Engagement rate and amount of followers: is it related?

In influencer marketing, influencers with smaller audiences generally have higher engagement rates. Micro-influencers with less than 100k followers often achieve a better interaction rate because their audience is more loyal and active. In contrast, celebrities, such as athletes or actors, have large audiences but lower engagement. Their followers often follow them out of superficial interest rather than for their recommendations or content.

Regardless of country, micro-influencers dominate engagement. This is because they have a closer relationship with their audience and more personal interaction than celebrities and mass profiles. In Poland and the Czech Republic, engagement for microinfluencers ranges between 20-30%, while it drops to 2-5% among large profiles with over 500k followers.

Key findings from the regions:

1. Fashion, Lifestyle and Sport are the dominant categories in all countries.
2. Sports influencers have the most followers but engagement is lower.
3. Small accounts in the Pets, Fitness and Food categories often have the highest engagement.
4. The larger the profile, the lower the engagement – the strongest trend in Poland (-0.52), the weakest in Hungary (-0.37).

Correlation between number of followers and engagement

• In all countries there is a negative correlation, meaning that influencers with more followers have lower engagement.
• The strongest negative correlation is in Poland (-0.52), indicating that Polish influencers experience the most significant decrease in engagement as the number of followers increases.
• On the other hand, the weakest (though still negative) correlation is in Hungary (-0.37), indicating that here the decline in engagement is not as pronounced.

Average number of followers by country

• Poland has on average the largest number of influencers (~1,150,000 followers).
• Slovakia (~920,000) and the Czech Republic (~850,000) come second.
• Hungary has the lowest average number of followers (~780,000).

This suggests that influencers are generally larger in Poland, but at the same time, the strongest trend of declining engagement with follower growth applies here. On the contrary, in Hungary, where influencers are smaller, engagement decreases less.

How to work with this in campaigns?

Should you always bet on micro-influencers? Not necessarily. If you need a wide reach, big influencers or celebrities can be useful, but count on lower engagement. These influencers are suitable for brands, products or services aimed at a very broad target audience. If you’re after interactions, authenticity and conversions, micro-influencers and medium-sized profiles (100-400k followers) tend to be a more effective choice.

Want to know how to optimally set up your influencer campaign? Contact us, we’d be happy to advise you!

Fun Facts at the end

• Did you know that in the Czech Republic we have 8 profiles with over 1 million followers? Among them you will find the Zlín-based street food restaurant Dida Grill.
• The Czech meme profile scene (such as TMBK or Babblebam) has a rather specific political overlap, which is not common among its foreign counterparts.
• The Polish meme profile Make Life Harder managed to collect 1.6 million followers, even though it has a private account!