Compare competitor metrics across platforms

Pull aggregated competitor metrics across platforms. Use the data to benchmark your performance and inform your content strategy.

Use cases

Tracking competitor performance manually across platforms wastes hours each week. Competitive metric reports give you cross-platform benchmarks instantly.

Benchmark posting frequency

Compare your posting cadence against competitor averages to optimize your content calendar

Prioritize platform investments

Identify which platforms competitors post on most to guide your channel strategy

Track engagement trends

Monitor competitor engagement over time to spot momentum shifts and emerging opportunities

Before you start

Prerequisites:

API Key - Your authentication token - Get your API key from the API Quickstart.
Brand ID - Your brand’s unique ID
Tracked Competitors - Competitors added in Dash Social

Supported platforms:

Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
X

Add competitors first: Report on competitors tracked in Dash Social only. Add competitors in Dash Social → Settings → Competitor Management before using this API.

Test in the dashboard first

Preview competitive metrics in the Dash Social Dashboard to understand the data structure before pulling via API.

Implementation

Step 1: Get competitor account IDs

Get source account IDs for your tracked competitors. Each competitor has a unique ID per platform. Send a POST request:

POST https://library-backend.dashsocial.com/competitors/search
body = {
  "source": "INSTAGRAM"
}

Key query parameters

source: Platform to search:
- Instagram: INSTAGRAM
- Facebook: FACEBOOK
- YouTube: YOUTUBE
- Twitter (X): TWITTER

Sample response:

[
    {
        "avatar_url": "https://cdn.dashsocial.com/avatars/2306810931.jpeg",
        "brand_details": [
            {
                "brand_id": 144,
                "created_at": "2019-10-22T21:02:14+00:00"
            }
        ],
        "handle": "sunny.today",
        "source": "INSTAGRAM",
        "source_account_id": "2306810931"
    },
    {
        "avatar_url": "https://cdn.dashsocial.com/avatars/230344968.jpeg",
        "brand_details": [
            {
                "brand_id": 144,
                "created_at": "2020-03-15T10:22:33+00:00"
            }
        ],
        "handle": "fashionista_brand",
        "source": "INSTAGRAM",
        "source_account_id": "230344968"
    }
]

Collect each source_account_id value. Format as comma-separated: 2306810931,230344968.

Compare across platforms

To compare multiple platforms, call /competitors/search separately for each platform.

Step 2: Map your report parameters

Map the available parameters before making the API call:

Step 3: Request the metric report

Send a GET request using the parameters from Step 2. This example gets total posts published by competitors on Instagram during October 2025:

GET https://dashboard.dashsocial.com/reports/data?brand_ids=144&
		channels=INSTAGRAM_COMPETITIVE&
		metrics=NUMBER_OF_POSTS&
		start_date=2025-10-01&
		end_date=2025-10-30&
		context_start_date=2025-09-01&
		context_end_date=2025-09-30&
		report_type=COMPETITIVE_MULTI_BRAND_METRIC&
		competitor_source_account_ids=2306810931,230344968,232342925

This request uses:

Channel: INSTAGRAM_COMPETITIVE from Step 2
Metric: NUMBER_OF_POSTS from Step 2
Reporting period: October 2025 (start_date / end_date)
Comparison period: September 2025 (context_start_date / context_end_date)
Competitor IDs from Step 1

Compare multiple platforms

Make separate requests for each channel: INSTAGRAM_COMPETITIVE, FACEBOOK_COMPETITIVE, etc. Combine results in your dashboard or analytics tool.

Sample response:

{
    "data": {
        "1005579026": {
            "avatar": "https://cdn.dashsocial.com/avatars/1005579026.jpeg",
            "data_type": "COMPETITOR",
            "metrics": {
                "NUMBER_OF_POSTS": {
                    "INSTAGRAM_COMPETITIVE": {
                        "context": 97,
                        "context_change": -0.09278350515463918,
                        "value": 88
                    }
                }
            },
            "name": "competitor_alpha",
            "user_has_access": true
        },
        "144": {
            "avatar": "https://cdn.dashsocial.com/avatars/2306810931.jpeg",
            "data_type": "BRAND",
            "metrics": {
                "NUMBER_OF_POSTS": {
                    "INSTAGRAM_COMPETITIVE": {
                        "context": 48,
                        "context_change": -0.2708333333333333,
                        "value": 35
                    }
                }
            },
            "name": "your_brand",
            "user_has_access": true
        },
        "230344968": {
            "avatar": "https://cdn.dashsocial.com/avatars/230344968.jpeg",
            "data_type": "COMPETITOR",
            "metrics": {
                "NUMBER_OF_POSTS": {
                    "INSTAGRAM_COMPETITIVE": {
                        "context": 25,
                        "context_change": 0.04,
                        "value": 26
                    }
                }
            },
            "name": "competitor_beta",
            "user_has_access": true
        },
        "2306810931": {
            "avatar": "https://cdn.dashsocial.com/avatars/2306810931.jpeg",
            "data_type": "COMPETITOR",
            "metrics": {
                "NUMBER_OF_POSTS": {
                    "INSTAGRAM_COMPETITIVE": {
                        "context": null,
                        "context_change": null,
                        "value": null
                    }
                }
            },
            "name": "competitor_gamma",
            "user_has_access": true
        },
        "competitor_average": {
            "data_type": "COMPETITOR_AVERAGE",
            "metrics": {
                "NUMBER_OF_POSTS": {
                    "INSTAGRAM_COMPETITIVE": {
                        "context": 61.0,
                        "context_change": -0.06557377049180328,
                        "value": 57.0
                    }
                }
            },
            "name": "Competitor Average",
            "user_has_access": true
        }
    },
    "product_category": "COMPETITIVE"
}

Step 4: Interpret the response

The response includes data for each competitor plus a competitor_average summary.

Response structure

Each account includes:

data_type: BRAND (your brand), COMPETITOR, or COMPETITOR_AVERAGE
name: Account handle
metrics: Object containing requested metrics
- value: Metric total for the reporting period
- context: Metric total for the comparison period
- context_change: Decimal representing percent change (e.g., -0.09 = -9%, 0.04 = +4%)

Common errors:

Invalid channel name - Use INSTAGRAM_COMPETITIVE, not INSTAGRAM. Competitive channels require the _COMPETITIVE suffix.
Invalid source account ID - Verify IDs match the /competitors/search response from Step 1.
Missing context dates - Include context_start_date and context_end_date for trend analysis.
Null values in response - Competitors may return null if no data exists for the period.

Metrics

Instagram
Facebook
Youtube
X

Metric Name	Description	Metric API Name
Avg. Engagement Rate - Public	The average percentage of people who engaged with your competitors’ posts, based on their follower count	`AVG_ENGAGEMENT_RATE_PUBLIC`
Avg. Estimated Reach	The average number of unique accounts that saw your posts published during the Reporting Period. The average estimated number of unique accounts that saw competitor’s posts based on their number of followers during the Reporting Period.	`AVG_REACH`
Followers - Growth Rate	The percentage of your competitors’ followers increased by over the comparison period	`FOLLOWER_GROWTH_RATE`
Followers - Net New	The net new number of people who followed your competitors’ accounts	`NET_NEW_FOLLOWERS`
Number of Posts	The number of posts you’ve published during the reporting period	`NUMBER_OF_POSTS`
Comments	The number of comments your competitors’ posts received	`ORGANIC_COMMENTS`
Likes	The number of likes your competitors’ posts received	`ORGANIC_LIKES`
Followers	The total number of followers your competitors have on this channel	`TOTAL_FOLLOWERS`

Metric Name	Description	Metric API Name
Avg. Engagement Rate	The average engagement rate of your competitors’ posts published during the Reporting Period. Engagement Rate = (Comments + Reactions + Shares) / Followers	`AVG_ENGAGEMENT_RATE_PUBLIC`
Followers - Growth Rate	The percentage of your competitors’ followers increased by over the comparison period	`FOLLOWER_GROWTH_RATE`
Followers - Net New	The net new number of people who followed your competitors’ accounts	`NET_NEW_FOLLOWERS`
Number of Posts	The number of posts you’ve published during the reporting period	`NUMBER_OF_POSTS`
Followers	The total number of followers your competitors have on this channel	`TOTAL_FOLLOWERS`

Metric Name	Description	Metric API Name
Comments	The number of comments your competitors’ posts received	`COMMENTS`
Likes	The number of likes your competitors’ posts received	`LIKES`
Number of Posts	The number of posts your competitors published during the reporting period	`NUMBER_OF_POSTS`
Subscribers - Net New	The net new number of people who have subscribed to your competitors’ channels	`SUBSCRIBERS_NET_NEW`
Subscribers	The total number of subscribers your competitors have on their channels	`SUBSCRIBERS_TOTAL`
Video Views	The number of times the videos on your competitors’ channels were viewed	`TOTAL_VIDEO_VIEWS`

Metric Name	Description	Metric API Name
Followers - Growth Rate	The percentage your competitors’ followers increased by over the comparison period	`FOLLOWER_GROWTH_RATE`
Likes	The number of likes your competitors’ posts received	`LIKES`
Followers - Net New	The net new number of people who followed your competitors’ accounts	`NET_NEW_FOLLOWERS`
Number of Posts	The number of posts your competitors published during the reporting period	`NUMBER_OF_POSTS`
Quote Posts	The total number of times your competitors’ posts were reposted with a quote	`QUOTE_POSTS`
Replies	The total number of times your competitors’ posts were replied to	`REPLIES`
Reposts	The total number of times your competitors’ posts were reposted	`REPOSTS`
Engagements	The total number of engagements your competitors’ posts received	`TOTAL_ENGAGEMENTS`
Followers	The total number of followers your competitors have on this channel	`TOTAL_FOLLOWERS`
Total Reposts	The total number of times your competitors’ posts were reposted or quote posted	`TOTAL_RETWEETS`
Video Views	The number of times your competitors’ videos were viewed	`VIDEO_VIEWS`

Next steps

With your competitive metrics, you can:

Build benchmarking dashboards - Compare your brand against competitor averages
Track posting cadence trends - Query monthly to spot competitor posting frequency changes
Identify platform priorities - Compare metrics across channels to see where competitors invest most
Inform content strategy - Use engagement metrics to understand what volume and frequency work for competitors

Documentation Index

​Use cases

Benchmark posting frequency

Prioritize platform investments

Track engagement trends

​Before you start

​Test in the dashboard first

​Implementation

​Step 1: Get competitor account IDs

​Key query parameters

​Compare across platforms

​Step 2: Map your report parameters

​Step 3: Request the metric report

​Compare multiple platforms

​Step 4: Interpret the response

​Response structure

​Metrics

​Next steps

Use cases

Before you start

Test in the dashboard first

Implementation

Step 1: Get competitor account IDs

Key query parameters

Compare across platforms

Step 2: Map your report parameters

Step 3: Request the metric report

Compare multiple platforms

Step 4: Interpret the response

Response structure

Metrics

Next steps