Instagram Competitor Analysis: New Dashboard Feature

The new Instagram competitor analysis tool offers businesses and creators a window into rivals’ performance. This new “Competitive Insights” feature, located within the existing Professional Dashboard, aims to provide brands with crucial data to contextualise their own account performance and posting strategy.

This move signals a deeper focus from the platform on providing tangible value and strategic tools for the creators and businesses that rely on it for growth and revenue. But does this new feature deliver the powerful insights marketers truly need?

How Does It Work? A Look at the Mechanics

The tool allows users with business or creator accounts to formally track their competition directly within the Instagram app.

Selecting Targets and Viewing Data

This new Instagram competitor analysis allows professionals to nominate up to ten specific accounts to monitor. Once selected, the dashboard presents a side-by-side comparison of key activity metrics. The primary data points on offer are:

• Follower Growth: A direct comparison of how rapidly an account is gaining new followers relative to one’s own.
• Posting Frequency: A breakdown of how often a competitor is posting content. The tool segments this by format, offering a look at their cadence for Reels, standard feed posts, and even advertisements.

An intriguing quirk of the new tool is its ability to display individual post-performance data for competitors, even, in some cases, when that account has opted to hide its public “like” counts.

Current Limitations of the Tool

However, the analysis offered is, at present, somewhat foundational. The comparisons are displayed on a one-to-one basis, rather than as a grouped analysis of all ten competitors simultaneously.

Furthermore, the dashboard provides basic figures rather than deep, cumulative breakdowns. Users hoping for detailed graphs charting performance over time or complex data visualisations will find the current iteration lacking. It offers a snapshot, not a comprehensive performance history.

Is This Instagram Competitor Analysis a Game-Changer?

Whilst any new data is welcome, the strategic value of this specific tool is already a subject of debate among marketing professionals. The core of the issue lies in which metrics Instagram has chosen to highlight.

The Follower Growth Conundrum

The tool’s heavy emphasis on follower growth is a point of contention. In the modern social media landscape, industry analysis suggests that an over-emphasis on raw follower numbers may be misplaced. Audience size is a “vanity metric” – it looks good, but does not necessarily correlate with business success.

The ultimate goal for most businesses is not just a large audience, but tangible action. The real value lies in driving direct connections, engagement, and, most importantly, clicks that lead to website visits, product purchases, or newsletter sign-ups.

The absence of click-through data is a notable omission from the new Instagram competitor analysis tool. In other words, access to this metric would allow marketers to analyse which posts successfully drive traffic. Finally, in turn, provides a far more valuable insight into effective content strategies.

Missing Metrics: The Gap Between Data and Insight

The way users discover content on Instagram has fundamentally changed. The platform’s personalised algorithm increasingly serves users content based on their activity and interests, not just the accounts they follow.

This shift means that metrics like views and shares – which indicate reach and resonance far beyond a user’s immediate follower base – are becoming the true indicators of a post’s success. These vital statistics, which measure an account’s ability to generate awareness and go viral, are currently absent from the new comparison tool.

Without these crucial metrics, the tool provides an incomplete picture, focusing on volume (posting frequency) and audience size (follower growth) rather than genuine impact and engagement.

A Broader View Beyond Instagram Competitor Analysis

To truly measure social media impact, marketers often rely on a more holistic framework that tracks a user’s journey from discovery to conversion. This is typically broken down into three key stages.

1. Building Awareness

This top-of-funnel stage is about reaching new people. Key metrics include follower growth, but more importantly, engagement rates, shares, saves, and video views. These show that content is resonating and being seen.

2. Nurturing the Audience

Good Instagram competitor analysis reveals how rivals build relationships with users after the initial awareness stage. Moreover, metrics like video views, likes, replies, clicks, and saves are paramount. In essence, they signal that the audience is actively consuming and valuing the content.

3. Driving Conversion

All in all, this is the bottom-line, where action is taken. In fact, the only metric that truly matters here is clicks and, where trackable, the conversion rate.

Viewed through this lens, a simple, one-to-one comparison of post volume against follower growth provides only a tiny piece of this complex puzzle.

A First Step or a Finished Product?

The question for marketers is whether this new dashboard is a preliminary release – a foundation upon which more robust analytics will be built – or a near-finished tool.

The current Instagram competitor analysis is interesting but lacks the strategic depth required for comprehensive planning. Singular data points rarely tell the whole story, especially in the complex and ever-shifting world of social media algorithms. For now, it offers a curious glance at the competition but falls short of being an essential strategic weapon.