Learn how to use Instagram’s new Competitor Insights to benchmark your performance, analyze engagement, and uncover growth opportunities for your brand.
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Instagram is rolling out a long-awaited feature for creators and brands, Competitor Insights inside the Professional Dashboard.
For years, social media managers relied on third-party analytics or manual tracking to gauge how competitors performed. Now, Instagram itself lets you choose up to 10 competitor accounts and compare:
It’s a step forward, but also just the beginning.
In this article, we’ll explore:
Instagram’s Competitive Insights lets professional accounts compare performance with up to 10 public competitors, showing follower growth, posting cadence (Reels, feed posts, ads), and some per-post engagement data even when like counts are hidden. The view is table-based and one-to-one (no multi-account charts), so think of it as a quick benchmarking panel rather than a full analytics suite.
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Example: You can see if a competitor posts 5 Reels a week while you post 2, or if their followers are growing faster relative to posting frequency.
However, these are surface metrics, they don’t reveal:
So while helpful, these insights must be contextualized with deeper engagement and conversion data.
How to find it (when available):
Current limitations to note:
Pro tip: Pair Competitive Insights with your DM analytics to see which competitor-style formats (e.g., Reels topic + CTA) correlate with DM starts and lead capture in your flows. That’s where real conversion insight lives.
Follower growth and post frequency only tell part of the story.
The modern Instagram funnel revolves around three layers:
The Competitor Insights tool mostly covers the awareness layer. But as algorithms evolve, nurturing and conversion metrics (especially DMs) carry more weight.
Here’s a practical workflow for using Competitor Insights effectively:
Pick 5–10 profiles that mirror your audience and niche, not just the biggest accounts.
Pro Tip: Include at least 2 peers, 2 aspirational brands, and 2 local competitors.
Look at their posting rhythm across Reels, posts, and Stories.
Ask: Are they more consistent than you? What formats are driving engagement spikes?
Note average likes, comments, and visible reactions.
If you notice spikes, correlate them with topic, format, or posting time.
Track interaction-to-follower ratios, small pages with high engagement density often outperform larger accounts.
Do they invite comments, drive DMs, or use link stickers?
These cues reveal whether they focus on awareness, nurture, or conversion.
If you’re expanding beyond Instagram’s native view, here are core features to evaluate:
Leading social brands don’t just track, they benchmark actions:
By blending Competitor Insights with DM automation, you move from data-watching to data-acting.
Instagram’s Competitor Insights are a promising new step, finally giving small businesses visibility into how their performance stacks up.
But follower counts and posting volume don’t tell the whole story.
True success lies in:
That’s where Inrō comes in. It lets you:
Attract more leads, target them with DM campaigns, and automate your interactions on Instagram!
Use the new Instagram Professional Dashboard → “Competitor Insights.” Add up to 10 competitor accounts and monitor growth, posting frequency, and engagement trends weekly.
Instagram’s native dashboard is a start. For deeper insights, pair it with tools that provide you fresh real-time data.
Real-time data, engagement-type breakdowns, and audience overlapping.
They analyze engagement density, follower quality, not just raw likes.
Yes, through the Meta Ad Library. Combine that with organic engagement data for a full picture.
Within the Instagram app (Professional Dashboard → Competitor Insights) or via external analytics tools.
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Attract more leads, target them with DM marketing, and automate your interactions on Instagram!
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