When you connect a channel to Social Media Management for the first time, the platform will automatically backfill as many of your existing posts, engagements, and insights as possible. If you reconnect a disconnected channel, we will also attempt to backfill anything that was missed during the disconnection.
This type of data is called historical data because it predates the channel connection. Other connection types, like ad account or content source connections, may also allow us to backfill historical data.
In this article, we will review the historical data availability for Instagram connections.
Note: Depending on how much historical data and content you have, backfilling a channel may take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. If it's been over 24 hours and you're still missing data, please don't hesitate to contact Support.
Backfilling owned Instagram channels
If you're an Admin or Team Leader in Social Media Management, you can connect your owned Instagram channels to the platform by going to Settings > Channel admin.
After you connect a new Instagram channel, or reconnect a disconnected Instagram channel, we will automatically backfill the following historical data and content:
Module | Backfilled Instagram Data and Content |
Publish | Organic posts from the past year. |
Engage | Organic posts and comments from the past year. Tags from the 50 most recent tagged posts. Direct message (DM) conversations with at least one sent or received message within the past 14 days. For those conversations, all messages are indexed. |
Audience | Audience profiles for all participants in the content backfilled by Engage. |
Measure | Organic content metrics and posts from the past year. Organic channel metrics from the past 200 days. |
Note: Only organic Instagram Stories that are still live (published within the past 24 hours) can be backfilled.
Backfilling Facebook ad accounts
In order to view, publish, or report on your Instagram ads in Social Media Management, you must first connect your Facebook ad account to the platform. Admins and Team Leaders can connect Facebook ad accounts by going to Organization admin > Ad accounts.
When you connect a Facebook ad account, we will automatically backfill the following historical data and content for Instagram:
Module | Backfilled Instagram Data and Content |
Advertise | Ad campaigns, ad sets, and ads from the past 2 years. Ads Manager metrics from the past 90 days. |
Measure | Promoted posts from the past 2 years. Ads Manager metrics from the past 90 days. |
Backfilling non-owned Instagram channels in Benchmark
If you're an Admin in Social Media Management, you can connect your competitors' Instagram channels to Benchmark by going to Settings > Benchmark admin and adding them as Benchmark brands.
After you connect an Instagram channel to Benchmark, we will automatically backfill all public Instagram posts and public data from the past 2 years, except for fans data, which is only available from the channel connection date onwards.
Tip: You can also connect your owned Instagram channels to Benchmark as brands to compare your public data to your competitors'. Please note that you will still need to set up the channel as a brand in Benchmark admin, even if your channel is already connected in Channel admin.
Note: Benchmark data is shared across all Social Media Management organizations. If one organization connects a channel to Benchmark, any other organizations that connect the channel will be able to see all its historical data (including fans data) going back to the original connection date.
You can check any Benchmark channel's data availability in Benchmark admin.
Backfilling Instagram content sources in Listen
If you're an Admin or Team Leader in Social Media Management, you can add both owned and non-owned Instagram channels as content sources in Listen.
Note: The process to connect a Listen content source is different than the standard process to connect a channel in SMM. Even if you've already connected an Instagram channel in your Channel admin settings, you'll still need to add it as a content source in Listen.
Historical data availability in Listen is based on the calendar date, not the content source connection date. Listen always shows the most recent mentions relative to today's date, whether the content source was added two days ago or two years ago.
After you connect a Instagram channel as a content source in Listen, Listen will show the following historical data:
Quick searches: Mentions and data from the past 30 days.
Saved searches: Mentions and data from the past year.
Learn more: What Historical Data Will I See in Listen?
Backfilling Instagram channels in Influence
Authenticated accounts: Posts from the last 180 days will be available; stories from the past 24 hours will be available.
Non-authenticated accounts: Post from the last 30 days will be available; stories will not be available.