How to Measure the Performance of Your Instagram Stories

A lot of brands have justifiably embraced Instagram Stories — they allow them to deepen the connection with their core audience with less polished, in the moment video content. But what metrics should these companies analyze to measure their efforts? Look no further, Dash Hudson has the answer.

Below we’re digging into the 5 metrics that all marketers should be using to measure the performance of Instagram Stories.

You can stop the panic, we got you.

When the Stories war was declared, the inescapable age-old question resurfaced yet again, throwing salt into a barely-closed wound: what metrics should be examined to measure the performance of this video content? If you don’t have the answer to this, keep reading.

Instagram Stories marketing strategy, meet ROI.

The D-Word

What about the data, you ask? With Insta having introduced new biz profiles a few months back, it’s clear that the Facebook-owned platform is making strides to show companies that the ‘gram is indeed a place for marketing and commerce.

The support they’ve demonstrated points to Instagram wanting to keep brands happy, making the absence of stats revolving around Stories a tad more encouraging than what Snapchat’s had to offer up to now. Even though IG’s in-house insights don’t extend to Stories, that doesn’t mean that they won’t in the future.

In the meantime, if you’ve been busy creating vertical video features for your engaged audience’s viewing pleasure and have had a hard time measuring their success, we’re on the case. We identified the 5 essential metrics you need to consider when assessing your Instagram Stories’ performance.

Stories performance metric 101: unique views.

1. Unique Views

This is probably the most obvious one, as it’s the most straightforward and the one metric that is readily accessible. Just like on Snapchat, the amount of unique views is directly correlated to the size of your audience — basically reach handed to you on a silver platter. It’s also reflective of how much your brand’s content appeals to your followers, and if they care to watch anything produced in addition to your traditional posts. Make a big note here.

2. Completion Rates

Riddle yourself this: when considering your Story in its entirety, is the number of views on your first clip significantly higher than on your last? How many drop-offs your segments get are indicative of your audience’s interest level, how engaged your followers are with your brand, as well as whether you should be adjusting your content. This metric should be highly considered when developing future vertical video strategies.

Birchbox is using Insta Stories and a clear CTA in their caption. Next step: measuring performance.

3. Audience Ratio

One of the advantages of using vertical video on Instagram versus Snapchat is knowing concretely the exact number of people that follow your account (Dash Hudson reveals the precise number in real time). All of this basically means that you can definitively identify the percentage of your audience that’s watching your Stories.

We’ve observed that on average, brands are seeing 3.7% of their audience engaging with their Stories. That translates to an average of 6.9 times more views than average likes on posts. Do you hear that? It’s the sound of huge potential and opportunity.

4. Audience Insights

The Unique Views metric goes deeper than just a number — it also reveals the profiles of each one of the users that laid their eyeballs on your clips. And unlike Snapchat, you can tap directly on their usernames to immediately land onto their profiles. Hello, audience insights!

You can essentially dig into the details of every single person that has demonstrated interest and engagement around your brand. Companies pay thousands for that stuff; Instagram Stories delivers a bona fide market research right in your back pocket.

5. Message Replies

Aka direct messages in reply to your 10 second clips. Are you receiving a lot of DMs from users responding to your videos? It’s not unusual if you aren’t, but if those replies are coming through at a rate similar to your followers leaving comments on your posts, then you’re doing something right. This is yet another area of huge potential where you can engage directly with your fans-slash-consumers.

Think @nastygal got tons of replies from their fans praising their good taste in tipples?

While you can’t see who’s re-watching your stories, nor is there any way to know who and how many users are taking screenshots of your content, there are so many advantages to using this Instagram functionality. You already have the attention of the audience you’ve spent years building, engaging with, and getting to know. Social media is all about community, shareability and discovery, all of which are made conducive by Instagram’s multiple facets.

Sure, IG’s Stories remain quite rudimentary in terms of features compared to its competitor — no stickers, no lenses, no geo filters, no fast-forward/rewind/slow-mo, limited text function, no gold bullion — but it remains a place that was built and designed to harbor engagement with users. Stories precisely serve as an extension of that.

Next up, Instagram Spectacles? Just kidding. (Not really.)

If you’re looking to grow on Instagram, we’re what you need. Reach out today! (Also, we’re really friendly.)