How to Increase Instagram Engagement in 2025

Instagram’s origin story is based around photo-sharing, but it’s evolved far beyond that in 2025. Meta’s content machine now has 2+ billion monthly active users. It’s a platform where brands, creators, entrepreneurs, and everyday users compete for attention. But visibility and reach isn’t enough. Engagement is the real digital currency of growth and success.

High engagement means your audience isn’t just seeing your content, but actively connecting with it: liking, commenting, sharing, responding. Day in, day out.

But it isn’t easy, right? Standing out and keeping followers happy and interested is a lofty goal that many try to achieve. So, what’s the secret? This guide breaks down what it all really means and covers proven strategies on how to increase Instagram engagement.

Let’s get started. 

What Is Instagram Engagement?

Instagram engagement is a measurement of how well users are interacting with your content. Without it, all your efforts fall flat: your content won’t reach as many people as you’d like it, spark conversations, or move the needle. It’s basically a metric that tells you whether people actually care about what you’re positing.

Engagement isn’t defined by one single metric (though engagement rate is pretty useful!). You’ll need to track multiple metrics using Instagram’s analytics dashboard. Things to keep an eye on, include:

• Engagement rate
• Click-through-rate
• Comments per posts
• Shares
• Saved posts
• Accounts engaged
• Stories views

These are all ‘actionable’ metrics that you can use for KPIs to determine the success of your social media campaigns and link to broader business objectives like sales or customer acquisition.

They don't include vanity metrics like ‘impressions’. Vanity metrics might look good at first glance. But they lack substance and don’t really provide any business value or help you to achieve your marketing goals.

What’s a good engagement rate on Instagram?

There isn’t an exact rate you need to shoot for, but we believe that anything higher than 2% is a sign that you’re performing really well. It doesn’t sound like much, but the average influence engagement rate in 2025 is 1.85%, so bear that in mind when conducting an audit.

A low engagement rate is anything that falls below 1%. This isn’t where you want to be, and the tips and tactics in this blog should help you hit a higher ceiling.

How to Audit Your Engagement Metrics

Before diving into ways to increase engagement, you first need to take stock of your current performance on Instagram.

A proper engagement audit is essentially a deep dive into all the key metrics, beyond just likes and follows. It forms part of a social media audit:, a “health check” for your current strategy. You want to know what’s working and what’s not, based on real data.

Clearly, engagement rate is a good starting point — this is the percentage of your followers who have engaged with your content in some way. You then get more insights by looking at other engagement-related figures, like how many accounts you’ve reached and engaged.

Here’s what to do, step-by-step:

1. Check Instagram Insights - Use Instagram’s built-in analytics tool to run the rule over your last 30 posts and Stories. Focus on metrics like comments, shares, reach, and accounts engaged.
2. Calculate engagement rate - Work out your engagement rate. Unfortunately, Insights doesn’t show this directly. You can calculate it by adding up your ‘likes, shares, comments, and saves’, dividing that figure by your number of followers and multiplying it by 100 to get a percentage.
3. Track Stories engagement - Look at metrics for your Stories, including completion rate and tap-throughs.
4. Compare post types - What’s driving engagement? Take a look at Reels, carousels, images — basically any content format to see what’s performing.
5. Round-up other metrics - Track some of the other metrics mentioned earlier to provide more context.  
6. Spot trends - The important bit. Identify patterns based on topic, format, posting time, anything that’s consistently signal boosting interactions.

Now you’ve done your audit, you should know what’s working and what isn’t. The next step is putting new tactics in place to lift those numbers to where you want them to be.

The aim, for now at least, is ‘increasing engagement’. That makes things easier as you’ll have a laser focus on one goal that your team can work towards.

10 Tips to Increase Instagram Engagement

Now that you understand what engagement means and how to measure it, you can start putting together a strategy to give your Instagram engagement a ‘glow up’. Here are 10 Instagram engagement strategies to increase Instagram followers, boost interactions, and build a loyal audience.

1. Build a Strong Brand Presence

You need to put in the hard yards for your Instagram to steadily grow, before hopefully, reaching an inflection point where things really take off. Building a strong brand presence is the foundation and it’s all about being consistent; posting regularly with your own unique identity and voice. When your audience instantly recognizes your posts, they’re more likely to stop and interact.

Here’s what you can do:

• Use a consistent visual style with a set of colors and fonts that are true to your brand image.
• Define your brand voice. Are you funny, motivational, informative, or optimistic?
• Publish a mix of content to begin with. Post educational content to inform consumers, personal behind-the-scenes footage to humanize your brand, and entertaining memes or videos.
• Experiment with different Instagram formats, like Reels and Stories, to see what resonates with your target audience
• Stick to a regular posting schedule so followers can anticipate new content and know what to expect.

Even better, in 2025 you can post on Instagram from different devices so you can build your campaigns on smartphones, desktops, laptops, and using other third party tools. This gives you much more flexibility to plan and schedule your content.

2. Optimize Your Profile for Connection

Brands need to do more with less with Instagram profiles; the bio has a very limited 150-character cap. To make a powerful first impression, use this space to succinctly demonstrate your unique value and communicate who you are and what you do. If it’s vague or impersonal, people won’t hit follow, so try a few drafts to hit the right tone.

You should also:

• Use a clear profile picture of your brand logo.
• Add your business name and relevant keywords in the bio.
• Add a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of the bio to guide users on what they should do next.
• Add a link in your bio that directs users to your website or an offer you’re currently running. Quite a few brands now use a Linktree-style landing page for maximum impact.
• Use Story Highlights to showcase your brand’s best content.

3. Create Content That Triggers Interaction

Everything falls down if your content isn’t up to scratch. Here’s the thing: the average user now spends just 1.7 seconds looking at each post on their Instagram feed. That’s barely longer than the blink of an eye. That’s all the time you have to stop and scroll and then compel them to take action.

It’s a big ask, but it’s definitely achievable if you know what makes people tick. Most of the time, it’s making people feel something. A reason for them to respond.

You can do this by:

• Telling stories - People love stories and are more open to connecting to great narratives, than basic product shots. Share
• Asking questions - Simple prompts like “which would you pick?” invite replies and comments.
• Using interactive features - Polls, emoji sliders, and quizzes in Stories give your audience an easy to engage quickly without too much effort.
• Making it relatable - Creating memes and sharing everyday frustrations of home or work life that your audience “gets” and makes them feel part of a group are gold for sparking shares.
• Adding clear next steps - Don’t miss out on telling people what to do with your post. Simple instructions like “save this for later” or “drop your opinion below” guide without being too pushy.

Key stat: Carousels drive the highest engagement rate per impression. Maybe start with these!

Here’s 20 of the most liked photos on Instagram for inspiration. These definitely hit the right spots and triggered conversations! When your content is doing a good job of nudging people to like, comment or share, Instagram’s algorithm is more likely to push it to others.

4. Use Captions as Engagement Drivers

Writing Captions, like your bio, might not seem as fancy as shooting and editing footage for your Reels and Stories, but they can really add value to your posts, when used correctly.

You can create captions on Instagram with text, hashtags, emojis, and @mentions. Don’t think of them as space-fillers. They can provide much-needed context to visuals and spark engagement and real conversations. There are lots of ways to experiment too — the written word is very versatile after all!

Here are a few examples of how to use captions, depending on your objective. Tailor the caption for the task at hand. You can use some of the examples in your content, too.

Hook creation strategies:

• Start with surprising statements - Makes people want to read more.
• Ask compelling questions - Draws readers into the conversation immediately.
• Make relatable observations - Connect with shared experiences to make your brand relatable.
• Avoid generic openings - Skip phrases like, “hope everyone’s having a great day!”

Storytelling techniques:

• Share personal experiences - Humans are wired to respond to narratives.
• Include lessons learned - Show vulnerability and growth.
• Feature customer success stories - Let your community see themselves in your content.
• Create emotional connections - Help followers feel something when they read your captions.

Call to action examples:

• “Double-tap if you agree” - Simple engagement request and a satisfying action for followers to see cause and effect.
• “Share this with someone who needs to see it” - Encourage sharing with upbeat, optimistic text.
• “Tell me in the comments” - Direct requests again give people clear instructions to follow.
• “Tag someone who would love this” - Expands your reach to new audiences and strengthens connections with your existing followers.

The main content and the caption should work in tandem to elevate the post to a higher level, one that compels people to engage.

5. Leverage Instagram Stories and Reels

We’ve already spoken about Stories and Reels, but what exactly are they? Stories are temporary posts you can publish that disappear after 24 hours. They might be ephemeral, but they appear right at the top of your follower’s feeds, making them useful for catching the eye. They can be photos or videos.

Reels, on the other hand, are short-form vertical videos. These are discoverable beyond your followers, and can show up on the Explore page. Instagram recently upped the max limit for Reels to 3 minutes, so you now have a bit more runtime to play with music, effects and other tools when creating catchy videos.

Why are Reels great for engagement? Because they grab people’s attention quickly, and make them take action. Users are 52% more likely to share video content, and Reels specifically generate 22% more interactions than other formats. So it's basically a cheat code for higher engagement. If you do it right, of course!

Here’s how:

• Focus on the first few seconds - You have a very short window to capture attention.
• Start with compelling moments - Front-load with an interesting ‘hook’ or your most interesting content to pique interest and boost view times.
• Use trending audio strategically - Use popular songs and sounds, but only when it fits your content naturally.
• Optimize for discovery - Reels are heavily promoted by Instagram’s algorithm, making them a window of opportunity for new audiences.
• Repurpose content - Turn your feed posts and topics into Reels and vice versa.

Stories aren’t shy in driving engagement, either. They can capture your audience’s attention at the right moments. Some experts recommend posting up to 7 times per day; they are lightweight and versatile.

To boost Instagram Stories engagement, you can:

• Show personality and authenticity - Share quick updates, behind-the-scenes moments in the office, and real-time reactions to news and events.
• Experiment with different formats - Mix in a few polls, quizzes, countdowns and question stickers to get people to tap and reply.
• Encourage participation - Run mini-challenges or ask your audience for opinions.

6. Master the Algorithm Without Gaming It

Knowing Algorithm’s algorithm inside-out will certainly give you an edge when creating and optimizing your posts. This is the ‘secret sauce’. The system that determines what everyone sees on the platform.

Meta now uses AI systems to predict what you want to see first, rather than just serving things up in a strict chronological order. There are tons of signals that the algorithm crunches to do this, but if you want to go viral on Instagram, here’s the main things that count:

• The post itself - The type of content and how popular it is.
• The person who shared it - How often you interact with them.
• Your own behavior - What kinds of content you’ve engaged with in the past.

Meta explicitly states that lots of positive interactions with your post will typically result it in appearing higher in a person’s feed. However, you don’t want to chase hacks or shortcuts to get there — trying to the game system won’t work.

Instead, do the basics very well:

• Post great content
• Post consistently
• Reply quickly to comments and DMs
• Use hashtags judiciously (don’t spam them!)

7. Build Deeper Relationships Through Community

As you can see, community plays a big part in the algorithm. The more people you engage with and they, in turn, like and share your content far and wide, the better chance you have of driving engagement consistently. You can’t be cynical, though. You need to nurture meaningful interactions for this to work.

• Two way conversations - Set aside 20 minutes a day to respond to every comment and DM. Do it thoughtfully, don’t just use emojis.
• Stories shot outs - Use quick 10-second clips or images in Stories to highlight loyal followers.
• Ask Me Anything (AMAs) - Use the Questions Sticker in Stories to collect queries and then follow up with short video Reels answering them, or host a Live stream.
• Micro-influencers - Collaborate with smaller channels with loyal audiences to reach new people and nurture genuine discussions.
• User-generated content - This is a big one recently. Running challenges and events to get brand advocates to create and share their own content, such as product reviews and hauls. It not only deepens relationships with existing followers, but spreads the word to millions of others.

Your audience wants to feel seen and heard, and be a part of something. Any trusted social media consultant will tell you: don’t neglect this side of things.

8. Avoid Engagement Killers

When you’re gaining momentum on Instagram, the last thing you need are engagement killers that drag your campaigns down and ruin all the good will you’ve slowly built with audiences.

There are certain practices that definitely won’t win over anyone.

• Posting low-quality images - Users don’t expect pro-level photos every time, but blurry images with poor lighting, or visuals in low resolution with artifacts are a big no-no, especially for younger audiences.  
• Typos in hastily written captions - Spelling errors and copy that makes little sense screams “unprofessional” and can take the shine off otherwise great content.
• Being overly promotional - Ideally, you should stick to the 80/20 rule when positing on Instagram. 80% should be valuable for the audience, and only 20% pushing your products and services. Always be wary of hard selling.
• Ignoring your community - Less overt but just as harmful is ignoring your followers after you’ve posted. Always respond to comments and DMs, and engage with other content within your community.
• Posting inconsistently - A stop-start campaign will confuse followers (and the algorithm). Try not to leave big gaps between posting; always keep to a schedule and give it time before pivoting.

9. Scale With Smart Tools and Automation

You don’t have to do everything manually these days. Instagram has an army of automation tools to do the heavy lifting as you grow and scale your campaigns. These are great time savers and really help with consistency (they won’t forget to publish a post!).

Here are a few things you can with the smart tools on Instagram:

• Schedule posts
• Engage with followers automatically (be careful with this)
• Follow and unfollow accounts
• Send personalized DMs
• Find and add trending hashtags

You can do a few of these directly on Instagram. However, to get the best results, you might want to use third party tools or outsource social media lead generation to a digital marketing agency.

Looking for strategies to scale quickly? To make a real big splash, running celebrity Instagram giveaways can boost visibility instantly and get the followers you need for real and lasting engagement.

10. Convert Engagement Into Loyalty

Engagement is a big goal — you’re putting all this effort into generating it consistently, after all. But it should be the end goal. Engagement without anything afterward is a lost opportunity, a brief moment of success that soon dissipates as audiences forget and look elsewhere.

The aim is to turn those high engagement rates into lasting loyalty and tangible business outcomes. This requires a slightly different mindset, one where you nurture leads and strengthen relationships.

• Provide exclusive value - Follow up with email newsletters and special offers to keep followers engaged.
• Create tiered experiences - Offer exclusive access to certain groups based on their engagement level.
• Offer insider information - Share exclusive insights and early access content to provide value and real benefits for loyal followers.
• Build personal connections - Continue to respond to comments and even acknowledge them in posts to create ‘super fans’.
• Celebrate milestones - Include your community when sharing success stories and milestones as you grow.

How do you know if all the time and effort you’re putting into Instagram is paying off? By keeping tabs on which of your engaged followers become customers and brand advocates. You can do this by:

• Using tools like Google Analytics UTM codes to track traffic from your website.
• Monitoring the Instagram content types that drive action: email signups, services inquiries, product purchases etc.

Linking engagement to loyalty and repeat business is the best way to refine your strategy. This loops back to vanity metrics. Increasing Instagram engagement must support key business objectives; not just exist in a vacuum as a ‘nice to have’.

Conclusion: Turn Instagram Engagement Into Results

High engagement is the holy grail on Instagram. It’s where all your positive business outcomes will flow from. However, be wary of anyone promising shortcuts to success.

You’ll need to put solid foundations in place, starting with a social media audit, and then building from the ten best practices in this thread to grow the family of metrics (likes, shares, comments, saves) organically. When combined with a few strategic promotions or contests like celebrity giveaways, you can really start to see engagement fly.

Ready to supercharge your Instagram strategy?

Influize is a trusted social media marketing agency. We’ve worked with some of the biggest brands and influencers and know how to combine high-level strategy and cutting-edge creative and production to deliver campaigns that regularly engage audiences and drive real results.