How To Get More Likes On Instagram In 2027? Here Are The Proven Ways

After working with so many clients, I now know within minutes whether a post is going to “fly” or “die.”

You can call it magic or instinct. However, let me assure you, it is just recognizing the patterns. 

You understand these patterns when you have already watched thousands of posts succeed or flop. 

So, here, I am combining the psychology behind why certain posts get liked with where Instagram engagement actually stands heading into the back half of 2026.

However, as Adam Mosseri just started a new series on “How to Rank Content on Instagram,” he has mentioned that the algorithms behind ranking content are different across various forms. 

For example, a particular algorithm works for ranking a reel, and that will not work for the Story or Explore sections. 

Also, recency matters a lot when ranking content from the accounts you follow and do not follow. Your proxy behaviors, such as reposting and sharing, further determine the relevance of a particular piece of content to you. 

Nevertheless, this is solely from the perspective of a brand or creator, looking for more likes and engagement on their posts. 

Ranking And Getting More Likes On Instagram: An Attempt To Perfect The “Unperfect Science” 

Mosseri himself calls the art of ranking on Instagram “Unperfect Science.” So, getting more likes on your post is more than understanding the algorithm.

And we all know, as the Guinness World Records also confirm, that the carousel post of Lionel Messi after Argentina won the FIFA World Cup 2022 has the most likes. Why Likes Still Matter To The Instagram Algorithm.

On 24th March 2023, the recorded number of likes was 75,471,947. 

What was behind the likes? It cannot just be the algorithms. 

It is emotional connection, hype around the event, and an attempt to be a part of one of the greatest sports moments in recent times. 

Why Likes Still Matter To The Instagram Algorithm

Likes on Instagram posts are more than a vanity metric. 

They are one of the earliest signals Instagram uses to decide how far to push a post. 

The mechanism is a feedback loop.

Posts that get liked quickly by a high share of the people who see them get shown to more followers, and can surface in “top posts” placements. 

Posts that consistently underperform get throttled, and that throttling tends to compound across future posts. 

In other words, every single post you publish is training the algorithm on what to do with your next one.

Where Instagram Engagement Actually Stands In 2026

Here is an update I think is genuinely useful, and one most “get more likes” guides skip entirely.

Overall Instagram engagement has been declining for years, and the size of that decline depends heavily on whose numbers you trust. 

I pulled the major 2026 benchmark reports to see how they stack up.

To be honest, the follower-based formula is the most common. 

By using this formula, I found a typical account landing in the 0.3%–0.7% range. However, that number has been sliding. 

Socialinsider’s data points to roughly a 20% decline in overall engagement since 2022. 

The widespread difference between reports comes down to sample size, industry mix, and whether saves and shares are counted alongside likes and comments.

Format Still Moves the Needle

Not all content is fighting the same uphill battle. 

Reels continue to outperform other formats by a meaningful margin, with Reels engagement sitting around 1.23% against roughly 0.99% for carousels. (Source: SQ Magazine). 

These are well above the flat feed-image average.

So, if you are optimizing for likes specifically, format choice is one of the few levers still firmly in your control.

The Content Patterns That Actually Earn Likes

The psychology of what makes someone stop scrolling and tap “like” hasn’t changed nearly as much as the algorithm has. 

I have compared the top and bottom-performing posts from several of my client accounts and found the patterns of gaps. 

Also, I have assessed the Lift vs account average to understand how the specific posts have performed in respect to the normal baseline average of the account. 

A Few Standout Comparisons 

The through-line across every “worked” example is that the post gave people an easy, low-friction reason to react.

It evoked wonder and offered humor, nostalgia, or identification rather than asking them to parse something complicated first.

A Short Note On How To Calculate Lift Vs Account Average

The easy formula to calculate lift vs account average is:

{(Post Performance – Account Average)/Account Average}*100. 

My Playbook For More Instagram Likes In 2027

The algorithm today rewards when an Instagram post combines engagement psychology. 

(Engagement psychology for Instagram is the study of why people emotionally react to content, stop scrolling, and take action like tapping the heart button.)

And these are some practices I follow for my clients. 

However, getting more likes cannot fix a content strategy that is already weak. 

Also, no format or hashtag trick replaces genuinely engaging creative.

Still, from likes, you can understand what earns an emotional reaction and what the algorithm currently rewards. 

So, likes remain one of the fastest, cheapest signals you have to tell whether a post is about to fly or die.