How to get in explore page instagram
How to Get on the Instagram Explore Page 2022
When it comes to Instagram, getting on the Explore page is a surefire way to gain more exposure. Through the Explore page, you can maximize your reach and get your content in front of relevant users and potential customers. That means more views and impressions and possibly more Instagram followers.
How can your brand make the most of this prime real estate and get on the Instagram Explore page? Let’s find out.
- What is the Instagram Explore page?
- Why does it matter to your brand?
- How does the Instagram Explore page algorithm work?
- 5 tips for getting on the Instagram Explore page
What is the Instagram Explore page?
The Explore page on Instagram is a collection of content based on a user’s individual interests. The Instagram algorithm curates content based on similar accounts or content interacted with. The Explore page includes photos, videos, Reels and even Stories. Instagram curates the content on this page to the taste of each user, so no two Explore pages are alike.
Instagram users access the Explore page by tapping on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the app screen.
Source: Instagram
From the top search bar, you can use keywords to find popular content, accounts and tags related to a specific topic.
You can further filter the results according to niche categories. For example, the Explore page for “DIY crafts” shows more filters to narrow down your search by material or medium. This helps Instagram users get specific with their searches. As a business owner, it can give you ideas on what type of content your customers are looking for based on the search results Instagram returns.
Why the Instagram Explore page matters to your brand
Your brand should care about getting on the Instagram Explore page because it means more people may see your content.
With Instagram projected to have nearly 1.2 billion monthly active users by 2023, this increased visibility will have several related benefits:
- Increased followers: More than 200 million accounts visit the Instagram Explore page daily. That’s 50% of the platform user base. And among these users, Instagram will display your content in front of those who are most likely to be interested in your account. This means you have a good chance of turning some of them into new followers.
- Increased engagement: If users like the content they see, they’re likely to engage with it by liking, commenting or even sharing with friends. So when they discover your content through the Explore page, it could boost engagement for your brand.
- Increased sales: When more people discover your content through the Explore page, it helps get your products in front of the right people. Moreover, your shoppable Instagram posts can also show up in the Explore page. More people discovering your products could translate to an increase in sales.
How the Instagram Explore page algorithm works
Instagram uses a Feed Ranking System to personalize each user’s feed and Explore page. The Explore page algorithm relies on machine learning to collect ranking signals and decide what to display. It uses an “unconnected recommendation system,” where the platform chooses posts based on each user’s activity on Instagram.
The Instagram algorithm then ranks these posts based on several factors. These factors include engagement, freshness, content quality and relevance.
To sum up, Instagram personalizes the Explore page based on:
- Posts that are fresh and see a ton of engagement
- The types of content you regularly engage with
- Accounts that you’re already following
- The types of posts that see engagement from people you follow
For example, let’s say you follow a lot of food accounts and engage with Reels related to cooking. In this case, Instagram will collect popular food-related content for your Explore page.
The ranking system is currently based on relevance and interaction. As long as they meet the necessary criteria, Instagram equally favors content from all types of accounts. This is great news if you’re running an Instagram business account. It means you stand as good a chance of getting on the Explore page as an influencer or a personal account.
5 tips on how to get on the Instagram Explore page
With millions of posts created every day, visibility on Instagram is very competitive. This also makes it challenging for posts to show up in the Explore page. Use the following best practices for Instagram to improve your chances:
1. Share engaging content
Engagement is one of the major ranking signals that the Instagram Explore page algorithm looks for. Creating engaging content is easier said than done. Take a look at your existing content and your target audience. What types of Instagram content do they engage with the most? A quick Instagram audit can help you with these discoveries.
Ideally, your content should have two main qualities – it should be useful and it should catch the eye. Does your content add value? Does it help your followers achieve anything or solve a problem? Or perhaps it informs and educates them. You could even create content just to entertain them if that aligns with your brand personality.
2. Get inspiration from other posts on the Explore page
If you’re not sure how to create engaging content, look at what types of content usually make it to the Explore page. This can inspire you to create the kinds of posts your target audience is engaging with. It can show you what approach is working for other accounts relevant to your industry so you can get inspired and craft your content strategy.
Perhaps people are enjoying bite-sized how-to videos. Or maybe infographic carousels seem to see high levels of engagement. Do you see more “before and after” transformations than regular customer stories?
Make a note of the winning “recipes” and find a way to use them for your own Instagram content strategy.
3. Perfect your timing for optimal engagement
Timing is an important factor when it comes to getting engagement on social media. With thousands of new content coming up every minute, your post could get lost in the feed if it doesn’t see immediate engagement. The key to tackling this problem is by posting when your followers are most likely to see it.
The best time to post can vary by location, industry and audience. So take a look at how your own followers are behaving to understand when to publish your content. A platform like Sprout Social makes it easy to find your best times to post. With the Optimal Send Times feature Sprout uses engagement data from your profiles to identify the best times to post for the most audience engagement.
4. Keep things fresh with new formats
When Instagram introduces new content formats, it tends to display these formats prominently for users to engage with. Notice how Reels have a dedicated tab on the Instagram app. It’s because Instagram wants the feature to succeed.
Creating Reels improves your chances of driving engagement and organic reach. It can also help diversify your feed, allowing you to keep your audience interested and engaged. Beyond Reels, make sure you experiment with other content formats as well. This can include Stories, carousels and shoppable posts. Ideally, take a look at the trending content format right now and then leverage it for your own strategy.
For example, Sprout’s Instagram account regularly switches up formats to include videos, carousel infographics, employee spotlight photos and Reels keep the feed diversified.
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5. Consider investing in paid ads
Reaching audiences through organic posts can be hard, so it helps if you can amplify your efforts with some paid ads.
Instagram allows you to run ads in Explore, which prominently displays your content to users browsing the Explore page.
Keep in mind that these ads won’t guarantee you a spot on the main Explore page. But they will appear when a user clicks on one of the posts from their Explore page and scrolls down. This still significantly improves your content visibility. And it allows you to reach relevant users even if you haven’t made it to their organic Explore page.
Earning your place on the Instagram Explore page
More than 157 million Instagram users are in the US and are the second largest audience group by country. So leveraging the Explore page gives you the potential to reach millions of new and relevant users.
The good news is that getting on the Instagram Explore page doesn’t have to be rocket science. Using the right blend of good content, timing and fresh content formats can get you ahead of the race. But to perfect your approach, you need to have a better understanding of what your audience wants to see from you.
Want to know what consumers expect from brands on social? Download the Sprout Social Index™: Social Media Trends in 2022 & Beyond to discover valuable insights about social consumers.
15 Proven Ways To Get On The Instagram Explore Page And Boost Reach
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About the Instagram Explore Page
The Explore page is a space where users head to discover content from accounts they don’t follow. It is a collection of photos, videos, Reels, and Stories selected by the Instagram algorithm based on users’ behavior on the app. What accounts do they follow, what kind of posts they like and comment on, what Stories, Reels and IGTV videos watch. So, each Explore page is a unique selection of content tailored to the user’s interests. At the top of the page, users can look for accounts, hashtags and places.
Where is the Explore page on Instagram? On mobile, you can find it by clicking the magnifying glass icon in the lower menu, between the Home and Reels tabs.
The Instagram Explore page on mobile devicesOn the desktop, click the compass icon on the top menu.
How Does the Instagram Explore Page Work?
The Explore page is unique for every user as Instagram’s algorithm personalizes the content. While in their own feed users see posts from accounts they follow, the Explore page offers a range from similar accounts which are yet to discover. This selection is based on:
- What accounts the user follows
- What type of posts the user often interacts with
- Posts with high engagement
As a whole, Instagram’s algorithm is working behind the scenes to pick up content that it thinks you’ll find interesting. This feature is especially beneficial for brands, which can therefore reach more users and build new connections.
For some businesses, it becomes very tempting to game the algorithm and, for example, purchase followers or engagement. While this can present short-term gain, in the end, it isn’t likely to pay off or may even scare your real followers away. What’s more, the machine learning that the algorithm uses adapts to new patterns in data and can identify such fraudulent activity and take action.
So, how exactly does the algorithm prioritize some posts over others? According to some research, here are a few triggers that influence what appears on the Instagram Explore feed:
- Follows and likes. This is the most potent trigger for the algorithm. Based on user’s likes and follows, it will serve similar posts on the Instagram discover page.
- Video content. In general, videos get more attention than static images, while great photos may outweigh videos every now and then.
- Attractive stories. Stories with elements like GIFs or stickers and not too much text can also rank on the Explore page.
- Reposted content. Notably, reposts of other users’ publications can be demoted by Instagram, so you might want to think twice before reposting.
Advantages of Getting on the Explore Page
So, why strive to get on the popular page on Instagram? First and foremost, it provides a bigger reach and exposure. According to Instagram statistics, 50% of all accounts on the platform check the page every month.
Here are some more benefits:
- Engagement splash on the post that got featured on the Explore page
- Exposure to a highly targeted audience who are likely to have an interest in your brand
- Increase in brand awareness, as showing up on the Explore page will allow more potential clients to discover your brand
- A surge of followers who decided to explore your page besides the post that they found on the Explore page
- Higher conversion and sales with proper calls-to-action
15 Proven Ways to Get on the Explore Page
Getting to the Explore page exposes you to a larger audience and increases potential customers’ chances of getting discovered. And the best thing is that it won’t cost you anything! Here are 15 tips and tricks to appear on the Explore page.
1. Understand Your Audience
Before you land more followers and generate conversions, make sure to study your current audience. Analyze their demographics and interests.
This will allow you to find more users interested in your content and see what kind of posts they like to interact with. Go to Instagram Insights and try to find out who these people are.
Then, try to dig into their behavior online and see:
- What type of posts does the audience like the most?
- Do these posts have captions? If they do, what kind of captions are there?
- What tone resonates most with users?
2. Post at the Best Times
For the algorithm, the timeliness of publications is vital. Recent posts are more likely to appear on the Explore page, so getting engagement on your post right after its publication is step one.
First, take a look at your analytics in Instagram Insights. There, you can see when your followers are online and adjust your posting to their most active times. High engagement, especially promptly after the post has been published, will signal to the algorithm that your content is worth sharing with more people.
Second, take advantage of the industry research and use this information when scheduling your posts. This will help get your post before more eyes and improve engagement.
How to define the best time to post on Instagram by location by LaterWhat’s more, if you figure out when your followers are online, there are high chances that other users with similar interests will also be online. So, your posts will be more likely to get engagement if they end up on the Explore page.
3. Post Engaging Content
Apply your research to your content strategy and create more posts that the audience will appreciate. Videos are one type of content that can generate great engagement, and they are often given more space in the Explore feed. However, static images can be engaging too, especially if they are high-quality, relevant and authentic. Compelling captions can hold the audience’s attention for longer, whether telling a story or sharing a discount.
How do you know if your content generated enough engagement? Naturally, this is reflected in likes and comments but remember that shares and saves are just as indicative.
4. Stay on Topic
To generate engagement and encourage users to come back, staying on a topic through your publications is essential. Such consistency is a positive sign for the algorithm to introduce you to the target audience. On the other hand, if you post about travel today, fitness tomorrow, and politics the day after, there is zero chance you will appear on the Explore page.
So, please look at your account from the user’s perspective and check whether it’s easy for them to tell what your topic is. Analyze your bio, visuals, captions, hashtags, and other details.
5. Use All Content Formats
Users perceive various content formats differently, so it’s important to diversify your publications and keep track of what your audience likes the most. But even more importantly, Instagram prioritizes some types of content, such as Reels or IGTV videos, so you can increase your chances of getting to the Explore page.
For example, Reels is the central tab in the Instagram mobile app, demonstrating its importance to the platform. If you get featured in the Reels tab, you’ll likely show up in the Explore tab as well.
IGTV videos allow you to share videos longer than 60 seconds (while feed videos can only be up to one minute), so it’s a fantastic opportunity to tell more about you and your brand. Research shows that users highly expect videos from a brand.
What types of content audiences expect of brands6. Engage With Users
Instagram is constantly working on enhancing its mechanisms of community building, which should be part of your marketing strategy. The more active your users are, the more likely Instagram is to recommend your page to a larger audience because engagement such as likes or comments indicate a post’s relevance.
So allow your followers to engage more with your content: share relevant posts, respond to all comments and DMs, include enticing calls-to-action, run giveaways and contests and so on.
Make sure to ask your followers to turn on notifications so that they learn about your new posts early.
Another great way to boost engagement is by reposting user-generated content, encouraging more followers to be active on your account. This will prompt Instagram to share your content with audiences similar to your engaged users.
7. Use Captions
While it may seem that success on Instagram is only about sharing great visuals, captions are what can hold the audience’s attention for longer and bring out your message. Another big advantage of captions is that they help create context and, combined with the right call to action, encourage users to like, comment or share your post. In the end, the chances of your post being seen as valuable and getting on the Explore page grow with increasing engagement.
For example, @thebucketlistfamily often uses captions to share stories from along the road and give some context to the audience. This helps hold the audience’s attention and encourages them to start a conversation and also share their experience.
8. Add Relevant Tags
Instagram explore tags like hashtags, geotags and account tags give you one more opportunity to increase your exposure. On the Explore page, people can search by hashtag, location or topic, so by adding relevant tags, you can significantly extend your content’s reach. Thus, posts featuring at least one hashtag get 12.6% more engagement than content without hashtags. On Instagram, you can share up to 30 hashtags, which many influencers use. For instance, travel blogger @jamesrelfdyer adds an extensive amount of hashtags under his posts.
@jamesrelfdyer using hashtags on InstagramHow can you choose relevant hashtags? To cut through the noise and get more eyes on your content, make sure to analyze your current followers and see what hashtags they search for and use. An accurate way is to check on your competitors and niche leaders—see what tags they use, how many, and so on. Tools like BrandMentions or Shout can help capture data.
If your post is a joint project with other brands, influencers or experts, make sure to add account tags for all participants. This will increase your exposure and help with networking.
Location tags are powerful because they help more users discover your content, especially to increase your local audience.
A great temptation might be to add as many popular tags as possible. However, it’s better to be selective about hashtags. Too many of them may look spammy, while too general tags aren’t likely to attract your target audience. And remember that you can add tags to your Stories as well to boost their exposure!
9. Tag Products and Brands
Tagging a brand shows Instagram that there is a relationship between your account and them. So, next time you work with a brand, make sure to tag it in the post! The algorithm might then introduce you to this brand’s followers and other people who might be interested. The same goes for products – using shoppable tags will allow you to appear on the Explore page, while users will check and even buy products right on the app.
10. Run Contests and Giveaways
Contests and giveaways are a great way to boost engagement. People like freebies, and by offering your product, a discount, or a free trial, you can generate some buzz on your Instagram page in a short period. For example, you can ask users to like or comment on your post, tag a friend, or follow your account. Here is an example of a giveaway:
@chelseakauai running a giveaway on Instagram with GetYourGuide11. Analyze Your Best-Performing Posts
Naturally, there are many ways of enhancing your performance on Instagram, but you can only find out what works for you in practice. If you’ve been running your account for a while, make sure to check your analytics and see what’s already resonating with your followers. For example, your audience might especially like carousel posts or get inspired to comment by extended captions. You can see whether your posts have already been featured on the Explore page by tapping the View Insights button below the post.
Then, swipe up to check where impressions for the post have come from. Chances are, your content might have already been featured on the Explore page.
12. Check Posts From Your Explore Page
Analyzing your analytics is great, but checking up on the posts from your Explore page can help just as much. You can dive into the content presented on the page and note techniques that you can replicate, such as what hashtags and in what amount are used, whether there are any captions, etc. You can delve deeper and look at profiles who got featured on the page.
13. Launch Ads in Explore
If you are willing to put in some money to increase exposure, consider running ads on the Explore page. They allow marketers to reach larger audiences and become part of what’s trending in the community. While these ads won’t place you directly on the Explore page, your post will appear between photos and videos when the user clicks a post in the feed.
14. Use Calls to Action
To achieve high engagement, you can use relevant calls to action. They come in different forms:
- Ask questions in your captions and encourage users to respond in the comments. This is one of the easiest ways to start a conversation with your audience. Are you posting a photo of a beautiful destination? Ask the audience if they’ve already been there. Sharing a video of an activity you’ve tried? Ask followers if they have the same experience.
- Ask users to vote in the comments. For example, share several photos in the carousel post and ask users to vote on their favorite. You won’t only get comments, but also have followers spend more time on your page and improve performance indicators.
- Encourage users to check your bio link. While Instagram doesn’t allow you to share links in captions, you can easily direct users to your bio and share a link there. For example, this can be a link to your website, the advertiser’s page, etc.
- Invite people to watch your stories. The opposite is also true—direct your stories’ viewers to your posts! Users who check your post might not be watching your Stories, so you can let them know that you’re sharing valuable content in Stories.
How can you create a great call to action? Make sure to use action words and tell followers what exactly you need them to do. For example, “click the link,” “book now,” or “leave a comment below,” to name a few. Give them a “why” and provide an incentive for users to do what you want, like explaining what they’ll get after clicking a link or why they should book now. Finally, be sure to test out different CTAs and find which ones give the best conversion.
15. Network With Influencers
Networking is an excellent cross-promotion as it allows both marketers to increase their reach from each other’s audiences. Enhanced engagement will boost your chances of getting on the Explore page.
So, how can you find networking opportunities? Ideally, you need a few bloggers whose content correlates to yours, and then you have higher chances of appealing to their audiences.
Partnering with influencers who work in slightly different niches can be just as effective. For example, start by exploring other blogs and social media pages in the niche and commenting on them.
How Brands Can Get on the Instagram Explore Page
Whether you are an aspiring blogger or have thousands of followers, getting featured on the Explore page can benefit anyone. Including these tips and tricks into your content plan will help boost engagement and attract more followers. And once you start seeing new followers coming in, make sure to use this opportunity to convert leads and build a loyal following.
How to get featured on Instagram
Instagram recommendations are a great and free way to promote your account. Likes, comments, new subscribers and growth in statistics - all this can be obtained thanks to the response of users from the interesting section. How to get recommended on Instagram? We will tell you some simple tips that will help you promote your profile and achieve popularity on the social network.
How Instagram recommendations work
Instagram Recommendations is a special section that helps you find new interesting profiles, beautiful photos and useful posts. It is personalized for each user: here are collected photos that they might like, similar accounts, or just potentially important publications.
The section is useful not only for ordinary users who are looking for something interesting. It also enables companies to find a new target audience, talk about their product and increase sales.
Types of recommendations
There are two types of recommendations available to users on the social network:
Figure 1. Types of recommendations on Instagram
Recommended posts on Instagram are posts, videos, videos from IGTV and a new format that is rapidly gaining popularity - Reels. To go to the section with all the materials, just click on the magnifying glass in the mobile application or on the compass icon in the desktop format.
The account promotion system works a little differently: Instagram offers to subscribe to friends, popular blogs or new users. For example, you found an interesting profile you don't know and want to look at similar accounts, so you can simply click on the arrow next to the subscribe button and a window with a list of profiles will open.
What is shown in the Interesting section
The Interesting section is generated automatically. Everything that the user might like gets here:
Figure 2. An example of generating recommendations
Now the social network is actively promoting videos, Reels and materials from IGTV, so there will be many more such posts in the feed. Posts with shopping tags spread well: posts with a shopping cart icon for easy transition to the store.
Recommended profiles are highlighted automatically: after you subscribe to private profiles. In the desktop version, this section can be found on the main page.
Recommendation categories
The social network offers several popular categories:
Categories are available only in the mobile application: they alternate, creating an interesting feed.
For example, the “Shop” category allows you to make online purchases and find products directly on Instagram: just click on the item you like, and a link to the online store, price or carousel with the seller’s goods will appear on the photo.
Figure 2. Product recommendations
Initially, the feed of this category is formed according to the general principle: a variety of products are included here, but after the first click it changes based on the user's preferences.
Products from the category may also fall into other sections. For example, if earlier you were offered products from the Beauty group, now under this tag you can find cosmetics and other similar products.
Which posts get into the "Interesting" on Instagram
Before a post gets into the "Recommended" section, a lot of complex processes take place on the network:
Analytics
The social network studies profiles and publications, how similar they are to each other, determines their topics, highlights tags, identifies similar words and elements.
Particular attention is paid to texts: it is thanks to words and combinations of words, hashtags that posts are combined into groups and checked for violations.
Content search
Social network algorithms analyze your activity: likes, subscriptions, comments, saves and sharing - the history of actions helps to generate suitable recommendations. The same scheme in the selection of thematic profiles: the application will suggest similar accounts based on what you like.
Formation of the feed
When the system has analyzed preferences and selected similar content, the application starts to form a preliminary pool of 500 publications. Then 25 pieces are selected from them - these are the posts that are most likely to be liked by you. That is, the system "billions of posts - 500 pieces - 25 pieces" and helps to achieve a high response from the user.
But in order for a post to be recommended, several additional factors are taken into account:
Figure 3.
An example of a positive response to post
One of the advantages of the section is that it is constantly updated. It is enough to close the application once or just swipe the page, as all the content will immediately appear.
Formation algorithms
The application developers shared: various factors influence the distribution of content in the section:
The more often you enter the application and publish posts, the higher you will appear in the feed of other users. This principle is familiar to many: more likes - more impressions. This is what allows your active subscribers to see you first among the endless traffic.
How to understand why I was offered a particular post
Under each post that came across in the “Interesting” section, the social network adds a small gray inscription:
Figure 5. An example of creating an interesting section
One of the convenient features of the "Interesting" section is the ability to scroll through an entire feed of recommended publications.
Automatic selection of content helps to find even more new and users.
How to get featured on Instagram
Getting featured on a social network is pretty easy, but you need to know a few simple secrets. The key to organic growth and promotion is high-quality content, thoughtful profile PR, and the required degree of involvement in communication with subscribers and guests.
How to get recommended to a person on Instagram? This can be done in several ways.
Targeted advertising
Official methods of promotion in social networks effectively increase coverage, and therefore increase the chances of getting into the section.
Interesting content
Clear and relevant topics, originality, profile attractiveness and memorability.
Account activity
Communication with subscribers, commentators and any activity on the page is a sign for the system that you are not a bot or fake, but a live account, so Instagram tries to encourage such profiles.
Figure 6. High-quality content in the profile
Likes, subscriber activity and your reaction to the actions of other users will help you get your place in the "Recommended". In addition, Instagram pays attention to the freshness of the publication, the regularity of posting, and other parameters.
Figure 7. Follower reaction to content
High-quality and regular content
Instagram users love colorful and high-quality photos: diverse shots, color combinations, uniform style and nice processing. Useful texts, interactive and communication in the comments will help to supplement such posts.
Why is it important to upload photos regularly? Algorithms work in such a way that the feed is formed according to the preferences of a person, and the less often subscribers see you, the less the site offers your publications.
This principle also works in the opposite direction: spamming posts will not help in promotion, but, on the contrary, will worsen the statistics.
The social network will not show all three posts published during the day, most likely it will choose one, leaving the rest without a response.
Analytics
If you feel like Instagram doesn't want to recommend your posts, look at your account statistics. It is enough to look at the reach, visits to the profile after the publication of a photo or video, and during a period of great and long lull. Obviously, those who post fresh posts are much more likely to get into someone's feed than those who have not posted anything for a long time.
Figure 8. Publication statistics
Profile analytics helps generate recommendations: the system studies your likes, marks, clicks, and implements targeted advertising. In a word, he does everything to make the tape meet your preferences.
If you feel like there are completely random posts in the Interesting section that you don't like, reconsider your activity. Think about what you like, what posts you send to your friends.
Different ways of promotion
Getting into recommendations is an organic and affordable way of promotion. But in some cases, other methods are also effective:
Figure 9. Ways of promotion on Instagram
You can launch ads in the feed or stories in the promotions settings. It is recommended to use already published materials or come up with a special ad for promotion. By clicking on them, you can go to your profile, website or any other resource. PR with bloggers or friends also works well. Marks on photos and mentions, reposts - all this has a good effect on statistics and brings the account to the top.
Interaction with the audience
Promotion on Instagram is always new followers, likes, comments and messages. In order to maintain activity and not spoil the statistics, it is important to respond correctly:
Seeing the response activity, users will visit the profile more often, like posts and thereby promote the account.
Geotags and hashtags
Geolocation marks and thematic hashtags are a kind of target, but without effort and spending. How to identify working hashtags? To do this, just go to the page of your favorite thematic blogger and see what combinations he uses. It is important to choose thematic or similar accounts so that the tags match the content:
You can place tags at the beginning of the post, after the text or in the first comment: this way it will not distract subscribers, but it will continue to work. When choosing marks, also do not forget that the rule “more is better” does not work here. Long canvases of bars and similar words only repel users and make navigation inconvenient.
Collaboration with brands and influencers
Advertising with big bloggers and brands is what promotes small blogs as well. Even popular companies choose those who can create an original and interesting product, who can be easily recognized and remembered.
Many stores can become more popular thanks to the shopping tag: an increase in views, activity on the page and an increase in sales. In order to become an ambassador for your favorite product, it is not enough just to want. This is not an easy job: you need to post regularly, attract the attention of users, post high-quality pictures and useful texts.
In our article, we considered the main issues: advertising on Instagram, how the section with recommendations is formed and how to get into it. The conclusion is simple: regular and high-quality content, competent promotion and social activity are the key to popularity on the network.
Instagram audience analysis: how to analyze profile statistics
According to the Instagram social network for 2021, its advertising audience is 46% of the Russian population over 13 years old. The main part of users are solvent young people, so the site is actively used for marketing promotion.
56 million
audience to which advertising can be shown
45.
8%
potential audience for advertising older than 13 years
+3.7%
QoQ change in ad reach
60.7%
Instagram tagged as male
39.3%
Instagram tagged as female
90 Instagram is characterized by activity and loyalty to branded accounts. Users write comments, put likes and save posts, provided that the information is useful and relevant for them.
The most important indicators of the account audience
To adjust the content and its presentation to users, they analyze the Instagram audience. The social network itself offers tools for assessing key indicators:
Only owners of business accounts (pages linked to Facebook) have access to this information. For deeper analysis, third-party services are used.
The number of subscribers and the percentage of bots
The number of subscribers is not as important for the algorithms of the social network as it is for the users themselves.
A large indicator causes trust and interest in the account. But until 2016, Instagram worked differently: the more followers, the faster the account got into the TOP and could earn money on advertising and commercial activities.
This led to the problem of bots. Pages bought artificial users to increase the number of subscribers. Today, it's easy to see if an account was doing this with the help of third-party programs (trendHERO, LiveDune).
Figure 1. Follower growth analysis using the morgen_shtern account as an example
Figure 2. Follower growth analysis using the samoylovaoxana account as an example
In a normal account that develops organically, growth dynamics is gradual. A sharp increase in subscriptions and slow unsubscribes indicate that cheating is being carried out.
Engagement
Engagement is one of the most important indicators of an account. It is necessary to understand the interests of the target audience (TA). This includes likes and comments on the post.
It also depends on engagement how many people see a post in the feed.
A post that gets a lot of positive reactions gets a chance to get into the recommendations, where it will be noticed by users who have not yet subscribed to the account. High engagement allows you to get into the "Relevant" tab, as well as climb to the top by hashtags and location marks.
Engagement Rate (ER) is calculated to evaluate engagement. Formula: (likes+comments)/subscribers*100%. The normal rate is 5-10% and above.
Figure 3. Comparison of the engagement rate of morgen_shtern and samoylovaoxana accounts
Engagement also includes saves and reposts. This is the most accurate indicator of the usefulness of the post for the user. If there are a lot of them, then users found the information in the publication important and interesting in order to share it with friends.
Conversions and Sales
Conversions measure how well an account is driving people to buy.
On Instagram, when you launch an ad, you can track how many people clicked on the link or went to the profile.
If the link is in the profile header, then the total number of clicks on it will not be tracked in the application. To do this, Google Analytics is connected to the site and UTM tags are added. You can also shorten the link in the Bit.ly service, which records the number of clicks.
There are several ways to assess how well an audience buys a product through a social network:
Sales through Instagram analytics are difficult to track, since most of them do not occur immediately after a post is published or an ad is launched.
Audience demographics
Demographic characteristics are primarily age and gender. They are important for content optimization, as people aged 25-34 react differently to posts than those aged 35-44. Gender must be taken into account, because the perception of information in men and women is different.
Figure 4.
An example of statistics available in the account
When the main part of the audience is women, the emphasis should be on emotional sales and pleasant visual content. If men, it is important to show the benefits of the product, its main characteristics.
Why you need to evaluate account statistics
Studying your subscribers is a must for every commercial account. This helps to make the right promotion decisions and spend less resources on it. Main goals of page analysis:
Regular analysis of the target audience on Instagram helps to adjust the marketing strategy in time if weaknesses are identified in it. Thus, the promotion brings the maximum result for the minimum financial and time investment.
How to find your target audience
There are several channels through which it is easy to find potential customers, and the first of them is the pages of competitors. This is where the hot audience is concentrated, definitely interested in the products of your niche.
The task of the new page is to create your own USP (unique selling proposition) and find out what advantages it has. To do this, we analyze the audience of the competitor's Instagram account. In the future, targeted advertising is set up for these users.
Figure 5. An example of competitor analysis
The second localization of the audience that suits you is thematic groups. If you work in an area where the main buyer is a mother on maternity leave, then it makes sense to look for them in public pages about raising children. Travelers love pages about tourism and the most beautiful places on the planet.
Figure 6. An example of thematic groups for searching the target audience
It also makes sense to order advertising from a blogger who works in a similar niche. The main advantage of cooperation with him is the possibility of native advertising. Any audience is watching opinion leaders. But before you pay for the services of a blogger, it is important to analyze his statistics.
Figure 7. An example of thematic bloggers to search for the target audience
Hashtags are another way to find an audience. On Instagram, you can even follow them now. These are keywords that help:
Figure 8. An example of thematic hashtags for searching the target audience
One of the main search channels is geolocation. The audience must be determined by this indicator. This is important for:
Geolocation is not important for those who work with clients around the world, such as freelancers.
Figure 9. An example of popular locations for target audience search
Targeted advertising helps to attract the target audience to the account. It allows you to find customers by location, interests, occupation, demographics. The main advantage of targeting is that you can find a very narrow audience.
The search for people interested in your product or service is carried out with the help of special programs, the so-called parsers.
They are able to automatically collect data about accounts (according to predefined parameters) and form lists of suitable users.
View your account statistics
There are two ways to analyze your page:
- via Instagram;
- via Facebook.
In the first case, you need to activate a business account, after which the "Statistics" section will appear. It displays basic information:
Facebook tools provide more detailed information. To use them, you need:
- Log in to your Instagram profile through the mobile app.
- Select "Settings" in the account settings.
- Find "Switch to Company Profile". This can only be done through Facebook - the corresponding window will open for you.
- Reload the application.
Now, under each published post, a new function "View statistics" is available.
Analysis of other people's pages
It is useful to study not only personal, but also other people's indicators.
This is necessary to compare your data with competitors or to check the blogger's page. For such purposes, third-party resources are used.
LiveDune shows subscribers, traffic for the selected period, number of published posts, likes, comments, reposts, reach, percentage of ER.
Figure 10. LiveDune service
Popsters offers tools for simultaneous analysis of different pages. Shows all the basic account data: engagement, reach, number of followers and their activity.
Figure 11. Popsters service
Instahero is a convenient way to get statistics by gender, age, and location of your competitors' audience. You just need to enter the nickname of another page.
Figure 12. Instahero service
In all these services it is convenient to analyze your own business accounts. They also offer cleaning of bots and selection of bloggers.
Conclusion
Audience analysis on Instagram is an essential stage of marketing promotion in this social network.
