RivalIQ: Instagram Stories Benchmark Report 2024

RivalIQ has released the “2024 Instagram Stories Benchmark Report,” the ultimate guide to Instagram Stories metrics.

The frequency of stories is increasing

Brands are doubling down on story creation and are actually publishing more stories than ever before.

Reach is increasing

Stories account for a higher percentage of fan viewing than last year, which is great news for hard-working content creators.

Retention rate remains flat

Low return visit and response rates reduced retention this year, but increases in engagement balanced these successes, keeping this key metric constant for all brands.

Posts are more influential than stories

Instagram posts still have a much higher click-through rate than stories. Engage your audience with posts and deepen their engagement with your stories.

A day with stories

In 2023, brands will post an average of 13 Stories per month on Instagram.

The top 25% most active brands post approximately 20 Stories per month.

The least active 25% of brands only publish 1 Story per week.

Story length

Short stories are more common than long stories.

About 35% of Stories have only one frame.

Frames 1 to 3 account for approximately 60% of brand Stories.

About 10% of stories have 7 frames or more, which is down from last year.

Framework and retention rate

The more frameworks that are released, the lower the retention rate.

As usual, the biggest drop was 1 to 2 frames per day as users swiped past Stories.

After an initial sharp drop, the rate of concentration decline slowed, remaining above 75% each day.

Story Reach

Small brands with fewer than 100,000 followers have seen a 35% increase in click-throughs on Stories this year.

Mid-sized brands with between 50,000 and 200,000 followers saw a 1.6% increase in click-through rate.

Reach

The reach of a post is expressed as a percentage of your followers.

Post click-through rates are expected to rise slightly or remain flat in 2023, just like story click-through rates.

Brands with fewer than 10,000 followers saw a 17% increase in post reach.

Mid-sized brands with 50,000 to 200,000 followers saw a 15% drop in click-through rates on their posts.

Engagement

The smallest and largest brands performed best, with both seeing engagement grow by around 20%.

Brands with between 10,000 and 50,000 followers saw a slightly lower increase in post engagement of just 5%.