North America Social Media Benchmarks: Beauty Q2 2026

What’s in this report

In Q2 2026, beauty brands in North America saw median Instagram engagement rates near 2.95%, well ahead of Facebook’s roughly 1.6%. Ecommerce still dominates interaction share on both platforms, though Beauty ranks as the 4th-highest category on Instagram with a 7.0% share. Carousel and Reel posts continue to drive the strongest organic performance on Instagram, while Video and Live Video lead on Facebook.

This quarterly benchmarks report pulls from Emplifi’s dataset of 1,000 Facebook pages and 944 Instagram profiles across North America, covering April 1, 2026 through June 30, 2026.

User-generated content: what’s achievable

Brands using Emplifi’s UGC solution this quarter saw:

• 19.88x increase in conversion rate
• 5.06x increase in website visits
• 1.08x increase in average order value

These figures represent the median uplift seen across Emplifi’s Brands UGC Accounts Benchmark for Q2 2026.

Organic performance: Facebook and Instagram

Interaction share by industry

On Facebook, Ecommerce accounts for 48.3% of total brand interactions — the highest share of any category. On Instagram, Ecommerce leads with 33.8% of interactions; Beauty itself ranks 4th on Instagram at 7.0% of interactions, and holds a 1.8% share on Facebook.

Facebook interaction distribution (Q2 2026):

Instagram interaction distribution (Q2 2026):

Platform landscape at a glance

In North America, Instagram brand profiles carry a higher median follower count than Facebook pages. The figures below reflect median values across all profiles in the sample at the end of Q2 2026.

Note: The underlying “Social Media Landscape” dataset for this report uses bubble sizes rather than printed figures, so the table above reflects directional comparisons rather than exact values.

Activity volume on Instagram is higher than on Facebook, while user engagement on Instagram also outpaces Facebook.

Median post interactions

Median post interactions track the middle-ranked page or profile by monthly interactions — a measure of typical performance rather than outlier peaks.

Instagram median post interactions declined steadily from around 54 in mid-2025 to the high-30s by Q2 2026, with some recovery in early 2026 before pulling back again. Facebook held broadly flat and low across the full period, moving in a narrow band between roughly 4 and 7.

Relative median post interactions

Relative median interactions index each platform’s performance against its own peak over the reporting period, making it easier to compare directional trends across platforms regardless of absolute scale.

By Q2 2026, Facebook’s relative median interactions had dropped to around 57% of its peak, while Instagram sat somewhat higher at around 68% of its own peak — both platforms trended downward from their mid-2025 highs, with Facebook’s decline slightly steeper toward the end of the period.

Median post impressions

Impressions measure how many times posts were displayed, regardless of interaction. This metric is available for both platforms and reflects reach rather than engagement.

Instagram impressions climbed sharply from around 2,100 in mid-2025 to a peak near 5,300 in September 2025, before declining steadily to approximately 2,400 by Q2 2026. Facebook impressions stayed comparatively low and gradually declined from around 2,600 to 1,300 over the same period.

Engagement rate trends

Median post engagement rates this quarter:

• Instagram: ~2.95%
• Facebook: ~1.6%

Instagram engagement held broadly steady in the 2.5–3.0% range across the past year, ending Q2 2026 near its high point. Facebook engagement trended gradually upward over the same period, rising from below 1.0% to around 1.6% by Q2 2026.

Best-performing post types

Facebook: Live Video and standard Video continue to outperform other formats organically. In Q2 2026, Live Video generated a median of 5 post interactions, while standard Video reached 6.

Instagram: Carousel and Reel posts lead organic performance. Carousels generated a median of 49 post interactions this quarter; Reels reached 47.

Full organic post type performance (Q2 2026):

Post type distribution trends:

On Facebook, Photo remains the dominant post format at around 44% of posts, though Reels are gaining share steadily — rising from near zero earlier in the year to approximately 46% by Q2 2026. On Instagram, Reels, Images, and Carousels each account for roughly a third of posts published, with Reels and Carousels driving the majority of top-performing content.

Top performing pages and profiles

Facebook — top pages by total interactions (Q2 2026):

Instagram — top profiles by total interactions (Q2 2026):

Top posts this quarter

The highest-performing individual posts by interactions across North America brands in Q2 2026:

Facebook:

Instagram:

How does your brand compare?

These benchmarks reflect median performance across thousands of brands in Emplifi’s dataset. Get a free personalized assessment to see exactly where your brand stands today.

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Paid performance: Facebook and Instagram ads

Where brands are spending

The majority of paid spend for North America beauty brands goes to FB feed, followed by IG feed and IG instagram reels. Spending on FB feed is 11.1 percentage points higher than on IG feed.

CPC and CPM by placement

The most cost-efficient placements for North America beauty brands this quarter:

• Lowest CPC: FB feed, FB facebook reels, and IG instagram stories
• Lowest CPM: FB facebook reels, FB feed, and IG instagram reels

CPC and CPM by placement (Q2 2026):

Click-through rate by placement

Within the beauty brands benchmark for North America, FB feed leads on CTR at 1.28%, compared to FB facebook reels at 0.68%.

CTR by placement (Q2 2026):

Cost trends over time

Q2 2026 ad cost benchmarks for North America:

Beauty-specific CPC ranged mostly between $0.15 and $0.30 across the past year, spiking to around $0.31 near the end of 2025 before settling back to roughly $0.21 by Q2 2026. North America’s overall CPC ran considerably higher throughout, ending near $0.49 — more than double the beauty-segment figure. CPM followed a similar pattern: beauty CPM ended around $1.90 versus roughly $6.15 for North America overall, over three times as high. CTR for beauty peaked near 1.10% around the end of 2025 before easing to about 0.97% by Q2 2026, while North America’s overall CTR climbed steadily across the year to around 1.67%, consistently outpacing the beauty-specific rate.