The Complete Guide to

INSTAGRAM MEASUREMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTSIntroduction

How to Measure Instagram

Engagement Metrics

Likes

Comments

Total Engagement

Engagement per Post

Engagement as a % of Followers

Hashtag Mentions

Hashtag Volume

Potential Hashtag Reach

Potential Hashtag Impressions

Follower Metrics Total Number of Followers

Percent Change in Followers

Optimization Metrics

Most Engaging Filter

Top Photo Tags

5 Strategic Instagram Measurement Tactics

Learn About Your Audience

Pay Attention to Timing

Check your Competition

Hashtags to Build Your Brand

Influence on Instagram

Conclusion

Appendix

What Is Instagram?

Instagram Timeline

How to Post

How to Tag

About Simply Measured

INTRODUCTIONInstagram is one of the most successful social networks of all time, but the value for marketers isn’t in networking like it is with some networks; it’s in storytelling.

Launched in 2010, the image-sharing platform’s popularity continues to soar, with brands from retail to commercial real estate using it to tell visual stories in a way that feels intimate and non-intrusive. Instagram is changing the way that brands evaluate their audiences and create content.

This is clearer now than ever before. Instagram just announced that over the next year, they’ll start rolling out their new set of business tools, including an Account Insights dashboard and Ad Insights dashboard to help brands understand how users engage with and respond to their photos and videos. These dashboards, which will add metrics like actual impressions to the measurement toolbox, aren’t available publicly yet, but are a signal of the need to understand and measure success on the visual platform.

Whether your brand is just starting to invest time and energy in Instagram, or is an established powerhouse on the network, you’ll want to optimize your strategy. This must be done without a solid understanding built on measurement. Through measurement, you can develop a solid foundation of what works, what doesn’t, and what to focus on for your specific brand.

This guide to Instagram measurement outlines the metrics required to measure and fully understand the photo and video-sharing network. It then helps outline several strategic measurement tactics that can help any marketer use to get your wheels turning.

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HOW TO MEASURE INSTAGRAMTo understand any network, you need to know its parameters: what it does, which actions users can take, and which metrics count toward your success.You can’t measure what you don’t know, so we’ll start by defining the different ways of measuring Instagram.

Engagement MetricsLikesLikes on Instagram are much like Facebook Likes or Twitter Favorites. They are a signal that the image you’ve posted has resonated with your followers. A user taps a photo or video twice in the center to like it, and the heart icon beneath the post turns solid red. Next to this icon is a count of how many Likes an image has earned.

CommentsBesides liking posts, users can also share comments. The comments appear under the photo, with the option to collapse or expand when there are more than three. Users can tag other Instagram users and include hashtags and emojis in their comments.

Total EngagementTotal engagement is the sum of Likes and comments on your Instagram posts during an established time period.

Total engagement gives you insight into how active your audience is and how well your strategy is working.

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Engagement per PostThe engagement per post metric provides deeper insights than just total likes or comments. It gives you an average of how much engagement you’re getting per post and helps you discover which posts earn the most interaction.

Keep in mind that some of your posts will resonate well and earn high engagement numbers, while others will fall flat.

In addition, it’s important to look beyond average engagement per post number and take a magnifying glass to your content. This can be done by breaking engagement per post into engagement per video and engagement per photo to give you more tactical insight on which types of content your audience responds to most.

Engagement as % of FollowersEngagement as a % of followers is calculated for a specific time period, and is an invaluable tool for benchmarking.

Engagement as a % of followers shows the portion of your current followers interacting with your posts during a specified time period. By comparing this metric period-over-period, marketers have a starting point to find valuable insight into their specific tactics.

Total Engagement in a Time Period ÷ Total Followers=

Engagement as % of Followers

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Hashtag MentionsA secondary type of engagement on Instagram is interaction with your brand hashtag. An “engagement” with a hashtag happens anytime an Instagram user mentions a hashtag in a comment or caption on any photo or video across the network.

Hashtag VolumeHashtag volume is the total number of hashtag mentions during an established period of time.

If you’re more interested in how viral a campaign hashtag is rather than how your Instagram account is being interacted with, you’ll want to pay attention to hashtag volume, the number of times a hashtag has been used in any given period.

Potential Hashtag Reach

Your potential reach shows you how many people have seen your hashtag on Instagram. For the most part, reach is considered a “potential” metric; just because a post appears on a feed doesn’t mean the target user has seen it.

Potential Hashtag Impressions

Your number of potential impressions is the amount of times that photos and videos using your hashtag are displayed in a user’s stream. Just like reach, this is a “potential” metric.

ReachThe number of unique people who have seen content associated with your page

ImpressionsThe number of times content associated withyour page is displayed

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Follower MetricsTotal Number of FollowersThe total number of followers is the number of unique Instagram users who’ve opted into your brand content. When a user follows another user on Instagram, the followed user’s content will appear in the following user’s stream. This is an important metric to track. It’s an indicator of how popular your Instagram account is and how well you’re doing at advertising your Instagram presence on your other channels. It also helps you benchmark how you’re doing in relation to competitors on the network (more on that later).

Since users don’t see photos their friends like, are tagged in, or have commented on like they might on other social networks, gaining followers is even more vital to ensuring that people see your updates.

Increasing your follower count helps to further increase your audience and your opportunities for post engagement. When your profile has a substantial number of followers and substantial engagement, your posts are more likely to appear on the Instagram “Explore” page. This page exclusively features posts that have a high number of Likes and comments, signifying that the content shown is popular and worth seeing. Since this is the only in-network discovery method for finding new users to follow, it’s a good place to have a presence.

Percentage Change in FollowersAnother way to keep track of followers is by measuring percentage change over time, allowing you to set baseline goals for follower acquisition and attrition over a month, quarter, or year.

To find out how much your audience has grown or shrunk, subtract last month’s follower count from this month’s follower count. Divide that number by last period’s follower count, and (voila!) you have your change percentage.

Tracking your progress here will help you answer the following questions:

• Which campaign types drive the most audience growth?

• Which content types drive the most audience growth?

• Who are our Instagram influencers?

• Which kind of brand advocates and influencers should we seek out in the future? Who is relevant to our brand’s Instagram growth?

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Optimization MetricsMost Engaging FilterOne of Instagram’s most attractive features is the ability to develop unique and interesting content with a quick touch. Instagram’s collection of filters allows users to change the look of their image in a variety of ways. A brand focused on repeat engagement should keep track of the most successful filters used on brand content.

Top filters can be measured by analyzing the engagement per photo or video, and bucketing photos and videos by the filter used.

Top Photo TagsHashtags help with discovery and engagement on the network. By measuring the top photo tags used on your content, you get an understanding of the types of content your followers prefer.

5 STRATEGIC INSTAGRAM MEASUREMENT TACTICSWith a solid foundation of Instagram measurement terms, you can start to establish a measurement and tactical strategy.

These five measurement tactics will help you understand what you need to create a successful Instagram strategy.

1. Learn About Your AudienceThe most successful brands on Instagram know their audiences and post content that appeals to them. Sometimes you can’t tell who your audience is on a network right away, even if you have a pretty good idea of who’s attracted to you on other social networks or offline. It’s always best to start with your market instead of trying to push your pre-packaged messaging at people. So, how do you figure out who you’re marketing to on Instagram? You start with the data. This will help you identify tactics that resonate with your audience.

This chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Account Report showcases the top photo filters by number of posts and engagement per post.

This chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Account Report shows top tags by engagement per post.

BRAND HIGHLIGHTAMERICA, AM I RIGHT?

One of Colt 45’s most engaging posts gives some clues about their Instagram audience and helps them plan future content accordingly.

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Find Your Most Active Commenters Use your most active commenters to get information about which types of people love your Instagram content.

Do some research on these usernames. Use your biggest fans to build your Instagram targeting and testing personas.

Your most active commenters might also be other brands or in some way connected to other brands. This could be a great opportunity to reach out and form a campaign partnership to build followers and engagement for both of you.

Either way, you should be partnering with your already-existing support system to widen your exposure on Instagram.

This “Most Active Commenters” chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Account Report shows which of your followers left the most comments during a specific time period.

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Conduct a Keyword Analysis What are the top words people use around your brand’s content on Instagram?

This “Keyword Analysis (Comments)” chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Account Report shows which words were used most in the comments on your brand posts during a specific time period.

Keyword analysis is not only a fantastic way to gauge which content components are most meaningful to your audience, it’s also a great way to contemplate future hashtag campaigns. Check our example “Keyword Analysis” chart above. #perfectcutejacketdog, anyone?

For example, #PerfectBarbourJacket is going to have a lot more resonance and brand association with Barbour jackets than #PerfectJacket, which could refer to any jacket on the market.

However, common hashtags can allow you to newsjack or capitalize on seasonal events like #backtoschool or other popular topics.

PRO TIP: When it comes to hashtags, the more unique, the better.

Greater creativity equals more accurate hashtag tracking and specific brand recognition.

BRAND HIGHLIGHT Brooks Brothers is best-in-class at capitalizing on trends. This #FathersDay post succeeds by putting all that is manly in one car, and reminding Brooks Brothers followers (as well as users perusing #Fathersday posts) of all the gifts the brand offers for all the different activities dads engage in.

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Identify Your Top Cities You can know exactly where your audience lives more easily today than ever before.

With in-depth information about your top cities for Instagram engagement, you can build Instagram campaigns that focus on those cities, and begin doing further research to figure out why your brand gets so much Instagram love there and not in other places.

2. Pay Attention to TimingMeasuring engagement by a specific day or time helps magnify your engagement, and shows you how posting times influence your content’s reception.

How often you post is largely dependent on your audience. Many audiences appreciate more frequent posts, but too many posts tends to turn users off.

When you post is also dependent on your audience. Different audiences access their Instagram accounts at different times of the day.

PRO TIP: If you’re just beginning your brand’s Instagram journey, or simply want a fresh perspective, look at the “Top Cities” metric for a similar brand or competitor.

You’ll wind up with a much greater understanding of your target audience and what they respond to on Instagram.

This “Top Cities” chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Account Report shows where most of your engaged followers were located during a specific time period.

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Start gathering data on engagement trends. One option is to run an A/B content test, posting very similar content in set time increments, or at the same time each day. Then examine the number of comments and Likes for each of those posts, and begin charting your data to find the “sweet spot” for your post cadence.

For example, based on your post cadence and frequency, you may find that posts at 9 a.m. PST perform well. Developing an understanding based on this information and your audience location data can help you target content to your audience when they’re most likely to be active.

For example, with this information about 9 a.m. PST, you may realize that your West Coast audience has just arrived at work and is catching up on the day’s news, and your East Coast audience is now on their lunch break, giving them time to surf the Web. You can perhaps cater your content to each of these audiences.

This “Comments and Posts by Day and Time” chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Hashtag Report shows which days of the week and times of day people used your hashtag most during a specific time period.

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3. Check Your CompetitionCompetitive measurement is vital not only for knowing what your competition is doing but also for benchmarking your own progress against industry innovators on Instagram. Here are the top three metrics you should be paying attention to.

Engagement Comparison You know what your engagement statistics look like, but what about those of your competitors?

You might find that a brand you consider your biggest competitor in terms of revenue or popularity on another social network is actually not your biggest competitor on Instagram.

After you have a good idea of where you stand in comparison to the other brands in your space, take a look at the posts among all those brands that drove the greatest amount of engagement.

This “Instagram Comparison: Total Engagement” chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Competitive Analysis shows total engagement and engagement as a percentage of followers for Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Austin Mahone, and Harry Styles.

BRAND HIGHLIGHTFilson outdoor clothing and equipment company had 352 comments on 178 posts in a five month period. That was a rate of almost two comments per post - a significant achievement.

How did they do it?

They used a strategy of attempting to answer any and all product questions in a conversational and timely manner to drive engagement, recognize involved audience members, and even enable sales.

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This sortable list from the Simply Measured Instagram Competitive Analysis shows total engagement, from largest to smallest, for musicians Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Austin Mahone, and Harry Styles during a specific time period.

This information about you and your competitors’ success will show you what kind of content, specifically, gets Instagram users to comment and Like a post.

PRO TIP: Use the top posts for total engagement among you and your competitors to draft a list of the different types of posts that are proving successful in your field.

In your next content planning or brainstorming meeting, use this list as a jumping-off point.

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Relative Share of Followers Once you’ve determined who your true competitors on Instagram are, it’s time to pay attention to the size of the competitive pie you own.

This “Relative Share of Followers” chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Competitive Analysis shows how musicians Rhianna, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Austin Mahone, and Harry Styles stack up when it comes to follower count.

Add up all of the follower counts among you and your competitors, then figure out who has what percentage of that total. It’s useful to check this “relative share” metric on a weekly basis, especially since a lot of progress on this front can happen very quickly.

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Number of Posts Per Day Who posts the most?

This “Brand Comparison: New Posts” chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Competitive Analysis shows how musicians Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Austin Mahone, and Harry Styles stack up when it comes to number of posts put up.

Take a look at how the daily volume of new posts and videos produced by you stack up next to your competitors on Instagram. Could you stand to back off or ramp up? Try to compare yourself to a group that is seeing faster follower growth than you.

There is no magic potion for winning at Instagram. That’s why testing and measurement are so important on the network to begin with.

When you’re contemplating the metrics we’ve outlined above, trying out strategies or watching your competition make moves, remember not to lose your own story. Remain true to your brand or transform it in a conscious, measurement-based way, but always remember: it’s authenticity that’s truly engaging.

PRO TIP: Conduct testing on your post cadence to see what your audience responds to best. Choose a high frequency and a low frequency. Then, run weeklong tests for each cadence in between.Week 1 1 Post Per Day Week 2 2 Posts Per Day Week 3 3 Posts Per Day Week 4 4 Posts Per DayWeek 5 5 Posts Per Day

Keep tabs on your engagement numbers and relative share of followers compared to your competitors on a weekly basis as your test progresses. By the end of the testing period, you’ll have a solid idea of your best cadence for posting.Conduct the same test, but with different ratios of videos to photos per week, to see which kind of content performs best for you.

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4. Hashtags to Build Your BrandBy analyzing the data behind past, current, and competitive Instagram hashtags, it’s easy to set objectives, show what works, monitor progress, and keep track of audience reaction. Whether you’re interested in a high-level view or deep-dive data, the best way to set informed goals is to start with the numbers.

Set Clear Hashtag Goals

This hashtag performance overview from the Simply Measured Hashtag Performance Report allows users to see a snapshot of their branded hashtag for any established time period.

The best way to do this analysis is to look at the performance of a previous branded hashtag, using several components as the basis for your review:

• The number of unique people who’ve used the hashtag in the past

• The number of times the hashtag was used

• The number of people those posts potentially reached

• The number of potential impressions

• The total amount of Instagram engagement with the hashtag

PRO TIP: Taking a peek at the metrics for one of your previous hashtag campaigns (or a competitor’s) can provide you with a good benchmark for where you should set volumes, reach, impressions, and engagement goals on your upcoming or current campaign.

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Growing a Hashtag Campaign

This “Hashtag Mentions” chart from the Simply Measured Hashtag Performance Report allows users to analyze a hashtag over time and identify peak performance days.

Focus first on which day your previous hashtag was most popular, and also which type of media was most successful—photo or video. Figure out what caused momentum for your comparable hashtag, then model your own hashtag and Instagram posting techniques after those successes. Possibly more important than volume is what folks are saying when they use your hashtag—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Identify How People Use Your Hashtag

This engagement chart from the Simply Measured Hashtag Performance Report identifies the most engaging posts from peaks throughout the time period selected.

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Identify which posts are the most engaging, and why they’ve been so successful. Is it a positive message that represents what you want your brand to stand for?

Identify Success on Other Channels

The engagement outside of Instagram chart from Simply Measured’s Instagram Hashtag Performance Report showcases the engagement Instagram photos and links have generated on Facebook and Twitter.

Check out previous Instagram hashtag campaigns you wish to emulate (or avoid) to inform your own campaign and foster cross-channel hashtag success.

Identify the Influencers Who Add Value

This chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Hashtag Report identifies the top impression driver during the specific period. Look at the hashtag for a past Instagram campaign to figure out who your top impressions drivers are, and when they were the most active.

PRO TIP: Engage with your most active, impression-driving users to gain broader reach for your current and future campaigns.

BRAND HIGHLIGHT In this post, Mercedes-Benz partners with @bigblogg, the Instagram presence of a popular car blog, drawing those fans towards the post and reminding them that Mercedes-Benz is alive and well on Instagram, and that their cars are awesome.

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Choose Your Hashtag Terms

This top keyword chart from the Instagram Hashtag Performance Report lets you know which terms your audience is organically using with specific hashtags.

Look at the most-used keywords for either a previous hashtag or one that has achieved an effect you wish to replicate. This information tells you the hashtags and keywords that are most often mentioned in post captions along with the targeted hashtag. You can then produce more content with that hashtag and the most popular keywords to drive greater engagement and attract new followers.

PRO TIP: Look at data on your brand name as the hashtag.

You’ll then be able to see the other hashtags that Instagram users are deploying in conjunction with your name, providing you with some valuable insight into how the public perceives your brand and how to play on this moving forward.

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5. Influence on InstagramHow do you measure your influence on Instagram? This goal can be a tough one to pin down, but shedding light on the following three areas will give you an accurate and competitively relevant idea of your influence on Instagram.

A High-Level ViewGet a broad overview of your influence on this visually-oriented network by taking into account the following numbers:

And always remember, your numbers don’t exist in a vacuum. Make sure you’re getting your competitors’ numbers, too, for context on what your range of influence looks like – how far you need to go to catch up or how close your competitors are to catching up with you.

The Competitive Leaderboard from a Simply Measured Instagram Competitive Report.

Instagram engagement. Knowing how many posts users engaged with by either liking or commenting goes a step deeper than follower count. It’s a measurement not just of how many people are viewing your content, but how many people are “meaningfully” connecting with your content and choosing to interact with it. Number of followers. How many people are interested in seeing your content each day? Number of followers is the traditional measure of influence on almost every social network. Engagements through other channels (interactions with Instagram posts shared on Facebook, Twitter, etc.). External engagement is especially pertinent for brands that are strongest on Instagram and/or incredibly visually oriented. How much carry-through does your Instagram content have to other networks?

Number of brand posts. This stat is not as vital for measuring influence, but important when all the other numbers above are taken into account. It shows how the amount your posting directly correlates to how much influence you have.

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The Volume of Hashtag Mentions

This hashtag volume chart from Simply Measured’s Instagram Hashtag Report lets you determine the number of mentions your hashtag has generated and breaks it into photo and video posts.

If you’re not using hashtags on Instagram, you’re missing out on both a way to gain influence and a way to measure it.

Pull data on your volume of hashtag mentions to discover how your brand’s hashtag-promoting efforts are paying off. Which posts are gaining more traction for your brand, photos or videos? How many hashtag mentions are you getting over a given period? Is this volume increasing, decreasing, or remaining stagnant? Unlike Twitter or Facebook, an Instagram user’s feed won’t tell them which hashtags are trending, so a successful hashtag is even more impressive (and perhaps a greater measure of influence) than having your hashtag go viral on Twitter.

Potential Impressions + Total Mentions How many times could Instagram users have seen your posts? That’s what potential impressions are all about. Measure the amount of mentions your hashtag is getting alongside the potential impressions of your hashtag to get a good idea of how the two correlate and how many eyes are on you – another way of saying how much Insta-influence you’re rocking right now.

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CONCLUSION In the future, you’ll have other ways to invest in Instagram, as indicated by the network’s forays into making ads an option for brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Burberry, General Electric, Lexus, Levi’s, Macy’s, Michael Kors, PayPal and Starwood.

But for now, for most brands, it’s all about creating organic follower growth, meaningful engagement, and keeping an eye on competitive developments.

Whether you’re focused on bumping up your follower count, improving the number of followers who are engaging with you, or developing killer hashtags, you now have the definitions, metrics, and strategies you need to succeed.

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APPENDIXWhat Is Instagram?Instagram is a photo- and video-sharing platform that allows users to take pictures or videos, edit them, and apply filters before posting them to a public or private timeline.

Users have the ability to create a community by following and engaging with other people on the platform. As a user, you can also share an Instagram photo or video seamlessly on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Flickr, and Foursquare.

HistoryInstagram was launched in October 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Two months later, the network had 1 million users. By August 2011, Instagram saw 150 million total photo uploads. Today, Instagram has 200 million active users who upload an average of 60 million photos per day.

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Instagram Timeline

October 6, 2010 - Instagram launches

December 12, 2010 - Instagram hits 1 million users

January 2011 - Instagram adds hashtags to aid user discovery

August 3, 2011 - Instagram’s 150 millionth photo is uploaded

September 26, 2011 - Instagram hits 10 million users

April 12, 2012 - Facebook acquires Instagram for approx. $1 billion

December 21, 2012 - Instagram launches v3.4.1 with 25 languages

February 26, 2013 - Instagram hits 100 million users

June 20, 2013 - Instagram video debuts

September 6, 2013 - Instagram hits 150 million users

October 24, 2013 - Instagram announces sponsored photos + videos

December 12, 2013 - Instagram Direct is released

July 29, 2014 - Instagram launches one-touch photo and video messaging app Bolt outside the U.S.

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How to Post This group of screenshots shows the different steps in the Instagram posting process (1) take or choose an image (2) modify the image and put a filter on it (3) write a caption and choose where to post it (4) and the final result, an Instagram post!

Instagram users can post content to their accounts using the Instagram app on their iPhones, Androids, or Windows phones. A post is either a photo or up-to-15-second video taken and usually altered through Instagram’s proprietary photo filters, then posted to the user’s and user’s followers’ timelines.

How to TagBesides tagging in comments, any user who posts to Instagram can tag another user when posting a photo or video. To tag a user, click the “Tag People” box and search by username. The user will be notified that they’ve been tagged in your photo.

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