Engagement Rate
The percentage of your audience that interacts with your content through likes, comments, shares, or saves.
Full definition
Engagement rate measures how actively your audience interacts with your content, relative to reach or follower count. Two common formulas: (Total Engagements ÷ Reach) × 100, or (Total Engagements ÷ Followers) × 100. The former is more meaningful for comparing content performance; the latter for benchmarking against competitors. Average engagement rates vary significantly by platform and follower size — Instagram averages 1.5–3.5% engagement, TikTok is typically higher (5–9%), LinkedIn averages 0.5–1%. Micro-influencers (1K–100K followers) typically have higher engagement rates than mega-influencers. Engagement rate is a leading indicator of content quality and audience resonance.
Real-world example
A fitness brand's educational carousel posts achieve a 6.8% engagement rate versus 1.2% for product promotion posts, indicating their audience values information over sales content.
Related terms
Reach is the number of unique users who saw your content; impressions is the total number of times it was displayed.
Read definitionContent created by customers or users — photos, videos, reviews — rather than the brand itself.
Read definitionThe psychological phenomenon where people follow the actions of others — used in marketing through reviews, testimonials, and follower counts.
Read definitionA targeting feature that finds new users who share characteristics with an existing audience of customers or high-value users.
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