As one of the most popular social media platforms today, there’s no question that Instagram’s power to reach consumers and help businesses grow is immense.

With so many different types of content businesses can post on the app, it helps to know the average engagement rate on Instagram, sorted by post type, to gauge the success of your Instagram marketing strategy.

According to the latest Instagram engagement stats, the average engagement rate for all types of Instagram posts by business accounts is 0.68 percent. This statistic looks at the total number of likes and comments a post receives and compares it with the number of followers the account has at the time of posting.

In other words, this average Instagram engagement rate means that of all the followers an Instagram business account has, around 0.68 percent of them either leave a comment on a post, give it a like, or both.

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Average Instagram Engagement Rate by Post Type

Taking a deeper look at the average Instagram engagement rate by post, we see that of the three different types of posts possible, carousel posts have the highest success at encouraging user interaction. 

These are posts that have multiple photos or videos and can be browsed through by swiping left. Interestingly, 0.85 percent of users who view carousel posts engage with them. Social media analysts say the relatively high engagement rate for such posts comes from the fact that they’re more interactive, which encourages users to spend more time viewing the post.

The number of slides used in carousels also influences the average Instagram engagement rate of these posts. 

According to a recent study on Instagram engagement stats, carousels that use up all ten slides (the maximum) see higher engagement rates. On the other end of the spectrum, carousel posts with just four slides have the least interaction. The study also shows that carousel posts with a mix of videos and photos also tend to generate higher engagement.

The average Instagram engagement rate for photo posts is 0.7 percent, just a tiny fraction lower than the average across all post types. Last but not least, the average engagement rate for video posts is 0.47 percent. Of the three types of Instagram posts, standalone video posts generate the least amount of interaction from users.

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