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Understanding Instagram's Metrics Changes: What's New in Socialinsider

Introducing Instagram Views

Diana Gogolan avatar
Written by Diana Gogolan
Updated this week

What's Changing and Why It Matters

Instagram is making significant changes to its metrics system, and we've updated Socialinsider to reflect these changes. Starting April 21, 2025, Instagram will replace "Impressions" with "Views" across all content types and remove several profile action metrics. These changes affect how your performance data is calculated and displayed in Socialinsider.

The Big Switch: From Impressions to Views

Instagram is replacing Impressions with Views for all content types:

  • Old Metric (Impressions): Counted how many times your content appeared on someone's screen

  • New Metric (Views): Counts each time your content is played or displayed, including repeat views

This means if someone views your post three separate times, that would count as one Impression under the old system, but three Views under the new system.

For Reels specifically, Instagram is:

  • Renaming "Reels Plays" to "Reels Views"

  • Removing "Replays" as a separate metric

  • Consolidating all video metrics under a single "Views" metric

Profile Action Metrics Being Removed

Instagram is also removing all profile action metrics, including:

  • Profile visits

  • Website clicks

  • Email contacts

  • Phone call clicks

  • Text message clicks

  • Get directions clicks

How We've Updated Socialinsider

To align with these changes, we've updated all metrics across Socialinsider that previously used Impressions. Additionally, we've improved our brand-level metrics to provide more comprehensive cross-platform performance data.

Updated Dashboard Metrics

Throughout Socialinsider, you'll notice these changes:

  • "Impressions" are now "Views" for all Instagram content

  • Only Reels views are considered video views

  • Profile action metrics have been removed

  • Engagement rate calculations now use Views instead of Impressions

Note: Keep in mind that we estimate the number of views for competitors' Instagram profiles.

Important Changes to Brand-Level Formulas

We've updated our brand-level metrics formulas to reflect Instagram's changes and to provide more consistent cross-platform comparisons:

For Connected Accounts

Brand Impressions

  • Previous formula: Facebook impressions + Instagram impressions + LinkedIn impressions + Twitter impressions

  • New formula: Facebook impressions + Instagram views (all content including Reels) + LinkedIn impressions + YouTube video views + TikTok video views + Twitter impressions

Brand Video Views

  • Previous formula: Facebook video views + Instagram video views + LinkedIn video views + Twitter video views

  • New formula: Facebook video views + Instagram views (only from Reels) + LinkedIn video views + YouTube video views + TikTok video views + Twitter impressions (only for video content)

For Competitor Accounts

Brand Impressions (competitor):

  • Previous formula: Facebook estimated impressions + Instagram estimated impressions + LinkedIn estimated impressions + Twitter impressions

  • New formula: Facebook estimated impressions + Instagram estimated views (all content including Reels) + LinkedIn estimated impressions + YouTube video views + TikTok video views + Twitter impressions

Brand Video Views (competitor):

  • Previous formula: Estimated video views from various platforms

  • New formula: Facebook estimated impressions + Instagram estimated views (only from Reels) + LinkedIn estimated impressions + YouTube video views + TikTok video views + Twitter impressions (all for video content only)

❗️Important: Why We've Added YouTube and TikTok Video Views

As part of this update, we've also improved our Brand Impressions metrics by including video views from YouTube and TikTok. This change provides several benefits:

  1. More comprehensive reporting: By including all major video platforms, you get a more complete picture of your content's reach

  2. Consistent measurement approach: Since Instagram now uses Views instead of Impressions, including video views from other platforms creates a more uniform cross-platform comparison

  3. Better competitive analysis: The updated formulas apply to both your accounts and competitor accounts, enabling more accurate benchmarking

What This Means For Your Reports

These changes will affect your metrics in several ways:

  1. Higher numbers for Views vs. Impressions: Because Views count repeat viewings, these numbers will likely be higher than previous Impressions figures

  2. Lower engagement rates: With Views as the denominator (instead of Impressions), engagement rates may appear lower

  3. More comprehensive brand metrics: With the inclusion of YouTube and TikTok data, your brand-level metrics now provide a more complete picture of performance

  4. Different historical comparisons: When comparing data before and after these changes, remember that you're looking at different measurement systems

Tips for Adapting to These Changes

  1. Update your reporting: If you export data from Socialinsider, you could add a note with these changes

  2. Recalibrate your benchmarks: Previous performance goals based on Impressions won't directly compare to Views

  3. Explain changes to stakeholders: Share this information with team members and clients to help them understand why metrics look different

  4. Focus on trends: During this transition period, pay more attention to trends rather than absolute numbers

Questions?

If you have any questions about these changes or need help understanding your metrics, please contact our support team. We're here to help you navigate this transition and get the most out of your social media analytics.

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