Engagement rate
The share of the people reached who did something — the metric most likely to be optimised into meaninglessness.
Engagement rate is the proportion of people who saw something and then acted on it: liked, replied, clicked, opened. Every platform defines it differently, which is the first thing to know about it, and the second is that a rate is a ratio — it can improve because the numerator rose or because the denominator fell.
It earns its place as a leading indicator. Buying behaviour is slow and sparse; engagement is fast and plentiful, so it tells you something about whether the work is landing weeks before revenue does. It loses its place the moment it becomes the target. Content optimised for reactions and content optimised for buyers diverge quickly, and the divergence is invisible while the number is going up.
The check that keeps it honest is to pair it with an outcome. Track engagement next to enquiries, or replies next to sales, and look at them together. If one climbs while the other flattens for two quarters, the audience is enjoying the work and not buying it — which is a real finding, and only visible in the pair.
Worked: a post at 9% engagement on 1,200 impressions produces 108 reactions and 2 enquiries. A quieter post at 3% on 6,000 produces 180 reactions and 11 enquiries. The better rate belongs to the worse post.
Also known as
- interaction rate
- open rate
Relevant for
- Creators
- Watch it beside a number that pays you; a rate that climbs while enquiries flatten means you are getting better at being liked, which is a different job.