6 Reasons Why Instagram Engagement Rate So Low

Do you post engaging content and respond to comments immediately, but your engagement rate leaves much to be desired? It is not a secret that metrics play a significant role in improving user Instagram account rate and its growth, so it is important to keep track of all indicators and one of the most important ones is engagement rate. It is especially significant in social media marketing, so it is necessary to understand the reasons for any significant changes in numbers. Why is Instagram engagement rate so low you may wonder?

Look: this article will explain the main reasons for decreased engagement rate indicators and provide advice on how to increase them.

If you want to figure out ER for any non-private account use Instagram Engagement Rate Calculator for free.

Why should you care about your Instagram engagement rate?

Every Instagram account can be subjected to a detailed analysis to find out its success with the audience. One of such indicators is called engagement rate (ER) – a percentage of people who have seen and interacted with the content added. Not only comments and views matter for ER, likes, shares, and savings do matter too and are included in the general result of calculations.

However, what is the sense to learn this data if you can see the number of likes and comments directly below the post? In fact, ER is significant for people who are interested in growing their audience or use this account for business needs. It helps understand which posts are more appreciated by followers and what kind of content can attract new subscribers to the profile.

When it comes to businesses including influencers, brands, this metrics is of utmost importance for them because it plays a crucial role in the analysis of their account. The higher ER an influencer has, the more companies would like to cooperate with him. However, when ER is low in the accounts with thousands of followers, it can be proof of a fake following and a drop in credibility. What is good following you may wonder? In fact, it depends on the follower number and can be around 7-9% in small accounts and drop to 1-2% if there are millions of profile subscribers.

How to find your ER

If you want to compare an average Instagram engagement rate with your own one, you may think that all the calculations are made manually, but there is good news – everything can be done for you. IG Business accounts can learn this information in the unique Insights category available on their menu, but what should personal accounts do? The easiest and fastest way to find out a general or a separate post ER is to use a trendHERO service. This online platform has been created especially for Instagrammers and businesses who are interested in Influencer marketing, but ordinary users can learn a lot of details about their IG accounts thanks to it too. It is enough to follow these steps:

1. Open the official trendHERO platform.
2. Pass a simple registration procedure and log into the account.
3. Enter the name or username of the account you want to check in the search bar.
4. Press the Check button.
5. Look through the account details including the current ER.

The results of the analysis are displayed in a matter of seconds and it is possible to get a clear image of any changes that might happen with this rate if to check it on a regular basis.

Why is my Instagram engagement so low?

Do you put a lot of effort to make your IG brand grow but it does not reflect on your ER? There are several reasons why you may face such challenges and that can influence your account from a negative side.

Your brand is not for Instagram

It goes without saying that the second most popular social media platform in the world seems a good place for marketing, but it may be not the best choice if to consider the industry and niche you work in. Instagram is a visual platform, first of all, so the main accent on it should be made on photos, pictures, short videos, tags. If a business does not refer to popular IG niches like cooking, traveling, beauty and fashion, etc., it may be very difficult to find a target audience there. If your posts are focused on text and you are interested in sharing links, this is not for Instagram.

For example, arts and crafts are more likely to hit on Pinterest, while job seekers and professionals should focus on LinkedIn, first of all. Therefore, you should clarify for yourself if your direction is IG-friendly or you may face more success on another platform.

No CTAs

It’s great to provide eye-catching images with funny titles and descriptions, but if you do not encourage your audience to take any action, probably it won’t. Your posts should be not only appealing but also engaging. They should inspire and make people act by leaving comments, likes, sharing, etc. Many marketers admit that the word ‘share’ mentioned in the post gives twice a higher ER than a traditional text.

It is too promotional to be engaging

If you use your IG profile for advertising your brand, it is important not to overdo it. According to the specialists who have developed a social media marketing strategy, 80% of the content posted should bring about the value to the audience and only 20% may have promotional features. It means that every 5th post can be devoted to ads, so focus on the quality of four others.

One-type posts

Even if you managed to attract a lot of followers, it can be difficult to keep them interested for a long time if your content is similar each time. At the very beginning, it looks great and new followers press their like buttons, but with time, they so ply get used to scrolling it down or even get fed up with it and look for more engaging content. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on various content including personal images, photos, news, shares, and reposts of funny and educational content, etc. The public should always find something useful in your posts to interact with them.

No tracking

Have you been posting actively on Instagram for months but never checked any metrics? It is one of the huge mistakes that may reflect on followers engagement. Only real data can say about the success of each post, preferences of your audience, learn the time when your subscribers are the most active, etc. Only a deep analysis of these figures made on a regular basis can lead to possible improvements in the ER.

Too many bots

One of the main reasons why Instagrammers face a sudden drop in the ER is an artificial increase in the follower number. It often happens that account holders want to make this figure grow by attracting fake accounts created by bots. A popular way to do that is giveaways or other approaches to increase the subscriber count. As a result, your posts may receive awkward comments that make feed a real mess and your true followers will ignore it too. If you want to see whether there are bots among your followers, this data can be also received on trendHERO. It is enough to analyze the account to see who is not a welcome guest on your page.

IG Algorithm peculiarity

If earlier Instagram was adding posts in the time order, now it focuses on the most popular posts. It means that users see that content at the top of their feed which has acquired the most active engagement during the first minutes and hours after its adding. As a result, if your post was not engaging enough, the algorithm of the platform will put it lower in the feed, and not all representatives of your audience will ever scroll down to see and interact with it.

How to increase engagement on Instagram

Have you found any matches with the reasons mentioned above? Do you want to correct this mistake? It means that you should put effort and try to increase your ER following these pieces of advice from experts:

• Grow your natural following: interact with other popular accounts leaving comments and communicating with others. It will attract their attention to your profile and they will pay for your activity with the same coin;
• Join pods: engagement groups are created with the goal to grow ER and the target audience since they move your posts higher in the feed;
• Share user-generated content: it is one of the ways to promote your brand in a more natural way and encourage users to share your posts in response;
• Choose the most relevant hashtags: pay attention to industry-focused hashtags where posts are counted in thousands. It can be impossible to hit the top with the hashtags used by millions or hundreds of thousands of people;
• Take advantage of CTAs: encourage your followers to like, comment, share your posts, agree or disagree with the statement, etc. Organize polls, quizzes, ask questions, use interactive buttons of different types, and you will spot the difference;
• Work on your bio: make it simple and clear, add contact information, focus on the clear and concise information about your brand;
• Improve the quality of your content: be consistent but make it various, track the analytics of every post to see which one is the most successful, look for new ideas in influencers working in your niche;
• Opt for collaboration: partner up with other influencers, brands, companies to reach the new audience;
• Use trendHERO: track your metrics with a couple of clicks, learn the features and interests of your followers, remove bots, follow the growth of your account, etc.

Conclusion

Engagement rate is a key data for accounts that use Instagram with promotional or monetization purposes. However, even personal accounts can be interested in what reflected in numbers feedback their posts get from the followers. In any case, this rate is a number-one point of consideration for companies that look for cooperation with influencers, so low numbers can be an obstacle to great partnerships. This article has shared the most common reasons why ER can drop or never grow as well as provided tips on how to boost this percentage. Give a try and you will see the changes in metrics almost instantly!