How is Engagement rate and Average engagement rate per post calculated?

Engagement rate calculation

Engagement rate is based on the number of likes, comments and saves received on a post, divided by the number of followers at the time of the post.

Example:

On Monday, my post received 100 likes, 50 comments and 25 saves.

I had 300 followers at the time the post was published.

Therefore, my engagement rate for that post is 58.3%.

Average engagement rate per post calculation

The Average engagement rate per post KPI takes the engagement rates of each post published during the selected date range (feed posts only - including single image, carousel and video), and divides this by the number of posts.

Example:

In the last 7 days, I've published 3 posts. Those 3 posts had the following engagement rates:

20%

15%

10%

Therefore, my average engagement rate per post for the last 7 days is 15%.

Engagement on reach calculation

Engagement on reach is based on the number of likes, comments and saves received on a post, divided by the reach of that post.

Example:

On Monday, my post received 100 likes, 50 comments and 25 saves.

The post had a reach of 1000.

Therefore, my engagement on reach for that post is 17.5%.

Average engagement on reach per post calculation

In the same way as we calculate Average engagement rate per post, we also calculate Average engagement on reach per post by adding up each of the individual engagement on reach rates from each post published during the selected time period, and dividing that figure by the number of posts published, to find the average.

Example:

In the last 7 days, I've published 3 posts. Those 3 posts had the following engagement on reach rates:

32%

45%

52%

Therefore, my average engagement on reach per post for the last 7 days is 43%.

How is the percentage change calculated for the comparison to the previous period?

The comparison to the previous period (found under the KPI) takes the Average engagement rate per post for the current period (0.03%) and compares it to the Average engagement rate per post for the previous period (in the example below this is 0.02%)

Therefore we calculate the percentage change between the current period and the previous period.

((0.03% - 0.02%) / 0.02%) x 100 = 50%

So here, there is a 50% increase in the Average engagement rate per post.

Note: previous period will depend on the date range you have selected - more about this here.

I'm adding together the Organic % and the Paid % underneath the KPI, and it doesn't add up to the overall Average engagement rate per post KPI, why?

This relates to the way in which the "Engagement rate on reach - Organic" and the "Engagement rate on reach - Paid" for each individual post is calculated.

To get the "Engagement rate on reach - Organic" on an individual post, we take the number of organic engagements and divide this by the organic reach of the post, NOT the total reach of the post.

Equally, to calculate the "Engagement rate on reach - Paid" on an individual post, we take the paid engagements and divide this by the paid reach of the post.

Whereas, when calculating the overall "Engagement rate on reach" on an individual post, we take the total engagements (paid + organic) and divide this by the total reach (paid + organic).

Therefore, when you add together the "Engagement rate on reach - Organic" percentage + "Engagement rate on reach - Paid" percentage, this won't add up to the overall "Engagement rate on reach" percentage.

Still doesn't make sense? 😜 As a comparison, if our calculations for "Engagement rate on reach - Organic"  and "Engagement rate on reach - Paid" both took into account the total reach of the post (and not the respective organic/paid reaches), adding up both of these metrics would result in the overall engagement rate on reach KPI, however, we don't use this method.