Instagram Study 2015

Instagram Study 2015

quintly analyzed 10,000 Instagram profiles during the full year of 2015

In this study quintly reveals important developments on Instagram during the year of 2015. Instagram was highly controversial as being the

network to-be for brands and their storytelling.

With rolling out ads, Instagram became a large part in marketing activities of many businesses. In order to optimize posting patterns for

any profile quintly analyzed various metrics in different sized groups.

@quintlyModerate increase of daily own posts during 2015 Businesses are slowly ramping up on post frequency

Marketers realized Instagram as always helpful to bring customers closer to their brand and thus included it in many storytelling approaches.

In order to benefit from high interaction rates the daily frequency of posts slightly increased during 2015.

Chart: Own posts per day in the specific month.

Data Source: quintly analyzed 10k Instagram profiles. Data Period: Jan-Dec 2015

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While Instagram gets increasingly „grown-up“, a normal phenomena is a decreasing growth rate. In early 2015 the average profile grew almost more than 20% per month which dropped until December.

Through this development, goals have to be set differently in 2016, as growth is slowing down.

Chart: Monthly follower growth of analyzed profiles during 2015.

Decreasing follower growth in second half of 2015 After high growth in the beginning of 2015, growth slowed down after May



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This development is driven mainly by two factors:

On the one hand this trend shows that people interact less in increasingly crowded timelines. On the other hand this phenomena is reinforced by the massive increase in followers, which results in a decreasing rate.

Bubbles: Average interaction rate; All interactions divided by posts and followers.

Distinct drop in Interaction Rate Growth rate and interactions does not seem to have the same pace



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Throughout the year 2015 Instagram became a highly interesting network for businesses to market in, accordingly image posts increased.

Interesting to identify will be if this trend continues in 2016 whereas post frequency increases further.

Chart: Frequency of image posts per month during 2015.

Image posts slightly increasing during 2015 Instagram gets increasingly interesting for brands to market in



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Video content receives more and more attention in all social media networks, thus the number of video posts almost doubled.

As reported in our Instagram study from Q2 2015 videos perform on the same level as images do. Nevertheless, businesses are trying to utilize the longer time spent watching a video in their storytelling approaches.

Chart: Frequency of video posts per month during 2015.

Frequency of video posts almost doubled in 2015 Significant rise of video content on Instagram; whereas timelines still dominated by image posts



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As seen before the Interaction Rate dropped throughout the year. In our last Instagram study from Q2 we reported videos and images performing on the same level.

Judging by the rise beginning in Nov, this might change in 2016.

Chart: Interaction Rates on image and video posts in 2015.

Interaction Rate on Images and Videos drops simultaneously Video interaction rate ends 2015 with a higher trend









In the following pages we clustered our findings in different sized groups of Instagram profiles. With these tables you are able to compare your

own performance with the average profile in your profile size.

For each cluster there are two slides of information, analyzing six different sized groups in total. Here we analyzed the same metrics as in

the first part.

@quintly

Own Posts

Jan 8

Feb 8

Mar 10

Apr 10

May 11

Jun 10

Jul 10

Aug 10

Sep 9

Oct 9

Nov 8

Dec 7

Own Posts, Growth Rate and Interaction Rate in 2015 Profiles with 1 - 1k followers


Growth Rate

Jan 1.23

Feb 1.24

Mar 1.22

Apr 1.20

May 1.24

Jun 1.19

Jul 1.18

Aug 1.17

Sep 1.19

Oct 1.18

Nov 1.19

Dec 1.16

Interaction Rate

Jan 8.16

Feb 8.18

Mar 6.92

Apr 6.94

May 6.83

Jun 7.11

Jul 6.64

Aug 7.10

Sep 6.76

Oct 6.55

Nov 6.36

Dec 6.55


@quintly

Image Posts

Video Posts

Jan 8 0

Feb 8 0

Mar 10 1

Apr 10 1

May 10 1

Jun 10 0

Jul 10 0

Aug 9 0

Sep 8 0

Oct 8 0

Nov 8 0

Dec 7 0

Image Interactions

Video Interactions

Jan 27 27

Feb 27 28

Mar 23 24

Apr 24 19

May 24 20

Jun 25 24

Jul 23 26

Aug 26 25

Sep 24 26

Oct 24 25

Nov 23 23

Dec 23 27

Own Posts / Average Interactions per Post Comparison in 2015 Profiles with 1 - 1k followers



@quintly

Own Posts

Jan 20

Feb 21

Mar 23

Apr 23

May 23

Jun 23

Jul 22

Aug 21

Sep 22

Oct 23

Nov 22

Dec 22

Growth Rate

Jan 1.22

Feb 1.24

Mar 1.22

Apr 1.21

May 1.19

Jun 1.18

Jul 1.16

Aug 1.15

Sep 1.16

Oct 1.19

Nov 1.20

Dec 1.18

Interaction Rate

Jan 3.94

Feb 3.53

Mar 3.45

Apr 3.35

May 3.25

Jun 3.05

Jul 2.90

Aug 2.86

Sep 2.62

Oct 2.40

Nov 2.50

Dec 2.26

Own Posts, Growth Rate and Interaction Rate in 2015 Profiles with 1k - 10k followers



@quintly

Image Posts

Video Posts

Jan 19 1

Feb 20 1

Mar 22 1

Apr 21 1

May 22 1

Jun 22 1

Jul 21 1

Aug 20 1

Sep 21 1

Oct 22 2

Nov 20 2

Dec 20 1

Image Interactions

Video Interactions

Jan 148 138

Feb 134 174

Mar 132 128

Apr 127 124

May 123 133

Jun 115 125

Jul 110 115

Aug 109 113

Sep 101 96

Oct 92 85

Nov 98 94

Dec 89 87

Own Posts / Average Interactions per Post Comparison in 2015 Profiles with 1k - 10k followers



@quintly

Own Posts

Jan 41

Feb 43

Mar 46

Apr 45

May 47

Jun 46

Jul 46

Aug 45

Sep 46

Oct 47

Nov 44

Dec 43

Growth Rate

Jan 1.23

Feb 1.19

Mar 1.20

Apr 1.18

May 1.22

Jun 1.17

Jul 1.14

Aug 1.12

Sep 1.15

Oct 1.18

Nov 1.18

Dec 1.17

Interaction Rate

Jan 2.71

Feb 2.50

Mar 2.52

Apr 2.51

May 2.45

Jun 2.17

Jul 2.11

Aug 1.98

Sep 1.91

Oct 1.85

Nov 1.77

Dec 1.65

Own Posts, Growth Rate and Interaction Rate in 2015 Profiles with 10k - 100k followers



@quintly

Image Posts

Video Posts

Jan 38 3

Feb 40 3

Mar 42 3

Apr 42 3

May 43 4

Jun 43 4

Jul 42 4

Aug 41 4

Sep 42 4

Oct 43 4

Nov 40 4

Dec 39 4

Image Interactions

Video Interactions

Jan 1,000 1,206

Feb 891 1,025

Mar 895 1,039

Apr 886 939

May 874 821

Jun 758 686

Jul 740 686

Aug 692 711

Sep 684 640

Oct 661 644

Nov 640 641

Dec 598 664

Own Posts / Average Interactions per Post Comparison in 2015 Profiles with 10k - 100k followers









@quintly

Own Posts

Jan 57

Feb 62

Mar 68

Apr 65

May 70

Jun 68

Jul 72

Aug 69

Sep 73

Oct 76

Nov 69

Dec 69

Growth Rate

Jan 1.13

Feb 1.14

Mar 1.11

Apr 1.14

May 1.14

Jun 1.10

Jul 1.14

Aug 1.12

Sep 1.11

Oct 1.14

Nov 1.11

Dec 1.11

Interaction Rate

Jan 2.53

Feb 2.16

Mar 2.10

Apr 2.11

May 1.94

Jun 1.82

Jul 1.77

Aug 1.67

Sep 1.56

Oct 1.53

Nov 1.50

Dec 1.49

Own Posts, Growth Rate and Interaction Rate in 2015 Profiles with 100k - 1m followers



@quintly

Image Posts

Video Posts

Jan 53 4

Feb 57 5

Mar 63 5

Apr 59 6

May 64 6

Jun 63 6

Jul 67 6

Aug 63 6

Sep 66 7

Oct 68 7

Nov 63 7

Dec 62 7

Image Interactions

Video Interactions

Jan 9,154 8,367

Feb 7,737 7,387

Mar 7,569 7,045

Apr 7,374 8,260

May 6,915 6,682

Jun 6,418 6,316

Jul 6,158 6,154

Aug 5,831 5,825

Sep 5,352 5,217

Oct 5,214 5,398

Nov 5,080 5,191

Dec 5,013 5,214

Own Posts / Average Interactions per Post Comparison in 2015 Profiles with 100k - 1m followers



@quintly

Own Posts

Jan 90

Feb 90

Mar 90

Apr 80

May 86

Jun 79

Jul 79

Aug 77

Sep 79

Oct 83

Nov 83

Dec 78

Growth Rate

Jan 1.14

Feb 1.18

Mar 1.12

Apr 1.16

May 1.15

Jun 1.17

Jul 1.10

Aug 1.10

Sep 1.09

Oct 1.11

Nov 1.10

Dec 1.10

Interaction Rate

Jan 3.23

Feb 2.61

Mar 2.59

Apr 2.69

May 2.48

Jun 2.32

Jul 2.17

Aug 2.11

Sep 1.86

Oct 1.73

Nov 1.71

Dec 1.67

Own Posts, Growth Rate and Interaction Rate in 2015 Profiles with 1m - 10m followers



@quintly

Image Posts

Video Posts

Jan 79 10

Feb 79 11

Mar 78 12

Apr 74 10

May 74 12

Jun 68 11

Jul 68 11

Aug 68 9

Sep 70 9

Oct 73 10

Nov 68 10

Dec 67 11

Image Interactions

Video Interactions

Jan 79,317 67,668

Feb 64,619 55,162

Mar 66,273 52,708

Apr 68,428 64,989

May 62,796 59,016

Jun 59,961 63,160

Jul 57,196 58,863

Aug 55,770 61,191

Sep 49,015 51,786

Oct 44,226 48,031

Nov 45,538 48,395

Dec 45,704 47,389

Own Posts / Average Interactions per Post Comparison in 2015 Profiles with 1m - 10m followers



@quintly

Own Posts

Jan 95

Feb 100

Mar 80

Apr 85

May 83

Jun 74

Jul 78

Aug 85

Sep 85

Oct 83

Nov 88

Dec 92

Growth Rate

Jan 1.11

Feb 1.62

Mar 1.35

Apr 1.10

May 1.25

Jun 1.18

Jul 1.10

Aug 1.15

Sep 1.07

Oct 1.09

Nov 1.07

Dec 1.12

Interaction Rate

Jan 2.04

Feb 2.79

Mar 2.69

Apr 2.34

May 2.65

Jun 2.56

Jul 2.17

Aug 2.11

Sep 1.85

Oct 1.66

Nov 1.45

Dec 1.45

Own Posts, Growth Rate and Interaction Rate through 2015 Profiles with over 10m followers



@quintly

Image Posts

Video Posts

Jan 93 2

Feb 88 12

Mar 70 10

Apr 70 10

May 72 11

Jun 66 9

Jul 68 10

Aug 74 11

Sep 74 11

Oct 72 16

Nov 77 15

Dec 69 16

Image Interactions

Video Interactions

Jan 407,037 343,069

Feb 502,555 457,959

Mar 519,151 495,295

Apr 512,303 556,023

May 573,685 568,125

Jun 613,654 585,293

Jul 550,502 538,460

Aug 546,603 581,774

Sep 520,504 525,947

Oct 472,476 348,111

Nov 438,051 364,602

Dec 471,676 317,750

Own Posts / Average Interactions per Post Comparison Profiles with over 10m followers



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Instagram Study 2015

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