Instagram engagement rate: How to calculate yours in 2024

When people see an Instagram post they like, they often engage with it by Liking and commenting on it. Some may even share it with others or save it to their collection. These engagement actions can tell you whether your Instagram strategy is paying off. So you need to closely monitor your Instagram engagement rate to understand your performance.

Even when looking at potential influencer partnerships, you’ll want to check if they’re driving good social media engagement. But what is a good engagement rate on Instagram? And how do you calculate it?

Let’s find out below.

What is an Instagram engagement rate?

An Instagram engagement rate is a metric that tells you how people are interacting with your content on the platform. It considers details such as your follower count along with interactions such as Likes, comments, saves and shares. This metric helps you gauge how well your content resonates with your target audience.

Why a good engagement rate matters on Instagram

A good engagement rate indicates that people are enjoying your content. This is a huge achievement as it shows that your Instagram marketing efforts are paying off. Besides this, there are other reasons to boost your Instagram engagement rate.

Improve platform visibility

The Instagram algorithm uses several factors to rank and display content. While relevance is one crucial element, engagement is another major consideration. Even among relevant content, posts that see tons of engagement are more likely to show up in a user’s Explore. So having a good engagement rate is essential to improve your visibility on Instagram.

Attract a new audience

With higher visibility comes an increased chance of attracting a new audience. Instagram will typically show your content to people who are most likely to be interested in it. If these users like your content enough, they may want to check out your profile and even follow you. In other words, a good engagement rate may help you grow your Instagram following.

Boost credibility

To the average Instagram user, a post that has tons of engagement means other people are enjoying it. As such, good engagement serves as social proof and reflects positively on your brand authenticity. People may feel more comfortable trusting your brand because so many others are engaging with it.

How to calculate your Instagram engagement rate

To calculate Instagram engagement rate, you need two details:

• Total interactions
• Total followers

The total follower count is easy to see on your Instagram profile. Follow the steps below to access your total interactions:

1. Go to your Instagram Insights.
2. Choose the date range you want to track.
3. Tap on “Interactions” from the overview section.
4. Scroll down to the “By interaction” section and add up the total interactions for your posts. You can also add the interactions in your Stories if you want to include them in your calculation.

Once you have these two numbers, here’s how to check engagement rate on Instagram:

Engagement rate = (Total interactions/Total followers) x 100

Alternatively, you can automatically calculate your Instagram engagement using an Instagram analytics tool.

What is the average engagement rate on Instagram?

RivalIQ puts the median engagement rate on Instagram at 0.43% across all industries.

The average engagement rate for Instagram varies depending on factors such as post type and industry. Industries like higher education and sports teams see a higher average engagement at 2.43% and 1.57% respectively.

Additionally, the latest Instagram stats show that Reels are the most engaging post type with an average engagement of 1.23%.

Instagram carousels have an average engagement rate of 0.99%, while image posts see 0.70% engagement on average.

What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?

The RivalIQ study found that the median Instagram engagement rate for the top 25% of brands is 1.02%. So anything around this number should be safe. That said, you’d ideally want to shoot for a higher engagement rate than the platform average.

Plus, you should consider the benchmarks in your industry to see what’s a good engagement rate for you. If you’re seeing a 2% engagement rate in higher education, this is slightly lower than the industry average of 2.43%.

This makes it crucial to look at the average Instagram engagement rate of your top competitors to see if you’re getting good engagement. Run an Instagram competitors report to get a better idea of typical engagement rates in your industry.

What is a good influencer engagement rate on Instagram?

Statista reports that the average influencer engagement rate on Instagram is 1.85%. So anything higher than this is a good engagement rate.

However, the average Instagram influencer engagement rate will vary by follower size and industry. Nano-influencers (having 1k to 10k followers) see the highest average engagement at 2.19%. Other influencer categories generally see an engagement rate between 0.80% and 1%. Here’s a detailed breakdown:

• Micro-influencers (10k to 50k followers) – 0.99%
• Macro-influencers (50k to 500k followers) – 0.86%
• Mega-influencers (500k to 1 million followers) – 0.87%
• Celebrity influencers (over 1 million followers) – 0.94%

It’s also good to note that some industries see a higher influencer engagement rate. So you need to consider the industry benchmarks to see if an influencer is seeing enough engagement. Travel influencers, for instance, saw an average post engagement rate of 1.22% as of May 2024. And beauty influencers had a 1.26% average engagement rate during this same period.

Meanwhile, influencer engagement in the fashion industry is slightly lower at 0.99%. Food influencers saw an average engagement of 0.63%, while engagement rates for health influencers dropped to 0.4%.

Check out the Sprout Social Influencer Directory to find influencer engagement rates in your industry.

Once you get this info, use Sprout’s influencer marketing platform to conduct your influencer search. Tagger by Sprout comes with 50+ search filters to help you narrow down the ideal influencers for your brand. You can easily check their engagement rates to see which influencers are best at engaging their Instagram followers.

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13 tips to improve your Instagram engagement rate

Now let’s get to the fun part. Here are some actionable tips to improve your engagement rate on Instagram.

1. Actually engage with your audience

We’re starting this list off easy. To drive more engagement from your followers, you need to interact with them. Social media isn’t a one-way street. If you want to build an engaged audience, you need to acknowledge your followers. Remember, every comment you get means someone took the time to stop, look at your post and share their thoughts. After all that, why wouldn’t you respond?

If you want to build up engagement, know that it takes time and you need to start conversations on posts other than your own. Asking questions, responding to comments and replying to Stories are some of the few ways to engage more with your audience.

With comment threading, it’s even easier to know which ones you’ve missed on your posts. Not to mention, Sprout Social’s Smart Inbox lets you easily check off comments you’ve already responded to.

As your account starts to grow and you get more comments, you might not be able to respond to everyone. But that doesn’t mean you should give up entirely. You can still Like comments or just try to reply to as many as possible.

For instance, GoPro has over 20 million followers on Instagram. The brand deals with hundreds of comments on its posts, so it’s not always viable to reply to every single comment. However, it takes time to respond to comments that ask questions or bring up an important feature.

Source: GoPro on Instagram

2. Replicate your top-performing posts

An excellent post idea may not drive the desired impact in the real world. It’s important to see what types of posts work with your audience and use this to inspire your Instagram content strategy.

Which posts are your followers engaging with the most? Review your Instagram analytics to see your past months’ best-performing posts. Is there a common theme among your top performers?

For example, you might find that photos with bright and bold colors get a ton of Likes. Or maybe people are engaging more with Reels that have music in the background. You might even find that people are saving your posts when they contain practical tips.

Use our Instagram dashboard to find your top-performing posts. Then look for commonalities between the posts and try to incorporate more of them in the future.

3. Make use of interactive features

Instagram is constantly improving to introduce new features that enhance user engagement. For instance, you can add interactive stickers to your Stories to conduct polls and quizzes. Question stickers and emoji sliders are also a great way to get people to interact with your Instagram Stories.

Glow Recipe shared a series of Stories with interactive stickers to engage its followers in a discussion about retinol. It started off with a poll asking people if they’ve tried retinol. The next two Stories included question stickers asking people to share their experience using it or why they haven’t tried it.

The next Story continued with a pop quiz and a poll where people could cast their votes. It encouraged followers to tap to the next Story to see the right answer. This all culminated to a Story explaining how retinol can be intimidating so the brand formulated it to be gentle and hydrating. This creative use of interactive Story stickers can give you an idea of how to use them to drive engagement for your brand.

One of the latest Instagram trends involves using the “Add Yours” sticker. Use this sticker to start a challenge and get people to engage with your brand. Share a prompt and encourage people to participate in your challenge by adding their own content. Alternatively, participate in trending “Add Yours” challenges to boost visibility.

4. Take advantage of your Instagram Stories

Speaking of Stories, make sure to use them to promote your latest posts. This is a great way to ensure better visibility for your Feed posts as Stories show up prominently at the top of the user’s Feed. So even if they don’t see your post initially, they might discover it through your Stories and engage with it.

Penguin Books regularly shares its latest Feed post in Stories to ensure that people don’t miss it.

5. Promote across networks

It goes without saying that the audience for your Facebook Page might not be the same as the audience on your Instagram account. Chances are that some of your Facebook audience is on Instagram, but they just don’t know that you exist there yet. Don’t be afraid to sprinkle some cross-network promotional posts to encourage more followers.

6. Create more short-form video content

Guess what we found in the 2024 Content Benchmarks Report? Consumers want to see more short-form videos from brands. And the shorter the better, with 42% of respondents preferring videos shorter than 15 seconds. Short-form videos between 15-30 seconds are the second most preferred content format.

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That means your Instagram content strategy needs to change direction. And the focus should shift to creating more short-form videos.

In other words, Reels are your best friend for boosting your Instagram engagement. Who knows? It might even be just the thing you need to go viral on Instagram.

Create Reels showing how-to tips and tricks or behind-the-scenes processes, for instance. Reels can be informational as well, providing a quick list of things people might want to know. And if you ever run out of ideas, you can always turn to your community for inspiration.

Grove Collaborative relies heavily on user-generated Reels to keep its Feed fresh and engaging. These short videos feature relatable humor and household hacks from its community.

Source: Grove Collaborative on Instagram

7. Create Collab posts with influential accounts

Instagram now has a feature enabling users to create Collab posts with other users. A Collab post shows up in the Feeds of both of your followers, meaning a chance to garner higher engagement. So make the most of this feature to collaborate with influencers, industry leaders and brand partners.

The Honest Kitchen regularly creates Collab posts with pet influencers to promote its human-grade pet food. This allows the brand to get its products in front of a massive and relevant audience i.e., the pet influencer’s followers. As expected, these posts have managed to garner hundreds of thousands of Likes and comments.

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8. Give sneak peeks and hints to drive curiosity

Followers love it when you let them in on a secret. Even if they’re public posts, giving sneak peeks and hints of new releases makes the audience think they’re part of a special group. It entices them to guess what’s going on and encourages them to revisit the profile to see if there’s been an announcement.

Check out how Fabletics Scrubs shares a teaser for an upcoming color drop without giving too much away. The Reel features turquoise waves and a text overlay that reads “May.” In the caption, the brand explains that the May color drop is arriving soon and encourages followers to “give us your best guess.”

Source: Fabletics Scrubs on Instagram

9. Write captions that drive engagement

On a related note, your Instagram captions give you the perfect opportunity to include a call for action. In this case, the action would involve some type of engagement. For example, asking a question in your caption would encourage your followers to share their answers in the comments. Or you could share a prompt that would make them want to share their experience or thoughts by commenting.

For example, Spoonflower shares a Reel showing different wallpaper styles. In the caption, it asks followers which style matches their vibe. The Reel generated tons of comments from enthusiastic followers choosing their favorite collection.

Source: Spoonflower on Instagram

10. Post your content at the best times

Timing plays a role in how much engagement you get on your posts.

You want to post when most of your followers are online and engaging on the app. Even with the best photo and wittiest caption, you could still miss out on engagement if you’re posting at the wrong hour.

We did some research into the best times to post on Instagram, and here’s what we found.

But keep in mind that the specific timing may be different for your account. Instagram business accounts offer analytics that tells you when your followers are most active. Use this information to schedule your posts and free up your time to engage with comments.

Alternatively, Instagram automation can help you save time and improve the scheduling process.

Use Sprout’s ViralPost feature to automatically schedule your posts at the optimal time. This feature ensures that your Instagram posts go out at a time when you receive the most engagement.

11. Encourage customer and employee posts

Use branded Instagram hashtags to help you organize user-generated content.

If you engage in these hashtags and incorporate a UGC strategy, more people will take notice and begin using the hashtags, too.

Your employees can be your strongest advocates as well. Their accounts give a more personal, unfiltered perspective of the company. Remember, people like feeling as if they’re in a secret club. If you reshare from your employees, you’re offering perspectives that your brand normally wouldn’t offer.

12 Host a fun giveaway contest

Who wouldn’t want to win free stuff? That’s exactly why social media giveaways are so great for boosting your Instagram engagement. They get people to engage with your brand in a way you’ve never seen before.

Whether the contest involves commenting, sharing or contributing a story—you get to drive engagement either way.

That said, your giveaway contest must be strategic and intentional. Make sure to design the rules keeping your goal in mind i.e., boosting engagement. Moreover, the prize should be attractive; it should be valuable enough to get people to participate.

For example, ColourPop Cosmetics hosted a giveaway to promote its Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” collection. To enter the sweepstakes, all you had to do was like the post and comment your favorite candy and who to take on your spooky Target runs. Winners would receive the entire collection.

Source: ColourPop on Instagram

13. Improve your Instagram hashtags

It’s a well-known fact that using the right hashtags helps you grow your reach. But with that increased reach comes a greater chance of boosting engagement. The more people see your content, the higher the chance that they’ll engage with it.

Use relevant and niche hashtags that will let you tap into the right audience. The goal is to get Instagram to show your content to users who have shown an interest in topics related to that hashtag. So when these users see your content, they’re likely to check it out and engage.

Start growing your Instagram engagement

Having a good engagement rate on Instagram requires adopting a data-driven strategy. You need analytics insights to see what resonates with your audience and adapt accordingly.

Use Sprout’s Instagram analytics features to get comprehensive insights into your performance. Find out how your competitors are doing and benchmark your performance against theirs. See your top-performing posts and hashtags, and identify engagement trends. Use these insights to inform your strategy and boost your Instagram engagement.

Instagram engagement rate FAQs

What is Instagram engagement?

Instagram engagement refers to a measure of how people are interacting with your content. Engagement actions include Liking, commenting, sharing or saving a post. Liking and responding to Stories are also other forms of engagement.

How do you build engagement on Instagram?

You can build engagement on Instagram using the following tips:

• Interact with your audience.
• Replicate your top-performing posts.
• Make use of interactive features like quizzes and polls.
• Promote your new posts through Stories.
• Promote your content to other networks.
• Create more short-form videos.
• Create Collab posts with influential accounts.
• Give sneak peaks and hints to drive curiosity.
• Write engaging captions.
• Post your content at the best times.
• Encourage customer and employee posts.
• Host a fun giveaway contest.
• Improve your Instagram hashtags.

How can I check Instagram engagement?

You can check your Instagram engagement by dividing your total interactions by your total followers. Then multiply the sum by 100 to get your engagement rate. Analytics platforms like Sprout Social can also automatically calculate your Instagram engagement rate.

What counts as engagement?

Engagement on Instagram includes actions such as Liking, commenting, sharing and saving a post. For Stories, actions like Liking and responding count as engagement.