Instagram Reels Stats and Performance Benchmarks per Industry

Short-form video is one of the most effective mediums to increase your Instagram Reels engagement rate. Knowing and understanding average Instagram Reel benchmarks for your industry (and in general) makes it possible to set realistic, achievable goals that contribute to your overall marketing objectives. 

If your brand sets goals arbitrarily, this can do more harm than good — it’s easy to get discouraged with your efforts, not know where to pivot in your strategy, or, conversely, know which content actually performs well. 

This article covers: 

• Instagram Reels stats by industry.
• Overall average Instagram engagement rate. 
• How Instagram insights help brands become industry leaders. 
• FAQs. 

Industry social media benchmarks are essential to crafting your strategy — the goals you use to inform your strategy’s tactics and benchmarks tell you where your objectives should be and help you gauge success. 

While looking at brand averages helps inform your Instagram Reels strategy, it’s even better to get down to the nitty gritty and discover the benchmarks for your industry.  

So, how many average Reel views should brands aim for on Instagram? On average, Instagram Reels receive 122.8K views in a six-month period, from July 1 2023-December 31, 2023. 

Beauty: 116.9K Views

The beauty industry has experienced a 17% decline compared to 2024’s H1 benchmarks. The average number of views are down from 102.5K from the previous six months. The beauty industry’s content, sharing 3 posts per week on average, also resonates deeply with their audience, tying for the fourth-highest Entertainment Score (shared with Luxury and CPG) across all industries at 4.2 and a 9.4% Effectiveness Rate. 

For the hyper-visual Beauty industry, video is a great medium to highlight the product itself, but also tutorials, tips and social media trends that use beauty products. This format also lends itself well to both professionally-produced video and lo-fi, short-form content. Right now, static content receives just slightly higher engagement rates, which means beauty brands have an opportunity to leverage the less saturated Reels space.  

Food and Beverage - 27.4K Views

The food and beverage industry has the fifth-highest average Instagram Reel views at 27.4K in a six-month period. This is a decline from our previous benchmark report, which saw this industry receive 54.9K average views, a 50% decrease. However, this decrease is significantly lower than the 283% decrease from the previous period. This industry’s content also resonates deeply with audiences, earning the third-highest Effectiveness Rate at 17.8%.  

Despite this decrease in average views, the CPG industry leads in Entertainment Score, achieving a 5.4 score, while posting less with 2 Reels weekly. They also align with the overall average engagement rate of 0.3%. Food and Beverage brands should get creative with their Reels content. Due to its less frequent posts, tools like Dash Hudson's Content Predictions can help determine which content will perform the best with the food and beverage industry’s audience — ultra helpful in a competitive landscape.

Sparkling water brand Liquid Death created a funny video and partnered with Martha Stewart (a lifestyle guru known for her onscreen DIYs) to showcase a special edition candle supporting recycling efforts. Most of its Reels content focuses on funny situations and punchlines incorporating Liquid Death beverages.

Home - 85.1K Views 

The home industry is another visual vertical that benefits from Instagram Reels — the home industry saw 85.1K average views in a six-month period, a 0.82% increase from our previous benchmark report where this industry received 84.4K average views. The home industry’s content Entertainment Score is 3.1, while its Effectiveness Rate is the third-lowest at 10.2%. This shows an opportunity for home brands to diversify their content mix and dive deeper into what their audience responds best to — this could mean developing buyer personas, A/B testing or creating surveys and polls on social to determine what content their audience wants to see most. 

CB2 is an excellent example of showcasing dish ware from its eponymous brand while partnering with a related brand in the Food and Beverage Industry. CB2 shows its customer how its product can be used to create a beautiful beverage versus simply showing the glassware on camera.  

Luxury and Fashion - 71KViews

The fashion industry also benefits from a hyper-visual platform like Reels. Through behind-the-scenes content, interviews with influencer models and more, 

The fashion industry has seen 71K average Reels views, down 25% from 94,700 views since our last benchmark report. The Fashion Industry receives a 17.8% average Effectiveness Rate, surpassing the industry average of 14.7% by 3.1%. Its Entertainment Score has also risen, reaching 4.6, a 39.4% increase. Despite views decreasing, this data suggests the fashion industry’s content connects even more deeply than the previous six-month period with audience preferences, which is a great way to retain followers.

While lo-fi, short-form organic content tends to perform well on Instagram Reels, luxury brands often use polished, professional videos for their content. Brands in this space can try incorporating behind-the-scenes clips, like interviews with models, to garner more engagement. 

Media and Publishing - 209.1K Views 

The Media and Publishing Industry has the highest average views on Reels, and the second-highest Entertainment Score of all industries at 5.1, coming second only to Food and Beverage. 

Its Effectiveness Rate has also seen a 3.4% increase, falling at 15.3%, compared to 14.8% during the previous six-month period. These industries encompass magazines, journals, books and more, focusing on a diverse range of topics. While it might seem that words are this industry's mainstay, they have a great opportunity to continue to capture views with visual content that takes users inside the action of an event they're covering, exciting clips from trending TV shows and movies, showcasing behind-the-scenes footage from an interview, photoshoot outtakes or repurposed clips from their YouTube channel and website.

Take Vogue’s Instagram Reels, for example — the publisher shares compelling clips from its YouTube series ‘My Life in Looks,’ which drives the average Instagram engagement but also encourages users to seek out the full video on its YouTube account. 

Retail - 82K Views 

The Retail Industry is boosting its Instagram effectiveness with consistent posting strategies, including Reels and carousel images, leading to a 9.8% Effectiveness Rate. While TikTok continues to expand its reach, Instagram remains a key platform for driving steady engagement — their Engagement Rate aligns with the industry average of 0.3%. 

The Retail Industry has the lowest Entertainment Score among brands analyzed at 3.4, indicating an opportunity to enhance its video strategy — this industry still favors static posts, meaning that adopting Reels and increasing dynamic content could increase average reach, views and Entertainment Score.

Since many retail operations — like Target — offer a slew of products, this presents a wide range of opportunities to showcase home products, clothing, shoes, food, makeup, cleaning products, children’s toys and more. However, it also presents a challenge since so many content opportunities can make it difficult to streamline content strategies. 

Retail brands should consider their target demographic and craft their visual content strategy around product lines that are popular with these individuals. Another tactic retail brands could explore is influencer marketing, where creators with influence can incorporate your products into their own strategy.  

Children & Baby Industry - 49.8K Views

The Children & Baby Industry has seen a 12% increase in video views compared to the previous six-month period.

The Children and Baby industry appeals to parents with educational, informative content — they also infuse humor into a lot of its content, with fun interviews with children (like the Coterie example above) and other fun, creative content. 

Right now, this industry has a 3.0 Entertainment Score and the fourth-highest Entertainment Score at 17% — they have the chance to boost their Reels strategy even further by maintaining a diverse range of funny and informative video content targeted to parents. Another type of content that seems to resonate well with their audience include corporate social responsibility and partnerships with non-profit organizations and more. Brands should look for opportunities to authentically promote their non-profit partnerships and other causes, while engaging their audience to contribute to these causes. 

Become an Industry Leader on Social With Instagram Insights From Dash Hudson

If you want to take your brand's Reels strategy to the next level, Dash Hudson's Instagram Insights will take you there. With both Reels and Feed insights, Dash Hudson also gives you an understanding of which user-generated content performs best for your account. 

Another feature that marketers love for Instagram is LikeShop — this creates a seamless checkout experience from your feed to a custom shoppable gallery or landing page of your choice.

Of course, you'll need to measure your content strategy's impact on your goals and whether you meet or exceed your industry's benchmarks. Competitive Insights and Benchmarking provides custom data like Effectiveness Rate and Entertainment Score while tracking your competitor's content, so you have your finger on the pulse of everything happening in your social landscape.

Instagram Engagement Rates have seen a notable dip, with the overall average now at 0.3%, reflecting a 50% drop from the previous six months. This decline doesn't necessarily signal a loss in Instagram’s popularity. Instead, it highlights a shift in how users interact with content, leaning more toward DMs and shares rather than comments and likes.

Looking at specific industries, engagement varies. Beauty and Fashion brands see lower engagement rates at 0.2%, while industries like Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Publishing and Media, Travel, and Food and Beverage outperform the overall average with engagement rates of 0.4% or 0.3%. The Retail industry lags behind at 0.1%. This spread underscores the different ways audiences engage across sectors, with brands in some industries benefiting from more interaction despite overall platform trends shifting.

When it comes to industry-specific stats, average Engagement Rates are a little lower.

• Beauty industry: 0.2% Engagement Rate.
• CPG industry: 0.4% average Engagement Rate.
• Food and Beverage industry: 0.3% average Engagement Rate.
• Publishing and Media industry: 0.4% average Engagement Rate.
• Health and Wellness industry: 0.2% average Engagement Rate.
• Home industry: 0.2% average Engagement Rate.
• Luxury industry: 0.3% average Engagement Rate.
• Retail industry: 0.1% average Engagement Rate.
• Travel industry: 0.4% average Engagement Rate.
• Fashion industry: 0.2% average Engagement Rate.

Just like different industries have different Engagement Rates, account follower size also impacts a brand's Instagram Reel metrics.

Growing Brands (0-190K)

Growing brands —those with follower counts between 0-190K — maintain an impressive average Effectiveness Rate of 21.1%. This metric, which focuses on reach rather than follower count, helps brands better assess their engagement without being hindered by inactive followers. Despite having a more modest average reach of 9.9K, these brands benefit from a strong Entertainment Score of 4.5, indicating content that resonates with their audience. Posting an average of two Reels and three static posts per week, Growing brands are also seeing steady growth, with a 1.1% monthly follower increase and an average of 34 shares per post.

Established Brands (190K-1.1M)

Brands with follower counts in the 190K-1.1M range see a lower Effectiveness Rate of 6.6%, though their reach averages a solid 40.5K. These brands face the challenge of ghost followers, which can impact Engagement Rates, but the Effectiveness Rate (which considers likes, comments, saves and video views relative to reach) offers a better metric for evaluating content performance.

Posting an average of three Reels and four static posts per week, Established brands see an average monthly follower growth rate of 0.7%. With an Entertainment Score of 4.1 and an average of 140 shares per post, these accounts are well-positioned to drive engagement despite a slightly larger audience base.

Larger Brands (1.1M+ Followers)

Large brands, boasting over 1.1M followers, experience a higher reach, averaging 304.8K, though their Engagement Rate tends to be lower at 9.9%. It’s worth noting that Engagement Rates are a significant contributor to ranking in the Instagram algorithm, so this is an important metric to track consistently. However, their Effectiveness Rate of 10.9% and impressive Entertainment Score of 5.1 show they still effectively captivate their audience. 

These brands post heavily, averaging seven Reels and 10 static posts per week, and despite a slower monthly follower growth rate of 0.5%, they benefit from a significantly larger number of shares, averaging 658 per post. For large brands, keeping an eye on Engagement Rates remains critical, as this metric plays a key role in Instagram’s algorithm rankings.

Some large social accounts fall victim to ghost followers, and inactive followers can negatively impact your Engagement Rate. In lieu of cleaning your account and removing these followers (which is a great way to mitigate plummeting Engagement Rates), calculating the Effectiveness Rate (likes + comments + saves + video views / reach) is a great way to measure engagement. 

If you want to take your brand's Reels strategy to the next level, Dash Hudson's Instagram Insights will take you there. With both Reels and Feed insights, Dash Hudson also gives you an understanding of which user-generated content performs best for your account. 

Another feature that marketers love for Instagram is LikeShop — this creates a seamless checkout experience from your feed to a custom shoppable gallery or landing page of your choice.

Of course, you'll need to measure your content strategy's impact on your goals and whether you meet or exceed your industry's benchmarks. Competitive Insights and Benchmarking provides custom data like Effectiveness Rate and Entertainment Score while tracking your competitor's content, so you have your finger on the pulse of everything happening in your social landscape.

How do you measure Instagram Reel performance?

You can measure the performance of your Instagram Reels in a few different ways — these all depend on which goals and business objectives you’ve identified in your Instagram strategy.

Some of the most common metrics to measure the impact of Instagram Reels are: 

• Engagement Rate. 
• Followers gained/Reach. 
• Likes, comments and shares. 
• Website traffic. 

Brands should use average benchmarks and industry Reels performance measures, if available, to gauge their performance against competitors. For example, if you’re in the beauty industry and you’ve set a goal to receive 10K likes on Reels each month, and you receive 5K likes on average, you might grow discouraged that you haven’t reached your goal. When you consider that the average number of Instagram Reel likes for the Beauty industry is 3.7K, 5K likes is a significant achievement. 

How can I improve my Instagram Reel performance?

There are many ways brands can improve their Instagram Reels performance. What improvements will benefit your account is another story — however, before tweaking your entire visual strategy, here are a few things to take into account:

• Make sure you publish during the best times to post on TikTok.
• Optimize captions with trending Instagram hashtags and keywords.
• Dive into social media analytics and determine which content resonates best with your audience — then, refine your strategy to create similar content.