Eighth in a series

Is your Instagram strategy working? Are you measuring your results to determine what works and what doesn’t? And what metrics should you be measuring to define success?

Here are items you should measure:

  1. Likes
  2. Comments
  3. Followers
  4. Engagement
  5. Click-through rates for the URL on your bio
  6. Mentions
  7. Best times to post
  8. Sales
  9. Who’s following you?

Now, how do you go about measuring them, especially since Instagram doesn’t have its own analytics dashboard? Luckily, we have compiled a list of the best free Instagram analytics tools.

Free Instagram Reports

1. Simply Measured. If you follow Simply Measured on Twitter, you can get a free Instagram report on any account up to 25,000 followers. It’s not a bad deal. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the past two months. It offers information about your top post, the best day and time for engagement, as well as your top photo tags, top filters, and the amount and types of engagement you’ve received on your posts. You can also choose ongoing monthly programs, starting at $500 a month

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  1. Union Metrics. Union Metrics offers a free Instagram report for your account, which covers 30 days. The report is generated by using a few of the analytics from the company’s paid program. In two minutes, the website says, you can determine the best time to post on Instagram, which hashtags get the most engagement, what you should (and shouldn’t) post, and who your top fans are.
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Free tools

  1. Squarelovin. Login via desktop to view key Instagram analytics. It may take time to populate your data and analyze trends. But you’ll get insights into account growth, likes and followers. You’ll discover the best times to post on Instagram, the filters that work best for engagement, plus demographics, follower growth, and followers you lost.squarelovin (1)
  2. Social Rank is designed to help you understand your audience and build relationships. Using criteria such as location, keyword and most engaged, you can sort and search followers, including brand advocates and influencers. Be patient. You have to log in with your Instagram account, enter your email address, and then wait for your report to generate.socialrank (1)
  3. Influencerdb is designed specifically for Instagram. It has a free version and three paid options. This tool will analyze audience demographics for any Instagram channel and benchmark your performance against your competitors. You can find out how active your followers are on Instagram. You can also search Instagram channels with at least 15,000 followers and evaluate them by a digital score (1-100) as a comparison for your business account.
  4. Locowise. The paid version is more robust, but Locowise’s free tools include the Twitter Analyser, Fanbase Predictor, Facebook Page Analyser, and an Instagram Analyser, which gives you a quick overview of your profile and performance.
  5. Instafollow is an app for i0S and Android users that offers insights into your follower base. Track Instagram followers, find out who isn’t following you back, find mutual friends and more with this app.
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  6. Crowdfire is similar to Instafollow, but it’s both a web-based app and an app for i0S/Android users. You can find your unfollowers, followers, inactive users, admirers, and people who will follow back. Originally a Twitter application, it’s now available for both social media sites.

Free trials

  1. Iconosquare offers a seven-day free trial. If you like it, you’ll have to pay a minimum of $28.80 per year.
  2. Sprout Social offers a 30-day free trial. The lowest-cost plan starts at $59 per user per month. The free trial only accumulates data once your profile is connected. The information includes daily growth (or decrease) in followers, the number of posts you’re sharing, most used hashtags, most engaged hashtags, and number of engagements.

Track Instagram referrals

Unlike other social networks, Instagram doesn’t show up as a referral site in Google Analytics. There are a couple of ways to get the information you need.

  1. Google’s URL builder will create a unique link that only tracks users who click that link from your Instagram profile. Fill in your website URL, then add Instagram as your campaign source, social as your campaign medium, and profile as your campaign name. This creates an unwieldy URL, but you can use Bitly or Pretty Link WordPress Plugin to get a shorter one. Unlike Bitly, Pretty Link allows you to use your domain as a base for the URL.Pretty Link (1)
  2. Create a landing page for your Instagram clicks, and track conversions there. Make sure you “noindex” the page so search engines won’t list it – you only want to count people who arrive at that page from Instagram.

The tools listed here can put a wealth of information right at your fingertips. By using these insights, you can adjust your Instagram strategy as needed to make it more successful.

 




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Maria Fagerland
Maria Fagerland

Maria is a multifaceted writer and editor who is passionate about creating content that helps businesses succeed. When she's not writing, Maria can often be found in her garden tending to her plants.

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