, analysis of your most dedicated followers and average post engagement.

Anything that makes it easier to audit your social media presence for free is a plus. Like Iconosquare’s free Instagram analysis tool, brands can use Union Metrics to gain a better understanding of their account analytics at a glance.

7. Bitly

As illustrated by Curalate, your Instagram bio is incredibly valuable real estate.

Tracking your bio link is a must-do for monitoring the success of your social campaigns. This rings true whether you’re trying to sell products or simply drive traffic to your site.

Bitly is a tried and tested link-tracking tool that’s fair game on Instagram for budding businesses and big brands alike.

Driving traffic to a specific landing page? Bitly breaks down your bio click links and can be used in conjunction with Google URL builder to provide an in-depth performance report of your campaigns. Beyond bio URLs, Bitly can also be used to track links that are included in your paid Instagram campaigns.

8. Keyhole

Instagram reporting tools that measure past performance are the norm, but it’s also helpful to analyze real-time data as well.

Keyhole provides real-time hashtag tracking for Instagram, which is perfect for social media contests, brand campaigns or other marketing efforts involving hashtags.

Besides seeing how many times a hashtag has been used, Keyhole also shows additional data such as the top posts containing your hashtag, the most engaging posts and related hashtags.

It never hurts to have fresh hashtag ideas on deck, especially considering that approximately 10 tags are considered “optimal” for Instagram engagement. Below a snapshot from Keyword’s hashtag word cloud to help brands brainstorm ideas.

 

9. Instagram Insights

Finally, don’t neglect the native reports provided by Instagram.

Instagram Insights reports cover impressions, engagement, reach and top posts among other metrics. This data can be broken down from the span of a few months or even years, which is key for historical performance.

Plus, you’ll get access to followers analysis and demographics so you can find out what percentage of your audience are male/female, age groups and even where the bulk of them are from.

Knowing who you’re speaking to on Instagram is undoubtedly beneficial. You might have a target audience in mind that you want to reach, but the only way to truly know who’s engaging with your posts is by looking through your Instagram analytics.

As a side note, we should also mention Facebooks’s ad manager as another native tool that analyzes paid posts. With more and more brands investing in paid social, such metrics can keep you from sending your ad spend down the drain.

The good news? Facebook has some of the most robust and in-depth social media ad analytics out there. Simply put, brands have plenty of data to determine the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of their Instagram ads.

And with that, we wrap up our list!

Ready to try today’s top Instagram analytics tools?

Long gone are the days of businesses second-guessing their Instagram presence.

With today’s wealth of Instagram tools, businesses of all shapes and sizes are empowered to optimize their posts for engagement.

Want to score more likes and comments? Curious to know which hashtags will help maximize your reach? These data points and then some are all at your fingertips and then some with the help of Instagram analytics tools such as Sprout.

We want to hear from you, though. Anything else you’re looking for in terms of Instagram metrics? If you haven’t made the leap to a third-party analytics tool, what’s holding you back? Let us know in the comments below!