INFLUENCER MARKETING

How to Calculate Engagement Rate on Instagram: 6 Formulas + Free Engagement Rate Calculator

Can’t gauge your Instagram success? Measuring engagement rates can seem like a complex puzzle.

Don’t worry, you’re on the right page to learn how to calculate engagement rate on Instagram.

This article unlocks:

• Engagement rate essentials: What it is and why it’s crucial for your Instagram strategy.
• Six key formulas: Step-by-step guidance on calculating engagement rates with different methods.
• Free engagement rate calculator: Access a tool that simplifies these calculations.
• Additional insights: Expert tips and tricks from our experience as an influencer marketing platform.

Keep reading to master the art of measuring Instagram engagement effectively.

TL;DR How to Calculate Engagement Rate on Instagram:

• Understanding Instagram Engagement: Engagement rate is a key metric for Instagram success, indicating how users interact with content.
• Importance of Engagement Rate: It reflects audience interaction and is crucial for content strategy, enhancing visibility, and building trust.
• Engagement Rate Metrics on Instagram: Includes likes, comments, shares, saves, DMs, profile visits, story sticker taps, "Get Directions" clicks, and branded hashtag use.
• Free Engagement Rate Calculator: inBeat offers a free tool to calculate engagement rates, providing insights like average likes, comments, and rates for individual posts.
• 6 Engagement Rate Formulas:

1. Engagement Rate by Reach (ERR): Measures interaction based on content visibility.
2. Engagement Rate by Posts (ER Post): Assesses post performance based on follower engagement.
3. Engagement Rate by Impressions (ER Impressions): Useful for paid content effectiveness.
4. Daily Engagement Rate (Daily ER): Tracks daily follower interactions.
5. Engagement Rate by Views (ER Views): For video content engagement.
6. Engagement Rate by Followers (ER Followers): Interactions relative to total followers.

• Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data: Emphasizes the importance of considering both for a true understanding of engagement.
• Leveraging Engagement Rates in Influencer Marketing:

1. Enhance Content Strategy: Analyze posts and engagement patterns.
2. Gather Customer Feedback: Understand followers' values and interests.
3. Identify Influencers: Use interactions to find influential users and similar profiles.

Recommendation: Utilize the inBeat platform for comprehensive engagement rate analysis and influencer discovery.

What Is an Engagement Rate?

The Instagram engagement rate is a crucial metric in social media marketing because it represents the level of interaction your content receives from your audience.

And different types of content receive different engagement rates on this social channel and others.

Engagement rates are calculated as a percentage.

But there’s a problem:

Different formulas include different engagement metrics, including likes, comments, and saves. Plus, certain engagement rate formulas for Instagram may consider the number of impressions and shares.

Insider tip: From our experience at inBeat, you should see the results of multiple formulas if you want a comprehensive view of your content’s performance on Instagram.

We’ll delve into those formulas in a second.

For now, let’s answer this question:

Why Is Knowing Your Instagram Engagement Rate Important?

Your or influencer’s profiles aren’t just about audience size.

Your Instagram engagement rate indicates how much your audience cares about and interacts with your content.

Insider tip: That’s why we value quality metrics like comments, shares, clicks on specific buttons, and other actions.

Plus, high engagement rates:

• Signal that your content reaches and resonates with the right target audience
• Enhance visibility on social platforms like Instagram.
• Build trust with new visitors to your profile.

Conversely, a lower rate can serve as a cue to refine and improve your social media strategy.

Insider tip: Engagement rates are among the most important metrics our clients at inBeat consider when building their influencer marketing campaigns.

Instagram Engagement Rate Metrics

Each social media platform has different engagement rate metrics.

Instagram engagement rate metrics encompass various indicators of how users interact with your content. Here are the most common.

• Likes: Show how many users appreciate a feed post. They’re a fundamental engagement metric.
• Comments: Indicate deeper engagement, reflecting users’ thoughts and opinions on your content.
• Shares: Prove that your content resonates enough for users to share it with their own followers.
• Saves: Reflect the value of your content as users save it for future reference.
• DMs (Direct Messages): Signal personal engagement, where users reach out directly in response to your content.
• Profile visits: Indicate interest in learning more about you or your brand.
• Story sticker taps: Include interactions with interactive elements in Instagram Stories, like polls or questions.
• Clicks on the “Get Directions” button: Relevant for businesses, showing physical engagement interest.
• Use of branded hashtags: Reflects the spread and adoption of your brand’s specific hashtags, indicating broader reach and brand awareness.

For example, the profile below has many views but fewer likes and even fewer comments.

Even so, the 1.59% score fits the average engagement rate for Instagram, which varies between 1 and 5%.

Insider tip: If you want to find more engaged influencers, use the inBeat discovery tool. Our free platform works with the top 2% of influencers, and we have Instagram influencers with over 20% engagement rates.

Free Instagram Engagement Rate Calculator

The easiest way to calculate your profile’s or your content creators’ engagement rate is to use inBeat.

inBeat offers a free Instagram engagement calculator that doesn’t just give you a quick engagement rate calculation.

It gives you the bigger picture:

This tool shows you stats like average likes and average comments.

But you can also see likes, comments, and engagement rates per single post. These stats show what type of content resonates better with the target audience. Like so:

Using this tool is crucial for influencers and marketers to gauge the effectiveness of their Instagram campaigns. A higher engagement rate often translates to a more engaged, active audience, making it a key metric for evaluating influencer potential and campaign success.

And you can adapt your strategy fast.

• Change or ask your influencers to change underperforming content.
• Zero in and leverage top-performing content.
• Use the “Find Similar Creators” option to find more influencers who post the same type of engaging content.

Here’s how it works:

1. Access the free engagement rate calculator for Instagram.
2. Enter your Instagram handle or the account you want to analyze.
3. The tool automatically calculates the engagement rate by analyzing the number of likes, comments, and other interactions relative to the account’s follower count.
4. The engagement rate is displayed, giving you an instant understanding of how well the content is performing.

6 Instagram Engagement Rate Formulas

If you want to get an even bigger picture of how your account or potential influencers are performing, use the formulas below.

We’ll emphasize the best uses, pros, and cons for each so you can pick the right tools to measure authentic engagement.

1. Engagement Rate by Reach (ERR)

Engagement Rate by Reach (ERR) is a common method for calculating engagement on social media. It gauges the percentage of people who interact with content after viewing it.

ERR formula per post: (Total number of engagements/ Post’s reach) x 100

ERR formula for multiple posts: (ERR 1 + ERR 2 +...+ ERR N)/ N

• PROS: It’s often more accurate than using follower count, as it considers actual content visibility including non-followers.
• CONS: Reach can be inconsistent, affecting the reliability of the rate. A low reach can skew the engagement rate higher, while a high reach can make the engagement rate seem lower.

2. Engagement Rate by Posts (ER Post)

This formula shows how well different posts are performing, which helps you adapt your content strategy. So, it’s useful for measuring engagements by followers on specific posts.

ER post = Total engagements on a post / Total followers x 100

• PROS: More stable as it’s based on followers, not fluctuating reach.
• CONS: Doesn’t account for viral reach; engagement rate may decrease as follower count increases.

3. Engagement Rate by Impressions (ER Impressions)

This formula is ideal for evaluating the effectiveness of paid content based on impressions, so it’s arguably more accurate.

ER impressions = Total engagements on a post / Total impressions x 100

• PROS: More accurate.
• CONS: Typically yields lower rates than ERR and ER post; impressions can be inconsistent.

4. Daily Engagement Rate (Daily ER)

This engagement rate formula measures how often followers interact with your account daily. And it accounts for engagements on both new and old posts.

Daily ER = Total daily engagements / Total followers x 100

• PROS: It gives you insights on the best days to interact with your audience.
• CONS: Potential for error; doesn’t differentiate between engagements from the same or different followers.

5. Engagement Rate by Views (ER Views) for Video Content

This formula effectively tracks engagement on video posts.

ER view = Total engagements on video post / Total video views x 100

• PROS: You can use this formula to track your videos’ engagement rates.
• CONS: Counts repeat views, which may not equate to repeat engagements.

6. Engagement Rate by Followers (ER Followers)

This engagement rate formula shows you how many interactions you have with your total follower base.

ER Followers = (Total likes + total comments) / followers x 100

• PROS: This common formula allows easy benchmarking against competitors, as many online tools use it. So it makes sense that many industry peers will use it too.
• CONS: Since the algorithm may not show each piece of content to all your followers, using followers as a metric can be misleading. The reach rate, or the percentage of followers who see your post, better indicates your page’s health.

Things to Consider When Calculating the Instagram Engagement Rate

Most engagement rate calculators use quantitative data.

However, qualitative information is also important to understand your true engagement rate.

Insider tip: Many marketers run from qualitative data because they think it’s harder to measure. But from our experience at the inBeat platform, qualitative analysis is easy to personalize according to your marketing goals.

For example, your marketing goal may be to become an opinion leader.

Or to evoke controversy.

In this case, check the comments for your posts, analyzing your target audience’s feedback.

Insider tip: inBeat allows you to do that easily. You can just click on an influencer’s post right from the engagement rate calculator, like so:

And then analyze the post’s comments and responses:

Even better, you can do the same for your direct messages, brand mentions, or branded hashtags.

Pro tip: Focusing on qualitative metrics like comments helps you sleuth out and remove fake followers.

3 Ways to Leverage Instagram Engagement Rates in Influencer Marketing

Using the formulas above helps you get the bigger picture of your influencers’ engagement rates.

But you should also use these calculations to see how well your brand performs on Instagram.

That way, you can:

1. Power Up Your Content Calendar

• Analyze the posts and days of the week your customers interact with or share content more.
• Look at the type of social media content, style, and tone of voice that performs best.
• Find specific patterns to zero in on the best-performing content.
• Then, test that quality content extensively to find even better creatives that your audience can resonate with.

2. Find and Leverage Customer Feedback

Calculating Instagram engagement rates is a gateway into your Instagram followers’ thinking.

Likes, shares, and post comments from active users tell you:

• Their values and interests
• The Instagram content they respond best to and want more of
• The products and services they like
• The influencers they resonate with

Basically, it’s like a free world of data you can leverage to improve your content and products. Couple these findings with Instagram analytics to get even better insights.

3. Find Social Media Influencers

Instagram influencers are not always easy to find. But analyzing your account’s interactions tells you who your most ardent fans are.

Then, you can use inBeat’s engagement rate calculator to:

• Determine if they have influence with their followers.
• Find similar creator profiles within our influencer database.

As you can see, this engagement calculator helps you optimize your social media campaigns to drive more business growth.

So, why wait?

Take it for a spin right now – it’s completely free.

inBeat, for free

Get your Influencer campaign started.

Book a demo