Instagram launched Competitive Insights on November 3, 2025, their first native competitor analysis tool. You can compare up to 10 accounts side-by-side, tracking follower growth, posting frequency, Reels output, and boosted posts over 30-90 day periods.

The tool provides basic benchmarking for free, directly inside the Instagram app. However, it excludes several metrics that Instagram's algorithm actually prioritizes. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has said repeatedly that the platform now prioritizes "sends per reach" (DM shares) over follower counts. Competitive Insights doesn't track sends, saves, or engagement rates.

Digital marketing advisor Sarah Roizman first spotted the feature on Threads, and the marketing community has had mixed reactions.

What Instagram Competitive Insights Actually Is (And Why It Arrived Late)

On November 3, 2025, Instagram rolled out Competitive Insights inside the Professional Dashboard, a native tool that lets you benchmark your performance against up to 10 accounts.

You can track:

• Follower growth over 30, 60, or 90-day periods
• Posting frequency broken down by feed posts, Reels, and ads
• Individual post engagement, even when accounts hide like counts
• Boosted post activity (only Instagram-boosted posts, not Meta Ads Manager campaigns)

For marketers, this is Instagram's first attempt to bring competitor benchmarking directly into the platform. Previously, you needed third-party tools to compare your performance against others.

The reception has been mixed. Instagram growth coach Brock Johnson posted: "Instagram adds new 'competitive metrics.' And I'm not a fan," arguing that surface-level comparisons can trigger anxiety without providing actionable insights for creators.

User reactions vary widely. Some marketers appreciate the free benchmarking data. Others point out that follower counts and posting frequency don't reveal whether a competitor's strategy is actually working or sustainable.

The timing is notable. Competitive Insights arrives years after TikTok and YouTube offered similar features, and at a moment when Instagram's algorithm has shifted away from some of the metrics this tool emphasizes.

What You Can Measure (And What's Missing)

Competitive Insights provides several useful metrics for benchmarking:

Available metrics:

• Total followers and net follower growth (new followers minus unfollows)
• Posting frequency broken down by content type (Reels, feed posts, ads)
• Number of boosted posts over your selected time period
• Time-based comparisons across 30, 60, or 90 days

Critical limitations:

• No engagement rates. You can't calculate likes-per-post, comments-per-post, or overall engagement percentages, metrics that reveal whether content actually resonates with audiences.
• No saves or shares. Instagram's algorithm in 2025 prioritizes three ranking signals according to Mosseri's January update: watch time, likes per reach, and sends per reach. That last metric, sends (DM shares), is the most important for growth because it indicates content worth sharing with friends. Metricool data shows 694,000 Instagram Reels get sent via DM every minute.
• Competitive Insights doesn't track sends, the metric Instagram's own algorithm weighs most heavily for reaching new audiences.
• No conversion data. You can't see clicks, profile visits, website traffic, or any metric connecting activity to business outcomes.
• No historical depth. The 90-day maximum lookback makes it impossible to identify seasonal patterns, year-over-year trends, or long-term growth trajectories.

The disconnect is significant: you're benchmarking metrics (follower counts, posting frequency) while Instagram's algorithm prioritizes different signals (watch time, DM shares, engagement quality). It's useful context, but incomplete for strategy.

How to Access Competitive Insights

The feature is rolling out gradually to professional accounts.

To activate it:

• Settings → Account → Switch to Professional Account (select Business or Creator)
• Then: Profile → Menu → Professional Dashboard → Competitive Insights
• Add up to 10 public professional accounts and select your comparison time range (30, 60, or 90 days).
• If you don't see it yet, Instagram is still rolling out the feature. Check weekly, no special verification or subscription required.

Important: The tool only works for public professional accounts. Private accounts, personal accounts, or users who've blocked you won't appear in your comparisons.
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Using Competitive Benchmarking Without Losing Perspective

When analyzing competitors, the biggest challenge is separating correlation from causation.

A competitor gained 1,200 followers last month while you gained 400. That's data. But it doesn't tell you why.

Did they:

• Run a paid influencer collaboration?
• Get featured by a larger account?
• Launch a viral Reel that happened to hit trending sounds?
• Invest heavily in boosted posts?
• Benefit from seasonal demand?
• Buy followers (which tank engagement rates)?

Competitive Insights shows the "what" but never the "why." Without context, benchmarking can mislead more than inform.

A practical approach:

Use the tool to answer specific questions:

• What's a realistic posting frequency in my niche?
• Are competitors investing in boosted posts or relying on organic?
• Which content formats (Reels vs. static posts) dominate my category?
• What does steady vs. spike-based growth look like in my industry?

Don't use it to:

• Judge whether you're "winning" or "losing" this month
• Copy a competitor's entire strategy without understanding their context
• Make major decisions without investigating what's behind the numbers

The goal should be context, not competition. You're looking for patterns and realistic benchmarks, not a scoreboard.

Three Practical Use Cases

Use Case 1: Reality-checking posting frequency

If you're posting once weekly and every competitor posts 2 Reels daily, that's valuable context. Not that you should necessarily match them, but it reveals the competitive baseline in your niche.

A B2B SaaS company used the tool to check ten competitors. Eight had increased to 70% Reels content over 90 days. But when cross-referenced with engagement patterns, follower growth remained flat across all of them.

The insight: in their niche, Reels kept existing followers engaged but didn't drive acquisition. They maintained 4 posts weekly (mostly educational carousels for new followers, occasional Reels for retention) rather than copying competitors' high-frequency approach. Better results with less output.

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Use Case 2: Identifying paid vs. organic strategies

An e-commerce brand noticed that competitors boosted 40% of their Reels. They tested the same ratio: $500 on 12 boosted Reels over one month.

Follower growth doubled, but sales didn't change.

After connecting Instagram data to their Shopify store, they discovered organic Reels drove 3x more purchase conversions than boosted content. Their competitors were optimizing for follower growth (vanity metrics) rather than revenue.

This is where the tool has limitations. It can show you what competitors are doing, but not whether that activity is profitable or sustainable.

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Use Case 3: Seasonal pattern recognition

A fitness coach compared seven competitors and noticed all increased posting by 50% in January. New Year's resolution season made this predictable.

But she went beyond basic benchmarking. She manually analyzed what types of Reels competitors posted during the spike. Generic workout content got minimal engagement. Transformation comparisons (before/after, progress tracking) generated significantly higher saves and shares.

She focused on transformation content for three weeks in January and gained 1,200 followers, more than any individual competitor.

Competitive Insights showed her the posting frequency pattern. She had to do additional research to understand what content formats actually drove results.

Why You Need More Than Native Tools

For basic Instagram competitor analysis, understanding how often others post or whether they're growing followers, Competitive Insights works fine. It's free, it's native to the platform, and it provides useful context.

But if Instagram is a revenue channel (not just brand awareness), you need deeper analysis:‍

• ‍Conversion tracking: Which competitor content drives website traffic? Which posts generate product inquiries or sales? Tools should connect social activity to business outcomes.‍
• Cross-platform attribution: Your Instagram traffic might convert after seeing your Facebook ad or email campaign. Native tracking can't show how channels work together.‍
• ROI analysis: A competitor boosted 20 posts last month. Did that generate profit or burn budget chasing vanity metrics? You need cost-per-acquisition data to understand whether their strategy is financially viable.‍
• Engagement quality: A competitor with 1,000 engaged followers in your target demographic may outperform an account with 10,000 random followers. Demographic breakdowns and engagement rates reveal quality, not just quantity.‍
• Historical data: Seasonal trends, year-over-year comparisons, long-term growth patterns require data beyond Instagram's 90-day window.

This is where external analytics tools become necessary. Dataslayer, for example, pulls Instagram Insights alongside Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Google Analytics 4, and 50+ other platforms into unified dashboards in Google Sheets, Looker Studio, BigQuery, or Power BI.

The difference: Competitive Insights shows competitor activity. External tools show whether that activity drives results, revenue, conversions, qualified traffic.

FAQ

Who can access Competitive Insights?

Only professional accounts (Business or Creator profiles) can access the feature. Personal accounts don't have the Professional Dashboard. The rollout started November 3, 2025, but isn't complete. If you don't see it yet, check weekly. No verification or subscription required.

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Will competitors be notified when I track them?

No. The tool provides one-way viewing. Competitors aren't notified when you add them to your dashboard, similar to viewing a public profile.

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Can I analyze private accounts?

No. The tool only works with public professional accounts. Private accounts, personal accounts, or users who've blocked you won't appear in your comparisons.

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Does this replace paid analytics tools?

Not for serious competitor analysis. Competitive Insights shows basic activity metrics, posting frequency and follower growth. Paid analytics tools provide engagement rates, audience demographics, content performance analysis, optimal posting times, hashtag tracking, cross-platform comparison, ROI calculations, and automated reporting. If Instagram drives revenue, you need more comprehensive tools.

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Competitive Insights is a solid starting point for benchmarking, useful for understanding where you stand relative to your niche.

The tool works well for basic questions: How often do competitors post? Are they investing in boosted content? What does realistic follower growth look like in my category?

Where it falls short is strategic depth. Instagram competitor analysis requires understanding not just what competitors do, but why they do it and whether it's working. The tool provides activity metrics without context or outcomes.

Use it for perspective and pattern recognition. But if competitive tracking matters to your business strategy, you'll need tools that connect social metrics to revenue, show cross-platform attribution, and track long-term performance beyond 90-day snapshots.

For marketers serious about analysis that drives decisions, native tools provide the foundation. External analytics show which strategies actually generate results.

Want comprehensive competitor analysis across all your platforms? Try Dataslayer free for 15 days, connect Instagram, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, and 50+ platforms into unified dashboards. See which strategies drive real outcomes, not just follower counts.