2024 Social Media Industry Benchmarks

With the constant changes happening in the social media scene, data is more important than ever when it comes to creating an effective marketing strategy.

As any marketer knows, benchmarking has a crucial role in evaluating a brand’s social media performance and gaining insights that can be leveraged to align a company’s social strategy to the latest trends to increase its visibility.

So, without further ado, we’re presenting you the latest social media benchmarks for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok (and even a bit of Twitter) across several of the most active industries on social. And this year, we’ve added a little extra - some industry benchmarks by regions as well.

Let’s dive in!

Social media benchmarks for 2024:

A. Social media engagement benchmarks: key insights
B. Social media benchmarks by platform

C. Social media benchmarks by industry

D. Social media benchmarks and best practices according to experts
E. Methodology

A. Social media engagement benchmarks - key insights

TikTok’s engagement rate by followers stands at an average of 2.65% and an average engagement rate of 4.07% by views.

Engagement drops on TikTok get higher and higher, with last year scoring a 35% decrease in the engagement rate by followers and a 20% decrease in the engagement by views.

From an engagement rate standpoint, the education industry is the best-performing one on TikTok.

Instagram’s engagement has remained flat over the last year, scoring an average of 0.70%.

Education also makes for the most engaging industry on Instagram.

Facebook’s engagement rate is located at an average of 0.15%, while the arts & crafts industry gets the highest engagement values.

European Nordic countries have a higher presence and engagement on Instagram and Facebook compared to native English countries such as the US, UK or Australia.

B. Social media benchmarks by platforms

Depending on the vertical of their business, some brands have an easier time communicating with their audience than others.

Simply put, specific audiences can be more or less responsive and engaging on social depending on the business industry.

To understand every social platform’s potential benefits for your brand, you need to benchmark social media engagement rates across all the important channels, altogether with industry-specific data.

Moreover, leveraging a YoY comparative analysis is desirable, as it emphasizes the trends that you need to take into consideration when establishing your future social strategy direction and goal setting.

While certainly, every marketer is aware that TikTok is the social platform that reigns in terms of engagement nowadays, data has indicated it also scores higher and higher engagement drops.

Located at an average of 2.65% in 2024, TikTok’s engagement rate (calculated by followers) has lowered by 35%, replicating Instagram’s decreasing engagement path over the past years.

Speaking about Instagram, according to our engagement benchmarks data, it seems the platform’s average engagement rate has reached a flat line, scoring a 0.70% value once again.

Similarly, the Facebook engagement rate also remains flat, registering an average of 0.15%, followed by Twitter, which ranks last, with an average Twitter engagement rate of 0.05%.

This means that brands whose stats fall beneath these scores need to put a lot more effort into their social media strategies than industries from more engaging verticals, as well as manage their expectations when it comes to results.

How do we calculate the engagement rate on TikTok?

TikTok engagement rate is calculated as the sum of likes, comments, shares, and saves on the post divided by the total number of posts. The result is then divided by the total number of followers and multiplied by 100.

When we’re talking about a video platform, there’s also another way of calculating the engagement rate on TikTok.

The engagement rate on TikTok can be calculated as the sum of likes, comments, shares, and saves divided by the number of posts and then all divided by views.

We decided to adopt the first approach to have similar pillars of comparison when looking overall at all the social media platforms analyzed.

PS: Calculated based on video views, TikTok’s engagement rate records an average of 4.07%, scoring a YOY decrease of 20%.

Social media industry benchmarks for TikTok

As new platforms or features arise from year to year, from an engagement rate perspective, the social media landscape gets hit by a series of changes. And TikTok’s decreasing engagement path stands for the best proof.

When doing your social media performance analysis and future predictions, it’s very important to put your data into context and to compare your engagement rates to the platform’s average values within your industry.

So, moving forward with our inquiry of digging up the latest TikTok performance trends, we’ve also peeked at TikTok’s average engagement rate within several industries.

A most noteworthy insight revealed by the data was that, at the moment, the education industry is the best-performing one on TikTok, reaching an average engagement of 4.90%.

However, given that TikTok is a platform where views weigh more than the follower count and that its algorithm calculates the engagement based on the views metric, we also took a peek at how these industries’ engagement rates stand when measured by video views.

Social media industry benchmarks for Instagram

Industries like fashion, beauty, or retail are known for being heavy investors in Instagram marketing. However, this doesn’t necessarily imply these are also the top-performing ones.

Actually, according to our industry benchmarks for social media, the mentioned sectors are among those that fall below the platform’s average values in terms of engagement.

Truth be told, Instagram is far from what it used to be back in the day from an engagement perspective, which only implies more challenges for marketers in getting their audience’s attention.

On the other hand, for brands within certain business lines leveraging Instagram marketing, there is also some good news.

With an Instagram engagement rate of 1.40%, which is double compared to the platform’s average, the education industry is a great source of inspiration for brands looking to step up their Instagram strategies.

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Continue reading: From Distraction to Engagement: 9 Actionable Tips on How to Best Use Social Media in Education

As per our social media benchmarks by industry, the other two sectors that are mastering the Instagram marketing game are NGOs and airlines, hitting an engagement rate that exceeds 1.00%. So, definitely, not all hope is lost.

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Get the latest Instagram data: [STUDY] Instagram Benchmarks 2024: Latest Insights on Content Performance and Metrics

Social media industry benchmarks for Facebook

Despite registering significantly lower engagement values compared to TikTok, for example, Facebook still remains one of brands’ most used social media platforms to boost loyalty and sales.

The effort put by many companies in their Facebook marketing strategies is most noticeable when looking at engagement benchmarks across multiple sectors.

While the arts & crafts industry is the best-performing one on Facebook, having an engagement rate of 0.42%, it’s impressive that many industries top the platform’s average values.

For more live data on Facebook performance, consider using a Facebook analytics tool like Socialinsider.

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C. Social media benchmarks by industry

Because we know how much experience weighs in the creation of a successful social media plan, both when it implies copywriting tasks or rather more strategic skills, we love to blend the quantitative data with some qualitative insights.

Ann Handley - digital marketer and content expert, told us that: “2024 is about recognizing that social media's superpower lies in its ability to help us build more sustainable relationships”.

Therefore, by looking at social media as a relationship-builder tool, brands should put a greater emphasis on primarily offering value to their customers rather than having a sales-oriented approach.

To get inspired to create customer-centric content, brands could look at several industries that have sparked good social media engagement and start leveraging some of the strategies identified as effective.

Airlines: social media engagement benchmarks

For a long time now, airlines have been rocking it on social media, registering above-average engagement values across all the networks.

However, when it comes to social media, nothing is set in stone, as platforms and trends come and go. That, too, is the case of the airline’s industry and its incredible TikTok engagement rate.

According to our social media industry benchmarks data, TikTok’s overall engagement drop has had a significant impact on this industry’s average engagement values.

Surprisingly enough, in 2024, the airline industry scored a TikTok engagement rate that’s below the platform’s average - reaching only 2.30%.

On Instagram, on the other hand, this particular business sector achieved above the average stats, with a 1.00% average Instagram engagement rate and a Facebook average engagement rate of 0.30%.

Now, because we wanted to take our analysis of benchmarks for social media one step further, we turned our attention to a regional-level engagement exploration around Instagram and Facebook.

Arts & Crafts: social media engagement benchmarks

Despite TikTok offering greater engagement potential compared to other social platforms, many business verticals are having a hard time finding a content strategy that would spark the users’ desire to connect with a brand.

While TikTok’s engagement has severely dropped over the last year, as already seen, the rank the arts & crafts industry recorded is unexpectedly low, having an engagement rate of only 1.27% on average.

However, the engagement rates achieved on Instagram and Facebook, which are above the platforms’ average, highlight the importance of leveraging the networks where your target audience is.

To wrap things up with this industry’s social media benchmarks, here are the average engagement rates across the other social platforms:

0.82% average engagement rate on Instagram;
0.42% average engagement rate on Facebook

Automotive industry: social media engagement benchmarks

As per our social media industry benchmarks, the automotive industry falls within those business lines that faced an engagement drop that led to above-the-average values on TikTok, scoring an engagement rate of only 1.40%.

On Instagram, the automotive industry also records an engagement rate of 0.77% on average, while on Facebook, the average engagement rate stands at 0.28%.

As for more in-depth industry benchmarks for social media, let’s take a look at some regional data as well, in the chart below.

Alcohol: social media engagement benchmarks

In this social media benchmarks analysis, the alcohol industry makes for an interesting case, given that it is the only business line that did not register a decrease in the average engagement rate on TikTok.

In terms of social media engagement, at the moment, this business sector achieved the following rates:

a 2.50% average engagement rate on TikTok;
a 0.80 % Instagram average engagement rate;
a 0.38% average engagement rate on Facebook.

Beauty: social media engagement benchmarks

While obviously, some industries invest more in social media compared to others, especially given the constant algorithm changes, there’s certainly no guarantee of success, regardless of the business sector.

One of the best examples is the beauty industry, which is known to invest heavily in social media marketing.

When looking at social media engagement benchmarks for the beauty sector, we noticed that on all social networks, the engagement rates registered were below the platform’s averages.

As far as engagement goes, the beauty industry scored an average engagement rate of only 1.30% on TikTok, an average engagement rate of 0.35% on Instagram, and a 0.13% Facebook average engagement rate.

E-commerce: social media engagement benchmarks

For e-commerce brands, besides being a great tool for brand awareness, social media is equally extremely powerful for sales and loyalty generation, and therefore, strategy optimization becomes key.

However, this doesn’t mean e-commerce brands should poach their social media audiences with hard-selling communication approaches. Remember, today’s audiences don’t want to be sold to anymore.

In such a highly growing market, generated by the continuously increasing online shopping affinity, putting their own data into context by leveraging social media engagement benchmarks, brands can identify ways to level up their performance and therefore, boost their sale volume as well.

Given that the e-commerce industry registered an Instagram engagement rate of 0.50% and a Facebook engagement rate of 0.09%, both values being lower than the platform’s averages for brands within this sector, it’s recommended that they reconsider their strategies.

With authenticity being the go-to approach that offers results on social nowadays, e-commerce businesses should focus on creating more personalized experiences for their customers.

Education: social media engagement benchmarks

The education industry is the one that reigns supreme when it comes to social media engagement, in both TikTok and Instagram’s case, registering significantly greater values than the platforms’ average.

However, similar to other industries, the education industry has also faced some fall downs in its TikTok engagement rate, being now located at an average of 4.90%, registering a 25% decrease YoY.

On Instagram, the education industry’s average engagement rate goes up to 1.40%, while on Facebook, the sector’s average engagement rate reaches only 0.13%.

Fashion: social media engagement benchmarks

Registering an average TikTok engagement rate of 0.85%, the fashion industry is the least-performing sector on this platform, and not only.

From an engagement rate standpoint, brands within this sector have recorded average values that are below the platform’s standards, having an engagement rate on Instagram of 0.28% on average and a 0.09% average Facebook engagement rate.

A reason for these low numbers might be the brands’ within this industry's hard push on selling rather than focusing on creating valuable or entertaining content, and therefore lacking authenticity, which is nowadays what social media users want to see from brands more than anything.

FMCG - Beverages: social media engagement benchmarks

Compared to food brands, businesses within the beverage industry have leveraged better-performing TikTok strategies in terms of engaging their audiences.

This particular business line is one of the best in creating entertaining content, aligned with TikTok users’ preferences, which is noticeable when checking the industry engagement benchmarks.

Often integrating humor and dynamism into their TikTok videos, beverage brands have succeeded in reaching a TikTok engagement rate that’s below the platform’s average.

Looking at engagement data across the board, the industry has reached an average TikTok engagement rate of 3.00%, an Instagram average engagement rate of 0.77%, and a Facebook engagement rate of 0.30% on average.

FMCG - Food: social media engagement benchmarks

Brands within the FMCG - Food category seemed to have found their audiences on Instagram and Facebook, on TikTok scoring below the average engagement values of the platform, as opposed to the other two.

As per our industry benchmarks data, the FMCG-food industry scored an average engagement rate of only 1.86% on TikTok, an Instagram average engagement rate of 0.80%, and a Facebook average engagement rate of 0.40%

Home & Living: social media engagement benchmarks

Pages that represent the home& living category fail to engage with their audiences on social as much as other industries have proven to do.

Home & living brands reach a TikTok average engagement of 1.22%, a 0.43% average engagement rate on Instagram, and a Facebook engagement rate of 0.21% on average.

Hotels & Accommodation: social media engagement benchmarks

When looking at industry benchmarks for social media, there’s no denying that the hotels & accommodation sector is certainly a great source of inspiration for brands aiming to level up their social media performance.

This particular business line has registered above-the-average engagement rates across all social platforms, as follows:

on TikTok: a 2.97% average engagement rate;
an Instagram average engagement rate of 0.85%;
a Facebook engagement rate of .038% on average.

With famous companies like Booking.com and Airbnb being components of the sector, there’s no wonder where the high industry average social media engagement comes from.

Healthcare: social media engagement benchmarks

Unlike other business verticals, the healthcare sector is not necessarily a social-driven industry, having a more sensitive nature.

However, for brands within this business category is still important to benchmark their engagement rates to the industry’s average to identify whether or not their current strategies are delivering the best results possible.

Based on our industry benchmarks for social media, it would appear that Facebook may be the better suited platform for healthcare brands to communicate with their audiences. Which makes sense, given the current specific demographics of each social network.

In a nutshell, the healthcare industry’s average engagement rates across social media are the followings: 0.60% on Instagram and 0.30% on Facebook.

Jewelry: social media engagement benchmarks

Overall, social media engagement in the jewelry industry is pretty low, scoring below the platform’s average rates on all social networks.

Jewelry brands reach an average TikTok engagement rate of 1.45%, a 0.33% Instagram engagement rate, and a Facebook engagement rate of 0.09%.

Magazines & Journals: social media engagement benchmarks

From an average engagement rate standpoint, brands within the magazine's industry are underperforming on social these days, having the following values:

a 1.67% average engagement rate on TikTok
an Instagram average engagement rate of 0.68%
a Facebook engagement rate of 0.10%

Media industry: social media engagement benchmarks

Despite the fact that within the media industry are some of nowadays’ the world’s most popular brands like Netflix or HBO, according to our industry benchmarks for social media, brands have a hard time engaging their audiences on social.

Surprisingly, this applies especially to TikTok’s case, where the industry scored an average engagement rate of 1.80%

For the media industry, the social media engagement benchmarks for Instagram and Facebook are the following: 0.75% on Instagram and 0.12% on Facebook.

NGOs: social media engagement benchmarks

NGO brands have always known how to get the attention of social media users, especially on Instagram, which is unquestionable when looking at this industry’s average engagement rates for this social platform.

At the moment, the industry’s average engagement rate on Instagram reaches an average of 1.07%, which exceeds the platform’s average, and a Facebook engagement rate of 0.20%.

Retail: social media engagement benchmarks

One of the many benefits of social media for retail brands is its ability to strengthen brand presence alongside building trust.

When customer complaints and feedback are dealt with transparently and in a professional and considerate way, customers orient their attention toward those brands.

With an average engagement rate of 0.40% on Instagram and 0.15% on Facebook, retail businesses should reconsider their current strategies if aiming to get better results from their social media marketing efforts.

Leveraging content that addresses the clients’ pain points is a great start for developing social media optimization strategies, and some inspiration can be taken from those industries that have succeeded in generating above-average engagement rates, such as hotels and accommodation.

Software: social media engagement benchmarks

Despite being one of the top-growing business lines in the current socio-economic environment, the software industry, while having its wins in terms of engagement, also has some shortcomings.

On Instagram, for example, the software industry exceeds the platform's average engagement values, registering a 0.88% engagement rate.

On the other hand, on Facebook, the industry's engagement rate is located below the platform's average, scoring only 0.12%

Sports & Outdoors: social media engagement benchmarks

When looking at engagement benchmarks for social media for the sports & outdoor industry, we discovered a striking TikTok engagement decrease.

While part of it was certainly the result of the platform’s overall engagement drops, brands within this business line should run a comparative performance audit integrating older, more effective TikTok marketing campaigns to get more content insights to bounce back to higher engagement rates.

PS: Using a social media analytics tool can help you simplify the audit process and gain more time to get to the bottom of the numbers so that you can optimize your TikTok marketing strategy.

Start with a 14-day Socialinsider free trial, get into the nitty-gritty of data using our TikTok analytics feature, and gain insights that will help you become the next TikTok star!

Back to our social media benchmarks data, at the moment, the sports & outdoors industry reaches the following engagement rates: 2.15% average engagement rate on TikTok, 0.75% average Instagram engagement rate and a 0.22% Facebook engagement rate on average.

Telecom: social media engagement benchmarks

Similar to other industries, over the last year, the telecom sector also faced slight fall downs in its Instagram average engagement rate, nowadays being located at an average of 0.50%.

On the other hand, our 2024 social media benchmarks analysis has revealed that many business lines have registered improvements in their Facebook engagement rates despite this platform being the lowest engaging one after Twitter.

This left us wondering if Facebook will make a comeback in the future, especially given its future AI integration plans.

As for this industry’s Facebook engagement rate - at the moment it is located at an average of 0.30%.

Travel: social media engagement benchmarks

With TikTok headed more and more toward becoming a search engine, an increased number of users are nowadays using the platform to discover places for their holiday destinations or look for cool places to hang out.

Thanks to its highly visually aesthetic nature, Instagram was, back in the day, the platform used for travel inspiration, but, as in many other cases, it got replaced due to TikTok’s tremendously trainable algorithm.

While also scoring above-the-average engagement values on TikTok, for the travel industry, this platform is the best-performing one from an engagement perspective.

To wrap things up with this industry’s social media benchmarks, here are the average engagement rates across all social platforms:

1.72% average engagement rate on TikTok
0.73% average Instagram engagement rate
0.28% average engagement rate on Facebook

D. Social media benchmarks and best practices according to experts

For brands to better understand their data and improve their strategies, it’s important to keep up with the latest changes and trends appearing in the social media landscape.

To ease that research process, we’ve interviewed a couple of experts how do they see the future of social media marketing and what approaches will become paramount for a good performance. Below you’ll find their answers:

“Social media customer care is becoming even more multifaceted, offering immense opportunities for brands ready to seize them. Response times, once a mere indicator of efficiency, have now become integral benchmarks of a brand's commitment to its audience. The platforms have multiplied, but so have the expectations. Customers today demand more than just solutions - they seek genuine engagement, near-immediate responses, and above all, a seamless omnichannel experience.” Brooke Sellas - Digital Customer Experience Consultant

“The trend of social media users demanding raw and authentic content will continue, with TikTok to set the trends for what other social media users end up seeing in their feeds.” Neal Schaffer - marketing strategist

“Finding a mix of entertainment/education will be critical for serious brands. Even if they can't be playful or fun, they are going to need to find a way to have value in their social media beyond just the products.” Kate Meyers - Digital Communications Manager @Candid

E. Methodology

Within this social media benchmarking report, we provide a representative sample of international brands with an active presence on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

The timeframe selected for this research was between January 2022 and December 2023, while also categorizing the profiles into industries based on their activity and page category settings.

We define social media engagement rate as measurable interactions on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok posts, including comments, reactions, and shares, with the particularities for each platform.

Facebook engagement rate per post (by followers): Facebook engagement rate per post is calculated as the sum of reactions, comments, and shares on the post divided by the total number of fans that page has. The result is then multiplied by 100.

Instagram engagement rate per post (by followers): Instagram engagement rate per post is calculated as the sum of likes and comments on the post divided by the total number of followers that the profile has. The result is then multiplied by 100.

Twitter engagement rate per post (by followers): Twitter engagement rate per post is calculated as the sum of likes and Retweets received on the Tweet divided by the total number of followers that profile has. The result is then multiplied by 100.