If you want success on Instagram, you need to throw out the old playbook that has become widely accepted. It’s no longer just about vanity metrics that we once held in high esteem, like likes and follows. Those metrics are old, outdated, and losing relevancy. Once, they were the only numbers you could track on the platform. But today, there are numbers and data for every little thing, many of which actually measure true success on Instagram. In this post, I’ll show the most important Instagram metrics to pay attention to that truly work to grow your account, keep your community thriving, and attract brand partnerships like a magnet. Success on Instagram depends on knowing which numbers actually predict growth, and these important Instagram metrics are your secret weapons. Let’s dive into the data and actionable insights.

The Problem with “Likes” and “Follows”

Gone are the days when likes signaled popularity, resonance, and success. In 2019, Instagram started testing the hide likes feature on the platform. This allowed users control over the exact number of likes their posts get, being presented to the public. Today, this feature is available on every account worldwide. On top of that, Adam Mosseri himself has said that follower count is not a good indicator of an account’s value. And while likes certainly can signal general interest when measured across a number of content across the board, what matters more are metrics like saves, shares, comments, and views.

3 Types of Instagram Metrics That Actually Matter in 2025

So, if you’re an aspiring content creator who is serious about growing your account and success in 2025, what metrics do you want to keep an eye out for? Here are 2 types of Instagram metrics that actually matter this year to finding success on Instagram:

• Attention metrics: These metrics refer to the amount of attention your content and profile capture
• Action metrics: Are your viewers taking further action after consuming your content?
• Connection metrics: After capturing attention and driving action, is your content serving to build a thriving, highly-engaged community?

Let’s break each one of these categories down.

Attention Metrics – The First Important Metric to Track

Attention metrics are important if you want success on Instagram. These numbers indicate how well your content is performing initially, both with your existing audience and new potential audiences. Attention metrics include:

• Views
• Video completion rate
• Retention and watch time
• Story retention

You can access your story retention metrics on Instagram Insights. Pay attention to exits, tap forwards, and reach to make a conclusive performance report on your stories.

As for Reels, I highly recommend editing and posting through Instagram’s Edits app. While Instagram Insights will give you metrics like reach, impressions, plays, likes, comments, saves, and shares, Edits has a more robust analytics report per Reel you post.

Edits analytics will give you insight into watch time, retention rate, skip rate, view sources (e.g. Reels Tab, Explore Page, etc.), reach, follower growth, and more.

Action Metrics – Stepping Stones to Success

Capturing an audience member’s attention is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to see real momentum and success on Instagram, you need viewers to take action. This is where action metrics come into play. Action metrics are an indicator that your audiences are engaged beyond just being passive viewers. While a like technically classifies as an action metric, there are many other action metrics that hold more weight when it comes to your content’s performance, such as:

• Saves
• Shares
• Profile visits
• Link clicks

These metrics indicate that your content is driving deeper action. For instance, saves signal that your content is valuable and will be referred to again in the future. Shares indicate that the viewer thinks their audience or friends will resonate with your content. Profile visits and link clicks can tell you how intrigued a passive viewer was with your content as they want to find out more.

Connection Metrics that Indicate Success on Instagram

Meaningful connection, at the end of the day, is what social media is all about. When you develop meaningful connections with your audience, you keep them coming back for more. This, in turn, makes the algorithm happy, and it also allows you to find success with brand partnerships, knowing that you’ve got a highly tuned-in audience who will take action. Connection metrics include:

• Comments
• DMs
• Story replies

These interactions are the cornerstone of community on Instagram. I’m not talking about short comments without substance, like a string of emojis. Instead, I’m referring to meaningful interactions where audiences interact with you on a more personal level. This could be through questions, sharing their thoughts and opinions, or simply asking for links to items you’ve featured on your post.

How These 3 Metrics Lead to Success on Instagram

Now that you know what metrics you need to pay attention to, let’s discuss how all of these reflect your overall success on Instagram. Attention, action, and connection metrics all correspond to different areas of your Instagram account’s health that can best be summed up in 3 different categories:

• Brand affinity: The overall public sentiment towards your brand
• Engagement depth: How engaged are your viewers and audiences? Are they passive, or are they invested on a deeper level?
• Community health: Beyond engagement, your community health reflects the growth and trajectory of your overall success. This is where you’ll keep track of your audience growth over time alongside the increased engagement from a larger audience.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these categories.

How Brand Affinity Leads to Widescale Trust

Brand affinity can be measured through the sentiment shared through comments, shares, and DMs from your audience. This is an important metric to track because you want your target audience to resonate with the content you’re sharing and the brand you’ve built. While this isn’t necessarily measured by numbers, you’ll want to pay close attention to what is being said in your comments section and DMs. If you’ve noticed a lot of shares of your post to viewers’ stories, you can also keep track of what they are saying about your post in their own shares.

Engagement Depth Beyond Likes

Similar to Brand Affinity, engagement depth takes a closer look at meaningful engagement rather than passive actions. This is why keeping a close eye on metrics like saves, shares, comments, and replies are so important. In other words, keeping track of your Action Metrics shows you how engaged your viewers and audiences are with your performance. It’ll also help you redirect your content strategy if you notice engagement lacking in these areas.

Community Health as a Pillar of Success on Instagram

How many repeat engagers do you see on your posts? What about your growth–is it steadily increasing, plateauing, or on a decline? And if you’re growing on an upward trend, is your engagement keeping up with the growth you’re seeing? These are important indicators to measure your success on Instagram. Your Community Health is measured through all 3 categories of metrics (Attention, Action, and Connection). 

Wrapping Up

Finding success on Instagram isn’t rocket science. But it takes diligence and data. Instagram provides you with analytics that you should pay attention to, but often, aspiring content creators find all these numbers overwhelming and confusing. I hope this post helps you organize the metrics you should be paying attention to, along with how they all play an important role in your success on Instagram. 

I advise all my Influencer Mastercourse students to create a performance report based on these metrics so that they can measure and make changes to help reach their goals. Use this blog post as a guideline to customize your own performance report so that you can grow your account, leverage your engagement in brand partnerships, and find the success on Instagram that you desire.