Middle East Markets Social Media Benchmarks: FMCG Food Q2 2026

What’s in this report

In Q2 2026, FMCG Food brands in the Middle East Markets saw median Instagram engagement rates of around 3.2%, far ahead of Facebook at roughly 0.65%. Retail led interaction share on both platforms among all brand categories, with FMCG Food holding a modest 2.3% share on Facebook and 1.8% on Instagram. Link and Reel posts led organic performance on Facebook, while Carousel and Reel led on Instagram.

This quarterly benchmarks report pulls from Emplifi’s dataset of 217 Facebook pages and 168 Instagram profiles across Middle East Markets, 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, Retail accounts for 20.8% of total brand interactions — the highest share of any category. On Instagram, Retail leads with 20.7% of interactions. FMCG Food itself is not among the top 5 categories on either platform, holding a 2.3% share of Facebook interactions and a 1.8% share on Instagram.

Facebook interaction distribution (Q2 2026):

Instagram interaction distribution (Q2 2026):

Platform landscape at a glance

In Middle East Markets, Instagram brand profiles carry a lower median follower count than Facebook pages. The figures below reflect relative values across all FMCG Food profiles in the sample at the end of Q2 2026.

Activity volume is higher on Instagram, 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 from a peak of around 26 in May 2025 to roughly 18 by June 2026, with intermediate rebounds (including a local peak near 24 in March 2026). Facebook held broadly flat in the 8–11 range across the full 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 June 2026, Facebook’s relative median interactions sat at around 86% of its own peak (having hit 100% multiple times over the year, including May 2025, October 2025, and January 2026), while Instagram had fallen to roughly 68% of its peak — its lowest point in 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 800 in May 2025 to a peak near 4,700 in October 2025, before declining steadily to approximately 1,500 by June 2026. Facebook impressions stayed range-bound between roughly 1,400 and 2,900 for most of the period, ending near 1,050 in June 2026.

Engagement rate trends

Median post engagement rates this quarter:

• Instagram: ~3.2%
• Facebook: ~0.65%

Instagram engagement held mostly in a 2.5%–3.5% range across the past year, ending Q2 2026 near the upper end of that band. Facebook engagement stayed under 1% throughout, ending around 0.65%, roughly flat versus Q1.

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 10 post interactions, while standard Video reached 1.

Instagram: Carousel and Reel posts lead organic performance. Carousels generated a median of 21 post interactions this quarter; Reels reached 21.

Full organic post type performance (Q2 2026):

Post type distribution trends:

On Facebook, Photo remains the dominant post format at around 58% of posts, though Reels are gaining share steadily — rising from near zero earlier in the year to approximately 38% 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 Middle East Markets 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 Middle East Markets FMCG Food brands goes to FB feed, followed by IG feed and IG instagram reels. Spending on FB feed is 23.56 percentage points higher than on IG feed.

CPC and CPM by placement

The most cost-efficient placements for Middle East Markets FMCG Food 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 Middle East Markets FMCG Food brands benchmark, FB feed leads on CTR at 0.32%, compared to FB facebook reels at 0.15%.

CTR by placement (Q2 2026):

Cost trends over time

Q2 2026 ad cost benchmarks for Middle East Markets:

FMCG Food-specific CPC fluctuated between roughly $0.23 and $0.39 over the past year, ending Q2 2026 at about $0.34, while the broader regional benchmark tracked much lower and flatter throughout, closing around $0.09. FMCG Food CPM followed a similar pattern, ending near $1.06 versus a regional benchmark that held close to $0.65–$0.87 all year. CTR was the one metric where the two diverged sharply in the opposite direction: FMCG Food CTR ended Q2 2026 at roughly 0.25%, well below the region-wide figure of about 1.03%. Note: the source deck labels the broader regional trend line “Asia” rather than “Middle East Markets” in these three charts — likely a labeling artifact, since every other slide in the deck (including the separate “Middle East Markets Ad Accounts Benchmark” placement charts) is explicitly scoped to Middle East Markets. The figures are used here as the regional benchmark since no separately labeled Middle East Markets version of these trend charts exists.