November 11, 2025
Instagram has recently introduced a new feature called “Competitive Insights” within its Professional Dashboard. This update gives business and creator accounts another way to understand and compare how their profiles are performing on the platform.
The new tool lets you compare your account with up to ten others, showing data such as follower growth and posting frequency. You’ll see side-by-side comparisons across different types of content — including Reels, standard feed posts, and adverts. The idea is to help creators and businesses see how often others are posting and how quickly their followers are growing in comparison.
This information can be useful, but it’s worth noting that the comparison is quite simple. It mostly focuses on basic numbers like how many posts are being shared and how many followers are being gained. While you can see some of your competitors’ post performance — even if they have hidden their like counts — the tool doesn’t offer detailed analysis. For example, you can’t view charts comparing your engagement rate or reach against another account’s performance over time. The comparisons are made one account at a time, not as a group overview.
So, while it’s an interesting update, it may not be hugely valuable depending on your goals.
The key issue is that follower growth is not always the best measure of success on social media anymore. What really matters is how much engagement and action your content generates — such as website clicks, profile visits, saves, and shares. If Instagram included data showing how many clicks each account drives from their posts, that would make the tool far more useful. You could then study what types of content encourage people to take action, not just follow.
Still, for some users, tracking follower growth might be helpful. It can show you whether your audience is expanding and how that compares with similar accounts in your field. It can also be a handy way to demonstrate progress when reporting to managers or clients. However, social media behaviour is changing. Many users now rely on personalised algorithms that show them content based on their interests rather than who they follow. This means that follower numbers don’t carry the same weight they once did.
Instead, views, engagement, and shares have become the key measures of performance. Unfortunately, these are not currently included in Instagram’s new comparison tool. Without them, the insights are limited. The data gives you something to look at, but not necessarily something that helps you improve your strategy.
When thinking about what really matters in social media marketing, there are three main areas to focus on:
- Awareness – This covers follower growth, engagement, shares, saves, and views. It’s about how many people see your content and recognise your brand.
- Nurturing – This focuses on building relationships with your audience through likes, comments, replies, and clicks. It’s about turning casual viewers into loyal followers.
- Conversion – This is the end goal, where engagement leads to action. It might include clicks through to your website, sign-ups, or sales. Tracking how many clicks come from shared posts (where possible) can show how well your content drives real results.
Some of these measures overlap, but together they provide a clearer picture of how your social media strategy is working. Simply comparing how many posts you publish against how many followers you gain doesn’t tell you much about whether your approach is effective.
Instagram’s Competitive Insights feature could become more useful if the company adds extra data points in the future. For now, though, it offers only a basic overview. It might help you see where you stand in terms of posting activity and follower growth, but it doesn’t show the full picture of how your content is performing or how it drives meaningful results.
In short, it’s a start — but not a complete tool for understanding your true social media impact. If you want to learn more, give our team a shout.