Instagram’s New Benchmarking Feature; How It Compares Accounts

Staying ahead on social media requires more than posting colourful photos and well-written captions—it demands insight. Now, with the rollout of a fresh “Competitive Insights” feature inside the professional dashboard for business and creator accounts on the platform, users can benchmark their performance against other accounts more easily than before. The tool allows selection of peer accounts to compare metrics like follower growth and posting activity. While it offers new value, it also has clear limitations—and knowing both sides is key.

What the New Feature Offers

Within the professional dashboard for eligible accounts, the new competitive benchmarking tool enables the selection of other accounts (up to a specified limit) to compare key performance data. Metrics include follower growth and posting frequency across formats like feed posts, Reels and promotional content. This gives creators and brands a straightforward way to see how they measure up against chosen peers in terms of activity and audience expansion.

Key Limitations to Note

Although useful, the feature delivers only a snapshot of performance rather than a full analytical picture. Users cannot view in-depth breakdowns such as click-throughs, conversion events or aggregated engagement trends over time. The comparisons are done side-by-side and account-by-account; there is no grouped multi-competitor overview, nor detailed graphical insights within the dashboard. Therefore, while the tool supplies useful baseline data, it does not yet provide comprehensive insight into the full value of social activity.

Why Metrics Beyond Followers Matter

Counting followers remains visible and quantifiable, but it does not always correlate directly with meaningful business outcomes. Engagement, interaction, content-to-action conversion and audience quality carry increasing weight in strategy. Because the new benchmarking feature focuses primarily on growth and publication rate, brands and creators will still need to rely on their wider analytics strategy to understand the full impact of their work—and how it contributes to goals beyond audience size.

How to Use This Feature Effectively

Treat this dashboard addition as a benchmarking tool rather than your full analytics engine. Here’s a three-tier framework to build around it:

• Awareness: Track metrics such as reach, follower increase, saves and shares.
  
  
• Engagement / Nurturing: Look at views, replies, link clicks, stories interactions.
  
  
• Conversion: Measure actions that lead to business outcomes—click-throughs from posts, sign-ups, purchases.
  Use the comparative data from the tool to gauge where you stand on audience growth and posting activity, then layer on your own deeper analytics for full strategic insight.
  
  

What It Signals for Instagram Strategy

The introduction of this tool suggests that the platform is moving towards offering more built-in benchmarking and comparative data. For creators and brands that have historically relied on external tools to track competitor activity, this marks a meaningful shift. At the same time, it underlines that raw growth does not automatically equal success—smart brands will use this feature as one component of a broader measurement ecosystem that emphasises value, not just volume.

The new benchmarking function within Instagram’s professional dashboard presents a welcome advancement for business and creator accounts by making comparative metrics more accessible. However, it also serves as a reminder: numbers alone don’t tell the story. To remain competitive and strategic in 2025 and beyond, brands must supplement this tool with deeper data, aligning content, engagement and conversion metrics with broader objectives. As the platform evolves, users who treat this feature as a starting point rather than the full solution will be best placed to steer their growth with purpose.