Influencer Engagement Rates: All You Need to Know

Times have changed. Becoming an influencer in today’s climate no longer requires hundreds of thousands of followers. However, the interactions followers have with an influencer’s content is essential to becoming a successful influencer and maintaining this status. 

As a brand, understanding how to choose an influencer is understanding influencer engagement rates and how they can impact your next campaign. The influencer may post pretty pictures and use the correct hashtags, but are they engaging their audience and driving results for the brands they partner with? 

If you want the lowdown on all there is to know about the engagement rates of influencers and how they can be calculated then this blog is just for you. 

What is influencer engagement?

Engagements are any interactions a user has with a social post, whether this be likes, comments, shares and clicks. Types of engagement vary depending on the social media platform—ie, Twitter has retweets—but all of them amount to an overall engagement rate. This rate signifies the average amount of engagements an influencer is getting overall. 

How do you calculate an influencer’s engagement rate?

This is relatively straightforward, and only requires access to a chosen post on your influencer’s profile. 

Engagement rate=

(Likes+comments) / Total number of followers

Choose a post on your influencer’s profile and add up the total number of likes and comments it has received. 

Once you have this number, divide it by how many followers your influencer has and voila! That is their engagement rate. 

REMEMBER: this is just the engagement rate of whichever post you have chosen. In order to calculate the engagement rate of an entire profile, you will need to find the average engagement rate over a minimum of 10 posts. 

Why is influencer engagement important? 

Above everything, an influencer’s engagement rate will tell you whether they are consistently producing top-performing content. If this is the case, they will be able to drive impressive results for your brand. 

You may have curated a pool of talented influencers, but analysing their engagement rate will cherry pick those who are able to solicit interactions from their followers, increasing the interactions they then have with your brand and the overall success of your campaign. 

Marketers report that clicks are another important factor when it comes to choosing influencers for a campaign. They may fit your campaign in terms of aesthetics and values, but this will not generate a positive return on investment. Clicks essentially drive conversions and these are vital for driving traffic to your brand’s profiles or web pages. 

What is a good engagement rate for influencers?

While this number can vary depending on audience size and platform, an average engagement rate for influencers typically falls anywhere within 1% & 5%. 

Does size matter for influencer engagement?

We’d love to be humble and say no, but, unfortunately, in this case it really does. 

Macro influencers and celebrities were once extremely sought after by brands for influencer marketing campaigns due to the sheer size of their following. They saw this as an opportunity for exposure to as many people at once as possible. As the dawn of the micro influencer came, brands were beginning to notice that campaigns with these influencers were much more successful in comparison. 

It was quickly discovered that micro influencers had closer relationships with their audience, and were therefore able to push sales of certain products, as opposed to the macro influencers/celebrities who never knew their audiences personally. 

The size of an influencer is often very telling of the engagement rate they should be at or working towards. The engagement rates of Instagram influencers is where these numbers vary greatly. A nano influencer is expected to sit at an average engagement rate of 3.86% while a mega influencer, with 1million+ followers, has an average rate of 1.21%. 

Does platform matter for influencer engagement?

In short, yes. 

Social media platforms like TikTok are built on short-form video content, a trend that is currently taking the social media-sphere by storm. Due to the sheer volume of users, creators gain considerably more views on content here than those on any other platform; therefore organically increasing the average engagement rate of TikTok creators. 

Influencer Engagement Rates: Final Thoughts 

Now you understand what engagement rate tells you about an influencer’s performance, you can narrow lists of influencers down to those who are able to deliver the best results for your brand. Keeping in mind the size of an influencer’s following and the platform upon which they operate is vital and will paint a clearer picture of what to expect with regards to their engagement rate; meaning from here on, you can determine whether or not their partnership will be of value to you. 

FAQs

What is an influencer’s engagement rate?

This indicates the amount of interactions an influencer’s post gets from that platform’s users. These come in the form of likes, comments, shares, saves, clicks etc. and are important in signifying to brands how well a promotional post on that influencer’s profile could potentially do. Essentially, an influencer’s engagement rate will tell brands how highly performing of a creator they are. 

How is influencer engagement measured?

The formula is: 

Total number of likes + total number of comments / the number of followers. 

This is the engagement rate for one post. To find out an influencer’s overall engagement rate, you will need to find the average rate of a minimum of 10 posts. 

Our Influencer marketing agency and Social agency are located worldwide, with our agency network based in the USA, UK, UAE and China.

If you want to receive our industry insights, visit our Influencer Marketing & Social Media blog.

@ Socially Powerful

[cta]

Popular Blogs

Most Popular Instagram Hashtags | Tiktok Hashtags | Instagram Monetization | Facebook Banner Size | Snapchat Influencers | Most Subscribed Youtubers | Best Time to Post on Youtube | UK Twitch Streamers | Female Twitch Streamers | Popular Tiktok Songs | Male Tiktok Influencers | Lgbtq Tiktok Influencers | The Rise and Fall of Clubhouse  | Influencer Marketing on Clubhouse | LiketoKnowit | Pretty Little Thing Instagram| Top Social Marketing Agencies