Every team wants to analyze the effectiveness of social media promotion through the lens of key metrics. This process requires a deep understanding of each indicator & its context. Although the list varies from team to team, impressions are a standard metric that every team pays attention to.
In the world of Instagram marketing, there is a critical metric: Instagram impression, which significantly impacts your social media strategy.
99% of teams often track Instagram impressions but misunderstand it.
So today, in this post, let's figure out what are impressions on Instagram!
Table Of Content:
- What Are Impressions On Instagram?
- What Is Instagram Reach?
- Reach Vs. Impressions Instagram
- Why Are Instagram Impressions Higher Than Reach?
- Can Reach Be Higher Than Impressions?
- Reach Vs. Impressions Instagram: Which One Is More Important?
- Finding Instagram Impressions
- Instagram Impressions Breakdown
- How Do You Increase Instagram Impressions?
- What After Reach & Impressions: Other Instagram Metrics To Track
You can directly jump to a section of your choice or keep scrolling.
What Are Impressions On Instagram?
Have you ever wondered what does impressions mean on Instagram & why they are so important?
Every time you look at an Instagram post that counts as one impression.
Instagram impressions count is the total number of times your content has been displayed on users' screens. This includes every time your post, story, or video appears in someone's feed, on your profile, in search results, or on a follower's home screen. It's important to note that impressions are not unique views. If the same person sees a post five times, that counts as five impressions.
To count impressions on Instagram, you typically need to have a Business or Creator account, as these accounts provide access to Instagram Insights. This tool tracks various metrics, including impressions. Here’s how you can check the impression count for your posts.
Image Source: SocialPros
- Switch to a Business or Creator Account: If you haven't already, switch your account to a Business or Creator account through the Instagram settings. This gives you access to Instagram Insights.
- Access Instagram Insights: Once you have a Business or Creator account, you can access Insights either from your profile page or by tapping on a specific post.
- See Post’s Metrics: For individual posts, tap on the post and then on “View Insights” below the image or video. For overall account metrics, go to your profile, tap the Insights action button (bar chart icon), and then explore the content tab.
- Check the Impressions: In the Insights section for a particular post, you’ll find various metrics, including likes, comments, shares, and impressions. The impressions metric shows the total number of times your post has been displayed.
How Does Instagram Calculate Impression Rate?
To get a percentage of your total number of likes & comments on Instagram, divide the total number of likes & comments by your follower count & then multiply by 100.
How Are Impressions Counted?
One impression is calculated when a thumbnail or expanded image is displayed. An impression is counted only once per host page URL. That means if a user scrolls away & returns or expands a thumbnail into a large image, it is counted as a single impression.
How Do You Read An Impression Instagram Story?
You can access Instagram Story Insights by viewing your Stories & tapping "Seen by." You will see impressions & followers. You can view metrics on how users have interacted with your Stories under Navigation.
Know more about Instagram Story Viewer: All You Need To Know
Image Source: Unbox Social
What Is Instagram Reach?
The total number of unique accounts that have seen your post is known as reach on Instagram.
Reach is the number of accounts that have seen your post only once. In the best-case scenario, if you have a perfect engagement rate, if every single follower of yours sees your posts, then each one of them is counted as one reach. But, in reality, this is not always the case.
This is because, based on the Instagram algorithm, your posts are shown to the users that are most interested in seeing your content. Many of your less-interacted followers will miss your posts in their feed. If you have a public account, many of your followers might be bot accounts also which don't have any interaction with you.
Image Source: SocialPros
Reach Vs. Impressions Instagram
Reach: The number of unique users who saw your Instagram post, reels, story, or IGTV video.
Impressions: The number of times your content is shown to Instagram users.
You can measure the number of people who view your content (impressions) by the number of people who click on it. A single user can view your content multiple times. No matter how many times a single user views your content, impressions are the total number of times it is displayed. Reach is measured as the number of unique people who see your content.
So if one user views one of your posts three times, that would count as one reach & three Instagram impressions.
Why Are Instagram Impressions Higher Than Reach?
If you look at your Instagram post insights, you will find that the amount of reach is less than impressions.
Most of the time, Instagram impressions are higher than reach since impressions are the number of times your content has been viewed. The same post can be viewed several times by a single user. If the profile can be visited several times, then your stories can also be viewed several times.
When Instagram impressions are higher than reach, your audience views your content multiple times. Your content with high impression rates can help you understand what type of content is performing well on the platform.
Impressions are important if you want to increase your brand awareness. It's quite hard to make every single one of your followers view & engage with your content on the platform. You can make use of promoted content to maximize this metric.
Can Reach Be Higher Than Impressions?
No. Impressions turning into engagement are counted as reach. Even if they don't, those impressions will still be counted as one. Hence, reach is a subset of impressions & cannot be higher.
Reach Vs. Impressions Instagram: Which One Is More Important?
Both impressions & reach are important metrics you should track to measure your Instagram performance. You can't choose one over another as they both essentially measure social media engagement.
Reach is useful for evaluating the quality of content. It is a sign to check the structure & quality of your content if the reach is high, but there are no conversions. On the other hand, impressions give you a hint about how users are responding to your content. If the response is cold, you should change the target audience or purpose of your content.
To keep increasing your engagement, both metrics are important and crucial for your Instagram marketing strategy. The more people engage with your content, the more likely Instagram is to show your content to more people.
Finding Instagram Impressions
It's important to know how to find & track your Instagram impressions. Here's how:
Step 1: Open the Instagram app. Go on your profile by tapping your profile picture at the bottom-right corner.
Step 2: Tap on the hamburger icon in the upper-right corner. From the menu that opens up, tap 'Insights.'
Step 3: Scroll to the bottom of the page & you'll find a row that reads Impressions.
You can track daily impressions on the Insights page. You can also see if your impressions have increased or decreased compared to the previous week. Once you find your Instagram impressions, you can start tracking them & watch them grow with your efforts!
Know more about How To See Post Insights On Instagram
Instagram Impressions Breakdown
1. Profile Impressions
Profile Impressions gives you an overview of your account status over the last 7 or 30 days. You can see the total impressions & reach for your posts, stories, or videos. You can also see data on the different actions users have taken on your account, including profile visits & clicks on different elements.
2. Audience Impressions
Audience impressions include the data about your audience. It shows the breakdown of your audience according to their location, gender, & more. It is not directly related to the number of Instagram impressions you receive. However, you should take into account the days & times your followers are most active from audience impressions to increase the reach of your posts. If you publish your content at those times, you can easily get more Instagram impressions.
3. Content Impressions
Content impressions will allow you to analyze and compare the performance of content published on the platform. The data is divided into posts & stories. You can view the total number of impressions & the number of accounts reached for both.
Image Source: HubSpot
4. Statistics Of Each Publication In The Feed
Statistics of each post in your feed give you a breakdown of the impressions. You can learn from which locations users viewed your content (homepage, profile, explore page, hashtags, etc.)
You can also see what percentage of the accounts reached were existing followers and which were new users. You can track impressions & reach on every Instagram post. This section shows you where your post was displayed & which source brought how many impressions. Here's a breakdown:
- Impressions from Home: Post viewed from the home feed
- Impressions from Profile: Post viewed from your profile page
- Impressions from Location: Post was viewed from a location tag
- Impressions from Hashtags: Post was viewed from a hashtag search
- Impressions from Explore: Post was viewed from the Instagram Explore page
- Impressions from Other: Post was viewed by other sources
Impressions from other include:
- Shares: Post has been shared in direct messages or outside the Instagram app
- Saves: Post has been saved in the Instagram app to be viewed later
- Tags: Posts from other Instagram users who tagged you
- Mentions: Posts from other Instagram users who mentioned you in their caption
- Notifications: Posts that show up in the "FOLLOWING" tab in the notifications
Also, impressions from others could include all traffic from outside Instagram, such as sharing links to the posts in email, blog, and other social media platforms like Telegram, Whatsapp, YouTube, or any other external website.
5. Impressions Instagram Story
Instagram provides data on the impact of each of your stories during the 24 hours of its visibility. This includes impressions, reach, interactions, and more.
Since impressions allow you to know if users are returning to view your content again, impressions on Instagram stories indicate that your followers have watched your stories more than once.
How Do You Increase Instagram Impressions?
If you are trying to grow your brand on Instagram, one of the most critical things you can do is to track your Instagram impressions. Let's now understand how to increase Instagram impressions.
Establish A Reputable Instagram Account
You first need to establish a reputable account to get more Instagram impressions by filling out your profile entirely & accurately from your profile photo to your Instagram bio & link in bio.
Once you have completely filled your profile, you can start using the platform to its full potential by sharing interesting posts. Keep in mind that it takes time & effort to grow an engaged & successful account, but the results can be worth it!
Image Source: Statusbrew Instagram
Use High-quality Images
When uploading image posts, ensure that it's clear & in focus. This will ensure that your followers can clearly see the photo & that it will stand out in their feed.
Image Source: Pringles Instagram
Use Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to increase Instagram impressions. People use hashtags to see what other people are talking about, what events are happening, or just to get ideas for their own posts.
Know more about 300+ Best Hashtags For Instagram In 2022
Post At The Right Time
Posting at the right time on Instagram will bring your post in front of the right people at the right time, hence increasing your Instagram impressions.
Know more about The Best Times To Post On Instagram
Like, Share, & Comment On Other Posts
When you like, share, and comment on other posts, you not only increase the Instagram impressions of other posts but also your own metric.
Sharing a post exposes your followers to new content & encourages them to like or comment on that post. Comments start conversations & help build relationships with other Instagram users. And all of these actions help increase your Instagram impressions.
Use Instagram Ads
Instagram ads can help you reach a larger audience & get your account in front of more people. Ensure to target your ideal audience & use relevant keywords when creating your ad.
To learn more about Instagram ads, check out this article: The Ultimate Guide To Instagram Ads
Image Source: Sleepy Owl Coffee Instagram
What After Reach & Impressions: Other Instagram Metrics To Track
While Instagram impressions and reach are important, you can always expand your analytical skills by analyzing more in-depth Instagram metrics using advanced analytics tools. The following metrics will help you stay in line with your strategies & evaluate your efforts with Instagram.
Instagram Email Metrics
- Instagram Email Contacts: Number of taps on the email link in your profile.
Instagram Followers Metrics
- Instagram Followers Count: Number of followers on your profile(s).
- Instagram Followers: Insights on the age, gender, country, city, & online status of your followers.
- Instagram Online Followers: Number of followers who were online during the specified time period.
Instagram Audience Demography
- Audience City: The name of cities where your audience currently resides.
- Audience Country: The countries of your followers.
- Audience Gender & Age: The gender & age distribution of your followers.
- Audience Locale: The locales by country codes of your followers.
Instagram Customer Action Metrics
- Instagram Direction Clicks: The number of taps on the directions link in your profile(s).
- Instagram Impressions: The total number of times your posts, stories, & promotions have been viewed. It does not include profile views.
- Instagram Phone Call Clicks: The number of taps on the call link in your profile(s).
Instagram Profile Metrics
- Instagram Profile Views: The number of unique accounts that have viewed your profile(s).
- Instagram Reach: The number of unique accounts that have seen your post or story. Story data does not include highlights, live video stories, or reshares.
- Instagram Text Message Clicks: The number of taps on the text message link in your profile(s).
- Instagram Website Clicks: The number of taps on the website link in your profile(s).
Do you want to know how to track all of these metrics not just for one Instagram profile but for multiple profiles? Well, Statusbrew's Reports Lab feature can help you out here. Reports Lab feature offers detailed Instagram analytics, which allows you to:
- Analyze the performance of multiple Instagram accounts side by side
- Access in-depth Instagram analytics
- Schedule automatic reports within seconds
- Generate external links of reports to share with guest users
- Export reports in PDF
- Track your progress across multiple social networks along with Instagram, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube
Having all these platforms in one place will save you time & effort as you don't need to switch between multiple platforms to check your performance from native dashboards.
You can connect multiple Instagram accounts & compare their performance side by side.
Another handy function is the automated reporting that will keep you and your team members, clients, business partners, & stakeholders updated about all your key metrics.
You can schedule weekly, monthly, or quarterly reports. These reports will then automatically be generated & sent via email not just to internal recipients but to external recipients as well.
So, Statusbrew provides you with more functionality than the Instagram Insights section.
Measuring your social media reach & engagement, identifying the best times to post, & learning about your audience demographics are found in one intuitive dashboard.
Statusbrew also includes Instagram hashtag analytics. You can see which hashtags generated the highest engagement rates under your posts.
Statusbrew allows you to bulk schedule Instagram posts, schedule an Instagram Story, schedule first comment, and schedule a carousel post and a video all within Statusbrew's environment.
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