3 min read
Instagram is taking another step toward becoming a full-fledged analytics powerhouse. The company has introduced a new feature called “Competitive Insights” inside its Professional Dashboard, allowing business and creator accounts to measure their performance directly against up to ten competitor profiles, all within the app.
The update gives professionals a transparent look at how their content stacks up across follower growth, post frequency, and engagement trends, even when competitors have hidden like counts.
A Smarter Way to Size Up the Competition
For the first time, Instagram users won’t need third-party tools to benchmark their rivals. The new Competitive Insights tab, available to eligible Professional accounts, offers a streamlined comparison system. Users can select up to ten accounts within their niche and analyze:
- Follower trends over specific timeframes.
- Posting frequency broken down by Reels, posts, and ads.
- Individual post performance, regardless of visibility settings.
Instagram’s Strategy: Bring the Data Home
Brands can now make real-time content adjustments without switching tools, optimizing Reels cadence, refining ad pacing, and spotting performance gaps faster.
Meta’s move is also a response to rising competition from TikTok and YouTube Shorts, whose creators already benefit from in-app data dashboards. Instagram’s update narrows that gap by blending performance tracking with strategic insights, particularly for small brands seeking cost-effective analytics.
You can even see the post likes, as revealed by Instagram connoisseurs:
Gradual Rollout and Limited Access
Instagram confirmed that the Competitive Insights feature is being rolled out gradually to business and creator accounts with access to advanced analytics. It will appear under the Professional Dashboard, which also houses features like account achievements, monetization tools, and audience growth stats.
The expansion signals Meta’s broader goal: giving users more in-app tools for strategic planning while reducing reliance on third-party data scrapers and analytics vendors.
Data, Discovery, and Dominance
In the long term, experts anticipate Instagram will merge its AI-driven recommendations with performance analytics, letting creators receive predictive feedback, for example, suggesting post times or content themes based on competitor engagement trends.
While the tool remains basic compared to standalone analytics suites, it represents a clear shift toward native competitive intelligence, giving creators and brands a strategic advantage without ever leaving the app.
By embedding benchmarking directly into the app, Instagram is reclaiming territory long dominated by analytics platforms like Sprout Social and Hootsuite. These tools have historically provided deeper competitive data, but required users to operate outside the Instagram ecosystem.
