Substack Insights Explained: How to Track Your Performance (+ What It Doesn't Show You)
Master Substack Insights to understand your newsletter performance. Learn what metrics matter, how to use them to grow, and the critical blind spot every multi-platform creator needs to know about.
By Narrareach Team • Content Strategy Team
You publish a Substack Note. It gets 500 reads on Substack.
You cross-post the same Note to LinkedIn. It gets 5,000 impressions.
Substack Insights only shows you the 500.
This is the reality for thousands of Substack creators who publish across multiple platforms. Substack Insights is powerful for tracking on-platform performance — but if you're cross-posting to LinkedIn, X, or Threads, you're flying blind on 60-80% of your actual reach.
In this guide, you'll learn:
- What Substack Insights is and how to access it
- The key metrics that matter for growth
- How to use Insights to optimize your content strategy
- The critical blind spot that affects multi-platform creators
- How to get complete visibility across all your publishing channels
What is Substack Insights?
Substack Insights is Substack's native analytics dashboard that shows you how your newsletter and Notes are performing. It tracks subscriber growth, post engagement, open rates, and audience behavior — all within the Substack ecosystem.
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Substack Insights dashboard overview - showing the main navigation and key metrics at a glance]
Where to Find Substack Insights
Access Substack Insights by:
- Logging into your Substack dashboard
- Clicking on "Stats" or "Insights" in the left sidebar
- Selecting the time period you want to analyze (7 days, 30 days, 90 days, or all time)
Who Has Access?
All Substack creators have access to basic Insights, regardless of whether you're on a free or paid plan. The metrics are available from day one — you don't need to hit a subscriber threshold to start tracking your performance.
Key Metrics in Substack Insights
Understanding your Substack metrics is essential for growth. Here's what each metric means and why it matters.
1. Subscriber Growth
Your subscriber count is the foundation of your newsletter business. Substack Insights breaks this down into:
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Subscriber growth chart showing the trend line over time with free vs paid subscriber breakdown]
- Total subscribers: Your complete audience size
- Free vs paid breakdown: How many readers are paying vs reading for free
- Growth rate: How quickly you're adding new subscribers
- Churn rate: How many subscribers are leaving (unsubscribing)
- Net growth: New subscribers minus unsubscribes
Why it matters: Subscriber growth is your primary health metric. A steady upward trend means your content is resonating. Sudden drops signal you need to adjust your strategy.
Pro tip: Track your growth rate week-over-week. A 2-5% weekly growth rate is healthy for early-stage newsletters. If you're growing slower, focus on distribution and cross-posting.
2. Post Performance
Every newsletter post you send generates engagement data. Substack Insights shows:
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Individual post performance metrics showing open rate, reads, and engagement stats]
- Open rate: Percentage of subscribers who opened your email
- Read time: How long readers spent on your post
- Click-through rate: How many readers clicked links in your post
- Likes and comments: Direct engagement signals
- Shares: How many readers forwarded or shared your post
Why it matters: Open rates tell you if your subject lines are working. Read time tells you if your content is engaging. Clicks tell you if your calls-to-action are effective.
Benchmark numbers:
- Good open rate: 40-50%
- Great open rate: 50-60%
- Excellent open rate: 60%+
If your open rates are below 40%, test different subject line styles, send times, or posting frequency.
3. Notes Analytics
Substack Notes are short-form posts that appear in the Substack feed. They're critical for discovery and engagement.
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Notes analytics view showing likes, comments, restacks, and reach for individual Notes]
Substack Insights tracks:
- Likes: How many readers liked your Note
- Comments: Direct conversations on your Note
- Restacks: How many creators reshared your Note to their audience
- Reach: How many Substack users saw your Note
- Impressions: Total views of your Note
Why it matters: Notes are your discovery engine. High-performing Notes bring new subscribers. They also signal which topics resonate most with your audience.
Pro tip: Notes with 100+ likes typically convert 5-10 new subscribers. Notes with 500+ likes can bring 50-100+ new subscribers. Focus on creating shareable, conversation-starting Notes.
4. Audience Demographics
Understanding who your readers are helps you create better content.
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Audience demographics showing geographic distribution, referral sources, and reader behavior patterns]
Substack Insights shows:
- Geographic distribution: Where your readers are located
- Referral sources: How readers found you (search, social, direct, recommendations)
- Reading patterns: When your audience is most active
- Device breakdown: Desktop vs mobile readers
Why it matters: If 70% of your audience is in the US but you're publishing at 2pm UK time, you're missing your peak engagement window. If most readers come from recommendations, you should focus on creating shareable content that encourages word-of-mouth.
How to Use Substack Insights to Grow
Raw data is useless without action. Here's how to turn Insights into growth.
Strategy 1: Identify Your Best-Performing Content Types
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Comparison view of different post types with their respective open rates and engagement metrics]
Look at your top 10 posts by open rate and engagement. What do they have in common?
- Are they how-to guides, personal stories, or industry analysis?
- Are they long-form deep dives or quick tactical tips?
- Do they include visuals, data, or case studies?
Action: Double down on what works. If your "how-to" posts consistently get 60% open rates while your opinion pieces get 35%, shift your content mix.
Strategy 2: Optimize Your Posting Times
Track when your posts get the highest open rates in the first 24 hours. This tells you when your audience is most engaged.
Common patterns:
- B2B audiences: Tuesday-Thursday, 6-8am or 11am-1pm
- Creator audiences: Sunday evenings or Wednesday mornings
- Consumer audiences: Weekends or weekday evenings
Action: Schedule your most important posts during your peak engagement windows. Use Narrareach's scheduling feature to automate this.
Strategy 3: Track Which Topics Resonate Most
Create a simple spreadsheet tracking:
- Post topic/theme
- Open rate
- Read time
- Subscriber growth in the 7 days after publishing
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Simple data table or chart showing topic performance analysis]
Action: If posts about "productivity" consistently outperform posts about "mindset," your audience is telling you what they want. Listen to them.
Strategy 4: Monitor Your Subscriber Acquisition Channels
Check your referral sources. Are most subscribers coming from:
- Substack recommendations (other newsletters mentioning you)?
- Social media (LinkedIn, X, Threads)?
- Search engines (Google)?
- Direct traffic (people typing your URL)?
Action: Invest more effort in your highest-performing channels. If LinkedIn drives 40% of your subscribers, increase your LinkedIn posting frequency and cross-post more Notes there.
The Blind Spot: What Substack Insights Can't Tell You
Here's the problem every multi-platform creator faces:
Substack Insights only tracks what happens on Substack.
If you're cross-posting your Notes to LinkedIn, X, or Threads — which you absolutely should be doing to maximize reach — Substack Insights is blind to that performance data.
What You're Missing:
❌ LinkedIn post performance when you cross-post Notes
Your Note might get 500 reads on Substack but 5,000 impressions on LinkedIn. Substack Insights won't show you the LinkedIn data.
❌ X/Twitter engagement on your Substack content
Retweets, quote tweets, and replies on X are invisible to Substack Insights.
❌ Threads reach and comments
If you're cross-posting to Threads, you have no idea how that content is performing unless you manually check Meta's analytics.
❌ Unified view across all platforms
You're forced to check Substack Insights, then LinkedIn analytics, then X analytics, then Threads insights — manually stitching together your total reach.
❌ Scheduling analytics
Which scheduled times perform best across all platforms? Substack Insights can't tell you because it doesn't know about your LinkedIn or X schedule.
❌ Subscriber DM engagement tracking
If you're messaging subscribers directly (which you should be for retention), Substack doesn't track open rates, response rates, or engagement on those DMs.
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Visual diagram showing Substack Insights covering only Substack data, with LinkedIn, X, and Threads shown as blind spots outside the coverage area]
The Real-World Impact
Let's say you publish a Note about "5 Ways to Beat Writer's Block."
What Substack Insights shows:
- 500 reads on Substack
- 45 likes
- 8 comments
- 12 restacks
What actually happened:
- 500 reads on Substack
- 5,000 impressions on LinkedIn (10x more reach)
- 250 likes on LinkedIn
- 40 comments on LinkedIn
- 2,000 impressions on X
- 85 likes on X
- 15 retweets
Total actual reach: 7,500+ people
What Substack Insights showed: 500 people
You're making content decisions based on 7% of your actual data. That's like driving a car while only looking at 7% of the road.
Cross-Platform Analytics: The Missing Piece
This is where Narrareach comes in.
Substack Insights shows your Substack performance. Narrareach shows your everywhere performance.
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Narrareach unified dashboard showing analytics from Substack + LinkedIn + X + Threads in one view]
The Complementary Approach
Think of it this way:
- Substack Insights = What happens on Substack
- Narrareach = What happens everywhere (Substack + LinkedIn + X + Threads)
They're not competitors — they're complementary tools. Substack Insights is excellent for understanding your on-platform newsletter performance. Narrareach extends that visibility to show your complete cross-platform reach.
Real Creator Example
Sarah is a productivity creator with 2,000 Substack subscribers. She publishes 3 Notes per week and cross-posts them to LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, and Threads.
Before Narrareach:
- Checked Substack Insights: 800 average reads per Note
- Assumed that was her total reach
- Made content decisions based on Substack data alone
After Narrareach:
- Discovered her LinkedIn posts averaged 6,000 impressions (7.5x more reach)
- Found that her "morning routine" Notes performed 3x better on LinkedIn than Substack
- Realized her "deep work" Notes performed better on Substack than LinkedIn
- Started tailoring content strategy by platform
- Grew her total audience 3x faster in 90 days
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Before/after comparison showing Sarah's perceived reach vs actual reach across platforms]
How Narrareach Complements Substack Insights
Here's what Narrareach adds to your analytics toolkit:
1. Unified Analytics Dashboard
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Narrareach analytics dashboard showing performance metrics from all connected platforms in one unified view]
See all your metrics in one place:
- Substack reads, likes, comments, restacks
- LinkedIn impressions, likes, comments, shares
- X impressions, likes, retweets, replies
- Threads views, likes, comments, shares
No more tab-switching. No more manual spreadsheets. One dashboard, complete visibility.
2. Cross-Platform Performance Comparison
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Side-by-side comparison chart showing how the same content performed on different platforms]
Publish the same Note to Substack, LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, and Threads. Instantly see:
- Which platform gave you the most reach
- Which platform drove the most engagement
- Which platform converted the most subscribers
- Which content types work best on each platform
Insight example: You might discover that "how-to" posts perform 5x better on LinkedIn, while "personal story" posts perform 3x better on Substack. This lets you optimize your content strategy by platform.
3. Scheduling Analytics
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Scheduling analytics showing best posting times across platforms with performance heatmap]
Narrareach tracks when your scheduled posts perform best across all platforms:
- Best days to post on Substack vs LinkedIn vs X
- Optimal times for maximum engagement
- Performance patterns by content type and platform
- Automated recommendations for future scheduling
Pro tip: Most creators discover their best LinkedIn time is different from their best Substack time. Narrareach lets you schedule the same content to publish at optimal times for each platform.
4. Subscriber Engagement Tracking
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Subscriber DM analytics showing open rates, response rates, and engagement metrics]
Narrareach's unique subscriber management features let you:
- View your complete Substack subscriber list
- Filter by free/paid/writers
- Send personalized mass DMs with {name} personalization
- Track DM open rates and response rates
- See which subscriber segments are most engaged
Why this matters: Subscriber retention is just as important as subscriber acquisition. Narrareach helps you identify at-risk subscribers (low engagement) and re-engage them with targeted messages.
5. AI-Powered Content Insights
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: AI insights panel showing content recommendations based on cross-platform performance data]
Narrareach's AI analyzes your cross-platform performance and suggests:
- Which topics to write about next
- Which platform to prioritize for each content type
- Optimal posting frequency by platform
- Content gaps your audience wants filled
Practical Workflow: Using Both Tools Together
Here's how to use Substack Insights and Narrareach together for maximum growth:
Step 1: Check Substack Insights for On-Platform Performance
Every Monday morning:
- Open Substack Insights
- Review last week's newsletter open rates
- Check which Notes got the most Substack engagement
- Note your subscriber growth rate
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Substack Insights weekly review checklist with key metrics highlighted]
Step 2: Check Narrareach for Cross-Platform Reach
Immediately after:
- Open Narrareach dashboard
- Review the same Notes' performance on LinkedIn, X, and Threads
- Compare total reach: Substack vs cross-platform
- Identify which platforms drove the most engagement
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: Narrareach dashboard showing the same content's performance across all platforms]
Step 3: Identify Content-Platform Fit
Create a simple matrix:
- High Substack + High LinkedIn = Universal content (publish everywhere)
- High Substack + Low LinkedIn = Newsletter-specific content (keep it on Substack)
- Low Substack + High LinkedIn = Professional/tactical content (prioritize LinkedIn)
- High LinkedIn + High X = Viral-potential content (maximize social distribution)
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: 2x2 matrix showing content-platform fit analysis]
Step 4: Optimize Future Content Based on Unified Data
Use your combined insights to:
- Write more of what works across all platforms
- Tailor content format by platform (long-form for Substack, punchy for X)
- Schedule posts at optimal times for each platform
- Re-engage low-activity subscribers with targeted DMs
- Test new content types on your best-performing platforms first
FAQ: Substack Insights & Cross-Platform Analytics
How do I access Substack Insights?
Log into your Substack dashboard and click "Stats" or "Insights" in the left sidebar. All creators have access from day one, regardless of subscriber count or plan type.
What metrics does Substack Insights show?
Substack Insights tracks:
- Subscriber growth (free and paid)
- Newsletter open rates and read time
- Post engagement (likes, comments, shares)
- Notes performance (likes, comments, restacks, reach)
- Audience demographics and referral sources
Can I see Substack Notes analytics?
Yes. Substack Insights includes a dedicated Notes section showing likes, comments, restacks, reach, and impressions for each Note you publish. Access it by clicking on "Notes" within your Insights dashboard.
How do I track Substack performance on other platforms?
Substack Insights only tracks on-platform performance. To track cross-platform performance (LinkedIn, X, Threads), you need a multi-platform analytics tool like Narrareach that aggregates data from all your connected accounts.
What's the difference between Substack Insights and Narrareach?
Substack Insights tracks what happens on Substack: newsletter opens, reads, subscriber growth, and Notes engagement within the Substack ecosystem.
Narrareach tracks what happens everywhere: Substack + LinkedIn + X + Threads performance in one unified dashboard. It also adds scheduling analytics, subscriber DM tracking, and AI-powered content insights.
They're complementary tools. Use Substack Insights for on-platform data and Narrareach for complete cross-platform visibility.
Do I need both tools?
If you only publish on Substack, Substack Insights is sufficient.
If you cross-post to LinkedIn, X, or Threads (which you should be doing to maximize reach), you need cross-platform analytics. Otherwise, you're making content decisions based on incomplete data.
How much does Narrareach cost?
Narrareach offers a free trial so you can see your complete cross-platform analytics before committing. Paid plans start at $39/month for creators who want to maximize their reach across multiple platforms. Try it free.
Conclusion: See the Complete Picture
Substack Insights is a powerful tool for understanding your newsletter performance. It shows you what's working on Substack — and for single-platform creators, that's enough.
But if you're cross-posting to LinkedIn, X, or Threads, you're only seeing 20-40% of your actual reach. The other 60-80% is invisible to Substack Insights.
Multi-platform creators need multi-platform analytics.
The winning strategy:
- Use Substack Insights to track on-platform newsletter performance
- Use Narrareach to track cross-platform reach and engagement
- Combine both datasets to make informed content decisions
- Optimize your strategy by platform based on complete data
- Grow faster by maximizing reach across all channels
Stop guessing. Start measuring.
Try Narrareach Free
See your full reach across Substack, LinkedIn, X, and Threads.
- Unified analytics dashboard
- Cross-platform performance comparison
- Scheduling analytics and optimization
- Subscriber engagement tracking
- AI-powered content insights
Start your free trial — no credit card required.
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