Engagement rate calculator
Both conventions, plus the saves-and-shares split that actually predicts enquiries. Benchmarks are written for local business accounts, where a small geographically concentrated audience behaves very differently from a creator's.
Accounts reached, from the post insights. Leave as-is if you only want the follower-based rate.
Engagement rate by followers
3.62%
Strong
Above typical for an account this size. The audience is genuinely paying attention.
By reach
9.67%
How compelling the post was to people who actually saw it. This is the more useful number for judging content, because it is not diluted by followers who were never served the post.
Saves + shares
18%
Share of all interactions that were saves or shares. For a local business these are the signals that correlate with purchase intent — someone keeping your post to act on later, or recommending you to a friend. Above 20% is a genuinely strong post regardless of the headline rate.
Total interactions: 87
The formulas, and what counts as good
Engagement rate by followers
Add likes, comments, saves and shares, divide by follower count, and multiply by 100. This is the figure most people mean by “engagement rate”, and the one most often quoted in pitches.
Engagement rate by reach
The same interaction total divided by reach rather than followers. This is the more honest measure of whether a specific post worked, because it accounts for how many people actually saw it rather than how many could have.
Benchmarks depend on account size
A single benchmark across all accounts is misleading. A small local audience should engage at a much higher rate than a large one, because most of those followers are actual customers rather than passive accumulation.
- Under 2,000 followers: above 6% is strong, 3–6% is fair, below 3% needs work.
- Over 2,000 followers: above 3% is strong, 1.5–3% is fair, below 1.5% needs work.
Saves and shares predict intent
Saves and shares as a share of total interactions is the most useful number on this page for a local business. A like is a reflex; a save is someone intending to come back, and a share is someone recommending the business to a person they know. Two accounts with identical engagement rates can differ completely on this, and the one with a higher saves-and-shares share is the one producing enquiries.
Common questions
How do you calculate engagement rate?
Add all interactions on a post — likes, comments, saves and shares — then divide by your follower count and multiply by 100 for a percentage. The alternative convention divides by reach instead of followers, which measures how compelling the post was to the people who actually saw it.
What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?
For accounts under about 2,000 followers, 6% or above is strong and under 3% is low. For larger accounts, 3% or above is strong and under 1.5% is low. Small local accounts should post higher rates than big ones, because most of their followers are real customers rather than a distributed audience.
Should I measure engagement by followers or by reach?
By reach when judging content, and by followers when judging the audience. Rate by reach tells you whether a post was compelling to whoever saw it. Rate by followers tells you whether the audience you built is genuinely interested, which is why a low follower rate on a large account often indicates followers acquired through giveaways.
Why is my engagement rate dropping as I gain followers?
This is normal and usually not a problem. A larger audience is less uniformly interested, and the platform serves each post to a smaller proportion of it. Watch absolute saves and shares rather than the percentage — those are what correlate with business outcomes.
Which metrics matter most for a local business?
Saves and shares, then profile visits and link taps. A save means someone is keeping your post to act on later, and a share is a recommendation to a friend — both far closer to purchase intent than a like. Follower count is the least useful number for a local business, because a thousand followers in another country are worth nothing.
Find the accounts that need work
Checking accounts one at a time is the bottleneck in agency prospecting. SMM Lead Finder analyses local businesses for dormant accounts, channel mismatches and missing tracking, then hands you the finding and contact details when available.