With over three billion monthly active users in 2023, Facebook continues to be a top social media platform that should be part of any brand’s marketing strategy.
And as any marketer knows, the key to understanding whether or not your Facebook marketing efforts are paying off is to have a reliable way to measure your content’s performance — this is where a benchmark engagement rate comes in. But in a world where paid content rules and generating organic reach to cut through the noise is more challenging than ever, what’s considered a good engagement rate on Facebook these days?
Below, let’s go over what a good Facebook engagement rate is, how marketers can calculate engagement rate for their brand, and a few examples from the top-performing industries on Facebook so you can boost your upcoming Facebook content.
How to Calculate Your Facebook Engagement Rate
Before we dive into what a good engagement rate on Facebook is in 2023, it’s important to point out what exactly counts as engagement. At Rival IQ, we define engagement as measurable interaction on social media posts. Facebook engagement includes likes, comments, favorites, shares, and reactions.
Facebook engagement rate is calculated based on all of these interactions divided by total follower count.
Facebook engagement rate = Likes + comments + shares + reactions / total number of followers.
This formula will give you the Facebook engagement rate per post. To us, the engagement rate per post is the most accurate metric to help marketers understand how they’re doing in relation to their competitors. Engagement rate per post takes into account post volume and audience size, so it reveals what content is resonating with your audience regardless of how many followers you have.
What is a Good Engagement Rate on Facebook?
According to our 2023 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, the median engagement rate for Facebook is 0.060%. Out of the top 25% of brands across all industries — the brands performing best on social media — the median engagement rate is 0.182%. Using those numbers as your baseline, it’s clear to see what number you need to reach to have a good engagement rate on Facebook and what your objective should be if you want to perform above the average rate.
Another factor that goes into engagement rate on Facebook is the posting frequency. When it comes to how often to post on Facebook, the median for brands across all industries is 5.04 times per week while brands in the top 25% for engagement post 4.5 times per week.
Overall rate across industries:
- Median engagement rate: 0.060%
- Median posting frequency: 5.04 posts per week
Overall rate for brands in the top 25%:
- Median engagement rate: 0.182%
- Median posting frequency: 4.5 posts per week
Facebook Engagement Rate by Industry
While it’s a good idea to reference the average engagement rate across all industries, every industry has its own unique set of metrics. Comparing your engagement rate to similar brands helps provide better insight into how your brand is performing in relation to the industry.
Let’s take a look at the breakdown of a few industries along with examples of brands who are not only receiving high engagement within their own industry, but have posts with higher engagement than the overall median engagement rate.
Sports Teams
- Sports Teams Median Engagement Rate: 0.241%
- Sports Teams Median Posting Frequency: 23.39 Facebook posts per week
Sports Teams are the top performers on Facebook across all industries with an engagement rate of 0.241%, which is four times higher than the median engagement rate. Sports Teams also have the highest posting frequency after Media brands, posting just over 23 Facebook posts per week.
Posting often is clearly working for these athletic brands, which makes sense when you consider their fan base seeks out real-time game updates, team announcements, and more.
The Buffalo Bills are a top-performing team on Facebook with an average engagement rate of 0.71%. The team also posts twice as much as the average team with a posting frequency of 43 posts per week. One of their top-performing posts was the photo below, which features the team’s quarterback, Josh Allen posing with football icon Peyton Manning and his son. The photo earned a killer engagement rate of 14.9%, 62 times higher than the average rate for Sports Teams.
The Bills share photos like this one just as often as they share videos, both of which are highly engaging post types for Sports Teams on Facebook.
Influencers
- Influencers Median Engagement Rate: 0.196%
- Influencers Median Posting Frequency: 4.19 Facebook posts per week
Influencers are also top-performers on Facebook with an average engagement rate of 0.196%, earning four times the median engagement rate on Facebook across industries. For influencers, Photos are the most engaging and most frequently shared post type.
One example of a highly engaging Photo post comes from influencer Marly Bird. Bird is a knitwear and crochet designer (and teacher) who shares tutorials, creations, and knitting knowledge with her engaged audience across Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. On Facebook, she regularly posts photos of pieces she’s made, patterns that people can try out, and educational blog posts from her website.
In the Facebook post below, Bird combined an eye-catching photo of a crochet rug designed like a racetrack with a link to one of her blog posts. The blog post was a roundup of several patterns people could purchase on Etsy if they wanted to create a similar crochet piece. This photo was one of Bird’s most engaging posts, earning an engagement rate of 10.5%, almost 54 times higher than the average rate for influencers and a whopping 175 times higher than the median engagement rate across industries.
Though Photo posts are the most popular post type on the platform, they aren’t limited to single-image posts. Sharing multiple photos in an album also performs well on Facebook. For example, this post from influencer Song of Style featured multiple photos and generated an engagement rate of 0.27%. This is 1.3 times higher than the average rate for influencers on Facebook and 4.5 times better than the all-industry engagement rate.
There are a couple of key takeaways from both of these posts. For starters, after being active on the platform for years and years, influencers clearly have a handle on Facebook. They understand their audience and know what they want to see. For Bird, that’s knitting design inspiration and educational how-tos. For Song of Style, her audience wants to get a glimpse into her real life.
The second takeaway for influencers is that they don’t need to share an overly-produced version of themselves or their brand in order to generate good engagement rates. Simple photos — with or without a CTA — are more than enough to engage their audience.
Higher Education
- Higher Education Median Engagement Rate: 0.145%
- Higher Education Median Posting Frequency: 6.71 Facebook posts per week
Schools and universities are active and engaging across all social media channels, and Facebook is no exception. The average Facebook engagement rate for schools and universities is over twice as high as the all-industry rate and the posting frequency is a bit higher, too. We’ve also found that — you guessed it — Photos are the most engaging and most frequently used post types for schools.
The University of Iowa is one of the top-performing schools on Facebook, according to our 2023 Higher Education Social Media Engagement Report. One of the school’s most successful Facebook posts this year received an engagement rate of 15.3% which is over 105 times greater than the average Facebook engagement rate for schools and universities and 255 times higher than the all-industry average.
NCAA wins are *always* engaging, so it’s no surprise that this photo announcing the women’s basketball team going to the national championships earned killer engagement rates for the school.
While this post received high engagement because it’s centered around exciting news, there are still takeaways for any marketer. Whether or not you’re creating Facebook content for a university or sports team, take advantage of exciting milestones and moments your community wants to celebrate with you. And when you do, do so in a timely manner so you don’t miss the moment and can lean into the momentum of the news.
University of South Carolina is another top university with an impressive engagement rate on Facebook. USC earns an average engagement rate of 0.63%, which is four times greater than the overall rate on Facebook for D1 schools.
One of the school’s most engaging Facebook posts broke out of the typical mold for the types of Facebook posts that usually earn schools high engagements like campus glamour shots or sports highlights. The post was a video announcing the return of a highly accomplished entrepreneur, Sheila Johnson, who was set to teach a course on leadership for another semester. The video generated 1.65 million impressions and earned an engagement rate that’s nearly 67 times higher than the median rate for schools. The news clearly resonated with USC’s audience — not only was the comment section buzzing with excitement and pride, but there were over 3,300 shares.
While photos have proven to be an engaging way to share content on Facebook, it doesn’t hurt to mix it up with a video or link when it makes sense to. USC could’ve shared an image of Johnson to announce the news, but watching her arrive at the school and walk to her classroom like she did in the video was much more captivating and clearly made more of an impact.
Alcohol
- Alcohol Median Engagement Rate: 0.09%
- Alcohol Median Posting Frequency: 2.85 Facebook posts per week
Alcohol brands round out the top four industries with good engagement rates on Facebook. The median engagement rate for alcohol brands is 1.5 times higher than the all-industry rate. The posting frequency is lower than the average at just under three times per week compared to the all-industry average of five times per week.
Schell’s Brewery is one Alcohol brand that stands out on Facebook. The Minnesota-based brewery has an average engagement rate of 0.42% which is nearly five times greater than the median rate for Alcohol brands. Schell’s also posts on Facebook at a much higher rate, sharing a little over five times per week.
One of its most engaging posts on Facebook is a photo album that served as a recap for an annual event the brewery hosts called Bock Fest. The “photo dump” earned an engagement rate of 3% which is 33 times higher than the average rate for alcohol brands and 50 times greater than the median engagement rate on Facebook.
Schell’s shared a ton of promos for this event for months leading up to it, hyping up its history, the expected activities, and the camaraderie that comes with it. It’s evident that the event is a big deal to them and their community, so it makes sense to share a recap in photo form. Whether its followers attended the event or not, an engaging photo album makes it possible for them to relive the fun or have something to look forward to the next year. Plus, sharing tons of event photos creates shareable content that will get connected back to you if someone were to share a photo of themselves from the album.
If you’ve been picking up on the pattern of what works well for brands on Facebook, it should come as no surprise that Photos were the most engaging and most used post type among Alcohol brands. This album that Schell’s shared aligns with the rest of the landscape’s success with using photos to engage with their audiences.
Aside from tapping into what’s working well for other similar brands and brands across industries, another takeaway is to create for your audience. Facebook content doesn’t need to be as polished or entertaining as other channels. In fact, your followers may view it as a source of information or to get updates on things like events or product launches. Lean into what’s working well and create content that meets your audience’s wants and needs.
The Wrap-Up
While 0.060% is considered a good engagement rate on Facebook, it should be viewed as a general baseline for your social media strategy. Different industries have their own median engagement rate to measure up against, so consider where your brand stacks up against your competition before comparing it to the median rate across industries.
As evidenced by these brands, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to achieving a good engagement rate on Facebook. Take note of what these top-performing posts are doing right, and experiment with how you can incorporate these best practices into your Facebook strategy.
This post was originally published in December 2021 and has since been updated.
Sam Lauron
Sam Lauron is a freelance writer based in Austin, TX. She currently works with creative brands and B2B companies to support their content writing efforts and SEO strategy, and has a writing expertise in digital marketing, branding, and entrepreneurship. When she’s not writing, she spends her time listening to true crime podcasts, tackling DIY projects, and soaking up the sunny Austin weather.
