Measuring Instagram statistics is one of the keys to success when it comes to growing your business on this social platform.
In this article, we’ll show you how to track Instagram follower growth over time and how your business can benefit from using analytics tools for Instagram.
Instagram Follower Count History
Check how many followers you had on any given date. Get in-depth Instagram analytics for your profiles and track your competitors. Try NapoleonCat for free:
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What is Instagram follower growth rate?
Growing your business on Instagram from scratch may not be easy, but if you make the effort to develop a good strategy and produce appealing content, you will definitely start to see some movement on your business profile.
Regardless of whether you are only just developing a new Instagram account or you’ve already been driving business communication on Instagram for some time, sooner or later you will discover that just staying active is not enough to grow your results effectively.
At this point, you will start to seek methods to optimize your account1 to better suit your business needs.
The first thing that comes to mind here is, of course, measuring your profile’s performance, drawing conclusions, and making adjustments to your strategy.
This is obviously the right thing to do on every social media platform, although many marketers focus too much on their content’s performance.
They overlook a statistic that might be even more important. That’s right – I’m talking about Instagram follower count history.
Instagram follower growth rate indicates how fast your followers count grows and may have a positive or negative value, depending on the new follows vs. unfollows ratio.
In other words – measuring it gives you clear information if your follower base is growing or shrinking. But how do you calculate your Instagram follower stats?
The Instagram follower growth rate is based on a simple equation. To make it work, you’ll need the following data:
- The number of followers at the beginning of the chosen time period
- The number of new followers gained throughout the analyzed period
(new follows minus unfollows)
Once you have those written down, perform this simple calculation:
Example: Suppose you gained 100 new followers in a month. If you started out with 1000 followers, the equation would look like this:
Follower Growth Rate = 100/1000 ∗ 100% = 10%
That means that your follower growth on Instagram was 10% – which would be a very good result!
Why is Instagram follower growth a vital metric to track?
Instagram follower growth rate tells you if your content is reaching new people and grabbing their attention.2
You probably wonder, how is keeping track of this metric going to help?
Looking into your fan base statistics will provide you with insights that can:
- Help you assess your content strategy
- Inspire adjustments to your communications
- Show you if your business is growing at a satisfactory rate
- Add another dimension to your competitive analysis
Now that you know how tracking Instagram follower growth can support your social media management efforts, let us have a look at how to actually do it!
Instagram Follower Tracker
Set a completely custom time range for your Instagram follower count history in NapoleonCat. Track your own profiles and your competitors, too! Try it for free:
Try NapoleonCat free for 14 days. No credit card required.
Using native Instagram analytics tools
Instagram provides a built-in analytics tool called Instagram Insights. Instagram Insights is available for all Instagram accounts that are connected to a Facebook Page.
You can access it by clicking the three lines in the upper-right corner of your screen. Then go to the ‘Insights’ tab and start exploring your profile’s statistics.
Instagram Insights – Overview
The Overview is the main tab within Instagram Insights. You’ll be able to access the main metrics from the last 7, 14, 30, or 90 days:
Instagram’s free tool organizes data into three categories that you can access inside the Overview tab:
- Accounts Reached (Reach tab)
- Content Interactions (Interactions tab)
- Total Followers (Audience tab)
Each one of them gives you an insight into a different category of performance. Let us go quickly through these functionalities one by one.
Instagram Insights – Reach
The reach tab is where you will find some basic information about your content’s reach. You’ll see the number of impressions, profile visits, website taps, and call-to-action button taps.
Inside the reach tab, you can also check your top posts and Stories. If you click on “See All”, you’ll find all of your posts from the last 2 years.
Instagram Insights – Interactions
Inside the Interactions tab, you’ll be able to check some very basic metrics from the last 7, 14, 30, or 90 days:
Below these metrics, you’ll also be able to access Top Posts, Top Stories, and Top IGTV videos (same as inside the Reach tab).
Instagram Insights – Audience
The audience tab pertains to user demographic data on your account. Keep in mind that this section only analyzes your own followers count.
Later in the article, we’ll show you how to easily analyze other Instagram accounts.
Anyhow, you can check your Instagram followers count history (how many users followed and unfollowed you on a specific day). However, this ‘history’ is limited to only the last 7, 14, 30, or 90 days:
So why can’t we just use the last tab of Instagram Insights as it contains the most valuable information and can work as an Instagram follower tracker app?
Well, that’s because only having a full overview of your account’s performance will let you draw the right conclusions.
It is not the sole metrics that matter, but the ability to find links and interconnections between them and your actions.
If you manage to combine this tactic with other tricks for boosting Instagram follower growth, success is almost guaranteed.
Is Instagram Insights good enough?
The free Instagram tool for analytics is for sure a handy feature. Although, one might argue that it is pretty basic and doesn’t offer any sophisticated functionalities.
Let’s have a quick look at the pros and cons of the Instagram native solution.
Pros:
- Built into Instagram app = easy access
- Free of charge
- Covers the basic metrics, good for a start
- Let’s you track the results of your everyday activities
Cons:
- Difficult to establish a broader view of your metrics
- You can’t set your own custom time period for the analysis
- You can track Instagram follower growth but only for your own account
- It doesn’t track your business across other platforms
- Analysis has to be performed manually
- No automated reporting features
Instagram Insights are definitely worthwhile for beginners, but this solution might not meet the needs of dynamically growing companies.
Upping your social media game might require using external social media management tools that’ll help your business flourish. And we’ve got just the thing.
Track Your Follower Growth on Instagram
Measure your marketing results on Instagram and other platforms. Set a custom time range for your analysis. Track competitors and improve performance using one simple tool. Generate Instagram reports in seconds. Try it for free:
Try NapoleonCat free for 14 days. No credit card required.
Instagram follower growth tracker
If you’re serious about using Instagram as a business management tool, then you definitely want to use its potential to the fullest. To achieve that, you must not leave anything to chance.
Using the best tools available is one of the cornerstones of success in any environment. And this also applies to Instagram analytics. Where Instagram Insights fall short, other tools can deliver.
NapoleonCat’s Analytics tool is a great tool you should try out, especially if you manage multiple accounts and use more than one social media platform for your business.
Amongst its many features, it can also serve as an Instagram follower tracker.
Once you access our Analytics module, you’ll see tabs that pertain to specific metrics. Go to Summary or Followers to check how the number of your followers changed:
With NapoleonCat’s Analytics, you can analyze the performance of your own Instagram accounts and other social profiles, e.g., your competitors.
NapoleonCat’s Instagram follower tracker feature
You may be wondering “How many Instagram followers did I have on a certain date?”. We’ve got you covered.
As opposed to Instagram Insights, NapoleonCat’s follower tracker is not limited to e.g., only 7 or 30 days back, and you can easily set a completely custom time range for your follower growth analysis to find more historical data.
Once you set the time frame for your Instagram follower count analysis, simply click on any given Instagram followers graph, e.g., Followers daily, and you’ll see how many followers you had on a given day.
Reminder: After you connect your Instagram accounts to NapoleonCat, please wait up to 24 hours for the tool to fully sync your Instagram analytics data.
You can also check your daily Instagram follower change:
NapoleonCat lets you track your follower growth on multiple social networks: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Having all of this in one place will save you a lot of time and effort as you won’t need to jump between platforms to check your follower stats.
Another handy function is the automated reporting that’ll keep you as well as your team, business partners, clients, and stakeholders updated about all your key metrics.
Below you can check how quickly you can create an Instagram analytics report (a sample report is at the end of the video):
Obviously, NapoleonCat gives you all the functions of Instagram Insights, and more. Measuring your social media reach and engagement, identifying top posts and the best times to post, or learning about your audience demographics – all of this is found in one easy-to-use tool.
To see our full Analytics feature in action, you can also check out this video.
Instagram follower tracker for other Instagram accounts
One of the biggest drawbacks of Instagram’s built-in analytics tool is the inability to compare yourself with your competitors, including their follower growth rate.
This might be especially frustrating when they’re far ahead and you just can’t figure out what they do better.
NapoleonCat’s comparative sets enable you to easily compare multiple accounts side by side and peep your competitors’ strategies so it is much easier to catch up and outrun others.
PS. Even if your competitors hide their like counts on IG, you’ll still be able to see their likes in NapoleonCat 😉
Track Instagram Follower Growth Over Time
Set a completely custom time range for your IG follower count analytics in NapoleonCat. Track your own profiles and your competitors, too! Generate IG reports in seconds. Try it for free:
Try NapoleonCat free for 14 days. No credit card required.
Don’t use mass follow and mass unfollow apps – here’s why
You may have also heard about Instagram follower bots to boost your follower count – a seemingly quick way to gain new followers, which has grown especially popular in some circles of influencer marketing.
These bots basically follow and unfollow users, making your profile seem like a ghost account. The bots’ targeting system is based on hashtags, which can bring somewhat less valuable traffic to your account.
But that’s not the reason why we strictly don’t recommend them. Using such Instagram bots is a direct violation of Instagram’s terms of service and can get your account shadowbanned. You can read more about it in our article about Instagram bots here.
Wrap up
Summing up, getting your analytics right is just as important as putting in the effort to produce quality content. Tracking your Instagram follower growth and other metrics is crucial to managing your Instagram profiles, making educated future projections, and maintaining good results.
If you’re just starting your business adventure with Instagram, get to know the native tool first. Once you get comfortable with different metrics, don’t be afraid to try some third-party solutions.
This is what will give you a significant advantage over countless competitors who weren’t bold enough to invest in this type of solution. Good luck!
Instagram follower count – FAQs
As a bonus, we’re adding the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about Instagram follower count.
How to check your Instagram follower count
To check your current Instagram followers count, you only need to click on your profile picture in the bottom-right corner. Your follower count will be displayed at the top of your screen.
How to check your Instagram follower count history
The quickest way to analyze your Instagram follower count history is by accessing the free Instagram Insights tool.
- Change your personal account into a business profile.
- Go to your Instagram profile page.
- Click on the three lines in the upper-right corner.
- Click on Insights
- Click on Total followers
- And that’s it!
The follower count history in Instagram Insights is limited to the last 90 days. If you want to see more historical data, you can try out NapoleonCat’s 14-day free trial (no credit card required during registration).
Why would you need an Instagram follower trend tracker?
The main purpose of an Instagram follower trend tracker is to help you analyze your performance on Instagram and improve your strategy going forward.
Besides, Instagram follower count is one of the most fundamental metrics your boss or client will want to see on a report.
You can schedule recurring Instagram reports in NapoleonCat that will include follower count history – both for your own accounts as well as your competitors’ IG profiles:
For more Instagram knowledge, check out our other articles:
- How to Analyze Competitors on Instagram
- How to See Instagram Likes in 2022
- A Complete Guide to Instagram Follower Demographics
- What’s New on Instagram in 2022: New Features and Updates
- 400+ Best Instagram Captions for 2022
- Auto-Comments on Instagram: When and How Should You Use Them?
- How I Used Hashtags to Grow my Instagram Organic Reach 20x
- How to Get More Comments on Instagram
