Getting your content in front of the right people is vital for Instagram growth. The more your target audience has access to your content, the more likely they are to engage with your account, product or service. By understanding how your hashtags are performing you can determine the next steps for your strategy.

Ranking on a hashtag means that your post has reached the top 100 posts of a hashtags ‘Top Posts’ feed. Within Analytics, you’ll be able to see where your post was ranked within the top 100 posts. Number one is the first post on the ‘top post’ feed with 100 being the last post on the feed.

Ranking is a great way to determine how well your hashtags have worked, as ranking on a relevant hashtag will likely increase your reach to more of your target audience.

By now, you’ll know not all hashtags are made equal, and ranking on a hashtag with a total media count of 1000 will be less impactful on your growth then ranking on a hashtag with a media count of 100,000. However, ranking on any hashtag is a sign you're on the right track, as ranking on small hashtags will enable you to rank on larger hashtags in future posts.

You’ll be able to see if you’ve ranked on a hashtag within the content section of Analytics:

Even without ranking, you can still take away some insights beneficial to your strategy. You don’t need to rank to see if your hashtags have worked And you may still find some positive points from posts that have not ranked. There are still some things to check before you write off your hashtag selection. This section will help you identify signs you’re on the right track, without ranking.

Compare Your Insights

Within Analytics, you’ll have the ability to compare the stats of your posts based on the following metrics: engagement, reach, impressions, likes, comments, and saves. If you haven’t ranked, it is worth comparing these metrics against your last post, or your last few posts. You’ll be able to see if you’ve increased your reach or engagement rate, to give you an idea if the post has done well, it will have achieved better results than previous posts.

If you cannot see an improvement from older posts and your newer posts, this may indicate that it might be time to switch up your hashtag selection and choose some more hashtags!

If you’d like more information on how to choose your hashtags, check out this great blog post.

Note:

There are many variables that go into making a successful Instagram post, hashtags are just one piece of that puzzle! Remember to nail the other aspects which make a great post!