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Instagram Audit: The Complete Checklist for 2025
With Instagram's evolving algorithms and shifting trends, your strategy needs to be constantly reassessed. Whether you’re a brand, creator, or business, understanding where your profile stands and making informed adjustments will ensure you stay competitive.
With 90% of Instagram users following at least one brand and 70% using it for their next purchase, brands must identify what’s working and what isn’t. This is where an Instagram audit can help. A comprehensive Instagram audit allows you to identify areas of improvement, ensuring your content, engagement, and performance align with the latest best practices.
This blog will help you understand what an Instagram audit is and explain the types of tools involved, along with a complete checklist for 2025. We will also share Sprinklr’s Instagram audit template, making auditing your Instagram more effortless than ever. Let’s get started!
What is an Instagram Audit?
An Instagram audit is a comprehensive review of your Instagram account encompassing every aspect, from your profile bio and content to your engagement and analytics. An audit aims to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and areas for improvement to enhance your account’s performance, improve content relevance, grow followers and engagement.
It’s essentially a health check for your Instagram presence. This audit enables you to take a step back, evaluate and improve based on data.
Types of Instagram audit
An in-depth Instagram audit involves evaluating various facets of your account to ensure all elements contribute effectively to your overall social media strategy. There are several types of Instagram audits businesses can perform, each focusing on different aspects of account performance.
- Lead conversion audit: This audit analyzes the effectiveness of your Instagram profile in converting visitors into leads or sales. It evaluates your call-to-actions (CTAs), link usage and the overall conversion funnel.
- Engagement audit: It focuses on engagement metrics, such as likes, comments, shares and saves. This audit reveals how well your content resonates with your audience.
- Hashtag performance audit: This audit reviews the performance of hashtags used across your posts to determine if they are helping to expand your reach and visibility.
- Follower quality audit: It focuses on identifying fake followers or bots that might be skewing your engagement metrics and growth insights.
- Competitor audit: This looks at how your competitors perform on Instagram, analyzing their content strategy, engagement and performance.
Also read: The expert’s guide to doing a social media audit
Instagram audit tools
Leveraging the right Instagram audit tool can make the Instagram audit process more accurate and less time-consuming. To conduct an efficient Instagram audit, here are a few tools that can streamline the process:
✅ Sprinklr Social: Sprinklr’s social media management tool provides a comprehensive suite of social media management and analysis tools, including advanced reporting features for auditing your Instagram account. Sprinklr can provide analytics beyond just your account. It analyzes competitor performance, content, follower growth, and customer engagement.
✅ Instagram Insights: Instagram's native analytics tool offers essential insights into your account’s performance, including audience demographics, reach and engagement.
✅ Google Analytics: This tool can help you track website traffic driven by your Instagram account. Use it to understand how your social media efforts convert into valuable website actions.
Suggested read: The Instagram marketing guide you need for 2025
A 10-step Instagram audit checklist
A comprehensive Instagram audit requires a structured approach to uncover hidden opportunities and fine-tune your strategy. Here’s a 10-point Instagram audit checklist to help you get started:
1. Review your profile bio and branding
Your Instagram profile bio and branding are the first interaction points with potential followers. A well-crafted bio and consistent social media branding help create a lasting impression and establish trust.
What to look for:
- Is your bio clear, concise and reflective of your brand identity?
- Does it include a relevant call to action?
- Is your profile image high-quality and recognizable?
- Are your highlights well-organized and valuable?
How to do it:
- Review your profile on both mobile and desktop. Update your bio with keywords that resonate with your target audience.
- Ensure you use a clear profile photo, whether a logo or headshot, that is high-quality and aligns with your brand identity.
- Organize your story highlights into relevant categories, like customer testimonials, product demos and behind-the-scenes.
- Review your captions to ensure the language and brand voice align with your brand persona — whether professional, casual or humorous.
For example, Sephora’s bio “We Belong to Something Beautiful” highlights inclusivity and empowerment with a warm, aspirational tone, while the “Shop our posts” call-to-action simplifies shopping.
2. Analyze your content strategy
A robust social media content strategy is key to maintaining audience engagement and driving business objectives. By evaluating your current approach, you can identify gaps and refine your strategy to align with your goals better.
What to look for:
- Are your posts diverse, engaging and relevant to your audience?
- Does your content align with your brand’s tone and messaging?
- Are you effectively using a mix of formats, like carousels, Reels or Stories?
- Are you adhering to a content calendar?
How to do it:
- Audit your last 30 posts and see if you hit various formats and content topics.
- Use tools like Instagram Insights or Sprinklr’s social media publishing tool to identify your best-performing content in terms of engagement, reach and shares.
- Evaluate which topics or themes generate the most interaction. Adjust your strategy to include more of what your audience values.
- Assess if your posting frequency aligns with audience behavior trends, such as optimal days and times for engagement.
For example, food brand Brightland exemplifies a diverse content strategy with a feed featuring vibrant photographs of its products, often styled in culinary settings that inspire followers to incorporate them into their cooking.
Suggested read: 10 popular social media trends: 2025 report
3. Assess your engagement rate
Engagement rate is a critical metric that indicates how well your content resonates with your audience. It reflects the level of interaction your posts receive, such as likes, comments, shares and saves, relative to your follower count.
What to look for:
- Are your engagement rates consistent across all posts?
- Is your audience actively interacting with your content through comments and DMs?
- How long does it take to reply and are you promptly responding to comments and messages?
How to do it:
- Use the formula to calculate the engagement rate: (total interactions ÷ total followers) × 100.
- Compare your engagement rate with average rates in your industry to determine where you stand. For example, 2% is a reasonable engagement rate for Instagram, and anything above 3% is great.
- Check your DMs and mentions at least once a day.
For example, Tower 28 Beauty, a skincare brand, excels in fostering customer engagement through interactive and community-driven content.
✨Pro tip: Prompt responses to customer inquiries help build trust and show your audience that you value their engagement. By staying active, you can address concerns, answer questions and strengthen relationships. A social media customer service software can help streamline responses and ensure smooth interactions across all social media channels, boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Book a demo today to see how Sprinklr can help streamline your customer service across social media!
4. Identify content improvements
Improving your Instagram content is vital to maintaining audience interest and driving better results. Regularly analyzing your posts helps pinpoint areas for optimization and ensures your content stays relevant and engaging.
What to look for:
- Which posts have the highest and lowest performance (likes, shares, comments and saves)?
- Do you notice gaps in content variety (e.g., over-reliance on one format like static images)?
- Are there recurring negative comments or feedback on specific posts?
How to do it:
- Look at the engagement metrics for all your posts. Use tools like Instagram Insights or Sprinklr Social to identify posts with the highest reach and engagement. Look for common themes, formats or topics in these posts.
- Experiment with storytelling, adding calls to action (CTAs) and incorporating audience-relevant hashtags.
- Conduct competitive benchmarking for similar accounts in your niche to identify successful strategies you can adapt.
💡Pro tip: Competitor benchmarking for similar accounts in your niche is a valuable approach to uncovering successful strategies that you can adapt to your own brand. Go beyond social engagement metrics by analyzing your competitors’ top posts, content themes, tones, channels, media mixes, customer sentiments, audience behaviors and more.
A competitive insights and benchmarking tool can help you compare brand KPIs across competitors, with pre-built dashboards covering topics like content strategy, influencer strategy and executive mentions.
Book a demo today to see how Sprinklr’s competitive insights can accelerate your brand’s performance.
5. Find post frequency and timing
The frequency and timing of your Instagram posts play a critical role in maximizing reach and engagement. Posting too often can overwhelm your audience, while posting too little can cause them to lose interest. So, post at optimal times to ensure your content gets noticed.
What to look for:
- Are you posting consistently and at optimal times when your audience is most active?
- Are you giving your audience enough content to stay engaged?
- On what days and times is your audience most active?
- Are you overloading followers with too much content in a short span?
How to do it:
- Use Instagram Insights to find when your audience is most active on the platform — note variations by day and week.
- Test different posting times for a few weeks and monitor results. Use A/B testing to compare performance metrics.
- Plan and schedule posts consistently using content planning and scheduling tools to maintain a steady flow without overwhelming followers.
Read more: Best times to post on Instagram
6. Conduct hashtag analytics
Hashtags are essential for expanding your content's reach and connecting with relevant audiences. Effective hashtag use can significantly increase your post visibility, while poor hashtag strategies may limit your content's impact.
What to look for:
- Which hashtags drive the most engagement for your posts?
- Are the hashtags you use popular in your niche but not saturated?
- Are your hashtags relevant to the content and audience?
- Are you consistently overusing banned or ineffective hashtags?
How to do it:
- Track the reach and impressions of posts with different hashtags and review best-performing hashtags.
- Use social listening tools to analyze trends, discover relevant keywords and track branded hashtag performance.
- Analyze hashtags used by competitors or industry leaders for inspiration.
Nike leverages hashtag analytics to expand its reach and engage with relevant audiences. Using popular hashtags like #JustDoIt and #NikeRunning and campaign-specific hashtags like #BetterForIt, Nike fosters community participation and boosts brand visibility.
Free Tool: Find Trending Hashtags Instantly with Sprinklr!
Sprinklr’s Hashtag Generator delivers powerful hashtags in seconds, helping you reach the right audience—effortlessly.
More to read: 14 tips to grow followers on Instagram
7. Assess story performance
Instagram Stories are a dynamic way to connect with your audience through ephemeral content. Evaluating the performance of your Stories helps you understand what resonates with viewers and how to maintain their attention.
What to look for:
- What is the completion rate of your Stories?
- Are viewers interacting with your Stories through polls, questions or other stickers?
- Which Stories drive the most clicks or website traffic?
How to do it:
- Identify which styles of stories do best for engagement. Then, tweak your Story strategy accordingly.
- Navigate to the Stories section in Instagram Insights to view metrics like impressions, reach, taps forward/backward and exits.
- Analyze trends to identify engaging content types.
8. Analyze Reel performance
Instagram Reels are a powerful tool to boost reach and engagement. Analyzing your Reels can help you understand your audience's likes and optimize your video strategy.
What to look for:
- Are your Reels entertaining, engaging and relevant to your audience?
- What is your reach on Reels compared to your other content?
- What is the average reach and engagement for your Reels?
- Are your Reels aligned with trending hashtags, music or challenges?
How to do it:
- Analyze the views, likes, comments, saves and shares for each of your Reels. Track the impact of Reels on your follower growth.
- Compare Reels’ performance over time, identify audience preferences and track key KPIs, such as watch time and shares.
- Incorporate trending audio, hashtags and popular formats in your Reels. Stay updated on platform trends to keep your content relevant.
9. Audit your follower quality
Your follower count may look impressive, but the quality of your followers is what truly drives engagement and conversions. Identifying inactive accounts, bots, or irrelevant followers ensures your audience aligns with your target demographic.
What to look for:
- Do you have a high number of fake or bot accounts following you?
- Are your followers genuinely interested in your content?
- Does your follower base align with your target audience’s demographics and interests?
How to do it:
- Compare your follower count to metrics like likes, comments and shares. A low engagement rate may indicate many inactive or irrelevant followers.
- Look for followers with incomplete profiles, no pictures or generic usernames.
- Consider removing accounts that are clearly bots or do not fit your target audience. This will improve engagement rates and enhance your content’s reach.
- Conduct an audience analysis to identify fake or low-quality followers.
10. Review your call-to-action (CTA)
CTAs are the driving force behind user actions on your Instagram account. Whether you aim for website clicks, purchases or email sign-ups, a compelling CTA motivates your audience to engage with your brand beyond likes and comments.
What to look for:
- Are you using effective CTAs in captions, stories and bio links?
- Do your posts, stories and bio contain compelling CTAs?
- Are you using a variety of CTAs tailored to different audience segments and content types?
How to do it:
- Ensure your bio includes a direct and relevant CTA like "Shop Now," "Learn More," or "Contact Us." Also, include a clickable link that aligns with your current campaign goals.
- Review captions for posts and reels to ensure they guide your audience toward the next step, such as "Tag a friend," "Check out the link in bio," or "Comment your thoughts."
- Use analytics tools like Sprinklr Social to measure click-through rates, conversions and other metrics tied to your CTAs.
For example, Outdoor Voices, an activewear brand, often includes CTAs in its posts, encouraging followers to like or comment and increasing engagement.
Read more: Top 10 social media call-to-action examples
Instagram audit template
All these steps seem too time-consuming and complex, don't they? An Instagram audit template can simplify this process and ensure all elements are assessed. It is a structured document that helps streamline your audit process. It includes all the key elements of your profile, including profile information, content analysis, hashtag analysis, follower data and more.
Streamline your Instagram audit process with Sprinklr’s ready-made audit template. This template helps you track all the necessary metrics, from content quality to audience engagement, making evaluating your performance and optimizing your strategy easy.
A ready-to-use social media audit template
A social media audit template will simplify your audit across social media channels including Instagram and ensure you don’t miss any critical steps. This template will guide you through each part of your audit, helping you track your performance, analyze content engagement and optimize your Instagram strategy effortlessly.
It's a practical way to turn your audit insights into action and streamline your process for maximum impact.
Download Sprinklr’s free social media audit template here!
Assess your Instagram audit reports easily with Sprinklr
Performing an Instagram audit is essential for improving your social media strategy. With the help of the right Instagram audit tool, businesses can pinpoint their weakness and make the necessary improvements to get the desired results from their Instagram campaigns. Following this checklist, you can identify gaps, enhance engagement and ensure your content aligns with your brand goals.
However, manually auditing your Instagram account can be time-consuming and complex. Tools like Sprinklr Social streamline the process, providing advanced analytics and actionable insights to help you make data-driven decisions faster.
Ready to enhance your Instagram performance? Book a Sprinklr Social demo today and see how easy social media audits can be!
Frequently Asked Questions
Businesses should conduct a comprehensive Instagram audit quarterly to stay relevant and practical. For content performance, more frequent checks can be done weekly.
Personal brands focus more on authentic engagement and community-building audits for Instagram, while corporate accounts prioritize lead generation and brand awareness audits.
The key indicators of bot-activity or fake followers include a high number of followers with no profile pictures, generic usernames and low engagement.
Brands can effectively audit the performance of their Instagram Stories and Reels by assessing metrics like views, reach, taps and interactions to understand which stories and reels perform best with the audience.
Hashtag analysis helps businesses understand which tags effectively reach their audience, increase visibility and boost engagement in an Instagram audit.
