Engagement rate is a metric that measures the level of interaction between your audience and your digital content, particularly on social media.
It indicates how content is not just viewed, but truly experienced and participated in through concrete actions such as likes, comments, shares, saves or clicks.
Engagement what is
The Italian translation of Engagement is “involvement.” We can therefore define Engagement as the ability of a Brand, through its products, services and Communication channels to create strong and lasting relationships with its users, establishing a bond between the brand itself and the consumer.
Why Engagement is critical in one’s marketing strategy
If we read Mission and Vision of some Companies, we will find the concept that “the Customer is at the center of our activities” or “Our main goal is to meet the needs of our Customers.”
Often times these statements do not translate into substance, i.e., at the first problem, the Company abandons to itself or totally ignores the Customer and his needs.
Creating the right Engagement means being able to establish strong and lasting relationships with your audience, target audience, fans, followers, customers. Define it any way you like.
This means that it is not enough to design and implement a winning Marketing strategy. Instead, it is essential to keep the promises made to one’s Customers.
Product quality, reliability of a service, after-sales support etc.
If we keep the promises formulated implicitly or explicitly to our Customers, we will improve the ability to relate to them, to engage them “engagement.”
Therefore, they will be our best allies, because they will become protagonists, on a daily basis, of what over the years has been the best channel of Business for a Company: “word of mouth.”
The real work is not creating the “relationship” between Brand or Product and Customer. It is to maintain it over time.
What is the engagement rate
In social and marketing, engagement rate represents the percentage of users who interact with a piece of content compared to the total number of people reached or the number of followers.
This metric goes beyond simply counting views because it takes into account how well a piece of content manages to stimulate an active response, a sign of real interest and audience engagement.
High engagement communicates to social networks that the content is relevant, improving organic visibility through the platforms’ algorithms.
At the same time, it gives brands and creators a clear indicator of the perceived quality of their content, which is useful for assessing the consistency of their editorial strategy.
How the engagement rate is calculated
There are several ways of calculation, but the most common are:
Engagement rate vs. followers
ER=total interactions/number of followers×100
For example, the number of interactions of 1 post is 1000 and the followers are 50,000 the formula becomes:
1000/50.000 x 100= 2%
Engagement rate versus reach (people reached)
ERR=total interactions of the post/reach of the post×100
For example, the number of interactions of 1 post is 1000 and the people reached were 100,000 the formula becomes:
1000/100.000 x 100= 1%
“Total interactions” generally means likes, comments, shares, saves, link clicks, profile taps, and other actions depending on the platform.
Average values and what to consider “good”
An engagement rate considered “good” varies by industry, platform, and audience size, but in many contexts a value between 1 percent and 5 percent is considered good.
Some analyses indicate that, on average, different socials are within a few percentage points, with differences between platform and industry.
In general, smaller profiles tend to get higher engagement rates, while as followers grow, the rate tends physiologically to decrease.
Therefore, to interpret this indicator correctly, it is essential to compare your data with up-to-date benchmarks in your industry and with the historical performance of your account.
Example of benchmarks by platforms (indicative average values)
| Platform | Indicative average engagement* |
|---|---|
| Approximately 2-3.5% depending on the industry | |
| Around 1-1.5% in many compartments | |
| Often between 2.8% and over 3% | |
| TikTok | On average between 1.5% and 2% |
| X (Twitter) | Generally under 2% |
*Values may vary by industry, format and profile size.
Why engagement rate is important in a marketing strategy
Engagement rate helps to understand whether the content really speaks to the target audience, going beyond vanity metrics such as simple number of followers. A high interaction rate indicates that the message is relevant, strengthens the relationship with the community, and increases the likelihood that users will remember the brand and take subsequent actions (site visit, sign up, contact request).
In addition, this metric allows:
- Evaluate the effectiveness of individual content types (static posts, videos, reels, stories).
- Optimize the editorial calendar by targeting the formats that generate the most interactions.
- Demonstrate to partners or sponsors the real value of their audience, especially in influencer marketing and ADV campaigns.
How to improve engagement rate
To increase engagement, it is critical to create content designed to stimulate participation, not just passive viewing. Some practical levers include:
- Take care of visual quality and clarity of the message, adapting them to the platform used.
- Write caption that invites dialogue, with questions, call to action and invitations to comment or share.
- Consistently post at times when audiences are most active, taking advantage of platform insights.
- Experiment with different formats (short videos, carousels, stories, reels) and optimize based on performance.
- Interact with the community by responding to comments and messages, building authentic relationships over time.
In summary, engagement rate is a central metric for measuring the quality of the relationship between brand and audience and for guiding strategic decisions in social media, advertising, and digital marketing.