What is Instagram Reach and how can I boost it?

You've probably wondered what you can do to reach more people with your content on Instagram. After all, more views lead to more likes, shares, follows and conversions.

The key is Instagram reach - an important KPI that tells you how many people see your posts. Knowing the reach of your posts can put other metrics into perspective, such as engagement rate, impressions and conversions.

We'll explain everything you need to know about Instagram reach, showing you how to track the different types of reach, and some tactics for increasing it.

What is Instagram reach?

Instagram reach or reach is the number of unique people who see your content. Reach can be tracked in a number of ways.

For example, you can look at the reach of individual posts or your page as a whole. Or you can track reach by post type, weekday, or calculate your average reach for any post.

There are many factors that can influence your Instagram reach. This article will help you understand how the'Instagram algorithm works, and what you can do to fine-tune your marketing strategy on Instagram.

How does Instagram calculate reach?

Instagram calculates reach by counting the number of'individuals who have seen your content. If the same person sees your post more than once, it won't affect your total reach.

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Every time you publish something, it's unlikely that all followers will see it. Some followers may be less active, and if they don't regularly engage with your content, the algorithm may not prioritize your publications in their feed.

And conversely, sometimes your publication is relevant enough to be shown to a new audience.

The more users see your photos or your real ones, the more likely you are to get visitors to your profile. And the more visitors you have, the more likely you are to get customers.

Is reach more important than impressions?

Reach and impressions are both important measurements on social networks that tell you different things.

Reach only counts unique views, while impressions are the total number of views, which can include the same person viewing your post multiple times.

Reach helps you understand how much exposure your content is getting. Impressions will always equal or exceed reach, so it can be useful to compare the two measures. It's also useful to look at impressions, as they can indicate how engaging your content is.

What is good reach on Instagram?

When it comes to reach, there's no specific number you should aim for. A good reach rate will be different for everyone, especially if you're a business profile or a personal account.

To give you a point of reference, a 2019 Statista study found that:

• Brands or influencers with fewer than 10k Instagram followers had an average reach of 8.4% on Instagram stories, and 26.6% on posts.
• Brands with 10k - 50k followers had an average reach of 5.4% on stories, and 25.1% on posts.
• Brands with 50,000 - 200,000 followers had an average reach of 3.5% on stories, and 18.3% on posts.
• Brands with over 200,000 followers had an average reach of 2.3% on stories, and 13.8% on posts.

You want to reach as many of your followers as possible. However, as you can see, the accounts with the most subscribers tend to have a lower penetration rate.

This data also shows that posts achieve a much higher reach than stories, as the latter don't appear on Instagram exploration pages.

How to increase your reach on Instagram

To increase your reach, a good strategy is to follow the rules of Instagram's algorithm.

The aim of Instagram is to ensure that every user can see the most interesting posts in their feed. They want to show users content that is relevant to them, and likely to get engagement, so anything you do to stimulate engagement will have a positive impact on your reach.

Here are some of our tips for increasing your Instagram reach, and a few examples from home decor store North Home's Instagram account, that show how to track and boost your reach.

Start tracking your total reach

In order to increase your Instagram reach, you need to start tracking it first.

You can find this data in your Instagram stats. Before looking to develop grow your reach, you need to take stock of where your account stands, what's working for you on the social network and what's best to avoid.

Take the time to analyze your profile.

Share content that people like

Any content you publish must be relevant and interesting to your audience. You need to know who your target users are, why they follow your page, which accounts they follow and what type of content they like to see.

To find out what type of content is most successful, track the reach of each Instagram post. Generally speaking, Instagram reals work very well to boost your reach.

Discover here how to make good Instagram reals.

The Instagram stats for your posts give you a complete picture of how each post is performing, including comments, saves, reach and impressions.

By examining this data, you can see which posts are the most successful and which have the most reach. Over time, you'll be able to identify the types of content your audience prefers and start publishing more of that type of content to boost your visibility.

Go for engagement

We've already mentioned that engagement is the key to getting more reach. Write content that gets subscribers and anyone else who sees your photos and videos engaged.

Of the three posts in the image below, the ones that received more engagement also had more organic reach.

You can use surveys, polls, contests or simply ask questions. Anything that gets people interested in your profile and gives them a chance to participate will increase your engagement and reach on the platform.

Choose the right time

It's important to publish at the right times to appear in the news feed of social network users.

The Instagram feed hasn't been organized purely chronologically since 2016. However, users are still more likely to see more recent posts when'they open the app and refresh their news feed.

If you share content when your audience is most active, you increase your chances of being seen. You're also more likely to get " likes ", comments and other interactions, and early engagement can help increase your reach.

To help you post at the right times, help yourself to our dedicated guide: Finding the best times to post on Instagram.

Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to get your content discovered by new people and help you get more reach outside your followers.

By adding hashtags to descriptions, you send a signal to the algorithm explaining what your post is about. You increase your chances of appearing on the Explore page, and your content can be seen by people browsing on certain hashtags.

When it comes to Instagram hashtags, it's a good idea to use a mix of different types of hashtags.

• Generic hashtags that appeal to a wide audience.
• Trending hashtags that are popular at the time of publication.
• And industry-specific, or niche, hashtags that people interested in your product are likely to search for.

This advice applies across all social networks.

Try out new features

Every time Instagram launches a new feature, they want people to use it and get excited about the new types of content that can be shared on the platform.

It's likely that Instagram's algorithm favors content on newly launched features.

Creating a wider variety of content will also help you get more exposure, as part of your target audience may spend more time browsing IGTV instead of scrolling through its feed.

It's worth exploring many different avenues, and over time you'll be able to follow the ones that work best for you.

Try different post formats

Generally speaking, videos on Instagram get better engagement on Instagram.

However, there is no guarantee that video posts will get better reach than images. Nor that carousels will get more reach than photos. You need to experiment with these formats to find what works best for you. And never hesitate to experiment with different posting formats.

The key is to understand which post format is generally more successful for you, and why, so you can create more of them.

Interact on the social network

Our final tip to help you boost your reach is to be as present as possible on Instagram.

To do this, like, comment on and share posts from other accounts to show you're active.

The Instagram algorithm rewards accounts that actively participate in the platform's activity. So the more you use their tool, the more likely they are to feature you.

For this, tools such as Boostfluence can enable you to be constantly active and easily engage with your community.

An excellent free way to boost your visibility, the reach of your posts, your likes and your sales.