INSTAGRAM ENGAGEMENT REPORT

What Your Company
Needs to Know for
2020

1

Table ofContents

Intro

3

Report Highlights

5

Instagram Engagement

6

Hashtags

13

Tagging

20

Community

27

Influencers

31

Location

37

Captions

41

Time

44

Instagram Stories

47

More Statistics

52

2

Instagram at a GlanceWith over 1 billion monthly active users, 25+ million

All of this means two key things:

business accounts, and a projected 14 billion USD inrevenue, Instagram has come a long way from a little
photo-sharing app.
What started as a humble social network grew into
one of the most robust business platforms - helping
brands cement a highly effective marketing channel

1Instagram is constantly reinventing itself

2

Brands nowadays can’t afford not to be on
Instagram - if they want to capture a good
percentage of the consumer population

and breeding a new generation of innovative
entrepreneurs.
Instagram achieved incredible growth first andforemost by truly understanding what its users wanted.
They also learned how to help brands and businesses
grow quickly by developing features that helped themturn likes and interactions into tangible ROI.

3

No longer just for fashion and lifestyle brands, theplatform can help you reach new, relevant audiencesand grow your brand exponentially - whether you’re a
B2B company or a non-profit organization.
However, you’ll need to understand what the changing
trends are and how they can impact your strategy.
From which hashtags to include, to how long yourcaption should be, to what kind of influencer gets thehighest engagement - businesses need to understandwhat will help them break through this increasinglycompetitive space.
We created this report to provide our readers with themost up to date Instagram data and insights, to the bestof our online monitoring abilities.

4

Report Highlights•

Image posts received 27.55% more likes thanpermanent video posts•

The average Instagram post contains
10.743886135116517 hashtags, but 50% of

Methodology

Instagram posts include less than 6 hashtags

We’ve gathered an impressive amount of social media
data to create this report.

•

The most engaging tagged Instagram accounts
are beauty and cosmetic related•

52.35% of Instagram followers have less thanlength, and other insights that would be interesting%and valuable to businesses, as well as marketers.

California

In fact, we’ve analyzed 81,258,182 Instagram posts
and 1,676,748 of the top users to observe trends
about engagement, influencers, location, caption%%

1,000 followers•%

The most geo-tagged city in the world is Los
Angeles, California and the tagged location
with the highest engagement is Coachella,%%Instagram Engagement
As marketers, we spend a lot of time creating
content and getting people to interact with it.
The number of likes and comments we get, at the end

6:25 PMof the day, tells us if our content is resonating with theright audience. For this reason, Instagram engagement

hubspot

was all the rage last year as it was considered to be holygrail of KPI of brand awareness.
But is it still as relevant today?
To put it into perspective, an average image on Instagram gets
23% more engagement than one published on Facebook(BusinessofApps), even though the latter has 2x more monthly

79active users.
For brands, this means that people are more likely to interact withyour branded content on Instagram instead of gloss over it intheir Facebook Newsfeed - making Instagram a far more effective
platform in terms of engagement.

6

3
126 Likes
What’s your favorite thing about working
remotely ...more

8

16

3

However, does engagement still mean the same thing acrosssocial networks today?

6WHAT IS ENGAGEMENT?
Engagement is essentially how many interactions an user has

121with your content. On Instagram, the most common types ofengagement are likes and comments.

243

According to ecommerce solution Oberlo:
You can calculate this by adding up the average
likes and comments that you receive per post,
divided by your total number of followers.

Engagement rates are healthy metrics
to monitor because they underline howfrequently your following interacts with

However, it’s important to keep in mind of two
caveats when measuring engagement:
1

A lot of different things can beconsidered as ‘engagement’ today

your content, and force you to focus on
important data, rather than vanity metrics(like the number of followers you have).

2

There is no universal way tomeasure engagement

7

As Instagram has continued to reinvent itself over the years, it has
introduced many new features such as Stories, IGTV, and more.
This means that engagement is no longer limited to likes andcomments on a photo post, but also views, shares of video, as
well as direct messages.
All in all, engagement isn’t a one-size-fits-all metric and you
need to base it on what is important to your brand.
For example, if you’re a new electric bicycle brand, you may be
more interested in the number of views you get on your daily
Stories which show off the features of your product in action,rather than the number of likes you get on your photos.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the more followers you
have, the lower your engagement would be - we’ll get into thislater in the report.
For now, just remember to focus on engagement metrics work foryou because at the end of the day, the most important thing isthat your community is interacting with your content.

8

LIKES ON INSTAGRAM BY POST TYPE
It’s no surprise: as more brands entered

Does this mean we should start disregarding

Instagram, it became noisier and more

likes altogether? Not quite yet.

competitive.
Let’s first look at what trends weCompanies were going toe-to-toe, competingobserved related to likes this year.

for the same eyeballs and number of likes.
We’re going to focus on likes received on three main types
For this reason, influencer marketing started

of Instagram posts: photos, videos, and photo carousels.

to take off and brands started flocking toThis is because unlike ephemeral content such as Stories,

popular Instagram users to help them increase

these three types of posts are permanent and therefore

the likes and comments they receive on theirwould have more complete data.

branded content.
However, in April 2019, Instagram announced
that it will start testing a feature of ‘hiding’public like counts in certain countries, inan effort to get Instagram users to“focus on the photos and videos you
share, not how many likes they get.”Social Media Today

From our analysis of more than 80 million posts, weobserved that the average Instagram post receives a
whopping 14869.1 likes.

Keep in mind that the high number takes into account theposts of super influential users and public figures, whichskews the average heavily.

9Image posts received 27.55% more likes thanpermanent video posts, and 13.55% more likes
than carousel posts.

This may come as a surprise: image posts received
on average the highest number of likes this year. As
permanent video posts has received the highest number
If we look at the median number of likes instead - it’scloser to 3600 - which suggests 50% of users receive
less than 3600 likes for the average post. One reason
for this high number is due to our data size this yearof likes according to our past two Instagram reports, this
could be suggesting two things:
1

having almost doubled from last year’s.

Instagram users have been publishing lesspermanent video posts to their feed as well
as reacting less to them, potentially due toswitching their preference for creating Stories

Another potential reason is: people have been simply
liking a lot more posts.
2

Instagram users have a renewed interestin permanent image posts
10

COMMENTS ON INSTAGRAM BY POST TYPE
What’s worth more to your brand, a like, or a

As our data shows this year that image

comment?

posts received more likes on average than

As Instagram begins to gradually roll out the removalof public likes, comments might begin to have more

video or carousel, can we expect similar
results when it comes to comments?

weight when it comes to engagement.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald:

Without a public tally of likes, it islikely that comments will become
an even stronger indicator of
how people are interactingwith a particular Instagram post.

The average post on Instagram receives 285.48
comments, again, taking into account posts of highly
influential users.

11

As it turns out, image posts also ranked thehighest in terms of comments, coming in justslightly ahead of videos.

KEY TAKEAWAY FOR MARKETERS
Increasing Instagram engagement gets moredifficult year after year, due to the constantchanges the platform implements to theiralgorithm.
However, this doesn’t mean that getting a healthy
engagement rate is impossible.
You’ll want to make sure that you’re posting
consistently and have a good balance of different
types of content including image posts andInstagram Stories.

If we look at the median number for comments per
image post, it’s 106, which means that 50% of total
users receive less than 106 comments per video post.

Taking into account that Instagram is starting to
remove likes, you may also want your content tostart encouraging comments instead of likes.
Before you set your yearly KPIs, we recommend
figuring out which Instagram metric is the most
relevant to your business and why, and base yourengagement on that.

12

Hashtags
Originally introduced on Twitter to help users search
tweets of specific topic by ‘tagging’ them, hashtags
actually gained mainstream popularity across othersocial networks such as Facebook, Reddit, and ofcourse - Instagram.
On IG, they’re typically included in the captions
or comments of a post as a way to organize“Hashtags are powerful. They can help
your posts reach a target audience,
attract followers in your niche, increase
engagement, and develop a more positiveand recognizable brand image.

different topics of content. Essentially, they’re
keywords that people would use to search for
specific posts, but they also add context to a post.

Hubspot blog

Using hashtags can be an effective way to expose
your content to new Instagram audiences that careabout a certain topic or niche. For example, if you
wanted your content to reach users that were intocrossfit but are also mothers, you could use thehashtag #crossfitmom.

13

As hashtag use quickly gained
popularity, brands were quick tocapitalize on their effectiveness andstarted creating ‘branded hashtags’ tohelp people discover their branded
posts.

Successful examples such as
Lululemon’s #thesweatlife and Coke’s#shareacoke not only helped people
find their specific branded content
more easily, but it was also a cleverway for these brands to get theircommunity to produce free, usergenerated content.

14

DOES USING HASHTAGSINCREASE ENGAGEMENT?
One thing is for certain: hashtags

According to Later

Using relevant, targeted hashtags on yourare ubiquitous on Instagram.

posts and stories is still one of the best

With every brand and influencer jumping

ways to get discovered by new audienceson the hashtag bandwagon in the last few

on Instagram. And this can translate into

years, it’s no surprise that some marketers

more engagement, more followers, andare starting to doubt the effectivenessof hashtags when it comes to increasing

more customers for your business.

engagement.
As we mentioned earlier, Instagram is also
starting to tighten quality control with thegradual removal of public likes - does
this mean that hashtags might also start
having less of an impact on views and

So if using hashtags can still
increase your engagement, howmany and which ones should
you use?

engagement?

15

ENGAGEMENT VS. NUMBER OF HASHTAGS
According to this year’s findings, the average Instagram
post contains 10.743886135116517 hashtags.
However, the median number of hashtags isactually 6, which tells us that 50% of Instagram
posts include less than 6 hashtags.

Our results suggest that including more than 6 hashtags
can actually decrease your engagement - there are a few
possible explanations for this:•The engagement of a post tends to drop off after 6 ormore hashtags are included•

Posts from top engaged profiles will get a high volume
of likes and comments on their own, regardless if they’reusing hashtags or not{ These posts may have impacted our averages
16

MOST POPULAR INSTAGRAM HASHTAGSThere are potentially hundreds of thousands ofhashtags on Instagram, with new ones being
created every minute. So how do you know which
ones are the best to use for your post?
As Instagram set out to be the platform forvisual and lifestyle content - there were no
surprises when it came to the 20 most popular
hashtags on the social network this year.

In fact, this suggests consistently thatthe most popular categories of content
posted on the platform include:#fashion, #travel, #fitness, #music,
and #photography.
Since the most popular hashtags equal
the most used hashtags, does thismean you should be including them in

According to Influencer Marketing Hub:You need to balance your wish to use popular hashtags
against the danger of being crowded out of highdemand topics...If you are making an Instagram postthat is about love, you might include #love as one ofyour 30 permitted hashtags. But you should probably
focus on using related hashtags with smaller, yet still

yourposts? If engagement is what

sizeable followings, such as #wonderful, #adorable,

you’re trying to increase, then no.

#hug, #lover, or even #loveisintheair.
17

MOST ENGAGING INSTAGRAM HASHTAGSAs we mentioned, using the most popular hashtags

It turns out that the most engaging hashtags,

will not necessarily get you the engagement you’re after.

appear to be a less generic than the mostInstead, you’ll want to know what the most engaging hashtags are

popular ones such as #love and #instagood.

- these are found in the posts that have the most average number

In fact, the top engaged hashtag #tbt orof comments and likes.

Throwback Thursday, a pretty specific one
people add to photos that are from ‘back inthe day’. As people love nostalgia on social
media, it’s easy to see why this hashtag would
get higher engagement than others.
Another surprising contender on this list was#paris, the first location hashtag that we’veseen in the most engaging hashtags list.

#tbt

18

KEY TAKEAWAY FOR MARKETERSAt the end of the day, just because you can include up to 30
hashtags in an Instagram caption, doesn’t mean you should.
We recommend using 5 - 6 hashtags that are super relevant
to your post.
This means steering away from highly popular, generichashtags and looking for ones that are specific to your niche.

Hubspot Blog

Campaign hashtags are
particularly useful for
promoting a new productor upcoming event, or evenjust inspiring people.

If you aren’t already following your competitors, partnerbrands, or influencers in your industry, do so and see what
type of hashtags they’re including in their posts. You’ll also
want to ‘follow’ hashtags related to your industry which you
can do in your ‘Explore’ page.

campaign hashtags. They’re specific to your business andyou can include them across various types of content on
Instagram including:
Storieshashtags such as Lululemon’s #thesweatlifeand Herschel’s #welltraveled can be extremely

Last but not least, don’t forget about branded andFeed posts

What’s more, clever branded and campaign

effective when it comes to encouraging
user-generated content.
Keep in mind that good content will receive
high engagement naturally, despite how manyhashtags you use. On the contrary, using too

IGTV

many can decrease it.

19

Tagging
You’ve likely tagged or have been tagged in an

But is it actually effective in getting people to engage with

Instagram post. Have you ever thought about why?

your content? With the onset of influencer marketing, we

Tagging other users on the platform started
out as a way to identify those people that were
included in your photos or videos.
As time went on, it became good way to
get more exposure on your posts:
Mention Blog

When you tag someone on

started to see more and more brands and celebrities being
tagged in posts for promotional purposes, and vice versa. For
this reason, some users were starting to find the behavior ofbeing tagged in posts bit spam-like and off-putting.
According to our 2019 Instagram Report, we discovered thatthe more people you tag in your content, the less engagement
you’ll generate on your post.
Let’s see if this still holds true today.

Instagram, they receive an instantnotification, increasing —in theory—
your chances of them getting
involved with your content.

20

NUMBER OF USERS TAGGED
Currently, around 34.4% of Instagram
posts contain no tagged users, which on
the contrary shows a slight increase fromlast year where 40% of posts didn’t tag
any users.
Note: our data is only based onusers tagged in Instagram posts andcomments, not including those users
tagged in Stories.

One thing is for sure: over the last three years, we’ve seen
an year-over-year increase of people tagging users in posts.
If more people are tagging users, does this mean that it’sincreasing the engagement of their content?

21

MEDIAN LIKES PER USER TAGGED
What is the ideal numberof users to tag in your post?
The thing is, highly engaging posts
on Instagram typically don’t tag users.
These posts are usually published bysuper influential accounts with large
followings - which cause them toreceive a large volume of likes naturally.
Of course, there are exceptions such as
when mega influencers like Kim KardashianWest tags a brand or another influential
profile in her post.

Exceptions aside, we observed thattagging between 1- 3 users will
return the highest amount of likes
and comments.

22

As we mentioned, more and more people have been tagging users and brands
on Instagram over the last few years - this has likely made the tagged profiles lessinclined to like or comment on the content compared to before.
By using the median number of likes instead of the average, the results are impacted
less by highly influential accounts, giving us a more realistic representation.

23

MOST ENGAGED TAGGED USER
In our 2019 report, Gareth Bale, the Welsh
footballer of Real Madrid was the number
one most engaging tagged user. This wasdue to Real Madrid winning the Champions
League and a high volume of posts tagging
him received tons of likes and comments
Who you think takes the spot this year for
top engaged tagged user? Lil Nas X?
Cardi B?

Rapper Cardi B was actually amongst our top 20 mostengaged tagged user, but the #1 spot actually went
to trendy fashion brand @fashionnova. According to
WWD, the California-based company became oneof the most searched fashion brands on the internet
thanks to Instagram and influencer marketing.

24

By working with a network of 3000+ influencers like Kylie Jenner and Cardi B, Fashion
Nova exploded as an ‘Instagram brand’. In fact, a sponsored post tagging @fashionnova
from the youngest Kardashian-Jenner clan can translate to $50,000 in sales.

In comparison to last year’s list of mostengaged tagged users, which were
almost all football or sports-related,
we noticed a big trend in makeup andbeauty accounts. Of the top 20 users,
almost half are the current most popular
cosmetic brands including:@hudabeauty@colorpopcosmetics@lauramercier@fentybeauty@anastasiabeverlyhills

This indicates that it was a huge year for beauty brands@twofacedon Instagram as posts related to makeup are the mostengaging overall.

25

KEY TAKEAWAY FOR MARKETERS
While tagging users can be an effective way to get more exposure and engagement
for your brand, you’ll still want to be cautious and mindful when doing so.
Here are some best practices to keep in mind when tagging:1

Only tag profiles that are relevant to your post.
Tagging influencers that you’ve never worked with or random
accounts that have nothing to do with your brand is poor
Instagram etiquette and can come off as spam-like behavior.

2

Tag profiles that you’re reposting content from.
This should be done in addition to crediting them for the post.

3

Tag partners, clients, employees, and brand ambassadors.
This gives them a little nudge to engage with your content
and can help increase the engagement of your post.

26

Community
If you invest time and resources into your business’s

Whether it’s due to their sophisticated algorithm,

Instagram account in order to increase brand awareness -or the fact that brands are getting more creative

you obviously care about growing its presence.

everyday, Instagram accounts are competing harder

But in order to grow an Instagram community, you needfor the same eyeballs.

to increase your followers consistently over time. However,For this reason, you may not want to dedicate all of

this is easier said than done - especially in 2020.

your efforts on growing your followers by ten-fold.
Instead, focus on getting a healthy but realistic

According to digital strategist Jeff Bullas:

It’s no secret that having more real

follower growth while keeping your existing
community engaged.

137

followers on Instagram leads to higher
engagement, website clicks, and sales foryour business. But growing a following
on Instagram is harder and more timeconsuming than ever.

27

NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS
According to our data this year, more than 50% of

The next largest segment are users that have between

Instagram followers have less than 1,000 followers

1,001 - 10,000 followers (37.41%) and together the two(52.35%). This suggests an increase from last year’s

segments make up the majority of Instagram users.

46.6%, giving us an idea of the amount of new accounts
being created on the platform.

Number of Instagram Followers
100001 - 500000
2.4%50001 - 100000
2.5%10001 - 50000
15.9%1001 - 10000
78.5%

28

A further 7.58% have 10,001 - 50,000
followers and only a mere 1.2% have
50,001 - 100,000 followers. Finally,
the two smallest segments are usersthat have 100,001 - 1M+ followers,
which makeup only 0.32% of total
users. These would be your celebrities,
global brands, and mega-influencers.

Worldwide Instagram follower growth rate from January to June 2019, by profile size

According to Statistia, accounts with 1,000 to 10,000
followers increased their followers on average by 12.6 percent.
You shouldn’t be too concerned if your brand doesn’t fall under thesegments with the most number of followers. Instead, aim to obtain ahealthy follower growth rate based on your existing community size.

29

KEY TAKEAWAY FOR MARKETERS
Instagram is constantly changing but one thing is for certain: growing your followers base will only
get harder.This doesn’t mean that you should forgo all hope of getting followers organically and rely
on buying new ones. Here are 5 things you can do to boost your follower growth:1

Ensure that your Instagram profile is complete. This means filling out the bio thoroughlywith relevant keywords to your business as well as creating IG Stories highlights.

2

Post high-quality content consistently. Post with intention: don’t post content justfor the sake of posting. Also, be sure to include a thorough caption - the detailed, the better.

3

Be responsive and interact with your community. Make sure you’re replying to your followers’comments, direct messages, and follows. If you’re being tagged in posts, respond to them.

4

Collaborate with micro, nano-influencers, and partner brands. Working with the right influencers

5

Post a good balance of different types of content.

and partners will boost your engagement much more effectively than trying to do it on your own.

This will include image posts, video posts, Stories, and even IGTV.

30

Influencers
Did you know what an ‘influencer’ was before Instagram?
Most of us didn’t.
In fact, influencer marketing wasn’t recognized as a legit businessstrategy until Instagram helped to launch it into true game-changer.
It became so successful that in a few short years, almost everyone
and their pet chihuahuas became ‘influencers’.
To give you an idea of the level of success it garnered: influencer
marketing on Instagram grew by over 48% in 2019, according
to a recent report from data analytics company Klear.

How did it become so effective? Simply put, influencers are able

But despite the naysayers, influencers are proving

to penetrate the barriers of traditional advertising and allow brands

that they’re here to stay. In fact, it’s projected to be

to communicate them in a more authentic, less invasive way.

bigger than ever in 2020, becoming an 8 billion

They create real connections by engaging with their audience
with relevant content, which establishes a level of trust thatbusinesses weren’t able to gain by themselves.

dollar industry by the end of this year.
Influencer Marketing Hub
But where exactly is it headed? What do brands need

However, this quick success also led skeptics to believe thatto keep in mind to make sure that they’re staying ahead

influencer marketing was just one of those short-lived socialof the game?

media marketing trends that will eventually die out, as a resultof the market becoming too competitive and expensive.

Let’s look at the trends we discovered about Instagram
influencers.
31

TYPES OF INSTAGRAM INFLUENCERS
Instagram users with 500k - 1M+ followers made up less than
0.5% of the total users.
These include your celebrities, big global brands, and highly influential
users. Influencers of this scale can have a huge reach, but collaboratingwith them can also come with other issues such as exorbitant prices,
fake followers, and them working with a number of your competitors.
According to Talking Influence:In the early days of influencer marketing, brands wereobsessed with finding collaborators with the biggest
following possible. They thought that the wider reach thecampaign got, the better result they were able to achieve.
Marketers realised it wasn’t the number of eyes on an
influencer post or ad, it was about having the right eyes onthat ad. That’s what drove big results.

What’s more, it appears that highly
coveted celebrity endorsers likethe Kardashian-Jenners, “...will
become less relevant for influencer
campaigns.”
Influencer Marketing Hub

32

Businesses are starting to see the differences
between working with celebrities and megainfluencers versus their lesser known counterparts- also known as micro and nano-influencers.

Users with 1k - 100k followers make up almost
half of the total Instagram user base - with microinfluencers representing most of this segment.
While there is some debate around the numberof followers that micro-influencer should have, it
generally floats around the 5k - 100k followers size.

While there is some debate around the number

What’s more, micro-influencers are experts of their niche andof followers that micro-influencer should have, it

more personally invested in their online presence. They spend

generally floats around the 5k - 100k followers size.

a lot of time creating high-quality content, reading comments, andWe highlighted in our report last year theaddressing inquiries from their followers personally.

importance and benefits of working with micro-

For these reasons, many brands that are on top of their influencer

influencers vs. a mega-influencer: essentially,marketing game are already working with micro-influencers, which“an enthusiastic micro-influencer, with a smaller,

drives their prices up and makes the market more competitive.

but keen and dedicated following, provides
better value for money.”

As a result, smart businesses are going even smaller.

33

Mention blog
Here are five reasons why nano-Nano-influencers — are Instagram users who have
between 1,000 and 5,000 followers. Their accounts
are neither glamorous nor polished, photos areneither posed nor retouched with dozens of filters.

influencers can be even more
effective for brands to work with:

1

They have the highest

2

They’re much more accessible

3

They can reach super-niche

4

They get you the most

5

Working with them can be

They give the feeling of being a ‘guy next door.’

engagement rateaudiencesbang for your buckeasier and more realistic to scale

34

Essentially, nano-influencers are ordinary people who are breaking into a niche and looking for
exposure. This makes them much more willing and accessible to work with brands, especiallylesser-known ones. According to the recent State of Influencer Marketing 2019 by HypeAuditor:

The engagement rate of nano-influencers is twice as high as that of other groups ofinfluencers. Engagement rate has a huge impact on reach, the higher the ER the more
an influencer’s followers will see a sponsored post. That means that they have higher
reachability, thus the cost per impression and engagement would be much lower.

They also dedicate their time to grow small
but highly-engaged communities: reallylistening to their audiences, interacting withthem and ensuring that the content they’recreating is relevant.

35

KEY TAKEAWAY FOR MARKETERS
Influencer marketing on Instagram isn’t going anywhere,

A good place to start looking for them is by

and there’s no time like the present for your brand toreaching out to your partners, clients, andstart experimenting if you’ve never worked withcomplimentary brands in your industry. There

one before.

are also various tools and agencies who can

Keep in mind that it’s always better to start small, even
if you have a large budget to work with.
This means taking your time to research micro and nanoinfluencers who really fit your brand and will resonate
with your message. Don’t be afraid to work with multiple
people at the same time in order to find the right ones.

help you identify the right influencers, but thebest kind of reassurance will be from wordof mouth.
Last but not least, due to the gradual removalof public ‘likes’ you may want to move awayfrom placing too much focus on it in yourinfluencer campaigns.
According to Later, instead of looking at
likes, brands looking to work with influencers
should “focus on actual impressions andbrand match,” as well as the “number andquality of comments.”

36

Location
Location tagging on Instagram is a feature that

This can be extremely beneficial for local businesses

has been around for some time, and there are ato help increase their exposure: Social Report

number of reasons why people would include a
geotag to their posts.

Posts with a tagged location result in 79%

For starters, the platform is a huge resource forhigher engagement than posts without adiscovering new products, travel destinations,retail businesses, and restaurants.
When you tag your post with a location, it has thepotential to show up when an user searches thelocation name or keyword under ‘Places’.

tagged location.

This can work especially well when combinedwith influencer marketing.
Think about the following example: You follow tons offoodies on Instagram. You’re travelling to London, UK andlooking to check out the most trendy restaurants. Naturally,
you’d check out local London IG foodies’ feeds to see what
scrumptious photos they’ve posted. Once you’ve set eyes ona few dishes based on their photos and description - you’re sure
to click on the tagged location to get names of the restaurant.
What’s more, people love to tag places they are at, which is
how the whole concept of ‘checking in’ and Foursquare wasoriginally built around.
Let’s take a look at the trends around tagged locations.
37

MOST TAGGED CITY
According to our data, the most tagged
city in the world is Los Angeles, California.
In fact, LA not only beat out some of the biggest
cities in the world such as Paris and London, but it
also topped its east coast rival, New York - which
followed closely as the number two contender.
However, being the most tagged city in the world
doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the most loved.
Let’s look at the top tagged city with thehighest average engagement.
TOP TAGGED CITY WITHHIGHEST ENGAGEMENT
LA comes out on top in terms of engagement
as well, meaning that Instagram posts that are
tagged with the city location are not only the mostused but also receive the highest engagement.
Does this then cement the claim that ‘the west
coast’ really is ‘the best coast’? We’ll leave thatup for debate.
38

TAGGED LOCATION WITHHIGHEST ENGAGEMENT
If we only looked at the engagement of atagged location and ignored how often it
was tagged, which location do you thinkwould come out on top?
Not surprisingly, it’s the mecca of music
festivals and selfies - Coachella, California.
In fact, it would be pretty unlikely forsomeone to attend the infamous music
festival, post on Instagram, and not tag thelocation.

Dubbed the ‘Influencer Olympics’, Coachella is a place
to see and to be seen. Influencers are working hardthroughout the event as it’s a huge opportunity to sell
their image and lifestyle.
This could explain the high engagement as they areamongst so many other influencers at the same festival,
competing for every like and comment: “...clicks andattention are now as important as money, in terms ofcurrency.” (Joe)39

KEY TAKEAWAY FOR MARKETERS
Adding a location to your Instagram posts
can be highly beneficial for local businesses.
As the platform is a huge source of inspiration
for discovering new trends and ‘it’ spots, location
tagging can only boost your exposure and brandengagement. So include your whereabouts
where you can across your content: in yourimage posts, video, and in Stories.
If you don’t already have one, be sure to createa specific location tag for your business. Oncepeople start to check into it, you’ll be able tosee all of the posts tagged with it and see what
your community is saying about you.

40

Captions
It has been said a picture is worth a thousandwords. So why do we spend so much time

Later

coming up with the perfect Instagram caption?

A great Instagram caption will stop a scroller in

Captions can help you encourage moretheir tracks — and the longer someone spends

engagement on your post including likes,
comments, and even drive conversions to youroffer and your website.
What’s more, captions have the ability to provide

reading your caption and engaging with yourpost, the better your post will rank with theInstagram algorithm!

more context and help your audience understandyour brand and products better.

It sounds like the more detailed and thoroughyour caption is, the better engagement you will
receive in your post.
But as Shakespeare famously once said: ‘brevity
is the soul of wit’ - is this true when it comes to
Instagram caption length?

41

CAPTION LENGTH VS. ENGAGEMENT
According to our data, the results are quite the contrary. We found that theCurrently, Instagram allows up to 2,200

longer your caption is, the better engagement it received. For this section,

characters long and can contain up

we looked at the median engagement instead of the average, as posts

to 30 hashtags in the whole post. But

from highly influential profiles would have skewed the average.

according to Social Report, the platform

This is because celebrities and mega-influencers can often include one
word or just a single emoji as a caption, but still would receive very highengagement on their post.

recommends for you to “...keeping yourcaptions under 125 characters. This
ensures that your entire caption shows
up in the Instagram feed.”
But this doesn’t necessarily help you
if your goal is to have your readers
engage with your captions for as long as
possible.
Based on our data and findings fromseveral other companies, we’re definitely
seeing the trend of engaging caption
length in the 500 - 1000 and 1000 - 2000
characters range.

*includes hashtags

42

Later...for brands and influencers, lengthy
captions that champion story-telling andauthenticity are driving great results…
[they] are great because they allow youraudience to learn more about you, yourbrand, and your mission.

KEY TAKEAWAY FOR MARKETERSAt the end of the day, create your caption
with thought and intention: think about
what you’re really trying to tell yourfollowers.
While we’re seeing the trend of longer
captions resulting in higher engagement don’t drag it out just for the sake of

Keep in mind that in this case your caption consists of the 30

adding length.

hashtags you’re allowed to include, so that would take up quite

Longer captions are made for storytellinga few characters if you’re including the recommended 5 to 6.

and helping your audience understandyour brand better. So use them whenthey’re appropriate and you havesomething important to say.
If you get into a habit of writing superlong captions each time you post, thismight deter you from posting consistently- which can also impact your overall
engagement.

43

Time
As Instagram is constantly changing its engagement algorithm, users, and businesses in particular- are always trying to find ways to outsmart it.
When it comes to what time to post at in order to
get the highest engagement, keep in mind that
there is no simple, universal answer. There are anumber of studies out there, each with their own
take on what the prime times are to post.
So before you follow recommendations of one
particular study, take a look at the behavior ofyour audience and take a few factors into
account including:•

Where the bulk of your followers
are geographically

Later

Since Instagram is now prioritizing “new” content
on people’s feeds, your best shot at getting your•

What day/times they are the most active

content in front of your followers is by posting•

The industry you’re inwhen most of them are actively scrolling the app.

Note that you’ll need to have an Instagram businessor a creator profile to access Instagram Insights.

Let’s look at the trends around time and engagement.
44

TIME POSTED WITH HIGHEST AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT
We’ll look at the median engagement
rate of posts based on the hour they are
posted instead of the average.
The reason for this is so it’s not skewed
by a small percentage of very large orvery small values, thus giving a moreaccurate ‘typical’ representation. Thinkof it like how you’d determine the typicalsalary of a population: the very few
highest gainers will impact the average,
so the median salary will be more
representative of what is ‘typical’.
Based on the median engagement, we’dsuggest that you post at 12PM in yourlocal time.

Another factor to consider about posting time related to the type of business
you are. If your brand is a lifestyle, restaurant, travel or blogging business, youraudience could likely be more active on weekends or during non ‘office’ hours.
If you’re a B2B or a SaaS brand, chances are your followers will engage withyour posts more during weekdays.

45

KEY TAKEAWAY FOR MARKETERS
The best thing to do to figure out when to post

Lastly, keep in mind of these golden Instagram

is to first dive into your Instagram insights.

posting rules to ensure that your content is

There, you’ll get an idea of where most of yourfollowers are geographically, and what times
they are most active.

created for optimum engagement:•

Post consistently•

Post high-quality content that is relevant toBased on these insights, you can take into
account from a few different studies what thebest time is to post in those key regions andcreate a time range to post. Experimenting by
posting at different time ranges over a periodof weeks or months and document the different
results you get engagement wise.

your audience•

Be sure to write well thought-out captions•

Be responsive to comments

The timing factor won’t be the be-all-end-allwhen it comes to how much engagement yourpost receives, but you’ll still want to be awareof what can favor the platform’s algorithm.

46

Instagram Stories
Known for being one of the most innovative

What’s more, IG Stories isn’t slowing

social networks, Instagram did something

down. It continues to roll out powerfulthat was completely uncalled for back infeatures to help businesses grow their

2016: it copied the most popular featurepresence.

from its biggest rival - Snapchat.
Debuting a 15-second video diary feature
extremely similar to Snapchat Stories,
Instagram Stories was born and no one
anticipated how successful it would
become in a short time. In fact, it doubled
the number of Snapchat’s daily active users
less than two years (CNBC), gaining 400
million daily users by 2018.

Smart brands are realizing the potential
of Stories and taking advantage of its
sales and conversion features suchas ads, chat stickers, product stickers,
swipe-up links, and more.
So what’s next in store for Stories?
Judging by its rapidly-growing highusage and engagement rate, all signs
are pointing to the feature becoming
bigger than ever.

Now, with over 500 million DAU, Instagram

We decided to conduct our own survey

has proven that it was able to reinvent itself

to understand the usage behavior andby pivoting from a meticulously curated

trends around Stories.

photo sharing app to something that wasmore spontaneous and authentic.

47

USER BEHAVIOR TRENDS OF STORIES
Here are some interesting statistics that we’ve gathered from a selected portion of Instagram power users in our database.

Stories for personal accounts
37% of users surveyed post to Instagram
Stories on their personal account morethan once per week

These statistics show that Instagram is super effective engaging
with users via Stories first from a personal usage standpoint. Users
are not only consuming and interacting with content consistently
but actively creating content regularly as well.

58% of users surveyed watch personal
Instagram Stories multiple times a day

19% of users surveyed watch Stories
from beginning to end

26% of users surveyed comment on, or
share personal Instagram Stories
they watch48

Stories for business
22% of users surveyed watch branded

36% of users surveyed have

Stories (from a company, business, or

liked, commented, or sharedbrand) more than once a weeka branded Stories

67% of users surveyed of users surveyedhave ‘swiped up’ on the links ofbranded Stories

These stats indicate that IG businessaccounts as well as consumers are
adopting and engaging with branded
Stories at a high rate.

20% of users surveyed post to Instagram
Stories on their business account morethan once a week

44% of users surveyed use Instagram
Stories to promote products or services

11% of users surveyed have included
a link in their branded Stories to a
shoppable page49

According to Instagram, one-third of the mostviewed Instagram Stories are from businesses.
99firms

While non-business users may use Insta Stories
to express creativity and connect with family andfriends, IG businesses leverage Stories to increase
engagement rates, conversions, and their overall
visibility on social media.

Since Stories users were so engaged with content
from personal accounts, this made it very easy andnatural for businesses to incorporate their branded
content into feeds. It felt more authentic and lessinvasive than conventional branded content.

50

KEY TAKEAWAY FOR MARKETERS
If your brand hasn’t incorporated Stories into your Instagram strategy yet, there’s no time like thepresent to start experimenting. With the high engagement and conversion rates on branded Stories,
you’ll be missing out on a good chunk of the population if you decide that it’s just a ‘nice to have’.
When you do start creating branded Stories, keep these best practices in mind:
1

Don’t aim for perfection - Stories are meant
to be spontaneous, authentic, and imperfect,4

Repurpose existing content - you don’t needto spend a lot of time coming up with new

so don’t spend too much time editing them.

content for Stories. Look at your most popular
blog posts or branded videos and think of how

2

Make Stories engaging - interact with your

you can rework them for this format.

audience by incorporating polls, stickers,
emojis sliders, questions, quizzes, and more.
3

5

the scenes - Show people how your products

Experiment and leverage business features

can be used and how they’re made to help tell

- Instagram created tons of features to help

your brand story.

brands convert their audiences’ interest into
action, so try out product stickers, in-Storylinks, swipe-ups, and ads.

Highlight your products in action or behind

6Show off the human side of your brand Stories are all about authenticity, so highlightyour brand’s culture and what makes yourcompany more than just a business.

51

More Statistics
Here are some more compelling Instagram statistics that could help you shape your strategy for 2020.

Instagram has 1 billion

64% of Users Are Between

52% of Instagram users are

Influencer marketing

monthly active users

18 and 34 years old

females and 42% are malegrew by 48% in 2019

InstagramStatistia

Omnicore

Klear

There Are 8+ Million

84% of Instagram

7 out of 10 hashtags

500 million users now

Business Accounts

influencers are female

are branded

use Instagram Stories every day

AdweekSocial Media Today

Omnicore

99 Firms

One third of the most viewed

Instagram’s revenue is expectedstories come from businesses

to reach 14+ billion dollars

InstagramStatistia%%
52

Manage all of your social media accounts
right from HubSpot’s Social Media tool.
Publish content, monitor mentions andkeywords, and analyze key metrics.

Learn more

Learn more about what is being said about yourbrand, industry, and competitors on social media
and beyond. Mention is the leading solution thatenables brands and agencies to monitor the web,listen to their audience and manage social media.

Learn more53