How to Measure the True ROI of your Instagram Ads

Katie Rigby
25th October 2024

Understand the challenges of Instagram ROI tracking and explore ways to track it efficiently.

Ever been pulled into a meeting and asked to prove Instagram’s ROI?

You’re not the only one, trust us. 

It’s a common pain point for marketers—especially when the platform’s visual nature and tracking limitations make it hard to tie results directly to revenue. 

We all know Instagram has massive potential (hello, 53 minutes a day spent scrolling by its users!), but proving that value in dollar terms can feel like an uphill battle.

In this post, we’ll break down why measuring Instagram ROI is so tricky and explore ways to make the process easier. 

Here’s what you can expect:

💡 Pro Tip

Apple’s ATT rollout has really impacted Meta, making it tougher for marketers to track leads and sales on Facebook and Instagram. But with a tool like Ruler, you can work around those iOS challenges and get a clear picture of your ROI and ROAS

Ruler’s attribution tracks every touchpoint in a customer’s journey, giving you a reliable view of how your campaigns are performing. Plus, its impression modelling uses smart stats and machine learning to measure the impact of all your channels, even high-impression ones like Instagram and Facebook.

Book a demo to learn more about it


Is Instagram capable of a good ROI?

Most people see Instagram as a place to share photos and keep up with friends, but it’s actually a powerhouse for marketers. 

If you’re in the business of selling apparel, beauty products, or home goods, Instagram’s visual nature makes it the perfect platform to advertise. 

But let’s get to the real question: 

What kind of ROI should you expect from Instagram ads?

A good rule of thumb is aiming for at least a 3:1 ROI—basically, for every dollar you put into Instagram ads, you should see $3 in revenue. 

Seems fair, right?

If you’re still not convinced, here are some stats that show Instagram’s potential:


Challenges of measuring Instagram ROI 

To be honest—most marketers know their Instagram ads are working, but proving it?

That’s the tricky part.

So, why is it so hard to track Instagram ROI? Let’s break it down.

Limited attribution modelling 

Meta’s tracking, including Instagram, focuses heavily on clicks. 

If someone sees your ad but doesn’t click on it, the platform often misses the conversion. 

The thing is, Instagram is a visual platform, and people don’t always click on ads right away. 

Many times, it’s the impressions that drive conversions later, whether through direct visits to your site or a brand search.

While Meta does try to track ad views and related conversions with a 1-day attribution window, let’s face it—most buying decisions take longer than 24 hours. 

Even with its 7-day click window, it’s often too short to capture the full impact of your ads, especially if you’re in the B2B space. 

These narrow tracking windows create a blind spot, undervaluing the role Instagram ads play in building brand awareness and generating demand over time.

Tracking and privacy regulations

The world of online advertising has been shaken up in recent years, and Instagram’s tracking hasn’t been immune to these changes.

A major blow came with Apple’s iOS 14.5 update, which allowed users to opt out of tracking across apps. 

As a result, the Meta pixel (which powers Instagram’s tracking) became less effective. If a user opts out, Instagram simply can’t track their data.

Related: How to set up Meta’s tracking pixel

On top of that, people are becoming more privacy-conscious. 

They’re using ad blockers, disabling cookies, and browsing in incognito mode. 

All of these factors make it harder for Instagram to collect the data it needs to optimise ads and give you a clear picture of how they’re performing.

So, while Instagram ads are certainly impactful, proving that impact in a concrete way can feel like chasing shadows, thanks to these tracking limitations and privacy hurdles.


How to track Instagram ROI

When it comes to tracking Instagram ROI, the two most basic methods are using Google Analytics 4 or relying on self-reported conversions. 

Both are free and pretty common, but they’ve got their limitations.

Google Analytics 4 can track some Instagram performance, but it’s far from perfect. 

Related: 6 limitations of GA4 and how to overcome them

Like Meta, it has a limited attribution window, it only goes up to 90-days, can’t track the impact of impressions (which, as we know, are huge on Instagram) and only has two attribution models: Data-driven and last-click.

Another issue with GA4 is that it samples your data, meaning you’re not always seeing the full picture. 

And if you’re tracking leads, GA4 doesn’t help much after someone fills out a form. 

Did that lead drop off, or did they turn into a sale?

With GA4, you’re left guessing.

Self-reported conversions seem easy enough—just ask people where they heard about you. 

But the problem is, people forget or give vague answers like “social media” or “the internet.” 

On top of that, it’s unreliable and only gives you a single data point, which isn’t much better than last-click tracking in GA4.

This is why, to track Instagram performance and ROI, we suggest: 

First-party click tracking captures all the touchpoints that lead to a conversion, giving you a clearer view of the customer journey. 

And with impression modelling, you can assign credit to the impressions that drive conversions—super helpful when traditional tracking methods, like cookies, fall short.

Let’s dive deeper into how each of these methods works and why they give a better picture of your Instagram performance.

1. First-party click tracking 

First-party click tracking gives you a much clearer picture of where your conversions are really coming from. 

Unlike Instagram’s tracking, it tracks all conversions across different channels, giving you a full breakdown of how various touchpoints work together to drive results.

Ruler, for example, tracks every touchpoint that leads to a conversion and even follows it through to a closed deal (or recurring purchases). 

It works similar to Meta’s tracking pixel, but way more detailed. 

Ruler places cookies on a user’s browser and tracks their journey over multiple sessions and channels. 

Related: How to view full customer journeys with Ruler

So, instead of just seeing one piece of the puzzle, you get the whole story.

You might learn that someone:

That’s way more insight than you’d get from Meta’s basic tracking.

Ruler also connects to your CRM and other tools, so you can track how leads move through your sales funnel. 

You can figure out which ads and campaigns are really driving revenue, and which ones are leading to dead ends.

2. Impression modelling

As we’ve mentioned, tracking user behaviour has gotten tougher with privacy changes like Apple’s ATT and ITP, which have made cookie-based tracking difficult in certain situations.

Meta has tried to work around this by introducing CAPI (Conversions API), which sends conversion data directly from the server instead of relying on the pixel. 

Related: How does conversion tracking work on Facebook (Meta)

It helps, but it’s still like trying to see through a keyhole. 

CAPI only tracks events from Facebook and Instagram, and like the pixel, it’s limited by narrow attribution windows.

When cookies and traditional tracking methods fall short, impression attribution provides a view of how your different channels (even upper-funnel ones) contribute to conversions and revenue. 

Using machine learning and complex models like Bayesian statistics and Shapley regression, tools like Ruler can actually match impressions to eventual conversions—giving you insights that simple pixel tracking can’t.

Related: Why impression attribution is the future of measurement

If you look at Ruler’s insights report, for example, you can see exactly how much influence your upper-funnel channels have on conversions that happen further down the line.

By combining first-party click tracking with impression modelling, you get the full picture of what’s driving results, from the top of the funnel all the way down to the final sale. 

You can invest smarter and optimise across all your channels, knowing exactly what’s working.


Need help measuring your Instagram ROI?

It’s important to show the ROI for your Instagram efforts, especially if you want to keep your budgets intact and justify all the work that goes into it. 

But let’s be honest—tracking user behaviour and navigating privacy limitations isn’t getting any easier for digital marketers. 

Combine that with the complexity of today’s customer journey, and it feels almost impossible to get the data you need.

First-party click tracking and impression modelling give you a clearer picture of how people are moving through the customer journey. 

You can track how users shift from early-stage channels like Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn to later-stage ones like direct traffic or brand search. 

More importantly, prove that your upper-funnel and visual campaigns (like those on Instagram) aren’t just about brand awareness—they’re also driving actual results that impact your bottom line.

Curious about how to track all this? Book a demo with us, and we’ll show you how Ruler can help you measure the real impact of your Instagram ads and beyond.