Global Instagram Story Benchmarks

The 2023 Instagram Benchmarks Report

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Instagram Stories include: videos and photos.

Globally: Macro- and mega-influencers reached more users

In our analysis of reach rate on Instagram Stories, Instagram’s updates had a minor impact on nano- and micro-influencers. Compared to 2021, nano- and micro-influencers experienced a small decline in reach rate of 6% and 8%, respectively. 

Macro and mega-influencers saw an increase, with a 19% growth in reach rate.

Global reach rate benchmarks for IG Stories

Globally: Retention is higher for Stories that start with images

The average retention rate for Stories is high for influencers. But they had slightly more success retaining viewers by sharing Stories that begin with images, compared to Stories that begin with videos. 

On average, influencers experienced a drop off of about 14% after sharing Stories that were 5 frames long. Retention stayed above 70% after sharing Stories that were less than 12 frames long. 

Global retention rate of Stories by length

inzpire.me insight 💡

Even though the numbers show that Stories with images perform slightly better in retention than videos, don’t get too caught up asking for one over the other. Influencers are good at retaining viewers, even after 12 frames. Instead, focus on how you want influencers to showcase your product — whether you want them to create still images or use sound to tell a story.

If we take a look at the average exit rates for influencers’ Stories of different lengths, a Story that’s 1 frame long had an average exit rate of 6%. 

For Stories with 9 frames or more, influencers experienced a higher exit rate on Stories that started with a video, compared to Stories that started with an image.

inzpire.me insight 💡

We also analyzed the exit rate for each Story frame independently, and saw that exit rates are highest after influencers share their first frame. That means the influencers you work with must create a great, engaging hook in their first frame. That’s why it’s important that you give influencers creative freedom, for them to create content that they know resonates with their followers.

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