Simply gaining followers and views is not of much use. On Instagram, it’s not just about how many people follow you but how they interact with your content. That’s why you need to keep an extra eye on engagement metrics. Your engagement rate on Instagram is used to measure the level of interaction that your Instagram posts enjoy. 😃 Below, you’ll learn the benchmark for a good engagement rate (ER) as well as best practices to increase Instagram engagement. 📊
How to Calculate Instagram Engagement Rate Manually
An engagement rate is expressed as a percentage. There are a couple of formulas that you can use to calculate your ERs on social media platforms, including Instagram. Each formula includes different metrics, such as; ☑️
- Engagement – total number of likes, comments, shares, and saves
- Impressions
- Views
- Followers
- Reach
Suppose you’re manually calculating the ER of your business’s social media account. In that case, you’ll need to choose a formula that incorporates the metrics by which you want to assess your business’s performance online. Here are five ways to calculate your Instagram engagement rate.
Engagement Rate by Followers (ERF)
The ERF formula is the most popular 🤩
If you’re looking to calculate the engagement rate of a post, considering the number of followers you have, use this formula:
ERF= ( number of engagements÷Number of followers) × 100
To calculate your average rate of engagement, divide the total number or sum of ERFs by the total number of posts. Here’s the formula:
Sum of the ERFs of all your posts÷Number of posts
Engagement Rate by Reach (ERR)
The reach of an Instagram post is the number of users that the app shows the post. 🤳🏾It’s not the same as the number of followers that saw the post. Instagram’s algorithm may not show your post to all your followers but it sometimes shows the post to non-followers who appear to be interested in your type of content. 👌
You’ll be able to calculate your average engagement on Instagram by reach if you’re using a business or creator account. Non-professional account owners can’t monitor how many accounts they reach. You can view your reach through your account settings on Instagram or through a social media analytics tool like Hootsuite. 🦉
To calculate your ERR per post, use this formula: 👇
(Number of engagements÷Total reach)×100
To calculate your average ERR across, use this formula:
Sum of ERRs of all Posts ÷ Number of Posts
Engagement Rate by Impressions (ERI)
You can use this formula to calculate the ERI of a post:
(Number of engagements÷Number of impressions)×100
To calculate the average ERI of an Instagram account, this formula works:
Sum of ERIs of all Posts÷ number of posts
Daily Engagement Rate (DER)
The daily engagement rate is a measure of how many times in how many ways your followers interact with your content in a day. 🗓️ This formula doesn’t consider any engagement from anyone who’s not following your Instagram account. 🚫 The formula is:
(Number of engagements in a day÷Total number of followers)×100
Your average DER for a specific number of days will be:
Sum of the DERs for those days÷ Total number of days
Engagement Rate by Views (ERV)
The ERV formula is best used for measuring the engagement rate on video content. ▶️ To get the ERV of a video that you’ve posted on Instagram, you use this formula:
(Total Number of Engagements on the Video/Total Number of Views) × 100
The formula below is to calculate the average ERV of a number of video posts:
Sum of ERVs on the Videos / Total Number of the Videos
How to Calculate Engagement Rate on Instagram Automatically
There are some tools for calculating your engagement rate. 🤓 These tools may employ different metrics. Before choosing a tool, make sure to consider the metrics that it uses. These metrics should be the ones that you want to take into account when calculating your engagement rate. Here’s a couple of Instagram engagement rate calculators that you can use for free: 😉
- Grum: Grum offers a cutting-edge free engagement rate calculator tool that will display your accurate interaction rate within seconds.
- Trendhero: Trendhero uses the ERF formula to calculate the engagement rate on an account but it takes into account only the last 18 posts on the account.
- HypeAuditor: HypeAuditor uses the ERF formula to calculate the engagement rate of an account as well but considers the most recent 12 posts on the account.
- Modash.io: Modash also employs the ERF formula but considers only the last 30 posts on the account.
Most other Instagram engagement rate calculators employ the ERF formula. 👌 So, if you’re looking to analyze the engagement rate on an Instagram account using a different formula, e.g. the Engagement Rate By Reach (ERR) formula, you’ll need to complete the process manually. ✍️
What Is a Good Engagement Rate on Instagram?
The benchmark for a good engagement rate on Instagram is between 1% and 6%.😵 If your engagement rate is higher than 3%, it indicates that your audience is very engaged with your content. An ER of 6% or higher is considered excellent.
| Engagement rate | level |
| less than 1% | low |
| between 1% and 3.5% | average/good |
| between 3.5% and 6% | high |
| above 6% | very high |
Now you can calculate your ER.
How to Boost Your Social Media Engagement Rate in 2024
We’ve summarized the best practices to boost your ER in this blog, where we share tips to grow on Instagram: 🤩
- Choose an appealing profile photo.
- Complete your Instagram bio.
- Share daily hot news related to your industry (especially in stories).
- Write engaging captions.
- Choose the best time for your posts.
- Schedule Instagram posts in advance to better manage them.
- Reply to comments and like them.
- Reply to direct messages on Instagram. Although it doesn’t have a direct impact on the engagement rate, it can enhance your reputation.
- Make a list of your targets and follow them from time to time.
- Pay attention to hashtags.
What is a good reach rate on Instagram?
On the average, the reach rate on Instagram (as of 2023) is 9.34%. With this in mind, a good reach rate on Instagram is between 1% and 8%. The reach of your posts is affected by things like your frequency of posting. 📶
Conclusion
After figuring out your average engagement rate, you need to understand what the number actually means and whether you should change your social strategy or continue with it to go viral on Instagram. 🔁 Creating engaging content that resonates with your target audience will help boost organic engagement. As long as you continue to give them value, they’ll keep coming back for more. 🙌
Frequently Answered Questions (FAQs)
- What does a low Instagram engagement rate mean?
A low engagement rate says a lot about your Instagram account. 🤔 If you have a lot of followers but a low engagement rate, the reason may be that your followers are fake or you own a spam or spoof Instagram profile.
2. What does a high engagement rate mean?
On the other hand, if a person’s account has a high ER, it means their audience loves their content and messaging. 🫠🤌🏻💗
3. Do brands consider engagement rates in influencer marketing?
When a brand’s marketer is looking for an influencer or influencers to promote the brand’s products or services, they consider the influencer’s ER. Even if you’re not an influencer, your ER is a great indicator of whether your follower count is merely deceptive or if your followers actually love your type of content. �
4. Is 40% engagement rate good on Instagram?
A 40% engagement rate on Instagram is considered excellent. 🎖️👏
5. Is 1% engagement rate good on Instagram?
A 1% engagement rate on Instagram is generally good. If your ER is 1%, you may need to concentrate on creating higher-quality content and ensure that the content is resonating with your audience. 👥
