Instagram: Figures That Speak Volumes…

With its quality publications and its ever-increasing reach, Instagram has become, in just a few years, the Instagram of brands. Initially focused on organic publications and somewhat reserved for lifestyle advertisers, Instagram has been able to adapt to become a reference platform, offering over the months less search but more E-Commerce functionalities. For an informed start to the school year, JVWEB is today looking at the performance figures of the most popular social network.

Instagram, Numbers, And Likes

Although it has been rumored for several weeks that Instagram would test displaying posts without their likes counter, engagement, and reach remain the critical factors for a successful placement. Collected by Hubspot, these few figures shed light on the good practices associated with publishing an organic post. Be careful, avalanche of stats!

80% of companies consider engagement as the key indicator to follow. Behind this objective is the desire for brands to generate maximum interactivity with users. Please note, given the proliferation of Insta formats, the calculation of the most accurate engagement rate integrates the different possible actions, such as likes and comments, but also the number of shares or direct messages. To be followed closely!
An average post garners 5,063 likes (calculated on 48 million publications!). Don’t panic; this figure includes the most unifying influencers and could be more representative… The median number of likes per post is 100. Unsurprisingly, video is the format that garners the most likes compared to a simple image or a carousel.
As for comments, the average is also 100, including influencers. Here again, the video generates more reactions since there is an average of 150 words per video. The median number (50% of users) is 4. It’s not Nabila who wants it!

As you will have understood, regularly producing videos is a good option for generating more engagement. Our little tip: place your videos in Featured Stories and recycle them from time to time.

@Instagram, #touchepasàmonreech!

Pure products of social networks, hashtags are intended to group content by theme to facilitate research. However, over time, these small symbols have become more bearers of messages. This is how brands offer 7 out of 10 hashtags as a signature. The question that agitates social managers: should we not use hashtags to generate more engagement ?! The debate remains open. That said, here again, the numbers speak…

The greater the number of hashtags, the lower the engagement. If Instagram allows the insertion of 30 hashtags, it is better to limit yourself to 5. The average number of hashtags per post is 1.4. The abundance of hashtags has gradually distracted users’ attention. Rely more on the quality of the post to create interactions.
Because we know you’re hard to convince, here are the top 5 most used hashtags on Instagram: #love #fashion #instagood #repost #photooftheday
And here are the top 5 hashtags that receive the most engagement, which do not reflect the same interests at all… #9gag #worldcup #space #football #science

Another tactic for generating organic engagement is mentioned, which directly invites the said account to discover the post. Between ego and virtual politeness, the like return is almost guaranteed. Maybe better… A strategy that is starting to become a habit since:

60% of publications identify an account, compared to only 28% last year.
However, stay reasonable; beyond five mentions on the same post, engagement decreases drastically.
Finally, identifying via the mentions of Beyoncé or Matt Pokora will have no impact, barring a miracle. I prefer to use the mentions as part of a competition, the mention of partners and customers, or the presentation of your teams.

Instagram, Abandon Subscribers?!

To gain notoriety, you need a minimum number of subscribers. However, all stakeholders agree on the fact that it is becoming more and more complicated to bring together a large community, particularly following the evolution of the algorithm. Here, again, are some revealing figures.

46% of accounts have less than 1000 subscribers. Small accounts are, therefore, the majority. 33% have between 1000 and 10,000 subscribers. Combined, these two segments form the bulk of Instagram. 9.8% of accounts have between 10,000 and 50,000 subscribers, and 2.7% have between 50,000 and 100,000. Only 1.9% of accounts exceed one million fans.
To accelerate the growth of your community, sponsored posts remain the most effective approach. Instagram is multiplying formats to meet marketing objectives better. Every day, 200 million users visit at least one brand account. 65% of the most influential posts feature a product. Even better, 72% of users admit purchasing a product after seeing it on Instagram.

Finally, here is some general data on the potential that the social platform offers to advertisers: Starting around 2019, Instagram has 1 billion month-to-month dynamic clients.

71% of companies communicate via Instagram across all sectors of activity.
81% of users follow branded accounts.
Every day, the social network collects more than 4.2 billion likes for 95 million photos and videos posted.
Engagement is most significant between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Does Instagram’s potential convince you? Contact the JVWEB Social Media team to deploy a successful Social Ads strategy. And don’t miss our upcoming webinar on how to take advantage of SEA and SMA synergies)