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Instagram Engagement Rate

Monthly historical data

  • What is the average Instagram Engagement Rate?
  • How has the ER changed over time?
  • What are the highest engaged Instagram posts?
  • How is the ER calculated?
  • What affects the ER?

Average Instagram Engagement Rate last month

Each month we publish the average Instagram Engagement Rate benchmark based on the hundreds of thousands of Instagram posts from all around the world indexed by Social Status. Data comes from our Competitor Analytics tool which enables performance tracking of Business and Creator profiles on Instagram.
 
The average Engagement Rate on Instagram last month was:

How has the Instagram Engagement Rate changed over time?

This chart shows the historical Instagram Engagement Rate for the past year. As you can see, the monthly average is seldom static so its important to benchmark your performance on Instagram against the monthly average. Use Competitor Analytics to benchmark your Instagram profile against your competitors.

Highest engaged posts on Instagram

Below are the highest engaged posts on Instagram last month. Use the Time Interval dropdown to see previous months. These posts have the highest Engagement Rate across hundreds of thousands of Instagram posts published last month. You can tap the date on any post to open it directly on Instagram:

How to calculate Engagement Rate on Instagram

There are four different ways to calculate the Engagement Rate (ER) on Instagram 🙄

 

Unfortunately there is no "right or wrong" way to calculate it - just different approaches.

 

Let's run through them...

 

1. Public Engagement Rate

This is the most common method and its used right here on this very page to calculate the Instagram Benchmark. When benchmarking against competitors you're limited to just the publicly viewable interactions only. For Instagram this is Likes and Comments:

 

Post ER = (Likes + Comments) divided by Followers

 

Profile ER = Average of all Post ER's during the given time interval (ie: last month)

 

Notice how we divide by Followers (not Reach). This is because Reach is a private metric and not available publicly. Reach can only be seen by the owner of the profile or others with admin access. This is why we divide the public Interactions by the Followers.

 

2. Private Engagement Rate

This is the true way to calculate the Instagram Engagement Rate and its what we recommend:

 

Post ER = (Likes + Comments + Saves + 3-sec Video Views) divided by Reach

 

Profile ER = Average of all Post ER's during the given time interval (ie: last month)

 

BUT, the only way you can benchmark the Private Engagement Rate is against yourself over time (ie: month-over-month). For competitor benchmarking, you'll need the first method.

 

3. Private Engagement Rate (Likes & Comments only)

Some marketers base their ER on the Likes & Comments only:

 

Post ER = (Likes + Comments) divided by Reach

 

Profile ER = Average of all Post ER's during the given time interval (ie: last month)

 

The rationale for this is that Likes and Comments are real interactions whereas Saves are not only hidden from public view but also behave as more of a "bookmarking" function than an advocacy action. As for Video Views, no physical action takes place but one could argue that someone watching more than 3 seconds of a video is indeed engagement in itself.

 

4. Private Engagement Rate (based on Impressions)

Some marketers base their ER calculation on Impressions instead of Reach:

 

Post ER = (Likes + Comments + Saves + 3-sec Video Views) divided by Impressions

 

Profile ER = Average of all Post ER's during the given time interval (ie: last month)

 

This is probably the least common approach. By dividing by Impressions, you'll end up with a lower Engagement Rate which is probably not the best thing!

What affects the Instagram Engagement Rate?

There are many factors which affect the performance of Instagram posts organically, here are just a few:
 
- The way people interact with your content (likes vs comments vs saves)

- Posting different media types (photos vs carousels vs videos)

- Changes to the Newsfeed algorithm

- Posting about different themes and subjects

- When you post (day and time)

- Tagging others in the post and/or using hashtags

 

Social Status Insights is where we publish the latest data insights and thoughts on social media marketing, strategy and performance optimisation.

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Facebook competitor analysis tools can help any agency or brand to benchmark performance on Facebook and conduct competitor audits quickly and easily.

7 Instagram Competitor Analysis Tools

Instagram competitor analysis tools can help you benchmark your Instagram performance and understand quickly what kind of content works best.

Discover how social media analytics for your small business can help increase your engagement and reach on your social channels. Social analytics are powerful because they make everything you do on social media measurable.

Social Media Lead Generation is the process of starting thoughtful conversations with followers and non-followers by using a targeted strategy to find your ideal prospects and nurture them towards conversion.

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