How to Analyze Competitors on Instagram

Staying on top of your Instagram game means knowing what your competitors are up to. Analyzing their strategy isn’t about copying them, it's about understanding what resonates with your shared audience, identifying opportunities they've missed, and finding inspiration to make your own content even better. This guide will walk you through a practical process for analyzing your competitors on Instagram to find actionable insights that help you grow.

Why Instagram Competitor Analysis Matters

Dedicating time to competitor analysis gives you a strategic advantage. Instead of guessing what might work, you can make decisions based on what’s already proving successful in your niche. A thorough analysis helps you:

• Benchmark Your Performance: See how your engagement rates, follower growth, and content performance stack up against others in your space. This context helps you set realistic goals.
• Identify Content Gaps: Discover topics or content formats your competitors are ignoring. This is your chance to stand out and provide value where others aren't.
• Understand Your Target Audience Better: By observing what your shared audience engages with, you'll gain deeper insights into their wants, needs, and pain points.
• Spot Emerging Trends: Competitors might jump on new trends, features, or content styles before you. Keeping an eye on them helps you stay current.
• Refine Your Own Strategy: Learn from their successes and failures to avoid making the same mistakes and double down on proven tactics.

Step 1: Identify Your Real Instagram Competitors

Before you can analyze anyone, you need to know who you're actually competing against. Your in-store competitor might not be your biggest rival on Instagram. Think about who is competing for your audience's attention in the feed.

Direct vs. Indirect Competitors

First, separate your competitors into two buckets:

• Direct Competitors: These are businesses that offer a similar product or service to the same target audience as you. (e.g., Two local coffee shops in the same neighborhood).
• Indirect Competitors: These businesses offer a different product or service but solve the same problem or cater to a similar audience. (e.g., A coffee shop and a store that sells high-end home espresso machines both target coffee lovers).

It's important to analyze both, as they can provide different kinds of insights. You might get content ideas from an indirect competitor that no one in your direct niche has tried yet.

How to Find Them

• Simple Google Searches: Use terms like "[your product/service] in [your city]" or "[your niche] brands" and see which Instagram profiles show up.
• Audience Cues: Check which other accounts your most engaged followers are following. Their "Following" list can be a goldmine.
• Instagram's Suggestions: When you visit a known competitor's profile, tap the down arrow or "Suggested for you" button. Instagram's algorithm is excellent at recommending similar accounts.
• Hashtag Exploration: Search for key hashtags relevant to your industry. See which accounts consistently show up at the top of the "Top Posts" section for those tags.

Aim for a list of 3-5 direct competitors and 2-3 indirect competitors to start. Quality over quantity is key.

Step 2: Collect and Analyze the Data

Now that you have your list, it's time to dig in. The goal is to look at both quantitative data (numbers) and qualitative data (the "feel" of their content). Use a simple spreadsheet in Google Sheets or Excel to keep track of your findings.

Profile Analysis

Start with their main profile page. This is their digital storefront.

• Bio: What does their bio say? Is it clear who they are and what they do? Do they use industry-specific keywords?
• Call to Action (CTA): Do they have a clear CTA telling users what to do? (e.g., "Shop our new collection," "Book an appointment," "Listen to our podcast").
• Link in Bio: What are they linking to? Is it just their homepage, a curated Linktree, a specific product page, or a recent blog post? This shows their primary conversion goal.

Content Strategy Deep Dive

This is where you'll spend most of your time. You're looking for patterns in what they post and how they post it.

• Content Mix: What format is most of their content in? Are they heavy on Reels, photo carousels, Stories, single images, or Instagram Live sessions? A high volume of Reels, for example, signals they are prioritizing reach and discovery.
• Content Pillars: What are the main topics or themes they post about? Look for recurring categories like tutorials, user-generated content (UGC), behind-the-scenes glimpses, testimonials, or promotional posts.
• Visual Branding: Do they have a consistent aesthetic? Look at their use of colors, filters, fonts, and overall image quality. Is it polished and professional, or is it more raw and authentic?
• Captions and Tone of Voice: How do they write their captions? Are they long and story-driven or short and punchy? Is their tone funny, inspirational, educational, or corporate? Notice how they use emojis.
• Posting Frequency: How often are they posting to the feed or Stories? A simple check of their last 10 posts and their dates will give you a good average. Do they post more frequently on weekdays or weekends?

Engagement Analysis

A huge follower count means little if nobody is interacting with the content. Engagement is the true measure of a healthy account.

• Engagement Rate: Look at their last 10-15 posts. Manually calculate an approximate engagement rate by adding the likes and comments, dividing by their total follower count, and multiplying by 100. This is more revealing than just looking at raw like counts. Are certain post types (e.g., carousels) getting significantly higher engagement than others?
• Comment Quality: Read the comments. Are they just bots and emojis, or are people asking genuine questions, tagging their friends, and starting conversations? This reveals the true health of their community.
• Community Management: How do they handle comments and DMs? Do they reply to questions? Do they like comments? A brand that actively engages with its audience builds a much stronger community.

Hashtag and Ads Strategy

Finally, look at how they're driving reach and visibility.

• Hashtag Usage: Expand the captions on their posts to see their hashtag strategy. Do they use a lot of hashtags or just a few? Are they using broad industry tags (e.g., #digitalmarketing) or very specific niche tags (e.g., #smallbusinesssocialmediatips)? Do they have a unique branded hashtag?
• Paid Advertising: You can see what ads a competitor is currently running by visiting their profile, tapping the three-dots menu, and selecting "About This Account" > "Active Ads." This takes you to the Meta Ad Library, where you can see their ad creative and copy. This is invaluable for understanding what they're willing to spend money on.

Step 3: Turn Your Insights into Action

Collecting data is pointless if you don't use it. The final step is to synthesize your findings and apply them to your own strategy.

Perform a SWOT Analysis

A simple SWOT analysis is a great framework. For each competitor, list:

• Strengths: What are they doing really well? (e.g., "Excellent video content," "Strong community engagement").
• Weaknesses: Where are they falling short? (e.g., "Inconsistent branding," "Takes days to reply to comments," "No educational content").
• Opportunities: Based on their weaknesses, what gaps can you fill? These are your openings. (e.g., "We can create educational carousels since they only post promotional content").
• Threats: What are they doing that could negatively impact your business? (e.g., "Running a huge promotion that our audience loves").

Find Your Unique Position

Your goal is to be different, not just better. Look at the collective analysis. Is everyone in your niche using the same formal tone? Maybe you can stand out with a more humorous and personal voice. Is everyone posting polished graphics? Perhaps you can win with authentic, behind-the-scenes content.

Refine Your Content and Build on What Works

Use your analysis to shape your upcoming content calendar.

• If you noticed tutorials get massive engagement for a competitor, plan to test your own.
• If you saw an unanswered question appear repeatedly in their comments, create a post that answers it.
• Start using some of the niche community hashtags you discovered that they ranked for.

Final Thoughts

Regularly analyzing your competitors on Instagram will keep you sharp, agile, and full of fresh ideas. It provides the crucial context you need to stop guessing and start building a strategy that is intentionally designed to resonate with your audience and stand out from the noise.

While manual tracking in spreadsheets is an excellent place to start, it's also important to have a clear view of your own performance to know if your new strategies are working. We built Graphed to simplify this process. By connecting your own accounts, you can instantly analyze your key metrics and create dashboards using simple, natural language. This helps you monitor your improvements and benchmark your results without spending hours pulling reports manually.