Connect Instagram to Looker Studio: Step-by-Step Guide with Proven Strategies

Years ago, Instagram was a fun photo-sharing platform for people to share their memories, achievements, or daily routines. But today, Instagram is much more—it's a land of endless reels, trends, and businesses. 

Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms today, with over 2 billion monthly users and growing. It caters to people of all ages and interests and supports various media formats, making it perfect for marketers and businesses. 

Today, Instagram is a staple in every social media marketer's arsenal. Every business is trying to crack Instagram in its way. Here's where Instagram Insights comes in handy. This analytical section of Instagram gives you all your KPIs and specific insights, such as when most of your audience is online, top-performing posts based on various categories, and more. With understanding and strategy, these insights could be manageable.

In this article, we'll review ways to track, analyze, and optimize your business with Instagram insights. 

Here's what is also included in the article:

• Connect Instagram data to Looker Studio in under 2 minutes.
• Developing an Instagram analytics strategy

How to connect Instagram data to Looker Studio in under two minutes?

Two Minute Reports helps you pull data from Instagram and build intuitive and automated reports quickly. The best part is that you don't need a single line of code. Just follow a few simple steps to configure your report, and you're set. 

There are two methods to build your Instagram Looker Studio report using TMR 

Method 1: Building a report from scratch 

Method 2: Building a report using TMR's template gallery

Step 0: Getting Started

• Log into Two Minute Reports from the home screen or through their apps portal .

• Once logged in, choose Two Minute Reports for Looker Studio from the My Apps page.

• Select a team to access its dashboard. 
  • If you work with multiple teams, choose the relevant team for the report. 
  • If you aren't added to multiple teams, you'll be redirected to the Connectors Page.   

Note: Every organization has separate teams with their separate tasks. You can create separate "Teams" or groups within Two Minute Reports to enable collaboration.

• From the connectors page, choose the relevant data source connector. In this case, click on Instagram Insights. This will take you to the Instagram Connector Dashboard. 

You're now all set to start creating your Instagram report. 

Method 1: Creating an Instagram Report from scratch

Step 1: Adding the data source and authorizing through the Instagram account

• Inside the dashboard, click "Add New" from the Data Sources section to open the "Adding New Data Source" window. 

• Name your data source and login to your Facebook account to authorize TMR to fetch data from Instagram. 

Note: In this step, choose whether you want one Instagram page/account or all future pages to be integrated into your Looker Studio report. 

Step 3: Query configuration

• Click "Query Configs" to shift to its tab and configure the query to fetch the required data. 
• Click "Add New" to open the "Adding New Query Configuration" window. 

• Select the data source which you've already created and click on Next. 

• Name the Query, and choose the relevant Accounts.

Note: You can choose one or all of your required accounts.

• You can also modify the Query to: 
  • Include missing time values
  • Replace blank values with zeroes

• Once you've completed the configuration, Save to create the Query Config. 

Step 4: Creating the report from the Google Data Studio dashboard

• After adding the data source and query configs, click the green "Create Report" button to open the "Creating New Data Studio Report" window. 

• From this window, select the relevant previously created Query Config from the search bar and click on the Next button. 

• From the next Create Report tab, click on "Create Report from scratch" to open Looker Studio.

Want to choose “Quick start from a template”? Jump to Method 2 here. 

• Once Looker Studio opens, choose the relevant team. Ensure that "Use report template for new reports" is checked. Once you've done this, click on Next to continue. 
• Then, select the relevant Query Config for the data source and click on the Connect button at the top-right corner. 

• The next window shows all the available Instagram metrics, ready for the report. You can modify the metrics or click the Create Report button at the top-right corner. 

• You'll then be notified when new data is added to the Looker Studio report. Click on Add to Report to authorize the activity. 
• Your Instagram Insights are ready to be filled. The sidebar contains all the metrics and dimensions you must add to the report. 

To create a table/chart with a particular metric:

• Create a table or chart at the desired position. 
• With the table/chart selected, select the metrics you need in your report. Then, explore the categories in the "Metrics" dropdown menu, like Engagement, Clicks, or Impressions, to add them to your report. 
• Next, we set the report's dimensions. From the “Dimensions” dropdown menu, choose the right dimensions to add to your report, such as Date or Place.
• Then, you set the date range: either a preset date range or your custom date range from the sidebar. 

You can repeat the same steps to add the required tables/charts to the new report. 

Method 2: Creating an Instagram dashboard using templates

Two Minute Reports offers a gallery of pre-built templates that help you build intuitive and visual reports within minutes. These templates have visual aids and the right combination of metrics to reduce all the effort and time for creating reports. Each template in TMR's gallery is precisely engineered to build specific purposes: get an overall view or track one specific area. 

To create a Looker Studio dashboard using templates, follow Steps 1 and 2 from the previous method. 

Step 3: Creating the Report 

• After adding the data source and configuring the queries, click the green "Create Report" button to open the "Creating New Data Studio Report" window. 
• From this window, select the relevant previously created Query Config from the search bar and click on the Next button. 
• From the Create Report tab, you can explore TMR's templates from the Template Gallery. Once you've selected the required template, click on it to open Looker Studio. 

• Once Looker Studio opens, choose the relevant team and check the box next to "Use report template for new reports." Click on Next to continue.
• Then, select the relevant Query Config for the data source and click on the Connect button at the top-right corner. This step connects TMR to Looker Studio.

• The next window shows all the available Instagram metrics, ready for the report. You can modify the metrics or click the Create Report button at the top-right corner.

• Next, authorize the data export activity and complete creating the report with preset tables and charts with your metrics.

• Set a date range from the dashboard to display the relevant data. You can choose from preset date ranges like "Last 7 days" or "Last Month", or set your custom date range from the dropdown calendars. 

And like that, you've created your Instagram report on Looker Studio. You can modify the tables/charts, metrics, and dimensions from the TMR sidebar, and schedule reports to your email to collect data and make timely optimizations.  

Why connect Instagram to Looker Studio?

Google Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is a popular, open-source tool for report creation and data analysis. Its interactive dashboards and easy-to-use interface enable business owners, analysts, and marketers to stay ahead of multiple data sources. 

Ease of use 

Looker Studio's user-friendly interface requires minimal technical expertise. With just a few drags and drops, this coding-free tool simplifies complex data manipulation and visualization. 

Data connectivity 

With a connector like Two Minute Reports, one can integrate over 75 popular platforms, from web analytics, to social media platforms. Creating a Looker Studio dashboard with TMR eliminates manual data imports and ensures that your data is up-to-date. 

Visualization variety 

With Looker Studio's robust array of graphs, charts, and other visual aids, you can effectively communicate and visualize data for all functions. You can create bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, maps, and more to match your preferences. 

Comprehensive analysis

Insightful Metrics and Collaborative Accessibility are key benefits when using Looker Studio to manage your website/app's performance. You can dissect and analyze data, compare them, and create custom metrics that align with your business goals. 

Collaborative access

Building a Looker Studio Dashboard also allows for seamless collaboration between functions in your organization. The ease of accessibility allows teams to work with real-time data, fostering a highly collaborative environment. 

Customization and flexibility

Importing Instagram data into Looker Studio allows you to customize your reports according to your needs. It also enables proper representation of the metrics and dimensions most relevant to your business goals. Looker Studio also allows you to schedule reports to automatically deliver to your email. This ensures constant real-time data and avoids frequent check-ins. 

Workflow efficiency

Setting up automated workflows to channel data from 4 to Looker Studio effectively streamlines the data journey from source to analysis. This process ensures seamless synchronization, enabling consistent workflow management.

Marketing strategy enhancement

When you export Instagram data into Looker Studio, you can conduct multi-channel analyses to evaluate performance across multiple channels simultaneously. This approach enables you to make data-driven decisions that enhance marketing performance.

Why Two Minute Reports (TMR)?

1. Centralized data integration: TMR is a Google Sheets add-on that consolidates your metrics from various platforms, including top advertising sources and analytics tools. It eliminates the need for manual CSV imports, creating a seamless data flow from Instagram to Google Sheets.
2. Extensive integrations and upcoming features: TMR's Google Sheets add-on currently supports integrations with various platforms across advertising, analytics, SEO, social media, e-commerce, email, mobile, CRM, and databases. This includes Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and many more, with exciting upcoming integrations to enhance its capability.
3. Intuitive reporting: The TMR add-on helps create professional, mobile-friendly reports. The intuitive interface enables you to craft and customize reports and share them with unlimited users.
4. Cost-effective and user-friendly: TMR is a user-friendly add-on with a low learning curve and is priced affordably without sacrificing functionality.
5. Native connectors and API Bridge: Native connectors simplify pulling data from various sources. The API Bridge feature allows connection to any data source that returns JSON, making data accessibility limitless in Google Sheets.
6. Efficiency and customization: TMR's add-on helps you swiftly set up dashboards with pre-built templates that can be customized and duplicated. Templates also streamline report generation and client setup.
7. Automatic data refreshes and reports: TMR enables you to schedule data to refresh automatically in Google Sheets, and send beautifully formatted reports via email, saving time and keeping clients informed with the latest data.

Two Minute Reports is not just about data consolidation, but also about empowering businesses. With TMR's AI-powered report creation and report configuration tools, your business can now automate and streamline reporting processes, making data-driven decisions quicker and more efficient. 

Which metrics from Instagram Analytics should you track?

Once a user receives an email, SMS, or push notification, any interaction could be crucial to your campaign. Instagram records every click, scroll, and second through its analytics. 

Every metric is indeed important. However, you need not track all the metrics; choose the ones that make the most sense to your goals. Follow these steps to build a strong Email, SMS, or Push Notification strategy with Instagram (and TMR, of course)

1. Understanding Instagram: Find out how you can use Instagram to serve your business goals. Instagram works differently for different purposes, underscoring the importance of exploring it.

2. Setting goals: Is it advertising? Or reach? Or do you want to attract business partnerships through content? Set goals that match your business goals.

3. Identifying the key metrics: Understanding KPIs for your Instagram goals is the first step to cracking analytics. Knowing how KPIs work gives you an idea of what to track and how to interpret your data. 

Brand reach metrics

• Impressions
• Reach
• Follower Growth Rate
• Profile Views

Conversion metrics

• Link Clicks
• Conversion Rate
• Story Click-through Rate (CTR)

Instagram Ad metrics 

• Cost per Click (CPC)
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) 
• Engagement Rate
• Video Views
• Save Rate

4. Analytics and reporting: Reporting is the final and the most crucial step in tracking data. A well-presented visual report could help you compare performance and draw inferences from your KPIs to help optimize your IG operations.

Get Instagram data in Google Sheets

Two Minute Reports is also available as a Google Sheets add-on. This add-on simplifies complex data analysis and visualization using Google Sheets' tools and features best.

This add-on allows the creation of detailed reports and dashboards using insights from GA4 without the complexity of manual data entry. TMR for Google Sheets also enables users to develop custom formulae in a user-friendly interface. 

With seamless GA4 to Google Sheets integration, comprehensive analytical capabilities, and automated workflows, strategic business intelligence has become quicker and more accessible.