Support us, you beautiful Instagram marketer 📱🎥💡🚀📊🔥

The deal: you learn about the most-up-to-date Instagram’s average engagement rate.

Now do your part and tip us now! 👍🏼

Your support helps keep this rate up to date.

Show us your love! 💛💙

INSTAGRAM AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT RATE IN 2026

Instagram’s average engagement rate in 2026.

Instagram post’s average engagement rate industry benchmarks.

Brought to you by Mau, a Senior Instagram Marketing Specialist at eDigital.

INSTAGRAM AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT RATE IN 2026

Before you find out the average engagement rate on Instagram in 2026, let me tell you something you might find hard to admit:

Instagram is mugging you in broad daylight 🔫 while you thank them for the privilege.

Instagram algorithm shows your “viral” content to roughly the same audience who’d notice if you screamed to your office printer: Mark from marketing who does not even know your name. 😵

You own nothing 🤡 on your Instagram account.

You’re renting followers from landlords who charge you extra just to talk to your audience.

It’s like building a mansion on rented land: expensive, temporary, and the landlord can bulldoze it whenever they update their “community guidelines”. 🏠💥

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg is swimming in a pool filled with your ad spend. 🏊‍♂️💰

Your current situation:

❌ Zero follower data ownership 📊❌
❌ Organic reach = no-one watching! 🕵️‍♂️
❌ Ad costs rising faster than your therapy bills 📈💀
❌ Followers “export” button? Pure fantasy 🦄

The intervention your marketing needs:

✅ Stop being Instagram’s favourite ATM 🏧❌
✅ Own your audience 👑
✅ Lower your customer acquisition costs 💰
✅ Build marketing systems that own and control 🤖❤️

Throwing money at Instagram ads hoping for results is expensive self-harm with the worse ROI. 🔥

Ready to break up with Instagram’s abuse?

Book a strategy session and learn to build digital marketing that works for you, not against your bank account. 🚀

Stop renting your success. Start owning it.

Let’s craft the best digital marketing plan and social media strategy that boosts sales and customer lifetime value.

INSTAGRAM AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT RATE IN 2026 – INDUSTRY BENCHMARKS

For 2026, it is predicted the average engagement rate on Instagram will continue the same as in the last couple of years: extremely low!

The below Instagram average engagement rates are based on an analysis of 63 million Instagram feed posts collected from 600k+ Instagram accounts in 30 industries. Excludes Instagram Reels and IGTV posts.

Animals 2.00%
Arts and Culture 1.82%
Design 1.69%
Education 1.48%
Entertainment 1.55%
Family and Children 1.23%
Fashion Apparel 1.24%
Finance and Business 1.34%
Food and Beverage 1.55%
Health and Wellness 1.39%
Home Decor and Furnishings 1.37%
Jewellery and Accessories 1.32%
Lifestyle 1.53%
Luxury 1.42%
Makeup and Beauty 1.19%

“The challenge for marketers is not only engagement. Reach has also become a major issue as the Instagram algorithm deliberately lowers your reach to get you to pay for ads so you get your followers to see your content”

Mau, Global Head of Marketing Strategy at eDigital 

Marketing 1.45%
Motivation 1.72%
Music 1.63%
News and Media 1.30%
Outdoors and Nature 1.91%
Personal 1.25%
Photography 1.99%
Real Estate and Construction 1.25%
Religious 1.77%
Restaurants 1.45%
Spirituality and Philosophy 1.92%
Sports and Fitness 1.75%
Technology 1.31%
Travel and Tourism 1.83%
Wedding and Bridal 1.38%

Source: Later data sets

Marketers are printing the latest Instagram advertising targeting options list to cherry pick the best interest targeting options when running ads on Instagram.

THE INSTAGRAM AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT RATE IS: 1.55%

In all industries, the average was much higher for accounts with less than 10k followers as noted in the table below.

Popular this month > This year’s top 10 graphic design trends

Marketers are using the best social media strategy plan template

HOW DO ENGAGEMENT RATES ON INSTAGRAM COMPARE WITH OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS?

CreatorIQ released an interesting report that shows how other social media platforms’ engagement rates compare with Instagram.

This confirms all social media platforms (not only Instagram) average engagement rates are extremely low.

Marketers are using the best time to post on Instagram

Serious marketers and business owners who have taken my marketing strategy training sessions or are subscribed to my exclusive newsletter are already putting into practice real & proven marketing techniques to build audiences they own, increase their sales.

The actual gains of increasing your Instagram posts’ engagement rate are minimal if you have not done the below key activities:

• Crafted a top marketing strategy
• Delivered optimal customer service
• Offered unique experiences that make your most profitable customers talk about your brand
• Met your key business and marketing objectives.

You do not own your audience on Instagram. You cannot transfer your hard-earned audience to another platform.

Tip: You must build audiences on platforms you own. I will teach you how.

Conclusion

As said previously no matter how hard you work t increase your average engagement rate for your Instagram posts, the Instagram algorithm will lower your reach and make you buy ads to reach your followers.

Even marketers working in some of the top fastest-growing industries are now having to spend a lot of money (boosting their TikTok videos) to reach their hard-earned followers.

Final note📝: Are your marketing costs through the roof? 🚀💸

If your customer acquisition costs are climbing faster than a startup founder’s ego 📈😎 (post‑IPO champagne still in hand 🍾), and you’re hooked on paid ads like a reality TV star or a Tinder date who keeps accepting your dinner invites 🍝🍷 but never calls you back 📵💔…

If that sounds like you 👀👂🏼, you should definitely contact us 🧠💬📞

Our exclusive digital marketing strategy workshops will mercilessly dissect your marketing🔥💀, expose all the weak spots and show you how to ditch the algorithm chokehold to build a marketing engine you actually own. 🔧🚀

We’ll shake up your team’s thinking 🧠⚡, drop fresh ideas 💡🍉, and turn your marketing from “meh” 😐 to a money-making machine. 🤑💸

Ready to stop burning cash and start making it? 💥💰

Hit us up! 📲

We offer:

✔ Digital Marketing Strategy. Because hope is not a plan 🙃
✔ Online Ads (Google, Social, Remarketing). The art of spending money wisely for once 🎯
✔ Social Media Marketing Training. So you stop posting into the void 🕳️📉
✔ SEO Strategy & Execution. Because if Google doesn’t know you exist, do you even? 🤷‍♂️🔍
✔ Influencer & Celebrity Marketing. Get people with clout to talk about you 💅📢
✔ Branding & Logo Design. So you don’t look like a dodgy side hustle 💼🚫
✔ Consumer Giveaways & Competitions. Because people will do anything for free stuff 🎁
✔ Email Marketing & Drip Sequences. Slide into inboxes the right way 💌😏
✔ Conversion Rate Optimisation. Turn window shoppers into actual buyers 🛒➡️💳

Ready to start marketing like a boss? Let’s talk 🚀👊

INSTAGRAM AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT RATE IN 2026

was brought to you by Mau

Mau‘s a Instagram Advertising Specialist who delivers killer digital marketing strategy workshops and best social media training so good, even your grandma will get it.

5k+ smart marketers who love stealing good ideas receive Mau’s weekly email, while others tired of guessing use Mau’s Digital Marketing Plan and Social Media Plan templates.

Mau’s “Escaping Capitalism” trip 🌎 ✈️  is leaving questionable life choices on TikTok & YouTube