Restoring Instagram Metrics after API Migration

Today, March 30th, 2020, your Instagram metrics have been migrated to the Instagram Business connection (more information here). Now what?

Unfortunately, the two systems are different. Your metrics will not be exactly the same as they were before due to differences in the respective APIs. Instagram had three report options to choose from, while the new Instagram Business connector has many more. While the three reports are still available in the new connector (the migration should have ensured that the reports are still selected in your metrics), there are differences in the data that are being returned. For example:

1. Facebook's APIs (Instagram Business is built by Facebook) take 24 hours to return the most accurate data regarding followers/likes on your Instagram page. There is no way around this; we can't change how an API releases information. This means you may see discrepancies between what you're seeing on the "Insights" page for your page vs. what is coming into Grow. 
2. There is no way to get an accurate representation of net gained followers by day. The Instagram Graph API only releases gained followers over time, with no endpoint allowing us to query the lost followers over time. For more information, consult our Instagram Business help article.
3. Not all column names are going to be the same from the old Instagram Connector to the new. For example: On the User Posts report, the images.thumbnail.url column is now called media_url, and created_time corresponds to timestamp. This means that you may have to reselect some columns manually or modify some transforms when you open up the metric builder.

So what is needed? 

1. Connect Instagram Business within Grow as a new data connection, in case this hasn't already been done
2. Click to edit each metric using Instagram; notice they're now pulling from Instagram Business
3. Select the business account on the "Data" tab within the metric builder for each Instagram Business report
4. Verify other parameters, like fields and reports
5. Click "Get Data"
6. Validate data received by verifying column selection, etc.
7. Live long and prosper 💯

We at Grow always try our best to ensure seamless transitions with API migrations, but sometimes it isn't a possibility to make it as smooth as we'd like. We thank you for your patience! You may reach out to support@grow.com if you have any questions on this topic. 

Thank you,

Drew from the Product Team