What does the Brand Heat Score actually mean?
🔴 0–49
Below the category median. The audience is there, but engagement or reach is underperforming peers.
🟡 50
Right at the median. Exactly average for the category — nothing wrong, nothing exciting.
🟣 51–74
Above the median. Content is landing well and the algorithm is noticing.
🟢 75–89
Strong performer. Clearly outpacing most peers in the category.
🔥 90–100
Category-leading. Firing on all cylinders — reach, engagement depth, and interaction quality all above median.
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Overall Score
Brand Heat Score
Your Brand Heat Score rolls three things into one number: how many people your posts are reaching, how much your audience is actually engaging, and whether that engagement is the good kind (saves and shares — not just likes).
The score is built so that 50 always means average for your category. If you scored 64, you're beating more than half the category. If you scored 38, your peers are outperforming you — and this tool will show you exactly where the gap is.
Heat = Reach(25%) + Tier-Adj Engagement(35%) + Activity/Community(25%) + IQ Score(15%)
Why does it matter? A brand with 200k followers and 0.8% engagement can score lower than a brand with 30k followers and 3% engagement. Audience size alone doesn't win.
Engagement rate measures how many people in your audience are actually doing something when they see your post — liking, commenting, saving, or sharing.
We divide the total number of those actions by your follower count, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage. A 1% engagement rate means 1 in every 100 followers is reacting to your posts.
(Likes + Comments + Saves + Shares) ÷ Followers × 100
Example: Brand has 80,000 followers. A post gets 900 likes, 40 comments, 180 saves, 30 shares = 1,150 total. 1,150 ÷ 80,000 × 100 = 1.44% engagement rate. If the category median is 1.1%, that's +31% above median.
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Metric 2
Interaction Quality Score
Interaction Quality measures how meaningfully an audience responds using only public, scrapeable signals. Saves and shares are excluded — Instagram doesn't make them publicly available.
The score weights comment rate most heavily (it takes the most effort), then engagement depth (likes + comments together), then view conversion on Reels where available.
Comment Rate×50% + Eng Depth×35% + Consistency×15%
(or with Reels: Comment×40% + Depth×30% + View Conv×20% + Consistency×10%)
Why comments matter most: Writing a comment takes real effort. A brand with a high comment rate has an audience that is genuinely invested — not just scrolling past.
Reach rate estimates what percentage of your followers actually see each post. Instagram doesn't show every post to every follower — the algorithm decides based on how engaging your recent content has been.
Bigger accounts typically have lower reach rates. A brand with 500k followers might only reach 12% of them per post, while a 25k-follower brand might reach 28%. This is normal — and it's why smaller brands can outperform on this metric.
Estimated Reach ÷ Followers × 100
What lifts reach rate: Posting consistently, getting saves early after publishing, using Reels over static images, and posting when your audience is most active all signal to Instagram that your content deserves wider distribution.
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Core Concept
Category Median
We don't compare a boutique surfboard shaper to Billabong's 1.8 million followers. That's not useful. Instead, every brand is compared to the middle performer in its own category.
We use the median (not the average) because one outlier — say, a brand that went viral once — can skew an average dramatically. The median is more honest: it's literally the brand sitting in the middle of the pack.
% vs Category = (Your Score ÷ Category Median − 1) × 100
Example: Surf category median engagement = 1.28%. Your brand = 1.82%. Category Index = 1.82 ÷ 1.28 = 1.42. You're +42% above the category median.
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Why we cap scores
The 2× Cap
We cap every individual index at 2.0× the category median before calculating the final Heat Score. This stops one exceptional metric from hiding weaknesses elsewhere.
Without the cap, a brand with insane reach but terrible engagement could still score 90+. The cap forces the score to reflect overall health, not a single spike.
Capped Index = min(Brand ÷ Median, 2.0)
In practice: If your save rate is 4× the category median, it still only counts as 2× in the calculation. The remaining "surplus" doesn't carry over. This makes scores comparable and fair across very different brand sizes.
Common questions
Why does my brand have a low score if it has lots of followers?
Follower count alone doesn't move the needle here. We care about what percentage of your followers are engaging, not the raw number. A large audience that scrolls past your posts will score worse than a small audience that saves and shares them. Growth without engagement is a liability — it dilutes your rate.
What's the difference between Engagement Depth and Interaction Quality Score?
Engagement Depth is simple: (likes + comments) / followers. It tells you the raw interaction rate. Interaction Quality digs deeper — it weights comment rate more heavily than likes, adds view conversion from Reels where available, and compares everything against the category median. IQ Score is the better measure of content quality because comments require real effort from the audience.
Why is reach rate important if I can just buy ads?
Organic reach rate tells you how well the algorithm thinks your content deserves to be seen. A high organic reach rate means Instagram is actively distributing your posts to new people for free. Low organic reach means you're increasingly dependent on paid spend to get the same eyeballs — which gets expensive fast.
My brand posts a lot but the score is still low. Why?
Posting frequency is tracked but isn't heavily weighted in the Heat Score. Volume only helps if the content is landing. If you're posting 30 times a month but engagement is below the category median, the algorithm starts showing your posts to fewer people. Less, but better-performing content is usually more effective.
How often is this data updated?
The dashboard runs on a rolling 30-day window (adjustable to 60 or 90 days). Data is refreshed monthly. The Brand Heat Score you see reflects the last full rolling period — it won't change mid-month. Month-over-month rank changes show whether a brand is trending up or down.
What does "Benchmark Confidence" mean?
Confidence is based on sample size. With only 5 brands in a category and 30–50 posts analysed, there's less statistical reliability than a category with 20+ brands and 200+ posts. Low confidence doesn't mean the scores are wrong — it means you should treat them as directional, not definitive.