Worldwide Social Media Benchmarks: Confectionery Q2 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 27.5% of total brand interactions — the highest share of any category. On Instagram, Ecommerce also leads with 37.4% of interactions. Within Confectionery specifically, the category is a modest slice of the total interaction pie Worldwide — roughly 3.8% of Facebook brand-page interactions and 1.7% of Instagram brand-profile interactions — reflecting the fact that Confectionery competes for attention against much larger categories like Ecommerce and Retail.

Facebook interaction distribution (Q2 2026):

Instagram interaction distribution (Q2 2026):

Platform landscape at a glance

In Worldwide, Confectionery’s Facebook pages carry a higher median fan count than Instagram profiles carry followers — the reverse of what’s typical in many other industries. The figures below reflect directional comparisons across all profiles in the sample at the end of Q2 2026 (the underlying chart doesn’t showcase exact medians, so directional comparisons are shown).

Activity volume is higher on Instagram than on Facebook for Confectionery brands, and user engagement on Instagram outpaces Facebook as well — despite Instagram profiles typically carrying a smaller audience base.

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 over the past year, from around 60 in May 2025 to the mid-40s by Q2 2026. Facebook held in a narrow band of roughly 15-17 for most of the period before slipping to around 10-11 by June 2026.

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 60% of its peak — its lowest point in the period — while Instagram sat modestly higher at around 70% of its own peak, both trending down from levels closer to 90-100% a year earlier.

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.

Facebook impressions started the period high at around 7,000 in May 2025, dipped through the summer, spiked again to roughly 6,100 in January 2026, then fell to around 3,000-3,200 by Q2 2026. Instagram impressions moved in the opposite direction for most of the year — climbing from about 1,500 to a peak near 4,700 around November 2025 — before pulling back to roughly 1,800-2,300 through Q2 2026.

Engagement rate trends

Median post engagement rates this quarter:

• Instagram: ~3.9%
• Facebook: ~0.75%

Instagram engagement has stayed in a fairly tight band of roughly 3.6-4.1% all year, ticking up slightly toward Q2 2026. Facebook engagement has been comparatively flat and low, hovering between 0.5% and 0.8% throughout the period.

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 56 post interactions, while standard Video reached only 4.

Instagram: Carousel and Reel posts lead organic performance. Carousels generated a median of 60 post interactions this quarter; Reels reached 44.

Full organic post type performance (Q2 2026):

Post type distribution trends:

On Facebook, Photo remains the dominant post format at around 56% of posts in Q2 2026, down from roughly 74% a year earlier, as Reels have climbed from near zero to about 40% of posts over the same period. On Instagram, the mix looks different than in many other categories: Reels lead at around 46-48% of posts, Images follow at roughly 34%, and Carousels are the smallest share at about 15% — yet Carousels and Reels are still the two formats driving the strongest organic engagement.

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 Confectionery brands goes to FB feed, followed by IG feed and IG instagram reels. Spending on FB feed is 26.3 percentage points higher than on IG feed.

CPC and CPM by placement

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

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

CPC and CPM by placement (Q2 2026):

Click-through rate by placement

Within the Confectionery brands benchmark, FB feed leads on CTR at 0.30%, compared to FB facebook reels at 0.14%.

CTR by placement (Q2 2026):

Cost trends over time

Q2 2026 ad cost benchmarks for Worldwide:

Confectionery-specific CPC ran noticeably higher than the Worldwide figure all year, hovering around $0.45-0.55 for most of the period, dipping to about $0.33 in spring 2026, and recovering to roughly $0.45 by June — nearly double the Worldwide CPC, which stayed in a much tighter $0.17-0.22 band. CPM told the opposite story: Confectionery’s CPM held mostly flat between $1.00 and $1.30 throughout the year, well below the Worldwide line, which swung between $1.65 and $2.30 and ended around $2.10-2.15. CTR followed the CPM pattern — Confectionery stayed low and flat at roughly 0.20-0.23%, while the Worldwide overall CTR trended gradually upward to end near 1.05-1.10%.

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