Question 1

How do you calculate engagement rate?

Accepted Answer

Engagement rate = total engagements divided by a denominator, multiplied by 100. Engagements are likes plus comments plus shares (and saves where the platform reports them). The denominator depends on what data you have: engagement rate by followers uses follower count, engagement rate by reach uses unique accounts reached, and engagement rate by impressions uses total impressions. Engagement rate by reach is the most accurate, but reach is only visible to the account owner.

Question 2

What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?

Accepted Answer

Engagement rate by followers varies by account size: smaller accounts typically see higher rates than large ones, because engagement does not scale linearly with audience size. Rather than comparing against a single universal benchmark, compare against accounts of a similar size in your own industry, and track your own rate over time.

Question 3

Which engagement rate formula should I use?

Accepted Answer

Use engagement rate by reach if you have access to reach data, since it measures how many people who actually saw the post engaged with it. Use engagement rate by followers when comparing accounts you do not own, because followers is the only denominator visible publicly. Always state which denominator you used, as the three formulas produce very different numbers for the same post.

What's your real engagement rate?