Instagram Video Benchmarks for the Beauty Industry

Instagram video is a vital part of your social media marketing strategy. However, determining the best metrics to track performance are slightly different from static content. To help your team set better goals, we're sharing out some Instagram video benchmarks for the Beauty Industry to help you understand how you measure up to your competition.

How Users Interact With Video on Instagram

20% of user time on Instagram is spent watching Instagram Reels — while this might seem low, it's fairly significant when you consider how much time is spent simply scrolling through content and not viewing or interacting.

Video content can take many forms: lo-fi, short form video, longer-length formats, rapid motion loops, animated drawings and even GIFs. Consider any moving image part of your Instagram video strategy. If the image moves in any way, it can propel your brand story narrative even more engagingly than your static creative.

But you already know that videos are important for your audience and that they enable deep connections with your followers. You're aware that your consumers are eager to see your merch in motion — and because you're a smart brand, you serve it up to them. You test different styles, experiment with different production levels, and measure the results to understand the ROI of that investment.

So, how are metrics to measure Instagram Reels performance different from those for static creative? Using identical KPIs for video content or motion pictures doesn’t necessarily accurately represent their performance since audiences engage with them differently than with photos. Consider the nature of the ‘Explore’ page and the Instagram Reels algorithm — many people watching your videos might not follow you, but are seeing your content while scrolling or searching for new, entertaining content. Enthusiasm for static posts is often demonstrated through double-taps and comments, but audiences engage with videos by simply watching.

When users are viewing that content, giving a 'like' can slip their minds because their attention is taken by what's happening in the clip. That typically results in less literal likes and often fewer comments. So, while the traditional engagement metric can still be useful to analyze, it's not always the best indicator of a video's performance — the most important KPI for in-feed video content is views. It’s also helpful to measure Reach, as this indicates how many people see your content. In a time where users are shifting to DMs and chat to connect with others, Shares can also be helpful to see how relevant your content is — are users from your target demographic sharing your Reels with others? 

Instagram Video Benchmarks

The amount of times people have watched your video post is a true indicator of its resonance. And since knowing how your sector is generally performing, we decided we would put together Instagram video benchmarks to help you get a sense of how your industry is doing while understanding where you stand in comparison to your competitors.

We took a sample of over 2.9K brands on Instagram with a minimum of 1K followers across all industries, and narrowed down beauty industries belonging to the cosmetics, skincare, haircare, fragrance and beauty services sectors. We extracted the averages for average weekly posts, cross-channel engagement rate, video views, reach and shares for their Instagram Reels content. 

We laid them out in an easy-to-save card, so you can benchmark this data against your own numbers. Drag the below onto your desktop to have on hand for quick reference when building out your goals and measuring performance.

There are many factors that come into play as it relates to Instagram video performance, notably strategy, creative quality, audience size, consumer relationships — the list is endless. According to our 2024 Cross-Channel Social Media Benchmarks, static content in the beauty industry tends to reach 57% more users than static content, but earns just 0.1% higher engagement. Does this mean you should abandon your Instagram video strategy? Not quite — this presents an untapped opportunity for beauty brands to engage their audience through shortform video in an unsaturated space, and build a social media community with dynamic, personal content. 

Now that you know the general health of the beauty industry's Instagram video content, you know exactly what numbers to beat.

Measure and Track Performance With Dash Hudson 

Beauty brands can leverage Dash Hudson to amplify their social media presence by tapping into advanced Social Media Analytics and Reporting and Vision. Vision enables brands to identify high-performing content, while analytics and reporting helps social teams understand audience engagement and streamline their social strategy across channels. By harnessing these insights, beauty brands can craft compelling narratives that resonate with their audience, driving both engagement and conversion.