A study claims overall engagement across Instagram is down and has been sharply declining since early May 2019.
Trust Insights, a marketing data and consulting firm, analyzed over 1.4 million Instagram posts from the beginning of January to the middle of June.
The study defines engagement rate as the total number of interactions on a post divided by the size of the account’s following at the time of posting.
Here are some of the key findings of the study.
Instagram engagement is down
As of mid-April, the maximum average engagement rate for the accounts included in the study was 1.54%.
Engagement rate now hovers around 0.9%, which is down 1.1% from earlier this year. In addition, the average number of interactions is down 18% since the beginning of the year.
According to the study, brands are suffering from this decline in engagement as well as individual influencers.
Fashion influencers went from a maximum engagement rate of 4.3% on February 17 to a minimum of 2.4% on June 20
That represents a 44% decline in engagement, meaning influencers were reportedly hit harder than brands.
The study doesn’t offer any insight into what is causing the decline, noting that there haven’t been any substantive API changes.
If you market your business on Instagram, know that you aren’t alone if your engagement has been down over the past month.
The study only measured engagement with feed posts. It did not take into account engagement with stories.
For more information, see the full study here.