Sure, B2C businesses might get better engagement on Instagram, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t rely on it for your B2B needs.
49% of B2B marketing teams say that Instagram is one of their most trusted social media platforms.
But to properly grow your presence on the platform and see results, you need to keep a close eye on your data and use it to refine your strategies.
You might already be tracking metrics like impressions, likes, and shares… but what else should you keep an eye on?
That’s exactly what we’ll cover in this article.
What’s more, we asked 30 B2B experts to help us out and share their best insights on what you should track and why. Most of our respondents are small businesses with up to 50 employees.
All of our respondents have Instagram accounts and the vast majority of them actively use it. Only two respondents stated that they don’t use their Instagram accounts actively.
Why Are Instagram Business Metrics Important for Your B2B?
Instagram business metrics are data insights that show you how your Instagram content and account are performing.
To understand what your audience prefers and reacts to, and improve your Instagram content strategy, you need to pay close attention to these metrics.
For example, you can analyze metrics such as engagement rate, likes, comments, and shares to determine which types of posts resonate most with your audience.
You can also track how efficient your Instagram account is in generating new leads by checking out which content drives traffic to the website, which posts lead to conversions, and how leads interact with your content.
How to Track Instagram Business Metrics?
OK – so before we show you how to track your business metrics, we want to recommend a few things that will make your tracking process more efficient and get you better insights:
- Set clear goals: What exactly are you trying to accomplish on Instagram? Do you want more followers, better engagement, or more traffic to your website? Until you set a clear goal on what you want to achieve, your metrics won’t tell you much and you won’t be able to use the data to fine-tune your strategies.
- Identify your most relevant metrics: OK – so you have your goals laid out. Now, it’s time to identify which metrics will accurately measure your progress toward achieving that goal. Different goals require different metrics. For example, if you want more brand awareness, you can track impressions, reach, and follower count.
- Analyze and document trends: Some of your content will perform better than the rest – so why not break it down and see what trend is driving the engagement? By analyzing trends, you can quickly see what’s “hot” in the market and modify your strategy to leverage it.
- Regularly review your metrics: If you’re tracking your metrics every once in a blue moon, then you might as well not do it at all. To adjust your strategies accordingly, you need to regularly review what’s happening on your Instagram account.
Tops Instagram Business Metrics to Track According to Experts
Now that we’ve covered why Instagram business metrics are important and how you should track them… let’s get into the trenches and see which specific metrics you should track.
We asked our respondents to select 3 Instagram business metrics they consider to be the most important for their B2B businesses: reach, engagement-related metrics and total followers got the most votes.
What about vanity metrics? Is there anything you should avoid tracking?
For this survey, most of our respondents selected follower count and likes as vanity metrics. This is interesting considering that a lot of companies think these metrics are indicators of a successful Instagram business account, as seen earlier.
1) Top Performing Content
Top-performing content refers to the posts, reels, or stories that receive the highest level of engagement on your account.
With these metrics, you can easily pinpoint what type of content resonates best with your audience and adjust your strategy based on those insights.
Solomon Thimothy of ClickX says that “top-performing content is extremely important for us since that metrics provides better insights into our ICP and tell us more about the challenges and pains of our audience.”
2) Accounts Engaged
Accounts engaged refers to the unique Instagram accounts that have interacted with your content during a specific period.
This interaction can include a range of actions, such as likes, comments, shares, saves, replies to stories, mentions, or direct messages in response to your content.
Unlike broader metrics (such as impressions or reach), which show you how many people saw your content, accounts engaged tell you how many took some action based on your content.
It’s a measure of active interaction rather than passive viewing.
As Lisa Sicard of Inspire to Thrive puts it, you should keep a close eye on this metric because “Instagram is all about engagement today. You want to see people engaged with your content on this platform.”
3) Social Share of Voice
The social share of voice (SSoV) metric helps you better understand your brand’s visibility and how you compare to niche competitors.
On Instagram, it specifically refers to how much your brand is mentioned or engaged within posts, stories, comments, or hashtags.
Tracking SSoV over time can give you insights into whether your brand’s market position is improving, declining, or stable.
Hardy Desai of Supple Digital says that the social share of voice is their top metric “because we want to see how much users are talking about and mentioning our brand compared to our competitors.”
“If we don’t have a strong share of voice, we know we’re not doing enough to create a unique brand experience and showcase our USP. Conversion rate matters because without a strong ROI, social efforts should be dialled back.
4) Accounts Reached
Accounts reached represent the total number of unique Instagram accounts that have seen any of your posts or stories over a specific period.
You should track this metric to get a sense of the scale of your audience.
It’s not just about how many times your content is seen (impressions), but how many individual accounts have encountered your content.
Plus, by analyzing which types of content reach more accounts, you can tailor your content strategy more effectively.
For Will Hatton of The Broke Backpacker, reach is arguably the most important metric “because it shows us overall how well our account is doing in the Instagram sphere.”
“Many other metrics fall under the umbrella of reach including followers, likes, and hashtag performance. I don’t believe that any of the metrics are used for vanity, as they all have their place in measuring the success of an account.
5) Post Interactions
Post interactions on Instagram refer to the total number of actions that users take about your content. These actions can include likes, comments, shares (reposts), and saves.
Since Instagram’s algorithm favours content with higher engagement, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on which type of posts get the most interactions from your audience.
Andre Oentoro of BreadNBeyond says that post-interaction metrics like likes, comments, and shares are “the most important Instagram Business metrics.”
6) Follower Demographics
The follower demographics on Instagram provide detailed information about the characteristics of your followers.
It typically includes data on age ranges, gender distribution, top locations (countries or cities), and the times when followers are most active on the platform.
You can use this information in a variety of ways.
For example, knowing the top locations of your followers can help you create geographically tailored content, potentially involving local languages, cultural references, or region-specific products.
Another useful insight is your audience’s most active hours since this allows you to schedule posts, stories, and ads to make sure you squeeze the most visibility for your content.
7) Follower Growth
The follower growth metric refers to the rate at which your brand’s number of followers increases over a specific period. This metric is typically analyzed in terms of growth rate, meaning the percentage change in followers over time (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).
Businesses can use this metric to track the correlation between specific content strategies and spikes in follower growth to get a more granular understanding of what’s working.
8) Profile Activity
Profile activity insights show you a variety of interactions that users have with your Instagram profile.
It covers a range of actions that users can take, including profile visits, website clicks (if you have a link in your profile bio), direction clicks, call clicks, and more.
Many businesses track profile activity alongside other engagement-related metrics to get a better sense of how interested their audience is in the product or service they’re offering.
9) Impressions
The impressions metric shows the total number of times users view your content.
But keep in mind that it doesn’t account for unique views, which means that if the same user views a post five times, it would count as five impressions.
It’s usually a good idea to track it alongside reach. Reach measures how many unique users see the content, while impressions measure how often the content is displayed.
So, a high number of impressions compared to reach means that users are viewing the content multiple times, which could be a sign of strong interest.
10) Story Interactions
The story interactions metric shows you the total number of actions that users take when they engage with a story posted on your Instagram account. These actions include replies, shares, or sticker interactions.
While story Interactions is a quantitative metric, the qualitative insights it offers can be invaluable for optimizing your content strategy and understanding your audience better.
Not only will you have a direct insight into which types of stories get the most reactions, but you can also analyze the reactions you’re getting (e.g. a follower sharing one of their pain points by replying) to better understand your audience’s needs.
11) Follower Active Times
Follower active times show the specific days and hours when your Instagram followers are most active on the platform.
Once you know when your audience is most active, you can use that data to schedule posts at that time to make sure you squeeze the most engagement.
The metric is especially valuable for businesses with a global audience and need to plan content based on time zone differences.
12) Reels Interactions
The reel interactions metric on Instagram refers to the total number of user engagements with your brand’s Reel content. It encompasses various forms of user engagement, including likes, comments, saves, and shares.
Apart from general engagement, analyzing Reel interactions can also help you reveal subtle preferences in your audience’s behaviour.
For instance, you might find that educational content generates more saves and shares, which shows a desire for value-driven content. Or, behind-the-scenes Reels might get more comments, which suggests a preference for personal content.
13) Live Interactions
Live interactions refer to the number of user engagements that occur during a live video broadcast on the platform. This includes a range of interactive actions such as likes, comments, shares, and live viewership numbers.
Essentially, it’s a good way to analyze your audience’s level of engagement with the content in real time.
This real-time feedback is great for staying on top of audience sentiment, and it allows you to address current concerns, clarify features, or even note suggestions for future improvements.
In Conclusion
By incorporating these Instagram business metrics into your marketing strategy, you can gain valuable insights into what’s resonating with your audience and make data-driven decisions to optimize your content and outreach. Remember, Instagram is a visual platform, so high-quality, engaging content is key to success. But don’t forget the power of data analytics to measure your progress and identify areas for improvement. With a strategic approach that leverages both creative content and data analysis, you can use Instagram to build strong brand awareness, generate leads, and nurture long-term customer relationships.
Now that you’re familiar with key Instagram business metrics, it’s time to put your knowledge into action! Start by setting specific goals for your Instagram presence. What do you want to achieve? Once you know your goals, you can identify the most relevant metrics to track your progress. As you collect data, don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things. With a data-driven approach and a commitment to continuous improvement, you can use Instagram to take your B2B marketing to the next level.
I hope this helps!
