Metrics and measurement
Engagement rate
Engagement rate is the share of an audience that interacts with a post, calculated as total engagements divided by a chosen denominator, most often followers or reach, expressed as a percentage.
Also called ER, engagement percentage.
The formula matters as much as the number. Engagement rate by follower count divides likes, comments, saves, and shares by followers. Engagement rate by reach divides the same engagements by the people who actually saw the post. Reach-based rates are almost always higher, so two creators quoting engagement rate can be quoting incomparable numbers unless the denominator is stated.
As a rough guide on Instagram, an engagement rate above about 3 percent by followers is considered strong for an account of moderate size, with smaller accounts routinely higher and very large accounts often below 1 percent. Benchmarks differ substantially by platform.
Common questions
- How do you calculate engagement rate?
- Add likes, comments, saves, and shares for a post, divide by follower count, and multiply by 100 to get a percentage. To calculate it by reach instead, divide by the number of unique accounts that saw the post. Averaging across the last 10 to 12 posts gives a more reliable figure than any single post.
- What is a good engagement rate?
- It depends on platform and audience size. On Instagram, 1 to 3 percent by followers is typical, above 3 percent is strong, and nano accounts often exceed 5 percent. Compare a creator to others of similar size on the same platform rather than to a universal number.
Related terms
- Reach
- Reach is the number of unique accounts that saw a piece of content at least once. Each person is counted once no matter how many times they saw it.
- Impressions
- Impressions are the total number of times a piece of content was displayed, counting repeat views by the same person.
- Influencer tiers
- Influencer tiers group creators by audience size: nano (roughly 1,000 to 10,000 followers), micro (10,000 to 100,000), mid-tier (100,000 to 500,000), macro (500,000 to 1 million), and mega or celebrity (over 1 million).
- Audience audit
- An audience audit checks whether a creator's followers are real and relevant, looking for bought followers, engagement pods, and mismatches between the audience's location or age and the brand's market.
- CPE
- CPE is the cost of a single engagement, calculated as the fee divided by total engagements. It measures what a brand paid for each like, comment, save, or share.
Distinct is the workspace where brands and creators run the work behind these terms. For brands, for creators, or back to the full glossary.