How to use Instagram Reel Insights to create better reels
High-level Instagram Reel insights are easy to get — anyone can tell how many views and likes a Reel has just by looking at it in their feed or Reels tab. But if you’re a business using this content format, you’ll need to dive deeper into engagement and get stats to get a full picture of how Reels is helping you grow your Instagram presence.
Keep reading to find out which Instagram Reels metrics really matter and how to effectively measure your success. We’ve also compiled a list of 4 tips for using video information to improve your content.
What is reel analytics?
Reel Analytics is the process of tracking, collecting and analyzing data to understand the performance of your reels.
Advanced analytics can help you make smarter creative decisions and develop better content strategies. On a higher level, this can help you get to know your audience better and allocate your time and money to tactics that work for them.
Reel analytics is part of Instagram analytics and should be included in your Instagram reports as well as your larger social media reports.
(If you need help creating a social media report, use our free template.)
Reel analytics indicators
When figuring out whether a video was successful or not, you should look at the following metrics:
Instagram video reach metrics
- Accounts reached. This metric shows how many unique Instagram users have seen your video at least once.
- Games. This is the number of times your drum has been played. This may be more than the number of accounts reached, as some users may watch your video more than once – which I believe is the case for this video of three cows kissing a puppy:
View this post on Instagram
Instagram Reels engagement metrics
- Like. This metric shows how many users liked your video.
- Comments. The number of comments on an individual video.
- Saves. How many times your video has been bookmarked.
- Stock. The number of times Instagram users shared your video in their story or sent it to another user.
How to view reel stats in Hootsuite
With Hootsuite, you can track the success of your videos along with all other social media content (from Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest) and easily create comprehensive reports, saving you the headache of browsing countless tabs to collect your statistics.
To see how your Reels content is performing, go to the Analytics section of your Hootsuite dashboard. There you will find detailed performance statistics, including:
- Achieve
- Games
- Like
- Comments
- Stock
- Saves
- Engagement rate
Interaction reports for all your connected Instagram accounts now include Reels data.
Try it free for 30 days. You can cancel at any time.
How to View Reels Insights in the Instagram App
To check your Instagram Reels stats, go to your profile page on the mobile app, then click the Insights button below your bio.
Please note that Insights is only available for professional accounts. But don’t worry! You can switch to a Creator or Business account in Settings – it only takes a minute, and even newer accounts with few followers can do it.
Then go to “Achieved Accounts”in the “Overview”section. Reel analytics are included in the reach breakdown. According to Instagram, this is intended to give Instagram users a better understanding of how reels affect account performance.
Source: Instagram
To view stats specific to reels only, scroll down to ‘Reels’ in the ‘Stats’ overview screen and click the right arrow next to the number of reels. Here you can see all the performance metrics of your reels in one place.
To check the performance of a particular video, open the video from your profile, then tap the three dots icon in the bottom right corner of the screen, then tap Statistics.
Source: Instagram
How to use Instagram Reels analytics to improve your videos
Now that you know where to find Reels analytics and why you should track Reels performance, it’s time to put all of these insights into practice.
Here are 4 tips for using Reels analytics to create better content:
1. Test different styles of coils
To make good videos, you need to… watch a lot of videos. Without understanding what is trending right now, it will be difficult for you to find a style that suits your brand.
But what if what you like doesn’t necessarily resonate with your audience?
The key to finding the best visual styles, filters, effects, and trends for your brand is testing. And now that you have access to Reels Insights, you can extract more information from your tests.
Previously, you could only base your performance assumptions on comments and likes. But a large number of comments is not always good – some of them can be negative. Take, for example, comments from a kitchen hacker at a major grocery chain, Reel:
With two new engagement metrics, you’ll get a better idea of how many users actually liked your content (enough to save it for later or share it with friends). When you post a video that gets a lot of likes, comments, saves, and shares, you’ll know something’s working!
2. Check coils of different lengths.
Instagram currently allows all users to create videos up to 90 seconds long.
But you don’t always need to use all that time. Sometimes shorter content can be more engaging. Similar to testing different trends and effects, you can test different lengths of videos to see what your audience responds to best.
Read our guide to finding the right reel length.
3. Check different sound options
Instagram offers many different options for adding audio to Reels. You can:
- Use the original audio from your video clip
- Add voiceover to your video
- Use a text-to-speech generator
- Use a saved audio track – a song or a viral snippet, as in the example below from McDonald’s:
View this post on Instagram
With access to Reels Insights, you can try different options and see if some work better than others.
Accessibility Tip: Whatever your choice, be sure to add captions to your videos so everyone can enjoy them!
4. Post at the right time
This is big. Advanced video analytics can help you determine the best day of the week and time of day to post your videos for maximum reach and engagement.
The idea is simple – test different post times and keep a close eye on your results to find out what time works best for you and your audience. This way you will never “waste”a great video by posting it when your audience is offline!
Why is it important to track Reels analytics?
As with all social media analytics, tracking the performance of your reels can help you learn from your wins, spot opportunities, and improve your performance over time.
Reel Analytics can help you understand:
- What your audience likes and dislikes
- When should you post your videos for maximum reach and engagement?
- What calls to action resonate with your audience
- Which AR filters, effects and music tracks will do it for you
Carefully tracking Reels Insights will also help you recognize patterns and see if Reel performance spikes could impact your overall engagement on Instagram.
(In case you missed it, some marketers believe that Instagram rewards accounts that actively post videos with higher overall visibility. Our team ran an experiment to see if this is true.)
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