Engagement rate
What is engagement rate?
Engagement rate shows how much people respond to content compared with the number of followers or times the content was seen. It is shown as a percentage.
Those responses are called interactions. They can include likes, comments, shares, saves, or clicks. Reports may count different actions and use different formulas, so check how a rate was calculated before comparing it.
Why is engagement rate important?
Engagement rate helps you see which posts get people to respond. A post with more likes may also have a much larger audience, so the like count alone does not tell the whole story.
If you work with creators, this rate can help you compare the response to their posts. If you create content, it can help you spot topics your audience enjoys.
How do you calculate engagement rate?
First, add up the actions you want to count. For example, you might include likes, comments, shares, and saves. Then choose a formula:
- Using followers: interactions ÷ number of followers × 100
- Using reach: interactions ÷ number of different accounts reached × 100
- Using impressions: interactions ÷ number of times the content was shown × 100
For video, you can also divide interactions by video views and multiply by 100. Say which formula you used, and check what the platform counts as a view.
For example, a post gets 300 interactions. The creator has 10,000 followers, and the post reaches 5,000 accounts.
- Using followers: 300 ÷ 10,000 × 100 = 3%
- Using reach: 300 ÷ 5,000 × 100 = 6%
The same post has two different rates because each formula compares the interactions with a different number.
What is a good engagement rate?
There is no single good rate for every creator or platform. Compare similar creators and types of content, such as videos with videos. Use the same formula, count the same actions, and look at the same time period.
For several posts, you can calculate each post’s rate and then take the average. Another method is to add up all interactions and divide by the total reach or impressions for those posts, then multiply by 100. These methods can give different results, so use the same one throughout your comparison.
Remember that this rate counts actions. One person can like, comment, and save the same post, so a 6% rate does not necessarily mean 6% of people responded.
A high rate alone does not prove that followers are real people or guarantee sales. It also does not tell you whether comments are positive. Read them and check whether the posts helped you reach your campaign goals.
Related terms: Audience size, Reach, and Impressions/Views.