Instagram’s latest update helps creators and brands track growth against competitors

New Delhi: Instagram has rolled out a new ‘Competitive Insights’ feature within its Professional Dashboard, allowing business and creator accounts to compare performance with other profiles on the platform.

The tool lets users select up to ten accounts to benchmark against, providing side-by-side data on metrics such as follower growth and posting frequency across Reels, feed posts, ads and more. The feature, currently being introduced to selected users, was first spotted by digital marketing advisor Sarah Roizman, who shared screenshots of the dashboard update.

While the tool adds a new layer of context for professionals tracking their growth, its scope remains limited. The comparison offers only basic figures, such as post volume versus follower response, rather than deeper performance analytics. 

Users can view some individual post data from competitor accounts, even when like counts are hidden, but cannot access aggregated insights or grouped comparisons across multiple profiles.

The update may be useful for those interested in audience growth trends, but as the report notes, follower count alone is no longer a definitive measure of success on the platform.

“Followers gained probably isn’t the best comparative metric, as what you really want is clicks, and to understand how to drive direct connection from your updates,” the analysis noted. 

“If data on clicks generated were included here, that would be valuable, because you’d be able to then look at what each account was posting that helped them drive that response.”

As personalised algorithms increasingly determine what users see, other engagement metrics such as views and shares have become more relevant to measuring performance. However, these data points are not yet included in Instagram’s competitive insights.

The commentary adds: “Comparison like this might help you contextualise where you’re at on audience growth, and that could help you demonstrate how you’re doing to others. But the focus of social media metrics is changing over time, as fewer people actually follow accounts… and views, and shares, become the focus metrics to drive response.”

Currently, the comparison tool provides limited insight into the effectiveness of content strategies. As the platform continues evolving, marketers will likely look for broader analytical capabilities that go beyond follower numbers to evaluate performance more comprehensively.