Average Social Media Engagement Rate by Industry (2026)
Median engagement rates by industry and platform, calculated every week from real brand posts. Use them to judge whether your numbers are good.
Median engagement rate: 1.9%
Last updated · refreshed weekly from Submarine.ai data
| Industry | Median eng. rate | YouTube | TikTok | Brands | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automobile | 1.9% | 1.8% | 7.0% | 1.9% | 50+ |
| Finance & Insurance | 0.9% | 0.8% | 1.5% | 1.3% | 90+ |
| Food & Beverages | 1.9% | 0.7% | 3.0% | 2.0% | 160+ |
| Luxury & Beauty | 2.3% | 1.3% | 3.5% | 2.3% | 1910+ |
| Personal Care & Household Products | 1.8% | 0.7% | 1.6% | 2.2% | 40+ |
| Retailers | 0.7% | 0.6% | 0.9% | 0.8% | 80+ |
Methodology
Each row is a cohort: the tracked brands in one industry. The Brands column is the sample size for that row. Medians are per-brand medians: we compute each brand's engagement rate (engagement divided by views over the trailing 30 days), then take the middle value across the brands in the cohort. Only official brand channels count.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a good engagement rate for brands on social media in 2026?
The median engagement rate for brands across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram is 1.9%, measured by Submarine.ai over the last 30 days. If your rate beats the median for your segment in the table on this page, you are doing better than half the brands we track.
How is engagement rate calculated?
Engagement rate is likes plus comments divided by views, on a brand's posts from the trailing 30 days. We compute it per brand, then take the median across the brands in each segment, so one viral brand cannot skew the figure.
Where does this data come from?
Submarine.ai tracks official brand channels on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram and computes these benchmarks from their posts. The page is updated weekly.