Subscriber engagement

The Subscriber engagement tab shows how actively readers react to the channel's posts: the channel's ER, which emoji people leave, the mood of the reactions, which formats and times engage more, and how the channel compares with similar ones.

Where to find it

Open a channel page on https://max.datool.ru/ and pick the Subscriber engagement tab (if you don't see it, look in the More menu). A direct link is the channel address with #engagement, for example https://max.datool.ru/demo/#engagement (the demo channel: invented data, every block open).

What engagement means here

ER (engagement rate) = reactions ÷ views × 100%. We add up the reactions and views of all posts and divide the totals rather than averaging each post's ER: a post with ten views and one reaction has an ER of 10%, and it shouldn't outweigh big posts.

• Reactions are read separately from views: for a fresh post — about 3 hours after publication and again after a day. Only posts whose reactions have already been read are counted. The tab heading says so: "reactions read for N of M posts".
• Older periods may have fewer posts with read reactions: we are still reading reactions on old posts.
• The summary, formats, ads, text length, the scatter and the heat map use posts older than two days: fresh posts are still gaining views. The trend, emoji and moods use all posts of the period.
• There are no comments or forwards: we don't collect comments, and MAX does not report how many times a post was forwarded. How often other channels cite this one is on the Mentions tab.

More in Key metrics.

Period

The period row: 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, Year, All time, Custom dates. Guests get 7 days, signed-in users (free) get up to 30 days, the channel owner and subscribers get every period; Custom dates is available with a Premium or Business subscription. The window is at most 365 days — long periods are labelled "for the last 12 months". Only the "Comparison with similar channels" block (30-day ER) doesn't depend on the period. Common elements are described in How the channel page works.

Blocks of the tab

A locked block is shown as a blurred sample with invented data and an "Available after signing in" or "Available with a subscription" badge. If the block is free for the channel owner, the badge carries the hint "Free for the channel owner once the channel is verified" (see Channel verification). This is how a locked block looks to a guest:

More in What's free and what needs a subscription.

Engagement summary

Five tiles with mini charts.

• ER for the period — reactions ÷ views × 100%.
• Reactions per post — the median: half the posts got fewer.
• Per 1,000 subscribers — the average number of reactions per post ÷ subscribers now × 1,000. Handy for comparing channels of different sizes.
• Posts without reactions — the share of posts without a single reaction.
• Among similar — the share of channels of the same topic and size whose 30-day ER is lower (from the quality index).

How to read it. Next to the number is the change against the previous period of the same length (only for periods up to 90 days): green is better, red is worse. For "Among similar" the change is counted from the start of the period. The mini chart shows the same figure by day (week, month); a gap means a point without posts with read reactions. Hover over a point to see the date and value.

Example. ER 2.7% and "Among similar — 75%" mean people react more actively than in three quarters of channels of the same topic and size.

Who can see it: after signing in (free); the "Among similar" tile — with a Premium or Business subscription.

Engagement over time

The line is ER by day over the period (by week for periods longer than 92 days, by month for periods longer than six months); the bars under the line are how many reactions that day's posts got. The dashed line is the median 30-day ER of channels of the same topic and size. A gap in the line means fewer than two posts with read reactions that day.

Example. If the ER line stays above the dashed line, the channel consistently engages more than similar ones; a one-day dip is a reason to open that day's posts.

Who can see it: with a Premium or Business subscription.

Which reactions people leave

The share of each reaction among all of the period's reactions: a bar of shares and a list of up to 12 of the most frequent emoji (share and count); the rest are grouped as "other". The colour is the reaction's mood. At the top — "N reactions in total for the period".

Who can see it: with a Premium or Business subscription.

Reaction mood

Emoji are grouped into five moods — Approval, Laughter, Surprise, Sympathy, Negative; unknown emoji go to "other". A mood card shows the channel's three most frequent emoji of that mood, the mood's share of reactions, the change against the previous period in percentage points (growing negativity is red) and a mini chart of the share.

Which emoji belong to which mood:

The same list is in the block's "i" hint.

Example. Negative at 7% and falling — the audience is generally happy; if negativity rises above 25% of reactions, find out which posts cause it (the Popular tab, "Posts by reaction mood" block).

Who can see it: with a Premium or Business subscription.

What engages: formats

ER of each format's posts over the period — reposts, video, photo, links, text — and how many such posts there are. The bar is in the format's colour (video blue, photo orange, text green, links yellow, reposts pink); the best format is named under the bars. A format with fewer than three posts with read reactions gets no ER.

Example. "Best format — video: ER 3.9%" with a channel ER of 2.7% means people react to video almost one and a half times more actively.

Who can see it: with a Premium or Business subscription.

Ads and engagement

ER of ad posts vs regular posts and the median reactions per post for each. Ad signs are the same as on the Ad statistics tab. A conclusion is at the bottom.

Example. "People react to ads 45% less than to regular posts" — that is normal for ads; if the gap is bigger, the ads fit the channel poorly.

Who can see it: with a Premium or Business subscription.

Engagement and reach

Each dot is a post older than two days: horizontally — views, vertically — the post's ER. The dashed lines are the channel's median views and ER; they split posts into four groups, with the number of posts in each corner: "viewed and reacted to", "viewed but not reacted to", "few views but reactions", "few views and no reactions". Ads are in a different colour. Click a dot to open the post.

The scale is linear, from a weak post to a strong one: one viral post doesn't stretch it — posts beyond the edges are pinned to the edge. Posts with fewer than 100 views are not shown: their ER is random. Large channels show at most 600 dots (an even sample).

Example. Posts in the "viewed but not reacted to" corner are read but don't hook people: often these are dry news items or ads.

Who can see it: with a Premium or Business subscription.

Text length

ER of posts by text length in characters (including spaces and links): under 100, 100–500, 500–1,500, over 1,500; each group shows its number of posts. A group with fewer than three posts with read reactions gets no ER.

Example. If short posts (under 100 characters) have a noticeably higher ER, the audience prefers short notes.

Who can see it: for the channel owner and with a Premium or Business subscription.

Reactions per post: distribution

Bars show how many posts got 0 reactions, 1–5, 6–20, 21–50, 51–100, 101–300, 301–1,000 and so on up to "over 50,000". Empty buckets at the edges are not drawn.

How to read it. If almost all posts are in the left bars with one or two on the right, engagement relies on a few hits. If the bars form an even "hill" in the middle, reactions are steady.

Who can see it: with a Premium or Business subscription.

When people react

A "day of week × publishing hour" heat map of post ER for the selected period, Moscow time. The darker the cell, the stronger the reaction to posts published at that hour (the "weaker — stronger" scale is under the map). A cell with fewer than two posts is not coloured, so for a short period the map looks sparse. Under the map — "Best time": the three hours with the highest ER and at least three posts, plus the channel's ER for the period.

Example. "Best time — 06:00 (ER 4.1%)" — readers greet early posts more actively than daytime ones.

Who can see it: with a Premium or Business subscription.

Unsubscribes after posts

How the subscriber count changed 2–5 hours after a post came out: a snapshot shortly before the post and the first snapshot after. A bar is a post (up to the last 40 posts of the period; for long periods — a week or a month): joined — green, left — red, ad post — purple. Under the chart — the average change after a post and after an ad.

Subscriber snapshots don't exist for every channel and are taken no more than once an hour, so the block is often empty — it then explains why.

Example. "After a post +3 on average, after an ad −32" — ads noticeably scare subscribers away.

Who can see it: with a Premium or Business subscription.

Comparison with similar channels

The channel's 30-day ER on the scale of its comparison group — channels of the same topic and the same size (as in the quality index). The light band is from P10 to P90 (80% of the group's channels fall in it), the dark band is from P25 to P75, the line is the median. At the top — the group's name and how many channels it has; under the scale — the values of P10, P25, the median, P75 and P90.

It is calculated once a day and does not depend on the selected period. If the channel's quality index hasn't been calculated yet, the block says there is nothing to compare with yet.

Example. "2.7% ER over 30 days — higher than 75% of channels in the group" — the channel is in the top quarter for engagement.

Who can see it: with a Premium or Business subscription.

See also

• How the channel page works
• Popular
• Key metrics
• Quality index
• Plans