Passionate creators and businesses who stay in the loop on everything on social media agree that Instagram Reels have become a valuable integral part of Instagram’s ecosystem. In May 2021, the platform rolled out Reels Insights which is a special tab that allows creators and businesses to understand how their particular type of content is performing. 

In this article, we’ll guide you on how to see analytics dedicated only to Instagram Reels. To give you a bigger picture of how content is distributed, we’ll also walk you through detailed information on how to create Reels for better account performance.

Let’s define what Instagram’s Reels Insights is

In-depth Reels analytics is the process of tracking, collecting, and analyzing data on the performance of your Reels. Simply put, Reels Insights is a separate analytics section of Instagram that provides visible metrics related to your Reels, including Plays, Accounts Reached, Likes, Comments, Saves, and Shares. 

Like the rest of Instagram’s analytics suite, Reels Insights expose valuable information you can learn about your audience and their actions on your account. 

Knowing your audience leads to better-informed decisions and helps to allocate time and money for tactics that drive more engagement and increase your following. 

How to access Instagram Reels Analytics

First and foremost, ensure you have a business or a creator account to view Instagram Insights. There are three ways to view Instagram Reels Insights.

Easiest way:

1. Navigate to your profile.

2. Tap “Insights” button.

3. Underneath the rest of the metrics, you’ll see a section that presents information only for Reels that you’ve shared. Here you find all the metrics related to your Reels.

Common option:

1. Open an individual Reel

2. Tap the three-dot icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen

3. And select “View Insights” from the options list.
4. If enough time has passed, you’ll see a detailed report of the Reel.

Alternatively:

1. Head to your account’s profile.
2. Click the three lines icon in the top-right corner and select “Insights.”

3. Accessing “Insights” through your profile will provide you with performance data for all your content, including Reels, for the past 2 years.

How to decode the meaning of data retrieved from Instagram Reels Analytics

Once you’ve accessed your Reels Insights, you’ll find that metrics( Plays, Accounts Reached, Likes, Comments, Saves, and Shares) are split into two categories: Accounts Reached and Accounts Engaged. And you need both to figure out whether your content is performing successfully or not. 

Now let’s dive deeper and breach the gap between the two:

Accounts Reached shows the number of accounts you’ve reached and indicates how many times your Reel has been played. Now, let’s define the critical difference between its two subsections: Reach and Plays:

Accounts Reached: This metric tells you the number of unique Instagram users who saw your Reel at least once. If your Reel gets more views than usual, it might sign that your video has been featured on the Explore page and gone viral. Likewise, if it has lower views than average, you probably need to think about time posting or even check if something has caused your content to be hidden by Instagram.

Plays: This metric presents the number of times your Reel has been played. It often could be way higher than the number of reached accounts because some users watched a particular Reel more than once. In this case, you can interpret your video as well-performing. 

What information do Accounts engaged provide?

Accounts Engaged is a metric that calculates your Reel’s engagement rate. It presents gauges data on all the Likes, Comments, Shares, and Saves your video gathers and gives an overview of how people interact with your Reel.

Thus, it allows you to see how many times your video is saved and shared. Tracking these statistics can help you evaluate whether people want to return to your page for more content. 

The high numbers of likes saves, and shares speak of a positive engagement on your Reels and may impact your account’s spread and greater visibility. 

However, when it comes to comments, you must thoroughly check what people are saying about your content. Because if you find some negative talk in comments under an individual Reel, you’ll be able to take action immediately.

Thus, relying on these metrics helps you see what works and needs to be changed and therefore react on time. 

How to leverage Insights to make better Reels

Reels analytics is definitely an excellent addition to your Instagram audit. But how do you leverage these insights to make better Reels? Now that you know what every Reel metric stands for and how to access analytics let’s put all these findings to work.

First of all, regularly monitor your Reel’s performance in all metrics. This will clue you on what you should publish more often and which videos might be underperforming. Your Reels analytics will direct you on your biggest winners’ content types. 

Note that once a Reel goes viral, the metrics (reach and impressions) will stay high for a few days. When it happens, a knowledgeable insta-user knows its actionable time to continue posting regular content to capitalize on a new audience. 

Once you’ve collected enough data, you should try testing different versions of your Reels to measure the impact on your Insights. 

To make good Reels, you need to watch a lot of Reels. You need to have a feel for what’s trending. Otherwise, you will have struggles finding a style that works for your brand. For that, spy on what your competitors are posting and consider trialing new styles and trends. 

Find your lengths of Reel 

Post a few Reels of different lengths to see if your audience prefers shorter, TikTok-style clips or longer videos.

Test posting on different daytimes

Instagram Insights provides you with information about your audience’s activity in terms of daytime. So, identify those special hours and post during that time to get more engagement. 

💎 Check out for more: What are the best times to post on social media for 2020?

Test audio and music

Because music is essential in any video clip, you need to know what music or audio works best for your fans. Check audio in your top-performing Reels and test similar tracks in your new videos.

✨ Bonus: 12 best resources to download royalty free background music for video

Editing styles

This one is tougher but worth your analytical efforts. Check out which content, filters, and effects have proven to be the most popular in terms of engagement. Then try to create more of the same to see if it brings more attention to your content.

Conclusion 

All these metrics enable you to check the details of your social media efforts on every milestone. Hence, incorporate Reel’s reports into your social media analytics and track performance over time. This will help you to fix the success of your content or to improve your presence on Instagram. 

✨ Bonus Article:

Instagram analytics 101: Everything you need to know (+ the top 5 metrics to track)