Marketing on Instagram is not all about being consistent and active. Indeed, this strategy works in getting followers, likes, and conversions, but marketing takes much more than that.
Which type of posts generates more engagement?
How is your content doing?
Influencers and businesses use analytics for a wide variety of metrics in order to gain some insights on how to improve their strategies.
While the network does offer some analytics, you want more than that. Instagram’s analytics dashboard will give you some basic metrics for posts and audience, as well as the activity. Such insights are only available for business profiles.
The data is fairly simple to understand, and there is no experience required. The problem is that such stats are pretty basic. Fortunately, there are plenty of other apps and programs to provide a more comprehensive approach.
Here are some of our top recommendations for your marketing strategies.
Squarelovin
Squarelovin is an excellent starting tool for those new to Instagram analytics and marketing, mostly because you can use it for free. It will give you monthly analytics regarding your best posts, as well as the organic growth of the profile.
The history is broken down into years and down to hours. Furthermore, you will get insights into what your audience likes, as well as the perfect times for posting and the worst ones.
Squarelovin will introduce you to the right hashtags for your content and marketing strategy, not to mention filters. Most of these details are given based on how your content is received by followers.
It will help you reshape your content to gain as much as possible from every post.
Crowdfire
Crowdfire offers more types of statistics, for different networks. Instagram is just one of them. These stats work on business accounts and will give you details about your performance to a particular date.
Feel free to choose the range you are interested in, from yesterday’s stats to the stats over the past 90 days. You can also pick your own dates, but the maximum time frame is 90 days.
You can also compare different types of metrics, from posts and followers to profile views and email link clicks. The list is much longer though.
Crowdfire lets you compare the performance with a previous time frame too.
However, all these benefits come with a price. The app has a free feature too, but you can only check yesterday’s statistics without paying.
Minter
Minter gives you detailed analytics nicely organized in a classic PDF report. Generate the stats and download the file for a well-organized report.
Metrics are quite varied and will include the following growth, post-performance, and even profile engagement. Go through the most popular filters and hashtags as well.
This marketing tool is aimed at businesses or influencers looking for collaborations too. You can generate good-looking reports for your partners to see and decide whether or not you should collaborate. You can also choose what kind of metrics to include in the report.
The app is premium, but you can use it for free for about two weeks. Try each feature before choosing the premium option.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of the oldest and most popular Instagram marketing tools. It covers a wide variety of metrics and allows checking stats over multiple social networks.
The extensive reports will give you plenty of details. Besides, you can generate as many reports as you want, over different periods of time. You can also compare data from the past and figure out what went right and what needs changing.
You can create a team over Hootsuite and give access to more people. Reports can be shared throughout the team.
While some features are free, you will need to pay to gain access to every single feature.
Union Metrics
Union Metrics is more comprehensive and suitable for businesses with a solid presence online, rather than new businesses or accounts. You will get free monthly reports that show you what the audience likes and what hashtags perform.
To go into smaller details, Union Metrics will reveal the perfect times for posting based on your followers’ active times.
Obviously, the premium alternative will give you even better results. You can capture more relevant data about your business, identify top fans and benefit from an extensive Graph API.
Reports can be customized in small details based on your interests, and everything can be exported to PDF files.
Sprout Social
Similar to Union Metrics, we find Sprout Social to be a more professional Instagram marketing app. Also, it comes with a price too, but the results are totally worth it, especially if you want a full optimization of your marketing campaign.
This is one of the most complete applications out there. Track trends, hashtags, the performance of your content, engagement rates, and even your competition and stats.
Reports can be customized, so you can see the performance of certain metrics or over a particular period of time. Keeping an eye on the competition is probably the best feature of Sprout Social.
Apart from all these, you can also get analytics for your stories, so you can keep an eye on the impact of your work through replies, clicks, and other statistics.
Pixlee
Pixlee is another Instagram marketing tool appreciated for its detailed analytics. While not as comprehensive as more professional tools, it is free of use and excellent for both beginners and advanced business users.
It monitors the top-performing posts and can provide ideas for new content should you ever run out of imagination.
The reporting feature is straightforward and easy to use, no experience is required. At the same time, it offers reports every week. You can use the data in nicely organized reports to find influencers or perhaps partners for your upcoming marketing campaigns.
The app will also search for fans and advocates referring to your business. Hashtags can be tracked too, as well as other metrics to help you optimize the campaign.
All in all, it offers plenty of information for a free Instagram marketing app.
Later
Later aims to help you improve and optimize your Instagram strategy, leading to consistent and steady growth in the long run.
In theory, it offers pretty much what other apps do, details on your hashtags, posts, performance, users, audience, and so on.
What makes it stand out is the so-called Linkin feature. What does it mean? Simple. You can link each post to a different URL. It could be a product page or perhaps a link to your blog.
From that point on, you can check the connection between Instagram and your website, click generation, views, rates, and so on. You can tell whether or not Instagram helps you sell or gain traffic, but you will also figure out what to do to increase these numbers.
We like the fact that Later has a free plan as well, which is suitable for individuals, bloggers, and so on. It also has a premium package for more detailed insights and analytics.
Smartmetrics
Smartmetrics has a self-explanatory name and offers graphs, lines, and stats from all directions. Basically, you can get insights on an hourly basis, depending on what you hope to achieve.
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You can rely on Smartmetrics to track the actual interaction with your audience too. Watch how certain hashtags perform and even figure out which stories perform better based on the replies.
As if all these were not enough, the app tracks brand references, meaning you can reply to mentions. All this data can be exported in more formats, including PDF. You can also share everything by email.
Iconosquare
This is another popular and world-renowned app among influencers and other Instagram brands. In terms of financial considerations, it is somewhere in the middle. It is not free, but not very expensive either. We mostly recommend it to those with a bit of experience and a more serious Instagram approach.
All in all, Iconosquare stands out with its multiple profile activities. Basically, it is ideal for agencies, companies, or businesses with numerous accounts over multiple social media networks. It will provide detailed reports to target the whole marketing campaign and not just on Instagram.
Analytics on Instagram stories are more detailed than in other apps. Engagement metrics are just as specific, not to mention the possibility to track direct competitors. Sometimes, it pays off to learn from top companies in your niche.
Community reports will give you details about the gender, age, and language of your followers. Again, all these features come with a price.
Keyhole
Keyhole is one of the most professional options for Instagram marketing and analytics. It comes with a premium, but it also offers a more professional approach. If you ask us, you need a generous budget to use it as a newbie. We mostly recommend it to established businesses with solid marketing campaigns.
Keyhole offers both real-time and historical statistics regarding your Instagram campaign. You can track pretty much anything, from keywords, URLs, and mentions to hashtags and your competition. You will find out how many times certain hashtags were used or perhaps discover the latest trending hashtags.
It will not just give you insights into your campaign, but it will also guide you accordingly in order to become popular.
Keeping an eye on competing Instagram profiles is just as useful, as you can also track their growth, activity, and engagement performance. Use these insights to compare your stats and improve them.
Whatagraph
Whatagraph is one of the easiest tools in Instagram marketing because it offers everything in a crystal clear manner. Moreover, the option to share details with teams or virtual assistants makes it suitable for established businesses.
Get insights into your fanbase growth, top feed stories, interactions, and engagement. Cross-channel social media reports will also allow you to compare data between Instagram and your other social media channels.
It is a more comprehensive option that also lets you customize reports. You can also include logos in your reports or your own color schemes, which will definitely make an impression when looking for partners.
Pallyy
Pallyy offers excellent value for money and can be used for more social media networks, but especially for Instagram. When it comes to stats, you have anything you can think of, from external hashtags and competitors to your own stories and followers.
The social media scheduler will help you automate your work. You can also post on more social media networks using a single tool only, which will save time and offer consistency. The calendar will give you a glance over your upcoming posts as well, but you can also edit everything.
Unless you are good with image editing, you will also have the Canva editor for quick adjustments and edits.
Agorapulse
Agorapulse offers both free and premium options. It is not aimed at Instagram only, but you can manage more social media channels. You can schedule posts, enjoy a social inbox, and download reports and analytics.
Track the overall performance, interactions, and post activities. You can even find behavioral data for your posts or competition. You will get insights into the total reach of posts, including organic and advertised posts.
Everything is broken down into small details for a better approach. Moreover, you will find suggestions regarding the best times to post and what hashtags to use. If you have a social media team, you can even monitor reply times and performance.
The bottom line, the list is definitely longer, and there are plenty of other tools out there, some of them specifically made for Instagram, while others offering a more general approach.
You can use both free and premium tools. At the end of the day, it depends on what you are trying to achieve or how serious your Instagram marketing campaign is.
We recommend starting with the basics and going for free apps before choosing a more professional approach.