What Does Impression Mean on Instagram? (Answered + Tips to Increase it)

On Instagram, you cannot grow if your posts do not connect with your audience.

The currency of all social media platforms is engagement. Creating engaging content sometimes requires trial and error. But how do you know the type of post or Instagram story that works?

You learn what works by looking under the hood to see data on which posts are performing well, with a view to posting more of those.

Looking at your Instagram analytics tool, you’ll see words like account reached, impressions, accounts engaged, and more.

Most words are self-explanatory, but what does impression mean on Instagram?

In this article, we answer this question and more.  

What is Impression on Instagram?

Impressions measure how many times your content is presented to other users. So if a user sees your post while scrolling through their feed, Instagram records this as an impression.

Note that the user doesn’t have to interact with your content or post. In fact, they may be scrolling absent-minded and still be counted as one impression.  

So a user may see your video on their feed and skip it. That’s still an impression. Therefore, you can think of impressions as the potential number of times your followers could have watched or interacted with your post.

Why is it important to track impressions on Instagram?

Impressions can tell you a lot about how well your content is performing, especially when taken in the context of other metrics.

You can use your number of impressions to calculate your engagement rate. The engagement rate for a post is the total number of likes, comments, shares, and saves divided by the number of impressions.

It can tell you if you’ve perhaps been shadowbanned. You may have been shadowbanned if you observe a very sharp drop in your impressions. Being shadowbanned means the Instagram algorithm displays your post to only a small percentage of your followers. 

How to track impressions on Instagram

There are two ways to track impressions on Instagram, manually from the Instagram app and using a social media management tool.

Manually Tracking Impressions on the Instagram App

You must have a professional account (business or creator profile) to track impressions and all other metrics on Instagram.

If you already do, go to your profile and click Professional Dashboard (it’s just under your bio). The analytics you’ll see from here will cover all your posts.

You can also view Instagram Insights on individual posts. Just tap on any post and click “View Insights” underneath the caption.

Using a Social Media Management Tool

Manually getting insights from Instagram analytics may not be the best use of your time. That’s where social media management tools come into play.

These tools help you manage and take a deep dive into how all your social media accounts are performing, including Instagram. It’s great to have control of all your social media accounts under one umbrella.

Examples of social media management tools include Sprout Social, HeyOrca!, and Zoho Social.

You can also use a tool like Google Analytics to track website visitors from your Instagram account. 

What is the difference between impressions and reach?

Impressions measure how many times the Instagram algorithm displays your post to Instagram users.

Instagram reach, on the other hand, counts each unique account that watched, saw, and interacted with the post.

So if you posted a video, reach counts the number of times people watched the video.

Even if a user watched the video thrice, it’s still counted as a single reach. It is, however, counted as three impressions.

What is the difference between impressions and engagement on Instagram?

An Instagram impression is the number of IG users the algorithm displays your content to. Engagement counts the number of times people actually engage or interact with the content by liking, sharing, saving, or commenting.

Let’s use an example to drive home the point. Say you shared a post on IG, and after 24 hours, you got 40 likes, five comments, six shares, and five saves. That’s a total engagement of 56.

Let’s also assume Instagram showed that post to 1,000. That’s 1,000 total impressions within the same period.

The 1,000 users could ideally interact with the post but usually don’t. They may be scrolling absent-mindedly. They may not like such content. The summary is that they saw the post but decided not to watch or interact with it.

Quick Tips to Improve Impressions on Instagram

You can improve impressions and, by extension, your reach on your Instagram posts by doing the following:

1. Only post relevant content. As a business and content creator, stick to content that adds value to users and your target audience. Don’t try to jump on every trending bandwagon.
2. Leverage Instagram tools to make your posts more engaging. Use features like filters, polls, and sound effects to tempt your users into interacting with your posts.
3. Use data to check the best time to post. If you’re just starting, post content at different times and days and observe what works.
4. Use relevant Instagram hashtags in your niche to promote your posts to new audiences.
5. Engage your users. Users will stop commenting when you don’t acknowledge or reply to their comments. 

What is a good impression rate on Instagram?

There’s really nothing like an impression rate.

Key Instagram metrics that can provide better insights for your account include: reach and reach rate, follower growth rate, engagement rate using reach, stories look-through rate, Instagram reels engagement rate, and video drop-off rate.

These metrics are more important than stressing over Instagram impressions. Don’t get me wrong, having high impressions is great, but getting high reach is more important.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below, we’ve provided additional answers to questions related to impressions mean on Instagram.

Wrapping Up

Impressions tell you how many people have seen your content on their feed.

You can use it to estimate how well your post is doing and know if you’ve been shadowbanned.

You can improve impressions and reach by posting valuable content at the right time, using tools like polls and filters to boost engagement, adding relevant hashtags, and interacting with your followers.

We hope you enjoyed this article. Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comment sections. We’d reach out ASAP to help.