TLDR: Rank your last 90 days of posts by engagement rate against your own median, tag each by format and topic, and look for three repeats among the top ten. Twenty minutes, one table, one decision.
Your best post is not the one with the most likes. It is the one that beat what your account normally does, and you can find it with one sheet.
Set the baseline first
Pull the last 90 days of posts. For each one, note the date, format, topic, reach and interactions. Calculate engagement rate as interactions divided by reach.
Then find your median rate, not the average. One viral post drags the average up and hides everything else.
For context, in Mydrop's data on 7,945 posts across 336 accounts, the median engagement rate was 3.1% on Instagram, 3.0% on TikTok and 1.1% on Facebook. The middle half of Instagram posts ran between 1.1% and 6.7%, so a 2% post is normal and a 7% post is a good day. Compare yourself to your own median first, benchmarks second.
Rank and tag the top ten
Sort by engagement rate and take the top ten. Add three tags to each: format, topic and hook type.
| Post | Rate | Format | Topic | Hook |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 6.2% | Carousel | How-to | Number in headline |
| B | 5.8% | Carousel | Mistakes | Question |
| C | 5.1% | Photo | Behind the scenes | Story |
This example is illustrative. When you fill yours in, you are looking for a tag that appears three or more times in the top ten.
Check the winners against the bottom ten
A pattern in the top ten only counts if it is missing from the bottom ten. If carousels fill both lists, format is not your lever and topic or hook may be.
Mydrop's data shows how this can go the other way. Carousels ran 10% above an account's typical post and a link in the caption cost 7%, but those are averages across many accounts. Your own sheet decides what applies to you.
Add one business metric
Engagement rate shows attention, not results. Add one column that matches your goal: link clicks, saves, profile visits or DMs started. A post with a middling rate and the most clicks can be your real winner.
Performances shows native per-platform metrics, daily time-series and demographics in one place, so the numbers for this table come from one screen instead of four apps. Multi-profile benchmark makes it easy to see where an account sits against your others.
Turn the finding into three rules
Write down what you learned in plain sentences:
- "Carousels on how-to topics beat our median most weeks."
- "Behind-the-scenes photos are average, so post them less."
- "Questions in the first line help."
Then put those rules into next month's calendar. See how to use performance data to optimize your content calendar for turning rules into a plan, and the full Mydrop benchmarks for the method behind the numbers above.
Avoid the three ranking traps
- Old posts win on likes. A post that has had a year to collect reactions beats a new one. Compare posts of similar age.
- Small reach inflates the rate. A post seen by 200 people with 20 interactions shows 10%. Ignore posts below a minimum reach, such as half your median.
- Paid boosts distort the sheet. Mark boosted posts and rank them separately.
Fix these three before you trust the top ten. Otherwise you will repeat the luck, not the skill.
Schedule the audit for the first Friday of the month
Put a 20-minute block on the calendar, run the table once, and keep the three rules in a note beside your content calendar. If you have not connected your channels yet, start free in Mydrop and run the first audit on 90 days of real data.
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