Instagram collab posts drive higher organic engagement across brand sizes

2026-09-18

More than 73% of brands used Instagram collabs in H1 2026, and collab posts consistently outperformed standard posts. Creator-led collaborations delivered the strongest results, with smaller brands seeing 5X more interactions than non-collab posts. In ecommerce and retail, accepted collabs generated more than 5X the shares and reposts of standard posts. Reels saw the biggest engagement gains.