Google Now Shows Which Searches Find Your Instagram and TikTok Posts

Jerad Larkin
25 minutes ago
7 min read

Google has been quietly collecting data on how your Instagram Reels and TikToks show up in search results. Until last month, you could not see a single number of it.

That changed on July 7, when Google added a new property type to Search Console built specifically for social and video platforms. It finished rolling out to every account on July 29. It is free, it takes about ten minutes per account, and almost nobody in the Denver Metro has turned it on yet.

What is a Google Search Console platform property?

A platform property is a free Search Console account type showing how your Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube posts perform in Google Search. Denver real estate agents can connect each account in about ten minutes, no website needed.

I am Jerad Larkin, a Sales Executive with Chicago Title Colorado, and I spend most of my week teaching Denver Metro agents how to get found online. When Google hands agents a free data source, I pay attention, because most of the marketing advice agents receive is guesswork dressed up as strategy. This is not guesswork. This is Google telling you, in its own numbers, which of your posts people are actually finding through search.

Here is what the tool does, how to turn it on, and the three things I would do with the data in your first week.

What Are Search Console Platform Properties?

Search Console has always been a website tool. You verified a domain, and Google showed you which queries brought people to your pages. If you did not own a website, Search Console had nothing for you.

Platform properties changed that. Google announced them on the Google Search Central blog on July 7, 2026, and confirmed global availability on July 29. You can now add Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube as its own property and get search performance data for that account by itself. No domain required.

What Data Do You Actually Get?

The Performance report for a platform property looks a lot like the one for a website. You get clicks, impressions, average click-through rate, and average position. You get the list of search queries that surfaced your content. You get your top-performing posts and videos, ranked.

You can filter by search type, which lets you separate Web results from Image, Video, and News. As Search Engine Roundtable noted at launch, Google also reports eligible appearances in Discover and Google News. That matters more than most agents realize, because Discover is where a lot of casual real estate browsing happens on a phone.

What Does It Not Show You?

This is not a replacement for native analytics. Your TikTok view count, your Instagram likes, your YouTube watch time from the home feed, none of that appears here. Search Engine Journal made the same point when the feature launched. This is organic Google Search data and nothing more.

It is also not ad data. Nothing from Meta Ads Manager or Google Ads shows up in a platform property. Keep those reports separate in your head.

Why Does This Matter for Denver Real Estate Agents?

Because Google is now a distribution channel for your social content whether you planned for that or not. When somebody searches for a Wash Park townhome tour or asks what seller concessions look like in Colorado, Google can surface an Instagram Reel or a TikTok in those results. If yours is showing up, you should know which post and which query.

It also gives Denver Metro agents something rare: a free, first-party answer to the question of whether the content is working. Not vanity metrics. Not follower count. Real search demand attached to real posts you already made.

I have written before about how Instagram now ranks captions the way a search engine ranks pages. Platform properties are the scoreboard for that work. Same story with YouTube, which has always been the second-largest search engine on earth. Until now you were optimizing for search with no search data.

There is a bigger picture too. New research from Local Falcon found that 91.5 percent of established, website-publishing agents were never named once across 37,500 AI searches run in the 100 largest US cities. Visibility is getting harder to earn and easier to measure at the same time. Free measurement is worth ten minutes of your Tuesday.

How Do You Set Up a Platform Property?

The Ten Minute Setup

Step one. Open Google Search Console and sign in with the Google account you want to own this data long term. Use your business Google account, ideally the same one tied to your Google Business Profile, not a personal Gmail you share with your spouse.

Step two. Open the property selector dropdown in the top left corner and click Add property.

Step three. Choose the platform. Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube are the four options available right now.

Step four. Follow the on-screen steps to authorize the connection. Google walks you through it. Each account has to be added separately, so if you run an Instagram account and a YouTube channel, that is two properties and two setups.

Step five. Wait. Initial reporting takes a few days to populate. Do not panic if the report is empty on day one, and do not disconnect and reconnect trying to force it.

What Should You Check First?

Once data appears, go straight to the queries view and sort by impressions. Those are the searches where Google is already showing your content. Then sort by clicks. The gap between the two tells you exactly where you are getting seen but not chosen, which is almost always a thumbnail or a first-line problem.

Then look at your top content. Nine times out of ten there is a post an agent forgot about doing quiet, steady work in search months after it stopped getting likes.

How Should Denver Agents Use the Data?

Make More of What Already Works

If a Reel about Colorado property tax deadlines is pulling impressions, that is not a one-time post. That is a content pillar. Make three more from three different angles and space them out across the month. You are not guessing at topics anymore, you are reading demand.

Rewrite Captions Around Real Search Language

The queries report gives you the exact words people typed, not the words you assume they type. Put those phrases in your captions, your on-screen text, and your first line of copy. It is the same discipline that makes neighborhood pages rank on your website, applied to social.

Feed the Winners Back Into Your Own Site

If a TikTok about earnest money in Colorado is picking up search impressions, write the long-form version and put it on your own domain with proper schema markup. Social platforms rent you an audience on terms they can change tomorrow. Your website is the one asset you actually own.

What Do Most Agents Get Wrong Here?

Three things. They connect a personal account instead of the business account and split their data across two places. They check the report once, get excited, and never come back, when the right cadence is fifteen minutes once a month. And they read a low click-through rate as failure when it is usually a fixable cover image.

Part of what I do as a Sales Executive at Chicago Title Colorado is help Denver Metro agents build marketing systems that keep working after the initial push. A free measurement tool most of your competition has not opened yet is exactly that kind of edge. It also pairs well with a properly maintained Google Business Profile, which Local Falcon found accounts for 36.6 percent of all AI search citations naming agents.

If you want the industry framing on why this release matters, Inman covered it on August 12 and reached the same conclusion I did: Google just handed every agent free data on which searches surface their content, and hardly anyone has claimed it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a website to use Google Search Console platform properties?

No, and that is the whole point of the release. Platform properties work on the social account alone. You authorize the Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube account directly and Google reports search performance for it. Plenty of Denver real estate agents who never built a site can use this today.

How long does it take to see data in a Search Console platform property?

Plan on a few days. Google begins populating the Performance report shortly after you authorize the connection, but the first useful picture usually takes about a week. Historical data before your connection date is limited, so the sooner you connect, the sooner your baseline starts building.

Is this the same as Instagram Insights or YouTube Analytics?

No. Native analytics measure activity inside the app: views from the feed, likes, saves, watch time. A platform property measures only what happens in Google Search, Discover, and Google News. Most agents will want both open side by side, because they answer different questions.

Is Search Console worth it for an agent who only posts a few times a week?

Yes, because the cost is ten minutes and zero dollars. Even at two or three posts a week you will learn which topics Colorado consumers are actually searching for, and that shapes what you film next. The only agents who get nothing out of it are the ones posting nothing at all.

Which platforms does Google support right now?

Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are not options today. Google describes platform properties as a new property type rather than a one-off feature, which suggests the list could grow, but nothing else has been announced.

If you want a walkthrough of this, or help building a content system that actually gets found across the Denver Metro, come find me. I publish new marketing and AI training for real estate agents at milehightitleguy.com every week, and I teach live classes throughout Colorado. Reach out and I will point you to the right tool, template, or upcoming class for where you are right now.

Jerad Larkin

Sales Executive | Chicago Title Colorado

milehightitleguy.com

My Blog