What is audience growth rate?
The audience growth rate measures the percentage of new followers your brand gained on social media within a particular time frame, or we can say, the speed at which your brand gained new followers. This metric measures the percentage of new followers in relation to your total audience.
How to calculate audience growth rate?
To calculate the audience growth rate, begin by selecting a reporting period. Then, divide the number of ‘net new followers’ in that period, by the ‘total audience’ or followers in starting of the reporting period and multiply by 100.
You need to calculate your audience growth rate for a certain period, like a week or a month. Calculate your audience growth rate separately for each social media platform.
Formula for calculating audience growth rate
Real-life example of audience growth rate
Let's say your brand had 10,000 followers on Instagram in starting of the previous month. And 10,500 at the end of that month. This means you gained 500 new followers during the previous month.
Putting the figures in the formula, your audience growth rate will be: 500/10,000 x 100 = 5%
What’s considered a good audience growth rate? (benchmark)
A good audience growth rate on average is 2% - 5% for accounts that consistently post and interact with users. The average Instagram business account sees a follower growth rate of 1.25% each month. The audience growth rate depends largely on your current follower count.
For example, if a brand with 1,000 followers gains 100 new followers its growth rate will be 10%. Whereas, if a brand with 10,000 followers gains 100 new followers its growth rate will only be 1%.
In October 2022, the average growth rate on Instagram was 3.37%.
The best way to determine a benchmark for the audience growth rate for your brand is to aim for a higher figure than the last reporting period. Benchmark your audience on each social network and measure the increase in those numbers.
Monitoring this metric will allow you to determine whether or not the content you are using to reach new potential followers is effective to boost your Instagram or any other social media.
Ways to increase your audience growth rate
Audience growth rate strategies vary for every social media platform. Here are some general practices you can try on any platform to increase your audience growth rate:
- Serve valuable content: People won’t follow you unless they can get something out of you, whether it's knowledge or entertainment. Understand your audience and serve them with the content they want. You need to craft an effective social media content strategy to deliver the best possible content to your audience.
- Make use of visual content: Content with relevant images racks up 94% more views than content without images. Social platforms like Instagram, Tik Tok, and Youtube are by default visual platforms. But also try using visuals on platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
- Post consistently: Brands who post one day and get under the table for the next 5 days don’t win an audience. You need to post consistently so your audience can recall your brand and engage with you consistently. One way to never miss out on posting is to create a social media content calendar and schedule your posts in advance.
Watch GaryVee talk about audience growth: