Jul 26, 2024
Here is a comprehensive guide to understanding how Instagram Insights integration works within Swydo. It explores metric definitions, addresses limitations with our tailored solutions, and offers practical tips to enhance your Instagram reporting capabilities.
Delay in Data
When using Instagram in Swydo, it's crucial to understand that all data may take 24 to 48 hours to become available through the APIs. This delay occurs because the data provider needs to propagate data to the API, which ensures the information used for reporting and analysis is consistent and reliable once it becomes accessible through the API.
Differentiation Between Paid and Organic Content:
Instagram does not distinguish between paid and organic content in its own data reporting. However, depending on the data source connection used in Swydo, we display either organic or paid data exclusively. Sometimes, data can overlap when users interact with both types of content. This can make direct comparisons with platform data challenging.
The best practice is to display both paid and organic data side by side to gain a clearer view of the statistics.
Limited Metrics
Estimated Reach Metric:
Unfortunately, the reach metric of Organic data is not directly available through the Meta API, so we have developed an estimation method to allow you to use this metric in your reports. Reach, defined as a unique count of views per user, is challenging to estimate accurately. We fetch available data in intervals of 1, 7, or 28 days. For instance, if your date range is 31 days, we aggregate data from 28 days plus the remaining 3 days to provide the closest estimation possible. Please note, that this estimate may not perfectly match your account's actual reach.
For more accurate results, we recommend using intervals of 1-day, 7-day, or 28-day periods for this metric. Alternatively, using manual KPIs ensures monthly adjustments reflect the most accurate numbers.
For more information, please refer to the following articles:
Manual KPIs: https://help.swydo.com/en/articles/709615-manual-kpi)
New Followers:
Instagram's API only provides data for the last 30 days. If comparison data falls outside this range, errors may occur.
Story Insights:
Insights for Instagram Stories are available ONLY for the past 24 hours through the API.
Plays = Reel Video Views
Meta calculates views/plays differently for Reels and Insights, which can result in differences in reported numbers between them. Specifically, Reels exclude replays from their view count calculation, whereas Insights do not.
In Swydo, the Plays metric is used in place of Views for Reels, and regular Video Views and Reel Plays are combined into a single metric labeled "Video Views." This approach helps avoid misunderstandings that occur when showing them as separate metrics. In summary, plays are equivalent to the views of the reels.
Carousel posts:
Carousel posts on Instagram can only display two metrics: video views and plays.
Instagram supports four media types:
Carousel albums, Images, Videos, and Reel videos. Here is a list of compatible fields for each media type:
Compatible Metrics | Carousel Albums | Images | Videos | Reel Videos |
Engagement | yes | yes | yes | * |
Impressions | yes | yes | yes | * |
Reach | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Saved | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Shares | * | yes | yes | yes |
Video views | * | * | yes | * |
Plays | * | * | * | yes |
Note: Reel video views are referred to as "Plays" on Meta's platform. To simplify, we use a single "video views" metric to represent both regular video views and reel video views.
Missing Boosted posts:
When posts are boosted, they become "ads" and no longer generate organic data. As a result, they should be displayed through the Instagram Ads connection. This is why the page at the top of the screenshot is labeled "Past ads”.
Please note for IG Story and Media metrics you will need to use the following categories to display the data:
Story Insights Report type:
Access performance metrics for Instagram Stories.
Metrics: Impressions, Reach, Taps Forward, Taps Back, Exits, Replies.
Media Insights Report type:
Access media objects including posts, reels, and carousels.
Fields: id, media_type, media_url, thumbnail_url, timestamp, permalink.
So all post, reel, and carousel data is found under media insights, whereas story data is found under the story report type.
Adding IG as a Data Source in Swydo:
If you have difficulty adding your Instagram account as a data source, please refer to the following link: https://help.swydo.com/en/articles/2964556-my-instagram-facebook-page-is-not-showing-up-when-selecting-a-data-source