A study finally answers the age-old marketing question of whether Instagram hashtags belong in the ... [+]
The Instagram marketing debate of hashtag placement of either in the caption or the first comment has been clarified with a recent study of nearly 650,000 Instagram posts over the past year.
Socialinsider partnered up with Quuu, a content curation and promotion platform, to look through 649,895 Instagram posts from over 6,700 accounts of different sizes to see what the data tells us about how to use hashtags for better Instagram performance.
Overall, the data, which was taken from August 2018 to June 2019, shows a preference of the majority of brands—with a 93.8% majority—going with hashtags in the caption over the first comment.
The data also reveals how hashtag placement affects small and medium-size Instagram pages' reach per post:
- Profiles with under 5,000 followers: 36.85% average reach rate per post with hashtags in the caption
- Profiles with 5,000-10,000 followers: 20.98% average reach rate per post with hashtags in the caption
- Profiles with 10,000-50,000 followers: 21.47% average reach rate per post with hashtags in the caption
- Profiles with 50,000-100,000 followers: 21.43% average reach rate per post with hashtags in the caption
For accounts with more than 100,000 followers, the data shows that hashtags in the first comment have a 15.9% average reach rate per post, as opposed to a 14.8% reach rate of posts with hashtags in the caption.
Graph showing the average reach rate per post for hashtags in captions vs. in the first comment by ... [+]
When it comes to the number of hashtags needed for best results, the study reveals brands got the best engagement when using either 7 or 30 hashtags. Anything between the two experienced a decline in engagement.
A SocialInsider Blog graph shows the best number of hashtags to use on a post's caption to optimize ... [+]
To achieve the best engagement, the report breaks down the best practices, by profile size:
- Profiles with under 5,000 followers: 6 hidden hashtags in the caption achieved better engagement, reach and more impressions. \
- Profiles with 5,000-10,000 followers: 5 shown hashtags in the first comment achieved better engagement (despite the reach and impression rates).
- Profiles with 10,000-50,000 followers: 2 hidden hashtags in the caption achieved better engagement, reach and more impressions.
- Profiles with 50,000-100,000 followers: 8 hidden hashtags in the caption achieved better engagement, reach and more impressions.
- Profiles with over 100,000 followers: 6 shown hashtags in the first comment achieved better engagement, reach and more impressions.
To read the full report, visit the SocialInsider website here.
