As a company that makes social media marketing software, we’re well aware of all the different Instagram analytics tools out there. Over the years, we’ve seen new tools pop up on a seemingly daily basis.
Having all these options available is overwhelming to say the least. Especially when a lot of these tools have similar features, or only one or two of the features you actually want.
In the end, you probably signed up for dozens of trials in order to find that one tool that fits your needs. Plus, with recent changes to the API, some Instagram analytics tools no longer work, which might be why you’re reading this post!
We feel your pain.
That’s why we decided to put together a list of seven Instagram analytics tools worth trying in 2018. Rather than give you a list of tools that all pretty much do the same thing, we varied it up a bit. So whether you’re looking for a free Instagram analytics tool, something that analyzes Instagram Stories or a complete solution, we’ve got you covered.
Here’s our list of the top seven Instagram analytics tools of 2018:
1. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a complete social media management solution for businesses of all sizes, and agencies. And we’re also the people bringing you this list, so adding ourselves is a no-brainer.
But we’re not just listing Sprout because we made it. Sprout Social’s Instagram analytics give your brand the data you need to monitor your performance. Whether you want to know which Instagram post got the most engagement, how your audience has grown or other critical metrics, you can see it all in Sprout.
What’s even better is we give you the data in easy-to-read reports. So whether you need to show results to a client or internal stakeholders, you don’t have to waste time explaining what you’re showing them.
In addition to analyzing your own brand, Sprout also provides an Instagram competitor analysis report. This is perfect when you want to benchmark your efforts against other brands in your industry.
Just add your competitors, then you’ll be able to track their audience growth, publishing frequency, top hashtags, comments and more.
If you’re looking for a single Instagram analytics tool, it’s hard to go wrong with Sprout.
Price: Starts at $99/month. Get a free trial here.
2. Simply Measured
While Sprout gives you a hefty amount of data, Simply Measured provides even deeper insights with advanced analytics—including Instagram Stories analytics.
As you know, reporting for Instagram Stories within the app is pretty limited. Knowing how many people viewed your Story is nice, but what’s more important is how engaged those viewers are.
With Simply Measured, you can see Instagram Stories metrics such as post saves, story replies, taps forward, taps back and exits.
But it’s not all about measuring the performance of your stories. Simply Measured offers other extremely helpful Instagram analytics features for brands. You can see daily and total audience growth, the reach of your Instagram hashtag campaigns, video views, competitive analysis and more.
One of the standout features of Simply Measured is the ability to track the ROI of Instagram campaigns. With the conversion tracking report, you can finally put a value on your Instagram marketing efforts by tracking the amount of revenue your followers are bringing in.
Oh yeah, and did we mention that Simply Measured is actually a part of the Sprout Social family?
Price: Contact for pricing
3. Instagram Insights
Not quite ready to invest in a paid/premium Instagram analytics tool?
No worries. You can use Instagram Insights, which is completely free inside the Instagram app. Just keep in mind it’s only available for business accounts. So if your brand is still using a personal profile, you’ll have to switch in order to get access to this data.
But we’re sure you’ll find that it’s well worth it.
Instagram Insights allows you to see impressions, engagement, reach, top posts and other important metrics. The data can be broken down from the span of a few months or even years, which is great for historical performance.
Plus, you’ll get access to audience demographics so you can find out what percentage of your followers are male/female, age groups and even where the bulk of your followers are from.
Knowing who you’re speaking to on Instagram is extremely 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 we mentioned, Instagram Insights is a great source of data if you’re just getting started or simply looking for a free Instagram analytics tool.
Price: Free
4. Facebook Ad Manager
First off, if you’re not running Instagram Ads yet, you probably should be. And if you want to know how your ads are performing, you can see it in the Facebook Ads manager.
We wanted to include an Instagram Ads analytics solution on this list because with all the recent algorithm changes, more and more brands are turning to social media ads to get more exposure.
And when you’re paying for ads, you need to monitor your ad spend and performance very closely. Otherwise you could end up throwing money right down the drain.
Luckily, Facebook has some of the most robust and in-depth social media ad analytics out there. So you’ll have plenty of data to show the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of your Instagram ads.
Price: Free
5. Picture.io
Picture.io is a free Instagram analytics tool that’s kind of like Klout for visual content. You simply login to connect your Instagram profile, then the tool gives you an influencer score. The higher your score, the better.
While we’re unsure of what the actual scoring range is, from our testing (searching for a bunch of brands with popular Instagram accounts), we’ve found that the mid-100’s or higher seem to be extremely good. For example, Starbucks has a score of 212.
According to Picture.io, their influence score “measures the impact of visual content and its creators.”
The score takes into account metrics like your audience size, engagement, community trends and influence. Your influence score shouldn’t be your source of truth for how well your brand is doing on Instagram. But it’s nice to have some type of metric to gauge where you stand. Plus, it doesn’t cost you a penny so it’s at least worth checking out.
And here’s a hack. If you’re curious about how you stack up against competitors, you can search for their scores by going to “picture.io/instagram/competitor” where “competitor” is the Instagram handle of who you want to search for. So for instance, you could look up https://picture.io/instagram/sprite to see their score.
Just keep in mind that you can only see the score if the account is in the Picture.io database.
Price: Free
6. Tapinfluence
Influencer marketing is all the rage right now, and for a good reason—it works.
But simply paying a popular Instagrammer $500 to make a post and assuming it’ll lead to a positive ROI isn’t the best idea. Just like all your other marketing efforts, you need to track your influencer marketing campaigns and analyze the performance. That’s where Tapinfluence comes in.
Tapinfluence is an influencer marketing tool that allows you to find influencers, manage campaigns and get analytics on the results.
As a brand, it’s up to you to ensure you’re getting the most bang for your buck from the influencers you work with. Tapinfluence gives you the ability to track influencer campaigns across multiple channels to determine the true value and ROI of influencer marketing.
A couple of cool standout features are the ability to see industry benchmarks to find out how your performance stacks up. You can also see reach, views and engagement across Instagram and other social media channels. Since a lot of brands strike deals with influencers to create content on multiple platforms, this really comes in handy to get a complete view of your partnerships.
Also, if you work with multiple influencers, you can analyze the performance of each individual you work with. It’s not too difficult to see why Tapinfluence is one of the more popular Instagram analytics tools for influencer marketing campaigns.
Price: Contact for pricing
7. Keyhole
In addition to Instagram analytics tools to measure past performance, it’s also helpful to see data in real time as well. Keyhole provides real time hashtag tracking for Instagram, which is perfect when you’re running social media contests, brand campaigns or other marketing efforts involving hashtags.
In addition to seeing how many times a hashtag has been used, Keyhole also shows you other helpful data such as the top posts containing your hashtag, the most engaged posts, related hashtags and keywords and more. Plus, you can also track hashtag performance on Twitter as well.
One feature in particular that we found interesting was the ability to see the sentiment around a specific hashtag. This is helpful in instances where you’re running a campaign using a branded hashtag, and you want to gauge how well received it is. If the feedback is primarily positive, it’s a good sign. But if it sways more towards negative or even neutral, it’s worth looking into.
Price: Starts at $199/month
What’s Your Top Instagram Analytics Tool?
That’s our list of some of our favorite tools, but there are plenty of others out there. What Instagram analytics tools do you use to track and measure your campaigns?
And if you’re in the market for a new tool, give Sprout Social a try!
This post 7 Must-Try Instagram Analytics Tools of 2018 originally appeared on Sprout Social.
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