Marketing often means connecting with your target audience where they’re already active and Instagram is a great place to do just that.

The platform has more than 2 billion monthly users worldwide, offering businesses a vast audience with which to share engaging photos and videos.

It also offers selling tools that enable customers to buy directly on the platform, providing businesses with an extra digital point of sale.

Instagram is an indispensable part of any business’s social media marketing strategy. Like other forms of digital marketing, it’s at its best when combined with traditional marketing tactics. But first, you’ll need to learn the ins and outs of marketing on the popular social media platform and how it connects to your broader marketing efforts.

1. Instagram is the world’s third most-used social platform (tied with WhatsApp)

Instagram and WhatsApp both have 2,000,000,0000 active users worldwide as of April 2024. The most-used platform? Facebook, with more than 3 billion monthly active users.

2. Instagram also has the 4th most-visited website in the world

According to SimilarWeb, as of February 2025, Instagram.com is the fourth most-visited website globally, behind Google, YouTube, and Facebook. The average visit length is 8:38, which shows that people are using Instagram’s web presence to view content.

3. 58% of Americans who earn more than $100k/year use Instagram

That’s the largest percentage of any income bracket. 54% of those who earn $70k-$99.9k use the platform, followed by 47% of those who earn $30k-$69.9k and 41% of those who earn less than $30k.

4. Instagram has 2 billion active monthly users

That’s about two-thirds of Facebook’s monthly active user base (3.065 billion).

5. The average engagement rate for Instagram is 2.0%

However, this varies significantly by industry. Healthcare has the lowest engagement at 1.6%, with government having the highest (3.2%). Retail comes in at 1.8%

6. Carousels have the highest engagement rate at 2.4%

This is unchanged from last quarter, whereas Reels and photos both saw minor drops in engagement rate over that time.

7. The average Instagram weekly follower growth rate was 14.7% in Q4 2024

However, that is a huge change from the previous quarter, when it was just 0.55%. This is likely a blip caused by concerns about the future of TikTok. The Q3 figure is a more realistic benchmark to target.

8. The average Instagram posting frequency is 4.5 per week

That’s the lowest of the social media platforms examined in research by Hootsuite and Critical Truth. Keep in mind that this varies by industry, with retail brands posting the most at an average of 8.2 times per week.

9. The optimum number of Instagram posts per week is 2

Brands may be posting more than they need to. Accounts that post 2x per week get the highest engagement. However, note that retail again is an exception. For consumer good retail, the optimum number of posts is a whopping 17.

10. India has the most Instagram users: 362.9 million

The United States is next with 169.6 million Instagram users. Brazil is third with 134.6 million. These statistics highlight that Instagram is a global channel with excellent potential for reaching international markets.

11. 72% of U.S. residents aged 15 to 17 use Instagram

Instagram remains a valuable platform for reaching younger audiences. It’s actually the preferred platform for this age group, followed by TikTok at 68%.

12. 76% of U.S. adults aged 18-29 use Instagram

That’s the highest-use age group for the platform. 66% of U.S. adults ages 20-49 use the platform, followed by 26% of those ages 50-64 and 19% of those ages 65+.

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