Instagram is without a doubt one of the shining stars of social media. With over 1 billion monthly active users, there is plenty to love about the platform.
One of the standout features of Instagram is the Instagram story feature, boasting huge potential for marketing and audience engagement.
All of the most popular and notable figures on the platform, from Nike to Starbucks to National Geographic and even the POTUS uses Instagram stories. You can discover news, products, events, memes, and so much more.
Why, then, are Instagram stories so popular in the first place?
We’ve put together this list of the most important and valuable Instagram stories statistics + facts, and new updates.
You’ll be able to understand the huge draw of Instagram stories, and why you should focus your energy on using them more frequently. We’ll also offer some tips on how to optimize your use of IG stories.
Ready to revolutionize your Instagram strategy? Let’s do it.
Key Instagram Stories Statistics
- There are over 500 million Instagram users that are active on stories daily.
- 70% of users on Instagram watch stories on a daily basis.
- 25% of Millennials and Gen Z take advantage of IG stories to find products and/or services.
- Instagram stories are popular among not just everyday users, with 36% of businesses using them to promote products/services.
- 86.6% of Instagram users actively post stories to their IG profile.
So, what do all of those Instagram stories statistics mean as a whole? We’re going to break it down.
In case you’re just starting out on Instagram, let’s first talk about what an Instagram story actually is and what makes it unique from other content types on the platform.
What is an Instagram Story?
Instagram stories first emerged on the scene in August of 106 and have been a huge staple of the platform ever since. With Instagram stories, you can post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.
Not even a year after IG stories made its debut in April 2017, there were already 200 million daily active users, which is truly just the beginning.
Here’s where it gets interesting:
IG stories was created to combat the rising popularity of a competing platform, Snapchat. According to Instagram stories statistics, IG stories already had 400 million daily users in 2018, compared to Snapchat’s less than half 191 million.
This is where the popularity and success of Instagram stories really became apparent, and over the next 6 months, Instagram stories increased to 500 million daily active users. It’s shown no signs of slowing in popularity.
It’s not surprising, then, that businesses and brands have flocked to Instagram to make their presence known through Instagram stories.
They should be a key counterpart of your Instagram marketing strategy, helping you to reach more users and attract attention to your profile, products, services, or whatever endeavor you find yourself pursuing.
So, how can we understand how engaging our Instagram stories are? It’s pretty straightforward, and Instagram has made sure that professional accounts have the tools to analyze their IG story performance.
Instagram Stories Analytics
Instagram stories present a variety of engagement metrics that you need to know about in order to understand how viewers interact with your content:
- Tap forward: This metric identifies how many times viewers tapped to the right to skip the current story in order to view the next one.
- Tap backward: This metric identifies how many times viewers tapped to the left to watch the previous IG story video.
- Exit: This metric identifies how many times viewers have exited the Stories feed by swiping down.
- Replies: This metric identifies how many times viewers swipe up to comment on the story or to send a response to what they’ve seen. It also includes the “swipe up” feature to access a website or alternative page that’s been linked in the story. Replies are great, but it’s the one metric that will be scarce at best. In 2018, the typical brand got a reply from less than 0.01% of all viewers of that story!
These are the four principal actions that a user can take when they are viewing your Instagram stories, but there are a couple other important elements that you should keep an eye out for when you’re tracking your analytics:
- Impressions: many people find themselves confused, seeing this on Instagram insights and asking themselves, “what are Instagram impressions?” Let’s break it down. This metric identifies how many views the story has had, which includes rewatches. That means that if a user has watched your story 10 times, all 10 of those views are counted towards the total impressions.
- Reach: in contrast with impressions, reach tracks how many different accounts viewed the story. This only counts the first view to see how many different accounts have come into contact with your story content. When you have a larger reach, that means your brand exposure is thriving. We’ll get to those statistics later on.
All 5 of these metrics should be on your radar when tracking your Instagram insights.
While there are some more details and nuances of Instagram story analytics, these are the basics that you should always be aware of if you want to succeed in your IG story strategy.
The piece from Later can help you learn more about Instagram insights for IG stories.
For now, let’s get onto the exciting part: Instagram stories statistics and data!
The Most Important Instagram Stories Statistics
Should you continue to invest time and effort in Instagram stories for marketing, or should you shift your focus elsewhere?
These stats should help make things a bit clearer.
1. Instagram Has Over 1 Billion Monthly Active Users.
(Source: Instagram)
Wait, this isn’t related to Instagram stories statistics!
Don’t worry, we know— but this is an incredibly important thing to know and keep in mind as we go through and check out the remainder of these stats.
When we discuss statistics that refer to a certain percentage of Instagram users, it’s vital that you remember that is the percentage out of one billion+ people.
That will put these percentages into perspective and address the gravity of just how impactful they can truly be.
Even though a small number like 20% may not look like much, when referencing 1 billion, that’s 20 million!
See? Instagram is huge.
2. Approximately 50% of Instagram Users Are Active on Ig Stories.
(Source: Instagram)
So, now that we understand just how big Instagram’s user base is, we can understand that 50% of Instagram users is roughly 500 million.
According to Instagram stories statistics, that means that Instagram has confirmed that about 500 million users are active on stories Every. Single. Day.
Some users that open their Instagram accounts go right to Instagram stories— they don’t even check out their news feeds.
That means if you’re only focusing your marketing efforts on the news feed, you’re going to miss users that are more likely to view IG stories. Don’t make that mistake.
Instagram stories have been popular since it’s launch, as we’ve seen above, but this is a big deal in terms of Instagram stories statistics if you’re wondering whether or not IG stories are here to stay.
3. One-Third of The Most Viewed Ig Stories Are Posted by Businesses.
(Source: Statista)
Instagram stories are clearly popular among users, but it’s also incredibly popular among businesses as well.
This means that users are actively checking out stories from businesses and loving them, because one-third of the most viewed stories on the platform come from businesses.
This may seem surprising at first, but it really makes a lot of sense when you realize that 90% of IG users follow a business account, and 2 out of 3 people believe that Instagram helps them to interact with brands in ways they may not have been able to before (source: Instagram business).
4. 60% of Millennials Post And/or Watch Instagram Stories.
(Source: Better Marketing, Business Insider)
Instagram has a huge user base with tons of different demographics accessing the platform on a daily basis.
One of the most sought-after demographics include millennials because they’ve proven to be some of the most valuable and receptive users in terms of business marketing.
A millennial can be defined as anyone who was born between 1980 and 1995, which covers some of the most active users on Instagram in general.
It has been shown that this group of users prefer Instagram stories over other story-sharing platforms like Facebook and Snapchat.
60% of millennials are active on Instagram stories; Facebook comes in at a 48% activity rate, with Snapchat at 53% according to Instagram stories statistics.
5. 70% of Gen Z Views Instagram Stories.
(Source: Hubspot)
Now that we know about the potential of a millennial audience on Instagram, what about the other demographics? One of the other largest groups of Instagram users on Instagram include a group called Gen Z, who edges out the viewership of millennials by 10%. Stories are widely popular among this demographic.
Gen Z is the group that follows millennials, born from 1997-2012. It is the second highest group of Instagram users after millennials, but they find Instagram stories to be one of the most popular content types on the platform, so keep that in mind if your target audience includes them.
6. Branded Stories Get 15%-25% of Viewers to “Swipe Up.”
(Source: MarTech)
Instagram only allows you to post one link on the platform, and that is the infamous link in bio.
While this is widely known by users and most will head over to your bio to check something out if they’re interested, there’s one other place that some users can add a link, and that’s in Instagram stories.
The swipe up feature is available to accounts that have over 10k followers, so if you’re not there yet, don’t worry, you can continue to develop your follower count and take advantage of an in-bio link directory.
For those of you that have the IG swipe up feature, if you’re a business or a brand, you’re in luck.
This feature has been shown to indicate that between 15%-25% of users who view your story will swipe up and access the link, according to the data.
This is good news, so keep using that swipe up feature!
7. The Reach Rate of Posts Is Higher than That of Instagram Stories.
(Source: Rival IQ)
Statistics have shown over time that the reach of Instagram in-feed posts is greater than Instagram stories, so that means you shouldn’t completely abandon your regular content creation strategy yet.
Posts gain between 13% and 27% in terms of reach rate, and Instagram stories only 2% to 9%. The difference here is that when you have more followers, you gain more reach on your Instagram stories, making the two different content types much closer together.
The key here is that a well-rounded Instagram strategy is vital; if you don’t have a bit of everything and appeal to many different users, you won’t be able to get maximum reach.
8. Roughly 70% of Instagram Stories Are Viewed with Sound On.
(Source: Media Kix)
Have you ever been browsing through your Instagram stories and seen that users put captions along with their video so that you don’t have to have the sound on? This is very useful, because some users who view Instagram stories never have their sound on and may even skip videos that don’t offer the ability to read them instead of listen.
That said, Instagram stories statistics show that 70% of Instagram stories are viewed with the sound on, which means that while it’s still a good idea to be inclusive with captions, you should still ensure that you have music, great sound quality, and all of the different creative uses of sounds that you can include.
If you have users who are likely to have the sound on and they hear nothing, chances are your story performance will be lower than it could be if you engage users through sound.
9. Frame Number Impacts Retention Rate Ranging from 100% to 60%.
(Source: Rival IQ)
Instagram story retention is important. Remember when we mentioned that people can swipe down to exit out of a story? If you have a lot of people swiping down, that means that your Instagram stories aren’t interesting enough to keep people viewing until it finishes.
Instagram stories statistics illustrate that the number of frames you have in your Instagram story impacts the retention rate.
A frame is one Instagram story video; when you have multiple, you will see small dashes at the top of your story to indicate how many.
The average retention rate for 1 story is roughly 100% if your viewers are interested in your story.
That drops down significantly depending on how many frames are in your story. If you have 12+ in your story, for instance, you may see as low as a 62% retention rate.
The median retention rate for a story of 6 frames is about 75%. Keep in mind that loading your story up may not be the best idea— keep it purposeful and ensure your viewers are going to stay on.
10. 86.6% of Instagram Users Post Stories.
(Source: 99Firms)
Based on Instagram stories statistics and usage data, it’s been seen that almost all Instagram users post on stories actively.
While a lower percentage of people like to view stories, it’s clear that many users are active on Instagram stories at least in terms of posting.
This can indicate that if you encourage users to tag you in their stories, they will be generating content that you can share onto your own story, boosting loyalty and generating interest around your profile.
This could lead to more people posting stories and tagging you with the hopes of being featured as well.
General Instagram Stories Statistics
Below you’ll find a variety of general statistics that will help you understand more about the business and advertising aspect of Instagram stories, as well as some other interesting facts.
11. 36% of Businesses Use Instagram Stories for Marketing and Promotion
(Source: Pancake Digital Solutions)
It’s not a surprise that Instagram stories are used for more than just sharing some fun snaps of your vacation with your friends and family— after all, that’s the whole reason why Instagram created the swipe-up feature.
Businesses are using Instagram stories for ads and promotion.
Instagram offers story ads as well, which we’ll discuss later, but overall, you should be incorporating IG stories into your business content no matter what you want to achieve.
It’s common to show users content that is outside of Instagram, funneling traffic to other external sites and links.
This type of content is common, used by 22% of all IG story posters according to Instagram stories statistics.
12. When A User Sees an Ad for A Brand on Instagram, 50% Are More Interested
(Source: Instagram)
This is an important one among other Instagram stories statistics, indicating that users truly like to engage with different brands and businesses via the platform and that stories can help promote interest in products and services.
While this stat is a general business stat, Instagram stories ads have become increasingly popular, and it doesn’t rule out the fact that they are a very valuable and viable way to access your target audience through ads on Instagram.
13. Instagram Stories with Sports Have an Almost 100% Completion Rate.
(Source: Marketing Charts)
Instagram stories exist for virtually every single niche and all different types of content. It may be surprising to see on our list of Instagram stories statistics that sports have some of the most successful Instagram stories out there!
After sports coming in at 90% completion, entertainment shows the biggest growth, with an 88% completion rate over its prior year at 81% (2019), based on Instagram stories statistics and data.
That doesn’t mean your niche can’t make good use of Instagram stories, it just shows that perhaps if you find a way to integrate sports and current competitive games in your stories that you may find users enjoy it (if it applies to your target audience and can work with your brand image, of course).
14. Instagram Stories Have a Reach Rate of 5.4% when A Brand Has Between 10k to 50k Followers
(Source: Rival IQ)
It may seem counter intuitive, but usually when an Instagram account has a lower follower count, there are higher levels of engagement and reach.
This is true not only from Instagram stories statistics but also for in-feed posts and other elements of the IG platform.
That’s why micro-influencers have become more popular; they offer partners a great chance of conversion if the profile has high engagement rates, even if the follower count is lower.
That said, accounts that fall between 10k and 50k average a reach rate of about 5.4%, which isn’t too bad.
A lower follower count will gain an average of 6.2% in reach rate and higher follower counts may average as low as 1.5%.
15. in Q3 2020, Instagram Story Ads Composed 35% of Total Instagram Ad Impressions
(Source: Marketing Charts)
As we mentioned earlier in our Instagram stories stats, 50% of users were more interested in a brand after seeing an ad on Instagram, and Instagram story ads make up almost half of total Instagram ad impressions at 35%, which means that they have a strong impact.
If you’re considering using Instagram ads and haven’t decided which type to use, you may want to consider the reach you can achieve through Instagram story ads and start to test the waters to see how your campaigns run.
16. 29% of The Total Instagram Ad Spend Was on Stories
(Source: Marketing Charts)
Instagram stories statistics indicate that there was a 7% increase from Q1/Q2 to Q3 in 2020 in terms of the total Instagram ad spend, meaning that more users are investing their marketing dollars in Instagram story ads.
This aligns with the data that we’ve presented so far in terms of the reach and popularity of Instagram stories, so if you haven’t started using IG stories yet, what are you waiting for!? Now is the perfect time. Better late than never!
17. Lower-Performing Ads Are 1.3 Seconds Longer per Scene than Better-Performing Story Ads.
(Source: Finance Online)
Because of the culture that we live in, people want quick access to a lot of different information and benefits, and this has been illustrated through Instagram stories statistics as well. When a story is longer, it performs worse than it would if it were shorter.
Granted, these are just mere seconds, but they can make an impact. A story that is 2.8 seconds per scene performs better than one that is 4.1 seconds for an Instagram story ad.
You should break down your longer video into shorter, more accessible scenes.
That way, you can still showcase your story but also enjoy better performance and make your content more enjoyable to those seeing it. You may even get more impressions that way.
18. in Q4 2019, There Were 4 Million Advertisers Using IG Story Ads
(Source: TechCrunch)
Based on Instagram stories statistics from TechCrunch (per Facebook), the total number of advertisers has approached 7 million. This is a whopping number and clearly illustrates the amount of competition out there.
Of those 7 million, 3 million were using stories on all platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, as well as messenger for their advertising efforts.
Instagram sponsored stories had the best engagement rates out of the three, so that’s the reason why many people have been focusing their efforts on Instagram stories in hopes of taking advantage of those engagement rates.
19. 70% of Marketers Plan to Increase Spending on Instagram Videos
(Source:
This is quite a substantial number alone, but there are other Instagram stories statistics that suggest that as many as 96% of US-based marketers are focusing their efforts and investments into Instagram stories.
Because of COVID-19 and the increased focus on social media and video content, many people have been gearing their interest towards putting out less photos and more videos as there are higher engagement rates, and this trend is applying to Instagram stories as well.
20. In The Us, Marketers Set Aside Roughly 31% of Their Instagram Budget for Story Ads.
(Source: eMarketer)
Businesses and brands in the US are clear on just how important Instagram is for reaching new clients and building their reputation, and that means that they are taking advantage of Instagram stories to do just that.
While there are still more ad dollars spent in the news feed (69%), a consistent increase has been seen in Instagram stories statistics in just how much attention is being paid to IG stories.
This means that they’re placing basically a third into IG stories and two-thirds into their feed marketing.
This is a known Instagram marketing strategy for US companies, providing balance and the chance to reach more users and gain more impressions.
Instagram Stories Usage Statistics
Now that we’ve covered a lot of the business-related Instagram stories statistics, we’re going to focus on some usage statistics so that we can better understand how people use the platform and what that might mean for your IG story strategy.
This section will include mainly stats related to IG but may also give some insight into some important Instagram usage stats in general that have an impact on Instagram stories as a whole.
21. Instagram Stories Composed 24.92% of All Content on The Platform in 2018
(Source: Iconosquare)
There are many different types of content formats on Instagram, including:
- In-feed single photos and videos
- In-feed gallery posts (multiple photos/videos)
- Instagram stories
- IGTV
- Instagram live
- Instagram reels
- Shoppable posts
Instagram stories statistics tell us that out of all of these content formats, Instagram stories made up a total of about 25% of that, with single-image posts remaining the most common format type, coming in at 50.17%.
This is, after all, the foundation of Instagram, so it’s not surprising. That said, a whopping 25% of millions of posts going up on the platform? That’s pretty substantial.
22. Brands Typically Lose About 15% of Their Audience After the Second Story Frame.
(Source: Rival IQ)
As we mentioned above with Instagram story retention, it typically tanks after 6+ frames. That doesn’t mean that you should always push the limit to get up to 6, though.
Instagram stories statistics show that once you add a second frame into your Instagram story, the retention rate drops down to roughly 87.5%, meaning that you’ve knocked off about 15% of your overall retention just by adding that frame.
Does that mean you should never create longer stories that include multiple frames? Of course not.
Just keep in mind that some days you may be better off only posting a single story frame. Keep people coming back for more— don’t overload them constantly.
23. One in Three Daily Ig Users Confirm They’ve Become More Interested in A Product They Saw via Ig Stories.
(Source: Mediakix)
When you create your stories with a high level of professionalism and appeal, you’ll be able to have a strong and effective brand image that captures your audience’s attention. The goal is that they recognize your content right when they see it.
One out of three users on Instagram become more interested after seeing a product on Instagram stories, so it’s clear that stories are effective in promoting products and drumming up interest in what you have to offer.
Now’s the time to take a look at a tool like Canva or other photo editing/template tools to help your content be as professional and visually appealing as possible.
24. 61% of Users Included a Support Small Business Sticker in Only a Month.
(Source:
Instagram stories are constantly evolving, and when COVID-19 hit, some new stickers were made available for users to post in their stories.
The world was struggling, and Instagram wanted to give businesses an outlet for promotion, and they did so with the Support Small Business sticker.
Instagram stories statistics show that after just a month, 61% of users had already posted a story using that sticker.
Always keep an eye out for the new things that Instagram is rolling out and if it applies to you, make good use of what they have to offer.
There are plenty of stickers that encourage users to take action in stories, so you should definitely be using them to your advantage.
25. IGTV Engagement Is Down by A Whopping 75.6%.
(Source: Trust Insights)
Instagram stories statistics show that the feature has had tons of success since its launch years ago, but one of the other content formats hasn’t fared so well.
If you’re wondering whether or not to focus energy on stories or IGTV, you may want to stick to stories.
IGTV was created to allow users to post videos that were over 1 minute, and in some cases up to even 60 minutes.
At the start of 2020, the engagement rate was at 0.45%, but found itself at an all-time low of just 0.11% in October of the same year.
Does that mean IGTV is useless? No. People are still watching them and it helps you have a rich content offering that generates interest in your account. If you want engagement, however, this is not the avenue to pursue.
26. The Average User Spends About 28 Minutes on Instagram Daily Due to Instagram Stories.
(Source: Mediakix)
Before Instagram stories came out, Instagram users were spending less time on the platform. Once the feature was launched, it steadily helped Instagram to keep people on their platform longer and increase the amount of daily time spent in the app.
Daily estimates were previously from 15-21 minutes, and Instagram stories bumped that up to roughly 28 minutes. Current data may suggest that the amount of time is even higher.
27. Influencers Make on Average Between $43 to $721 for Instagram Stories.
(Source: Klear)
Influencers are a big part of the Instagram platform, and they’ve made quite a career for themselves.
Influencers aren’t just for in-feed marketing, though— they are more and more popular for Instagram stories as well, considering the amount of users that are viewing stories regularly.
If you’re looking to contract an influencer for marketing, you can expect to pay between $43-$721 depending on follower count, reach, and other factors. This is something you’d want to arrange with the influencer.
If you’re looking to become an influencer, this is the general range you can expect when you are looking for a partnership.
Micro-influencers, as we mentioned earlier, are earning roughly $100 per Instagram story. Accounts with over 30k followers earn about $200 for just sharing a single story.
28. in 2020, 50% of Influencer Marketing Campaigns Were Done Through Ig Stories.
(Source: eMarketer)
2020 is really the year that influencer marketing in stories really took off. Based on Instagram stories statistics, almost all marketers on Instagram took to IG stories for influencer marketing campaigns.
Emarketer released some research that showed 37% of marketers use stories for 25% of their campaigns. 33% said that number was more like 26%-50%.
17% of those that participated said that up to 74% of ad campaigns were through stories, while 13% said up to 100% of their influencer ad campaigns used Instagram stories exclusively.
29. Roughly 70% of Instagram Users Are Under 35.
(Source: Statista)
Statista is a great resource for tons of different data about Instagram, and according to their data, Instagram is most popular among users that are under 35 years old.
This is further broken down into age ranges:
- 13-17 years old: 7.3%
- 18-24 years old: 29.8%
- 25-34 years old: 33%
Millennials and Gen Z are the users that most frequent Instagram and are also most active on Instagram stories.
Understanding this will help you tailor your content to your target audience and know where best to focus your efforts depending on what age group is the one you want to capture.
30. The Average Instagram Story Includes 3 Frames per Day.
(Source: Rival IQ)
30% of story activity, according to Rival IQ Instagram stories statistics, only consisted of a single frame. The average Instagram story has about 3 frames per day, which means the retention rate would be at about 85%.
This is a good number— you’re not compromising too much on retention rate but you’re still able to get a bit more content out to your viewers, which ultimately helps you if you’re trying to promote a product or service, announce a launch, announce a giveaway, and more.
The main takeaway here is that you really need to focus your efforts on creating photos or videos for your Instagram stories that are attractive and eye-catching to pull your viewer in and make them really want to stick around and see more, if in fact you’re going to continue.
If not, they should still be dynamic and attractive.
31. 71% of Companies Use Instagram.
(Source: Hubspot)
Brands and businesses are truly understanding just how important it is to use Instagram and other social networks to establish their reputation and be more accessible to potential clients. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s likely you use social media, after all.
It’s also a preferred method of contact and discovering new products as we’ve seen in our Instagram stories statistics. If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve realized it, and that’s great!
While there’s no official data on how many of those companies use IG stories, based on other data and stats it’s likely that a pretty good portion of them do, considering how impactful it truly is and how many companies are investing ad dollars into it.
32. 90% of Instagram Users Follow at Least One Business.
(Source: Instagram for Business)
Instagram has disclosed that business profiles are popular among users, and this is shown through the fact that 90% of all IG users follow at least one business. Considering that’s about 1+ billion people, that’s a huge number.
Businesses realize how popular Instagram is and how much opportunity there is; while there is a ton of competition, if you continue to optimize your strategy and make good use of features like IG stories, you’ll be able to establish an authority on the platform for your brand.
33. Story Retention Rate Was Down 34% in 2020 for Brands with Over 200k Followers
(Source: Rival IQ)
We’ve discussed in earlier Instagram stories statistics some general reach rates, but we haven’t touched too much on the trends regarding retention rates. That also has some correlation to follower count.
In the first half of 2018, the average stories retention rate for brands came in at roughly 6%. Fast forward to 2020, and brands that had over 200k followers saw a huge drop in retention rates— over 30%.
This is alarming, but keep in mind that accounts with tons of followers still have a lot of viewers even with the drop, so that may not be detrimental to their success, although more study needs to be done about why drop may occur in the first place.
34. the Tap Forward Rate on Instagram Stories in 2020 Was 68%.
(Source: Marketing Charts)
The first metric we mentioned for gaging your Instagram stories through Instagram analytics as the tap forward metric, and in 2020, that rate was 68% for photos that had only one frame.
The second frame of an IG story is best for uninterrupted content, but it’s more likely that a user will continue to tap forward the more frames that the story holds.
For instance, if a story has 25 frames, there’s an average of 80% tap rate, meaning people just want to get to the next story after a couple of frames.
35. Business Ig Profiles Get Visited by 200 Million Users Every Day.
(Source: Hootsuite)
This is a pretty good number considering the average time spent on Instagram is about 28 minutes.
With so many business profiles to check out, it’s not hard for users to easily view them and access new and interesting products and services, restaurants and travel destinations, and more.
Use Instagram stories to your advantage and draw in users who may come across your profile in hashtag feeds, on the explore page, or through an Instagram growth service like Growthoid.
36. Story Reach Varies by Industry.
(Source: SocialMediaToday)
In earlier Instagram stories statistics, we’ve discussed the fact that some industries enjoy a higher completion rate, and this is also true for reach rate.
Sports content not only had better completion, but also reach, with an average of 10% in 2018.
Entertainment was a little more than half of that, coming in at roughly 5.96%. Depending on your industry and how many people are in your target audience, you may find that your reach fluctuates.
Fun Facts
Now that we’ve discussed some of the most important and relevant Instagram stories statistics, we’re going to give you a few fun facts to wrap up before we get on to what’s new in IG stories as well as some tips for how to optimize your Instagram story use.
37. Instagram Is the Most Followed Account on The Platform.
(Source: Instagram)
Well wouldn’t you know it! Instagram itself is the most followed account on Instagram, with 433 million followers.
The most-followed Instagram account after the platform itself is world-renowned footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, with a whopping 355 million followers.
38. The Top Stories Filter on Instagram Is Stereoscopy
(Source: CreatorKit)
Instagram stories didn’t always have filters, but now that they do, it’s hard to imagine what it was like without them!
There are tons to choose from, but it’s been shown through Instagram stories statistics that the most popular is Stereoscopy. Other popular filters in spots 2 and 3 include The Little Mermaid and Not So Basic.
When you use filters, you may be able to boost your view count and transform your content into photos/videos that shine (literally).
39. The Most-Used Giphy Sticker on Stories in 2018 Was Heart Love Sticker by Arata.
(Source: Instagram)
GIPHY is the official provider of GIFs for Instagram stories, and you can use tons of them— pretty much for anything you’d like! This is a great way to make your stories more engaging and even get people to interact and share their opinions with you right in the story.
While you have plenty of options to choose from, the most popular one in 2018 was Heart Love by Arata.
Spicing up your Instagram stories with moving graphics and stickers can help you to make your content more interesting, boost engagement, and stand out from the crowd.
40. Instagram Ads Reach 1.16 Billion Users.
(Source: Hootsuite)
Instagram is a global platform, and 1.16 billion people are almost 20% of adults over the age of 13.
This is how many ads that IG stories can reach, and this is huge. The best thing about this is that the reach of Instagram advertising has consistently increased, and in Q3 of 2020 it was up by 7.1%.
There’s no question that Instagram delivers huge potential in terms of advertisements, including Instagram stories.
It’s also another reason why the platform generates so much income— $18.16 billion as a 2021 forecast, in fact. In 2020 IG raked in $13.86 billion and a lower $9.45 billion in 2019.
There are plenty of Instagram stories statistics that lend to the fact that IG stories help you in a big way when it comes to ads. Make the most of them and split up your advertising budget as you see fit.
What’s New in Instagram Stories
Instagram stories continually roll out new features, functions, and updates, so you always want to be up-to-date with the new things that Instagram introduces.
Some of the most popular updates in the past include the addition of music, filters, boomerangs, swipe up shoppable posts, and more.
Instagram’s swipe up feature was possibly one of the biggest, as it gave brands and businesses tons of opportunity to get people funneled to their product or checkout page right there from within Instagram, making the sales process much smoother and likely to close.
Recent updates include an overhaul of the Instagram story text options and fonts, as well as the way you access the story camera and fun filters that people create to be used in stories.
Instagram typically keeps things pretty under wraps, but you should keep your eye out for the next launch— Instagram aims to always make the user experience better, offering tools for brands and businesses who want to optimize their use of the platform and make things more fun and enjoyable.
Instagram Story Tips
Now that our Instagram stories statistics have clearly illustrated how valuable the feature can be, let’s review a few tips to help you make the most of them.
Here are 5 strategies you can implement right now to help your Instagram stories be more engaging, get more reach, and help grow your follower count.
1. Use Hashtags on Your Instagram Stories
Using hashtags on Instagram is a vital element to your content feed strategy, but what about on Instagram stories? You can also use hashtags on Instagram stories and you absolutely should.
When you use hashtags on IG stories, your content will get seen by more people in the story hashtag feed and can even be featured as a part of that feed, being seen by more people even still and also boosting your reputation.
When choosing hashtags for IG stories, you shouldn’t choose the most popular hashtags, just like on your content feed. These are two reasons why you should avoid extremely popular hashtags:
- Too many posts using a hashtag will minimize the chance of users actually seeing your content. It will push your content down the feed too rapidly, making it likely that it gets ignored or overlooked.
- General or generic hashtags don’t bring you targeted viewers that are in your target audience and care about your content; very popular or general hashtags are used across all different niches, which aren’t likely to bring you the results you’re looking for.
You want to get noticed by the right users; if you use the hashtag #beautifulday in your IG story, it will be put into a feed of other stories with who knows what kind of content.
Use a specific hashtag that includes something about your niche or target audience.
2. Use Templates
Did you know that there are awesome apps that can help you to personalize your stories, make them more aesthetically pleasing, or even create fun engagement opportunities for followers?
You should check out the apps Canva or Easil to be able to use templates for Instagram stories. We also have an article about how IG story templates can boost your engagement.
In essence, there are two different types of IG story templates:
- Pre-created Instagram story formats that help your content to look more professional; can be customized
- A set of questions or categories that are left with blank spaces so that users can repost to their own story using GIFs or their fun answers (think personality quizzes for Instagram)
Using the first type of Instagram template can help you to keep a professional, branded look on all of your content and can boost your content from amateur to pro.
Canva is the premier graphic design app and it’s free to use— if you haven’t taken a look, you’re seriously missing out.
If you want to give your users fun and unique ways to engage on Instagram that are also branded to direct traffic to your Instagram, create templates for Instagram stories that users can repost.
When they share, their friends will see, and they will be tempted to check out your profile to get the original or to see what other templates you have available. You can gain more followers and engagement this way.
Pin your templates to IG story highlights once they’ve finished so that users can reference them anytime they like!
3. Choose a Custom Color for Your Stories
Instagram is truly a visual platform. For this reason, it’s vital that all of your content creates a cohesive aesthetic and brand image.
If you’ve ever posted an Instagram story and looked to add a pop of color in text or otherwise, you may have felt limited by the options available to you.
If you want to keep your content on-brand and are looking to choose your own colors for your Instagram stories, you can do so relatively easily. This applies when you are looking to add text or draw on your Instagram content.
Regardless of which you are doing, you can choose a custom color by pressing and holding on one of the default colors; a huge color scale will come up and you can slide and choose the color that you are looking for.
You can also use the dropper icon to choose a color that appears in your image, helping you to match your colors and keep everything consistent. Don’t be limited by the colors that appear as default on Instagram stories!
Because you need to capture attention in each frame based on statistics, set yourself apart and define your brand with color.
4. Mention other Instagram Accounts
Mentioning other Instagram accounts in your Instagram stories is one of the most popular features that is offered in the stories function.
It’s also a big differentiator that makes IG stories a more practical option than Snapchat, which is reflected in the statistics.
When you tag someone in an Instagram story, they get notified that they were mentioned and also have the option to re-share your story into their story, which can help you to get featured on different accounts and generate more interest in your profile.
This is vital for Instagram story success. These days, If you didn’t mention an account, did you actually post a story?
You can tag up to 10 accounts in your Instagram stories, and each user that you tag will get a notification.
You can adjust the size of your tag, making it as big or small as you please so as to fit with the aesthetic of your story.
How to tag a user in Instagram stories:
- When editing your IG story before posting, tap the Aa icon
- Type the @ symbol followed by the username
- View the menu that is populated with all usernames that are a match
- Select the username from the populated list
You can’t simply type in the username to create the tag; you must select it from the list that pops up. You’ll know you successfully created the tag when the @username is underlined.
You can type as much text as you want— you don’t have to start with the @username itself if you want to include a message or additional messages. Adding emojis is also fine. Once you finish your text, you’ll be able to change the color and resize, making it pretty.
There were plenty of Instagram stories statistics about reach rates, so give yourself a better chance of getting your content out there through hashtags.
5. Do Market Research Via Instagram Stories
Instagram stories statistics gave us a lot of relevant information on what IG stories can offer you, but how can you know what type of content will perform best?
Instagram stories now include the opportunity to use different story stickers that offer your viewers the chance to engage. You can use stickers like:
- Polls
- Questions
- Sliding ranking
- Quizzes
These are great ways to get an insight into what your followers and viewers like, what they don’t like, what they prefer, as well as boost your Instagram story engagement rates.
If you want to boost your Instagram stories performance and gain some of the best metrics as reflected in our Instagram stories statistics, you can follow the 5 tips and focus your energy on story content creation.
You can enjoy many benefits when you enhance your IG stories; it’s an incredibly relevant format on Instagram.
Final Thoughts
The list we’ve compiled of Instagram stories statistics clearly illustrates the impact that IG stories have on users and the implications it can have for businesses and marketing efforts.
There are tons of different types of content you can create using Instagram stories, so the sky is truly the limit— or, perhaps, your creativity.
All niches, all different content types, and all filters, music, hashtags, and more can have a solid application and an audience for Instagram stories.
It’s incredibly intimate and engaging to use Instagram stories, as the stats show. Open up those creative flood gates and get creating!
You can do A/B testing to see which type of story content is better in terms of performance. Consider the following types of content focuses:
- Behind the scenes
- Q and A
- Tell a story
- Feature a new story
- Product launch
- Share user-generated content
- And more!
These are just a few suggestions, so try something new and see how the dice roll! Good luck with your Instagram stories.