Edits / Instagram Reels / Reels analytics
Instagram gives you a dozen numbers per Reel. Five of them decide whether the next person sees it; the rest are noise or vanity. This guide explains each Insights metric in plain English, what a good number looks like, which ones to ignore, and a 10-minute weekly review that turns the data into a better Reel.
You need a professional account - Creator or Business, both free, switched on in Settings → Account type. Then: open any Reel → View insights for that Reel, or Profile → Professional Dashboard → Insights → Content to sort every Reel by any metric over any date range. The retention graph only appears on Reels with enough views.
Edits pulls your last 10 Reels' insights into the editor, which makes the weekly review faster - see Edits features.
In order of weight. If you only look at one, look at the first. Benchmarks are rough ranges from accounts that grow; your own trend matters more than any fixed number.
How long people watch, on average, as a share of the Reel's length. Instagram shows it as a number of seconds and, on Reels with enough views, a retention graph. This is the signal the test audience is judged on: if few people get past the first three seconds, the Reel stops there.
Read the graph for the cliff. A drop in the first 3 s is the hook (fix). A slow slide is length (cut it). A drop at one point mid-Reel is a boring section - trim it next time.
The share of views that came from accounts that don't follow you. It's the clearest read on whether Instagram is recommending the Reel beyond your audience - which is the whole point of the format.
Above 50% means it's travelling. Under 20% means it stopped at the test audience, and the cause is almost always metric 1. Track this one over time; it's the number that tells you the account is growing. More on stalls: why Reels get low views.
Shares - sends to friends and reposts to Stories - are weighted above every other interaction. A share means the Reel was worth passing on; Instagram reads that as "show it to more people like the recipient". Saves say "worth keeping" and matter almost as much, especially for tutorials and lists.
Likes are the weakest signal. A Reel with 400 shares and 2,000 likes will out-reach one with 18 shares and 6,000 likes. Track shares per 1,000 views rather than the raw count. Formats built to be shared: the entertain section.
Views counts every start, including the same person watching twice. Reach counts unique accounts. Divide one by the other and you get the replay rate. 1.0 means nobody rewatched; 1.3 means a third of viewers watched it again; 2.0 means you built a loop.
Replays feed back into watch time, so a short Reel that loops cleanly can post a retention figure over 100%. Seamless loops, a payoff that's easy to miss, and 7–12 second Reels push this up.
Reach on its own is just a number. Reach compared to your previous ten Reels is a trend, and the trend is what you act on. One Reel at 300 means nothing; ten Reels drifting from 2,000 to 800 means something changed - timing, format, niche, frequency.
This is the one to review weekly, not per Reel. Sort your last ten by reach, look at what the top three share - length, format, hook type, posting time - and make the next five Reels like those. The review below does exactly this.
Everything Instagram shows you on a Reel, and what to do with it.
Once a week, same day, ten minutes. Dashboard → Insights → Content → Reels, last 7 days, sort by reach. Then:
Top to bottom. Note the non-follower share next to each.
Where did people stay? That's the structure to repeat.
Where did they leave? Hook (3 s), length (slow slide) or a boring middle.
Format, length, hook type, audio, posting time. One line.
Under 3 everywhere? Next week's Reels need a reason to be sent.
Edits shows your last 10 Reels' insights inside the editor, so the review and the next cut happen in one place - free, no watermark.