Instagram marketing is like any other type of marketing in that certain metrics matter and other metrics don’t. When marketing on Instagram you need to look at the correct metrics. These are the statistics you should be looking at when determining the direction of your campaign.
Are Your Followers Growing?
Instagram’s active user base has reached over 600 million, which means your follower base needs to increase at the same rate. The inflation of followers means that every individual follower is worth slightly less than it was six months ago. You must be able to expand your audience, whether that means you buy Instagram followers or you start accessing new audiences.
Think about this. Apparel brands have a median follower base of one million. If you aren’t reaching the median number for your industry you need to focus on expanding your audience.
What is Your Engagement Ratio?
The engagement ratio for any account is the number of interactions your posts get per 1,000 followers. This metric considers both your audience size and how often you post. It’s an easy way of measuring how much engagement a brand is getting.
Measuring your engagement ratio is easy. All you need to do is divide your total interactions by your total posts and the total number of followers divided by 1,000. At a time when engagement ratios are falling, you need to pay special attention to this metric.
Do You Have a Strong Relative Impact?
Now that you know your engagement ratio you can measure relative impact. By taking your engagement ratio and measuring the performance of individual posts you can discover the content that performs best. For example, if you have a post type that regularly outdoes your average engagement ratio you know what sort of content you need to focus on going forward.
Are You Getting Enough Referral Traffic?
Instagram traffic is pointless if none of that traffic is going back to your platform. You need to transfer your Instagram traffic to your website if you’re going to start making sales. Google Analytics is the perfect platform for measuring how much of your website’s traffic is coming from Instagram. If you have a high level of Instagram engagement but no referral traffic, you know you need to make a change.
This is especially true if you’re using Instagram ads. Remember that Instagram is a tool. There are no prizes for Instagram engagement alone.
Is Your Posting Frequency Optimized?
There’s a fine line between posting regularly and spamming your followers. You must be able to work out how often your audience wants you to post. Measure your engagement ratio based on how often you post. If you post more often and engagement ratio drops then you know you’re posting too often.
However, if your engagement ratio continues to rise you know you need to post more often. Take note that this metric could be based on a few factors, including the type of content you post, so take these results with a grain of salt.
Last Word – Measuring Success on Instagram
These are the top five Instagram metrics that will help you send your brand to the next level. Do you have any other metrics you like to track?
Author Bio:
Rehan is a blogger and freelance writer. He loves to write on tech, start-ups, marketing and digital business strategy. You can reach him at [email protected]
