A Guide to Instagram Engagement Rates

So you are absolutely killing it on Instagram and have thousands of followers, but how much of them are actually engaging with your content? This is where Instagram engagement rates come in! Having an understanding of what engagement rates are and why they matter can be a super valuable tool for improving your social media strategy.

So tell me, what is an engagement rate?

Your Instagram engagement rate is a numerical measure of user interest and interaction on your social media content. It factors in the number of followers you have, as well as likes, comments and saves on your in-feed posts or stories.

You can calculate your Instagram engagement rate % by totalling the number of likes, comments and saves on a post and then dividing that number by your follower count.

[(Likes + Comments + Saves) / Followers] x 100

If you’re not a fan of maths (we totally understand if you’re not!), there’s a heap of great engagement rate calculators online that you can use to get an overall calculation of your engagement rate. We love https://www.inbeat.co/. 

Engagement rates are one of many social media metrics, but it’s definitely one of the most important metrics to measure. This is because it focuses on a range of factors, opposed to just one. For example, if you decide to measure success by follower count, you might think that an account with a small number of followers is underperforming, but in reality, this may not be the case. Accounts with a small number of followers could be really successful at producing high-quality content and have built a community of engaged followers. 

What’s a good engagement rate?

So now you know what engagement rates are, but now how do you determine if your engagement rate is at least on par with other accounts?

Well, it depends. Good engagement rates will vary depending on audience size. The table below is a basic guide to the average engagement rate for different audience sizes. 

Why should I be tracking my engagement rate?

Tracking your Instagram engagement rate can provide you with a whole heap of really great information, such as your audience’s interests or how well your previous posts have performed. Keep reading below for four reasons why we think you should be tracking your Instagram engagement rate.

1. Evaluate the likelihood of posts appearing in the main feed. The Instagram algorithm works by a score of interest (how likely someone is to interact with your post). Therefore if your posts have high engagement rates, Instagram will notice that and they’ll be more likely to show your posts to users who are consistently engaging with you. This means that the chance of users interacting with your posts will increase as your posts will be showing up in your followers feed more often. If you track your engagement rates, it can give you better clarity on how likely your posts are to appear in your followers feed and give you an idea if you need to make some changes to your content strategy.

2. Assess your audiences’ interest in your business. You can use your engagement rates to determine what type of content your audience enjoys the most. The higher the engagement rate, the more interesting the content is to your audience. Once you’ve determined what type of content your audience likes, create posts that are centred around this. By producing content that your audience likes, they’ll be more likely to interact with it, and therefore boost your overall engagement rates.

3. Generate trust with target audiences. When people view your account for the first time, they’ll do a quick scroll through your content to decide whether your a trustworthy business to purchase from. If you have a heap of great comments and likes from happy customers, people will be more likely to trust you. Once you’ve built the foundation of trust, people will be more likely to follow your account and hopefully interact with your posts!

4. Provides an accurate picture of post performance. The levels of engagement on each post might look quite impressive when you’re counting up the likes and comments, but when that’s not being compared against impressions, the data isn’t that useful. 100 likes and comments is amazing for a brand that had 500 people see their post, but not so much when 50,000 people saw the post. Therefore, factoring in impressions gives a much more accurate picture.

How to increase engagement rates

1. Identify your audience. Have a look into your Instagram Insights to determine where your followers live, how old they are, their gender, and when they tend to interact with your posts the most. Once you have an understanding of who your audience is, assess whether your current content mix resonates with them.

2. Use hashtags strategically. Using hashtags is a great way to reach target audiences who may be interested in your products or brand. Click here to learn more about finding the right hashtags for your brand.  

3. Be authentic. Perfectly polished doesn’t work in the social media landscape, it’s best to be honest and relatable. This could be sharing things such as behind-the-scenes footage or throwing a bit of humour into your IG captions. Just be yourself! 

4. Create savable content. As mentioned above, saves are included in the calculation for engagement rates. Therefore, if you want to boost your engagement rate, then creating savable content is definitely going to help! Be sure to add a ‘save this post’ CTA to these posts as well to encourage users to save the post and view them again at a later date.

5. Post consistently and at strategic times. Consistency is key! Consistently posting on your IG account will help to build connections and trust with your target audience. Publishing your posts when your audience is the most active is equally as important for boosting engagement. Not sure when the right time to post is? Check out the Insights tab to see what days and times your audience is most active. If you need a little help finding your Insights and understanding what you’re looking at, check out this blog.

6. Engage with your followers. Responding to your followers will make them feel heard and also signal to the Instagram algorithm that your content is high-value. 

7. Write strong captions. Captions help to add context to a post and show your brand’s personality. To really hook in your audience, make sure the first line is something that captures their attention really well. 

Overall, measuring your Instagram engagement rate is a really great way to assess the success of your social media strategy. It will tell you if your audience is engaging with your content, or let you know if you have some areas that need a little extra attention. If you’re still feeling a bit confused or don’t know where to go from here, get in touch!