Worldwide Social Media Benchmarks: Clothing Q2 2026

User-generated content: what’s achievable

Brands using Emplifi’s UGC solution this quarter saw:

• 8.02x increase in conversion rate
• 4.31x increase in website visits
• 1.01x increase in average order value

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

Organic performance: Facebook and Instagram

Interaction share by industry

On Facebook, Ecommerce accounts for 27.5% of total brand interactions — the highest share of any category. On Instagram, Ecommerce leads with 37.4% of interactions. Clothing itself is a smaller slice of the overall pie on both platforms: Clothing brands account for 4.4% of total Facebook brand-page interactions and 11.8% of total Instagram brand-profile interactions Worldwide (reported there under the Fashion category).

Facebook interaction distribution (Q2 2026):

Instagram interaction distribution (Q2 2026):

Platform landscape at a glance

In Worldwide, Instagram Clothing profiles carry a higher median follower count than Facebook pages carry in fans. The figures below reflect directional comparisons across all profiles in the sample at the end of Q2 2026 (Emplifi’s landscape view for this slide is presented as relative circle sizes rather than printed values).

Activity volume on both platforms is higher on Instagram, while user engagement on Instagram also outpaces Facebook — reinforcing Instagram as the more important channel for Clothing marketers this quarter.

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 from a peak of around 51 in May 2025 to the high-30s by mid-2026, holding fairly steady in that range since late 2025. Facebook median post interactions stayed flat throughout the period, hovering between 6 and 9.

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, Instagram’s relative median interactions sat around 75-78% of its 12-month peak, having dropped early (by mid-2025) and stayed roughly flat since. Facebook held close to its own peak (100%) until early 2026, then fell to a similar 78-80% level — converging with Instagram’s relative position by 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 through 2025, peaking near 22,000 in September before pulling back to the 8,000-9,500 range through Q1 and Q2 2026 — likely reflecting algorithmic reach patterns tied to Reels distribution. Facebook impressions stayed low and flat, in the 3,000-5,000 range, for the full period.

Engagement rate trends

Median post engagement rates this quarter:

• Instagram: ~2.05%
• Facebook: ~0.95%

Instagram engagement held broadly steady in the 1.8-2.1% range across the past year. Facebook engagement trended gradually upward, climbing from around 0.50% in mid-2025 to nearly 1.00% 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 36 post interactions, while standard Video reached 4.

Instagram: Carousel and Reel posts lead organic performance. Carousels generated a median of 48 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 65% of posts, though Reels are gaining share steadily — rising from near zero earlier in the year to approximately 25% by Q2 2026. On Instagram, Carousel, Reel, and Image each account for roughly a third of posts published, with Carousel and Reel 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 Worldwide brands in Q2 2026:

Facebook:

Instagram:

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Paid performance: Facebook and Instagram ads

Where brands are spending

The majority of paid spend for Worldwide brands goes to FB feed, followed by IG feed and IG instagram reels. Spending on FB feed is 18.7 percentage points higher than on IG feed.

CPC and CPM by placement

The most cost-efficient placements for Worldwide brands this quarter:

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

CPC and CPM by placement (Q2 2026):

Click-through rate by placement

Within the Worldwide brands benchmark, FB feed leads on CTR at 1.53%, compared to FB facebook reels at 0.87%.

CTR by placement (Q2 2026):

Cost trends over time

Q2 2026 ad cost benchmarks for Worldwide. Note: Clothing’s ad-performance slides in this dataset show a single pooled Worldwide line rather than a separate industry-specific breakout, so the figures below are the same for both columns.

CPC held in the $0.19-0.23 range across the past year, dipping to around $0.17 in January 2026 before recovering to roughly $0.21 by June 2026. CPM followed a similar arc, falling to about $1.65 in January before climbing back to $2.10-2.15. CTR trended gently upward across the full period, ending near 1.05-1.10% — and Spend followed a comparable seasonal pattern, dipping to around $4,500 in January before recovering to $5,800-6,000 by June 2026.

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