Instagram & Looker Studio: setup guide

As marketing data becomes more complex, the need for clear visualization is paramount. This tutorial is designed to assist marketing professionals in integrating their Instagram analytics with Looker Studio, formerly Google Data Studio. By the end of this guide, you'll be able to create dynamic reports that vividly illustrate your marketing data, enabling better business decisions.

How to Connect Your Instagram Account to Looker Studio

Create an Account on Looker Studio

Embarking on your Looker Studio journey begins with account creation. For existing Google users, this step is as simple as linking your Google account to Looker Studio.

Connect Instagram to Looker Studio

We will guide you through a detailed, step-by-step process to connect Instagram to Looker Studio. Feel free to alter the guide for clarity as needed.

• Navigate to your Looker Studio dashboard and click on "Create."

• Next, choose "Report."

• In the data sources gallery, locate the Catchr Instagram data connector.

Step-by-step guide on the authorization step

If this is your initial authorization for this connector, a two-part authorization process is necessary: one for Looker Studio and another for Catchr.

Authorizing Looker Studio:

• Select Authorize to enable the Looker Studio community connector.

• Pick your preferred Google Account for connection.

• Review the authorization details for Looker Studio, then scroll to the bottom.

• Click on Allow access.

Your Google Account is now authorized for Looker Studio use. Next is enabling the Instagram connector for data retrieval from Catchr.

• Click on the Authorize button under 'Instagram requires authorization to connect your data to Looker Studio.'

• Follow the straightforward instructions within the popup to authorize Catchr's connection to Instagram. Once completed, this confirmation popup will appear.

• A brief loading period will follow. Once done, scroll down the page.

• Select the account that Catchr will access, then click on "Add."

• If you cannot find the 'Add' button at the bottom right, check the top right for a button labeled "Create Report" or "Report."

With that, your Instagram data is poised for integration into Looker Studio, empowering your marketing analytics.

Example of Metrics You Can Use with the Looker Studio Integration for Instagram

Integrating Instagram data with Looker Studio opens a wide array of analytic possibilities. Leverage metrics such as Profile Followers and Like Count to gauge your audience engagement. You can also employ Media Reach and Media Impression data to understand the extent of your content's influence. The Looker Studio platform allows you to craft visualizations that can represent the growth of your followers over time, the performance of individual posts, or even the demographics of your audience.

Capabilities of Looker Studio with Instagram include:

• Creating time series graphs to track follower growth and post engagements.
• Producing geo maps to visualize the geographical distribution of your audience.
• Designing pie charts and bar graphs to compare engagement types, such as likes, comments, and saves.
• Using filter controls for viewers to drill down into specific media types or date ranges.

Accessing a comprehensive list of fields provided by the Catchr Instagram connector is essential for expert data analysis. To explore the full breadth of analytics available to your reports, visit the detailed field listing here.

Example of the first report for Instagram using Looker Studio.

From your data source page, click on Create Report at the top right.

This page is your report creation interface. Here's a detailed article about it.

First, I must decide what metrics and dimensions to follow on my Instagram dashboard.

My metrics:

• Followers ->The total number of followers.
• Profile Views -> How many times my profile page was visited?
• Media Id -> To count the number of posts published.
• Media Impressions -> The number of time my ads was shown.
• Media Reach -> The number of person that view at least 1 post.
• Media Engagement -> The number of interaction with my post

And dimensions: 

• Media Thumbnail Url -> To identify the post with its thumbnail
• Media Created at -> To have the publication date for a post.

Now we can start adding charts to our report.

Add charts to my Looker Studio report.

Scorecard:

We will now place some cards to have global metrics:

• Click on Add a Chart, then Scorecard
• In the metrics, choose Followers.

Repeat this action with the Profile View.

We will also use the Media Id on a card. Looker Studio will automatically count the number of Media Ids and display it. This gives us the number of posts during the period.

Table:

We want to see a table with the list of posts, with each post's Impression, reach, and engagement.

To do so : 

• Click on Add a Chart, then Table. Place it on the canvas.
• In dimensions, choose Media Created at and Media Url.
• Add Media Impressions, Media Reach, and Media Engagement to the metrics.

• Configure the Media URL to be a type of Image.

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Change the sort order to use the created date (if you want them ordered by publication date) or by Impression (if you want to see the most viewed post).

Style your report : 

Now we have a report with our main KPIs and a table by post. Let's add a few things to try to have an excellent report:

• You can add a shape to use as the header or footer:
• Locate the Shape button in the shortcut bar.
• Click on it and place the form on your canvas.
• Change the back-ground color and adapt its size.
• Copy and paste it to create your footer.

Add a Title thanks to the Text component:

• Locate the Text shortcut, and click on it.
• Place your textbox, and modify the font size to 30px and the font color to white.
• Write your title

Add your logo or the one of your client:

• Locate the Pictures shortcut, and click on it.
• Select your Image.
• Place it on the report.

Style a scorecard and copy/paste only the style:

• Select a scorecard.
• Center the text and number.
• Add a blue border and a border radius.

• Copy the scorecard.
• Right click on the selected scorecards, and click on Paste Special -> Paste style only

Style the table:

• Select the table.
• Change the font color to white and the header background-color to blue.
• Add a blue border and a 5px radius.