Skip to main content
All CollectionsHow-to?
How to view the performance of an Instagram Story
How to view the performance of an Instagram Story
Nick Cicero avatar
Written by Nick Cicero
Updated over a week ago

1. Log into Conviva Social Insights

2. Click on the "Analytics" tab and search for the account you're looking to view.

3. Select "Instagram Stories" from the dropdown in the upper right corner

4. Here you'll see the Instagram Stories Overview. This measures the performance of all posts from all stories made in the time period selected.

5. To view the performance of an individual story, scroll down to the bottom of the page to the table view, and click on the "View" button to pull up the stories detail page.

6. In the Stories Detail page, you'll be able to see the story, download the media, and view total story metrics first. 

Scroll to the bottom for frame by frame insights.

Definitions of Instagram Story Analytics

Here are the key metrics that you should be tracking for your stories and how you should use them. 

Note any metric with an asterisk (*) is not available in an API but still available to users in the app

Total Impressions – Add up every view on each post in your Story and that will be your total impressions.  Unlike Snapchat metrics this keeps track of all impressions including if someone watched your story more than once.  If total impressions are significantly higher than total reach for any particular snap, it means your story was replayed multiple times. NOTE: since an Instagram Story can be a mix of photos and videos, Facebook and Instagram does not recognize a “View” on Instagram Stories, instead they report impressions, which can be equated to a 1-second view on Snapchat for example.

Reach – How many unique accounts viewed any portion of your story. This is equal to the REAL PEOPLE who saw your story. This is sometimes called “Discovery” in the Instagram app. Reach is measured in Conviva Social Insights using unique impressions per frame of your story. Tracking peak reach over time is a good way to track overall account growth.

Completion Rate – How many people watched your story from the beginning to the end. Completion rate includes both those who took the time to watch every frame of every post and includes those who tapped through each frame until reaching the end. Completion rate is a great way to track which of your stories kept people engaged throughout the entire story.

Reach Rate – What percentage of your total audience on your Instagram did you reach with this particular story. The Reach Rate is found by dividing the Reach for any particular story by the total followers on your Instagram. A consistently higher reach rate means your stories are reaching a wider audience on a regular basis.

Taps Backward – The number of taps to see the previous photo or video in your story. Conviva Social Insights provides the total taps backwards per story as well as for each individual post. While there are many reasons someone may tap backwards, Taps Backwards can also be seen as replay count and is achieved by tapping on the left most side of the screen. A high number of Taps Backwards increases the total impressions on your story. For the most part, a high number of taps backwards is a good thing as long as your completion rate is within normal range.

Taps Forward – The number of taps to see the next photo or video in your story. Unless you have a story full of mostly pictures or if you specifically call for taps in your story, (which can be a fun creative tool, see this stop motion story Conviva Social Insights created here consisting of over 100 taps) a high number of taps for story can be seen as a bad thing and the result of an unengaging story. 

When using Conviva Social Insights you can compare total taps forward against multiple stories to see which stories people tapped all the way through versus consumed entirely.

Exits – The ultimate measure of an engaging story or lack thereof. Exits are the number of people who left your story. Exits are inevitable and unavoidable so you shouldn’t get too down when seeing large numbers here however it is a very important metric to take a closer look at if you want to improve your content. Once you have a repository of your stories it is incredibly valuable to look at which stories had a higher than average number of exits. You can look closely at when people are exiting and come up with strategies to do things differently in the future. The Conviva Social Insights platform can show you the exact video or picture that had the most number of exits in any particular story.

Replies  – Replies are the number of people who responded to a particular video or picture while in story mode by clicking the send message button in the bottom left hand of the screen. Replies can be a good measure of how engaged your audience is should you chose to ask them for feedback or a particular question. Replies are also the only metric that can be turned off.

Swipe Ups/Outs*  – This is the number of people who chose to swipe up on your link. This is not available in the API, however you can use trackable URL, or some

Delmondo customers will use a Facebook Pixel to measure conversions. 

Sticker Taps or Poll Votes*  – This is the number of people who tapped on your photo or your profile. This is not available in the API.

On top of all these metrics we also offer averages for all stories over selected time frames to get metrics like Average Completion Rate, Average Reach Rate, Peak Unique Reach over a time period. Furthermore all content is saved and is downloadable.

 Pro Tips from Conviva Social Insights

Understanding what the analytics mean is one thing, implementing them into your content is a different story. Use these tips to improve your content over time.

  • A high completion rate percentage and lower than average taps forward is a good way to gauge if people watched your full story without tapping all the way through.

  • Ask a question at the end of each story and keep track of the number of replies for each story over a specific time period to judge how engaged your audience is.

  • Most people exit the story on the very first post, identify which stories had a lower than average exits on the first post to identify how to better begin your stories to keep people engaged.

  • They are many reasons why a story might have a high number of Taps Backwards. Analyze which stories in your repository have the most taps backward to see why people were replaying them. Were the replays because you created a story that was worth re-watching or could your followers not understand what was being said.

  • Don’t try to change your story format to improve all metrics at once. Focus on one single metric, (Completion Rate, Replies, or Exits to start) and really try to understand what changes you can make to your story that will have an affect on that particular metric. Once you have a repository of stories over the period of a month, go back and look at the stories that did the best for that one specific metric. Make a list of 5 observations regarding those stories and apply them to your content for the following month.  Once you’ve improved that particular metric move on to a different metric.

Did this answer your question?