Instagram Reels Insights: Everything You Need to Know
Instagram have just released Reels Insights, and we are here to give you the low-down on how to view, use and apply them to your strategy.
Posted 3 years ago
Written by
Julia CohenPosted 3 years ago
If you stay in the loop on all things social media, youâll know that Instagram Reels Insights were recently rolled out â something that we had all most definitely been waiting for!
Having access to Instagram Insights for Reels is a total game-changer because it means that you can now start to understand a little bit more about how your content is performing, and what is influencing whether or not your Reels go viral.
So, as knowledgeable Insta-experts here at Flick, weâve put together this article to walk you through everything you need to know about Reels Insights, including:
Jump to a section â¨
What Are Instagram Reels Insights?
Reels Insights are a new analytics section of Instagram that makes the metrics relating to your Reels visible. Before they were rolled out, you were only really able to see your view count, comments, and likes by tapping on your content. However, since May 2021, Instagram now includes a dedicated tab for Reels analytics, similar to the Insights tab on your static posts and videos.
Instagram Reels Insights allow you to track, collect, and analyze data to understand the performance of your Reels and learn more about your audience and their actions on the app.
Just like the rest of Instagramâs analytics suite, if youâre posting Reels (which you should be!), you should be leveraging their Insights to inform your content strategy and create Reels that will drive better engagement and increase your following.
Why Track & Analyze Reels Insights?
Being a new feature, Instagram currently seems to be rewarding those accounts that post Reels with higher visibility. As not everyone is using them yet, Reels have less competition to rank, so theyâre a great opportunity to grow your Instagram. By monitoring how well your Reels are doing, you can:
- Learn what youâre doing well
- Learn where you can improve
- Find opportunities youâre missing
- Identify what your audience likes and dislikes
- Pinpoint when your audience is active and when should post your Reels for best reach and engagement
- Understand which calls to action are most popular with your audience
- See which AR filters, effects, and audio tracks are working
- Recognize patterns in high-performing Reels
How To View Instagram Reels Insights
First of all, remember that you need to have a Creator or Business account to view Instagram Insights. Itâs free to upgrade your Personal account to a professional one and only takes a few minutes to change in your settings. So itâs worth doing if you want to learn more about whatâs driving the success of your Reels and other content.
There are a few different ways to view Instagram Reels Insights:
Navigate to an individual Reel and tap âView Insightsâ which should show on your screen when previewing from your feed. Or, click into a full Reel, tap the three dots icon, and select âView Insightsâ from the options list. This will take you to the analytics for that particular Reel.
Alternatively, head to your account and click the Insights button below your bio, or click the three lines icon in the top-right corner and select Insights on the list. Accessing Insights via your profile will provide you with data about the performance of all your content, including Reels, over the past 30 days.
How To Fix Reels Insights Not Showing
Firstly, Insights is only available on the Instagram app, so make sure youâre not accessing your account on your web browser.
Remember that you wonât be able to see Insights for past posts if you recently switched back to a Creator or Business profile from a Personal account, as your past data gets deleted when you have a Personal account.
Itâs also worth noting that due to privacy rules in Europe and Japan, certain Insights metrics may not be available for content in those areas.
Reels Insights Analytics
Once youâve accessed your Reels Insights, youâll see the metrics (Plays, Accounts Reached, Likes, Comments, Saves, and Shares) are split into two sections: Discovery and Interactions. Both are important to understand how well your content is performing.
Reels Discovery: Accounts Reached VS Plays
Discovery on Reels Insights is similar to Reach and Impressions on a regular post, and indicates the number of accounts youâve reached and how many times your video has been played. But what are the differences between Accounts Reached and Plays?
- Accounts Reached: this metric tells you how many unique Instagram users saw your Reel at least once. If itâs way higher than your usual content, this could be a sign that your Reel has been featured on the Instagram Explore page or in the top Reels, has ranked for a hashtag, or has otherwise gone viral. That shows youâre doing something right!
Alternatively, if itâs much lower than normal, it could be a sign that youâve posted at the wrong time, or perhaps even used a banned hashtag, which has caused your content to be hidden by Instagram.
- Plays: this is the number of times your Reel has been played. It could be higher than the number of accounts reached, since some users may watch your Reel more than once. Thatâs a good sign that they really like your content.
Reels Interactions meaning
Interactions show how many people are engaging with your Reels. Theyâre broken down into the number of Likes, Comments, Shares, and Saves.
Before Reels Insights was rolled out, you could already view most of these metrics, but Instagram has now given the option to see how many times people save or share your Reels as well (depending on where youâre located, due to privacy regulations).
Understanding how many times your video is saved and shared, in comparison to other Reels you make, can help you decipher whether people want to come back to your videos at a later time and/or share them with their friends.
As a rule, high numbers of likes, shares, and saves are a sign of positive engagement on your Reels. But when it comes to comments, you need to check the content of that feedback. The newfound adage may claim that âall publicity is good publicityâ and Instagram may reward high numbers of comments with greater visibility.
However, if youâre receiving negative comments on your Reels, you should take action on what your audience is saying, whether itâs about your content or your brand as a whole, rather than skimming over it as a simple engagement metric.
Instagram Insights Reach
Finally, you can also access more holistic Insights for Instagram Reels in the Overview Analytics section of your account.
By navigating to the Reach section of your Instagram Insights, you can see the number of followers and non-followers you have reached, and how this compares to the reach of your other content types.
Youâll also be able to view the top-performing Reels youâve posted within the last 7 or 30 days. Use this data to inform your content strategy and create the types of Reels that have proven to be popular with your audience.
How To Leverage Insights To Make Better Reels
Once you start monitoring and analyzing your Instagram Reels Insights, donât be disheartened if youâre not getting actionable data instantly. This is a new form of content, and with fewer accounts publishing it, it can take longer for a Reel to go viral. You may notice a boost in Discovery or Interaction metrics after a few days or potentially up to two weeks!
Plus, once a Reel goes viral, its reach and impressions will stay sky-high for a good few days. This is an amazing opportunity for you to continue posting regular content and stories to capitalize on your newfound popularity and see what your new followers like.
So make sure to keep an eye on your Insights and incorporate them into your regular social media reports to track performance over time. Then, when youâve gathered enough data, you should try testing different variations on your Reels to measure the impact on your Insights. Check out how other creators and businesses are posting on Reels and consider trialing:
- Different lengths of Reel: you can now post videos of up to 1 minute, so see if your audience prefers shorter, TikTok-style clips or longer videos
- Posting on different days and times: Instagram Insights shows when your audience is most active, so test posting Reels during those key hours to see which garners the most engagement
- Varying audio tracks: identify which music or audio youâve used in your top-performing Reels and trial it on new content to see if it is equally popular
- Different Reels content styles: like with audio, see what content, filters, and effects are proving most popular in terms of engagement and create more of the same to see if thatâs whatâs driving the postsâ success. Try using the new Reels Remix feature to repurpose your old content too!
Tracking Instagram Insights With Flick
Now that Instagram has a dedicated Reels Insights section, it suggests that API access to the analytics is on the horizon. This will mean that platforms like Flick will hopefully soon be able to include detailed Reels Insights in our Analytics Suite. Additionally, integrating the Creative Suite API will further enhance our ability to analyze and optimize content performance across various platforms.
Already, our advanced Instagram analytics provide in-depth insight into engagement and conversion rates across your feed, story, and Reels posts. Unlike Insights on the Instagram app itself, you donât lose your data after 30 days. With Flickâs Analytics Suite, you can:
- Access metrics including engagement rates, reach, profile visits, followers, and website clicks over any time period
- Track your hashtag performance and see which terms your posts have ranked for and for how long to improve your hashtag research
- Calculate the top times for posting content on your account based on where your audience is located and when theyâre most active
- Visually review and compare your posts, as well as comparing them against a benchmark of 55k+ Instagram accounts
Grow Your Instagram By Monitoring Insights
Tracking and analyzing your Instagram Reels Insights should be a key part of your regular social media strategy. By identifying which content is performing best in terms of reach and engagement, you can create more of the same and watch your account grow.
Got any questions about the new Insights for Instagram Reels? Send us a DM or take a look at our Instagram Analytics guide to learn more about Insights for your full Instagram account. If you havenât yet started to use our new IGTV and Story Analytics, just click below to explore them further!
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