With the Instagram Public Data data source, you can benchmark your competitors and see how your Instagram page grows over time. Analyze your marketing performance by combining public and paid data from Instagram with other social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.
Stories, Reels, and IGTV data isn't available for Instagram Public Data.
For a full list of metrics and dimensions available in our Instagram Public Data data source connector, take a look at our Instagram Public Data documentation.
Once you’ve connected to Instagram Public Data, you’re ready to create your first query in Google Sheets, Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio), or Excel.
Query types for this data source
When connecting to the Instagram Public Data data source, you need to select a query type. The query type defines what sort of metrics and dimensions are available.
Note that if you need to use multiple query types in your Looker Studio report, you'll need to create separate connectors for each query type you use.
- Returns the current number of followers, follows, and posts for the account.
- Returns basic account info: name, username, Instagram ID, bio, profile pic URL, website link.
Recommended uses
In Google Sheets, you can keep track of an account's follower count, or its posting frequency, using the Supermetrics "Combine new results with old" feature.
Limitations
- Private, restricted, or age-limited data can't be fetched. "Error: Invalid profile name" can mean that the account name is invalid or that the account is restricted, age-limited, or private.
- Historical data of account followers or post amounts can't be fetched. However, you can use the "Append results" and scheduled refresh features to gather data over time.
- Returns posts of pages that are publicly available.
- Post types include image, video, and carousel.
- Can fetch data from the past and from a selected time period. Can also be used to get data on posts that are otherwise geo-restricted.
- Shows basic post metrics (likes, comments), post URL, image URL (first image for carousel), post type, caption, and more, together with profile information.
Recommended uses
- Follow new posts from multiple accounts that are difficult to manage.
- Find and analyze top-performing posts from other accounts, like which content types, hashtags, and captions are performing well.
Allows you to search for posts tagged with a specific hashtag. The hashtag can be either in the post caption or as a comment. Hashtags can be added only by the original poster.
The "Post search" query type has two subtypes: Top and Recent.
- "Top" returns a list of 100 top posts based on Instagram's algorithm rather than on likes or comments.
- "Recent" returns a list of posts made within the last 24 hours with the specified hashtag.
Recommended uses
- Follow discussions happening with specific hashtags.
- Follow and store new posts with specific hashtags.
- Find other hashtags used together in popular posts.
- Find which profiles are popular and are discussing using specific hashtags.
Try these queries
See the following use cases for examples of how to set up queries.
See comments and likes per post
Get data on how many comments and likes Instagram posts have received. In this example, we take a look at the last 7 days and fetch information also about the post type and time when the post was created, along with a link to the post.
Use the "Profile posts" query type.
The "Comments" metric shows the total number of comments on the post, including replies.
The "Likes" metric shows the total number of likes on the post, including replies.
For best results in Looker Studio, use the table chart type.
- Select the Profile posts query type and insert the Instagram profile names to query.
- Set the date range to Last 7 days.
- Select the Comments and Likes metrics.
- Select the Username, Link to post, Post created, and Post type dimensions.
See number of followers and profile posts per username
Get an overview of an Instagram account by fetching data of the number of posts they’ve published, number of followers and followed account. Accompany these numbers with username, biography, and website address.
Use the "Profile info" query type.
The "Profile post count" metric shows the total number of posts for this profile.
The "Profile follows" metric shows the total number of accounts this profile is following.
The "Profile followers" metric shows the number of unique accounts following this profile.
For best results in Looker Studio, use the table chart type.
- Select the Profile info query type and insert the Instagram profile names to query.
- Select the Profile post count, Profile followers, and Profile follows metrics.
- Select the Username, Biography, Name, and Website dimensions.
See hashtags in posts
Get a view of the most popular posts that contain specific hashtags.
Use the "Post search" query type, and the "Top" query type to fetch the most popular hashtags. Select which hashtags you’d like to include in your query.
The "Number of hashtags" metric shows the total number of hashtags found in the post caption.
The "Matching hashtags" dimension shows hashtags from the post caption that match the hashtags supplied for the search.
For best results in Looker Studio, use the table chart type.
- Select the Post search query type, insert the hashtags to query, and select the Top post search type.
- Select the Number of hashtags, Likes, and Comments metrics.
- Select the Hashtags, Matching hashtags, Image, and Link to post dimensions.
Set up scheduled refreshes for your reports
You can set up scheduled refreshes for your reports created in Google Sheets and Excel. Follow the instructions on how to create and manage scheduled reports in Google Sheets and how to set up scheduled report triggers in Excel.
In Looker Studio, you can have a copy of your report emailed to you and important stakeholders at regular intervals.
More resources
See the Supermetrics blog for posts about Instagram hashtags analysis and how to analyze your competitors on Instagram.
You might also be interested in:
