Europe Social Media Benchmarks: Beauty Q2 2026

What’s in this report

In Q2 2026, Europe beauty brands saw Instagram post engagement rates hold near 2.85%, well ahead of Facebook’s roughly 1.5%. Ecommerce continued to dominate interaction share on both platforms, with Beauty holding a modest 1.6% share on Facebook and ranking 6th on Instagram at 2.6% of interactions. Live Video and Carousel/Reel formats remained the strongest organic performers on Facebook and Instagram respectively.

This quarterly benchmarks report pulls from Emplifi’s dataset of 2,152 Facebook pages and 1,560 Instagram profiles across Europe, 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 25.6% of total brand interactions — the highest share of any category. On Instagram, Ecommerce leads with 43.5% of interactions. Beauty itself shares 1.6% of Facebook interactions among Europe brand pages, and holds the 6th-highest share of Instagram interactions (2.6%) in the region.

Facebook interaction distribution (Q2 2026):

Instagram interaction distribution (Q2 2026):

Platform landscape at a glance

In Europe, Instagram brand profiles carry a higher median follower count than Facebook pages among beauty brands. The figures below reflect relative comparisons across all profiles in the sample at the end of Q2 2026 (the source chart plots relative bubble sizes rather than printed values, so exact figures aren’t available for this specific comparison — directional relationships only).

Activity volume is higher on Instagram 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 held in the low-to-mid 40s through most of 2025 before declining toward the high 30s by Q2 2026, while Facebook drifted gradually downward from around 8 to roughly 4 over the same period.

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 fallen to around 50% of its own peak (reached in May 2025), while Instagram held up better at around 74% of its peak — both platforms trending downward over the past year, with Facebook declining more sharply, especially since March 2026.

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 through mid-2025, peaking near 4,650 in August before declining steadily to around 2,325 by Q2 2026. Facebook impressions stayed comparatively flat in the 1,300–1,800 range for most of the period before drifting down to about 780 by the end of the quarter.

Engagement rate trends

Median post engagement rates this quarter:

• Instagram: ~2.85%
• Facebook: ~1.5%

Instagram engagement held broadly steady in the 2.5%–3.1% range across the past year, ending near 2.85%. Facebook engagement trended upward, climbing from around 0.9% in mid-2025 to roughly 1.5% 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 24 post interactions, while standard Video reached 3.

Instagram: Carousel and Reel posts lead organic performance. Carousels generated a median of 46 post interactions this quarter; Reels reached 39.

Full organic post type performance (Q2 2026):

Post type distribution trends:

On Facebook, Photo remains the dominant post format at around 54% of posts, though Reels are gaining share steadily — rising from near zero earlier in the year to approximately 37% 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 Europe brands in Q2 2026:

Facebook:

Instagram:

How does your brand compare?

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Paid performance: Facebook and Instagram ads

Where brands are spending

The majority of paid spend for Europe beauty brands goes to Facebook Feed, followed by Instagram Feed and Instagram Reels. Spending on Facebook Feed is 11.1 percentage points higher than on Instagram Feed.

CPC and CPM by placement

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

• Lowest CPC: Facebook Feed, Facebook Reels, and Instagram Stories
• Lowest CPM: Facebook Reels, Facebook Feed, and Instagram Reels

CPC and CPM by placement (Q2 2026):

Click-through rate by placement

Within the Europe beauty brands benchmark, Facebook Feed leads on CTR at 1.28%, compared to Facebook Reels at 0.68%.

CTR by placement (Q2 2026):

Cost trends over time

Q2 2026 ad cost benchmarks for Europe. Beauty cleared Emplifi’s 200-active-ad-account minimum this quarter, so it has its own ad-account breakout in addition to the region-wide one — the table below uses beauty-specific figures for the “Brands benchmark” column and Europe-wide figures for the “Europe overall” column.

Beauty-specific CPC fluctuated between roughly $0.16 and $0.31 over the past year, spiking around November 2025 before settling near $0.21 in Q2 2026 — notably lower than the Europe-wide CPC, which held in a $0.23–$0.35 range throughout and ended around $0.29. CPM followed a similar pattern: beauty CPM climbed from around $1.55 to a peak near $2.47 in late 2025 before easing back to about $1.90, while Europe-wide CPM stayed higher throughout, in the $2.10–$3.10 range, ending near $2.72. CTR for beauty rose from around 0.74% to a brief peak near 1.10% in December before settling at approximately 0.97%, while Europe-wide CTR held mostly steady in the 0.85%–1.13% range and ended slightly ahead at around 1.04%.