Substack Engagement Analysis
Engagement patterns and feature impact analysis from 50k Substack posts
reaction count
90
avg per post
comment count
16
avg per post
restacks
12
avg per post
engagement score
215
avg per post
Feature Impact Heatmap
Impact of content features on engagement metrics
| Feature | Effect % | Engagement | Comments | Restacks | Posts | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| With (per 1k) | Without (per 1k) | With (per 1k) | Without (per 1k) | With (per 1k) | Without (per 1k) | |||
| has number | -52.7% | 118 (15.7) | 250 (70.2) | 9.7 (1.2) | 18.3 (4.8) | 5.5 (0.9) | 14.4 (4.3) | 9.5k |
| has lists | -45.3% | 139 (43.0) | 254 (63.1) | 10.2 (3.0) | 19.0 (4.4) | 7.8 (2.6) | 14.2 (3.9) | 12.1k |
| has images | +45.1% | 234 (66.3) | 162 (28.4) | 17.5 (4.5) | 12.1 (2.4) | 13.3 (4.1) | 8.7 (1.6) | 26.9k |
| has exclamation | +14.0% | 244 (234.5) | 214 (49.7) | 18.7 (12.5) | 16.0 (3.6) | 11.3 (20.9) | 12.1 (2.8) | 1.3k |
| is evening | +12.8% | 236 (16.3) | 209 (69.5) | 16.9 (1.5) | 15.8 (4.7) | 13.9 (0.8) | 11.5 (4.3) | 9.0k |
| is morning | -7.0% | 204 (151.3) | 220 (18.8) | 16.4 (9.8) | 15.9 (1.6) | 10.6 (9.4) | 12.7 (1.1) | 10.4k |
| is weekend | +5.4% | 225 (56.7) | 213 (56.4) | 16.2 (4.7) | 16.0 (3.7) | 13.0 (3.0) | 11.9 (3.5) | 7.3k |
| has question | -2.8% | 210 (151.7) | 216 (48.3) | 18.6 (9.8) | 15.9 (3.4) | 10.1 (11.5) | 12.2 (2.7) | 2.8k |
Absolute
has number
Effect: -52.7%
has lists
Effect: -45.3%
has images
Effect: +45.1%
has exclamation
Effect: +14.0%
is evening
Effect: +12.8%
is morning
Effect: -7.0%
Feature Interactions
Images × Questions Analysis
How combining images and questions affects engagement
Bar chart showing Average Engagement for different feature combinations.
images × question Interaction
Images × Lists Analysis
Impact of combining images with bullet/numbered lists
Bar chart showing Average Engagement for different feature combinations.
images × lists Interaction
Numbers × Questions Analysis
Effect of combining numbers in titles with questions
Bar chart showing Average Engagement for different feature combinations.
number × question Interaction
Weekend × Images Analysis
How weekend posting combined with images affects reach
Bar chart showing Average Engagement for different feature combinations.
weekend × images Interaction
High-Performing Content Examples
Top Viral
Top 100.0% of 15 posts
High-performing posts with engagement scores above 0
28.3k
engagement
18.3k
614
2.3k
Rank #1
Reactions Comments (×5) Restacks (×3)
Viral Hit
Overwhelm… Overreach… Overthrown.
25.8k
engagement
16.2k
302
2.7k
Rank #2
Reactions Comments (×5) Restacks (×3)
Viral Hit
Elon's fraud search exposed as a fraud
24.5k
engagement
14.2k
455
2.7k
Rank #3
Reactions Comments (×5) Restacks (×3)
Highly Shareable
You Don't Need To Document Everything
23.3k
engagement
13.0k
422
2.7k
Rank #4
Reactions Comments (×5) Restacks (×3)
Highly Shareable
compression culture is making you stupid and uninteresting
23.1k
engagement
10.9k
42
4.0k
Rank #5
Reactions Comments (×5) Restacks (×3)
Showing top 5 of 15 high-performing posts
Viral Performance Metrics
Viral Threshold: 968
Viral Posts: 1,821 (5.00%)
Viral Content Patterns
title length: -3.0%
has number: -55.8%
has question: +0.4%
has exclamation: +16.4%
Temporal Patterns
Engagement by Hour of Day
Peak at 22:00, Low at 9:00
Line chart showing Average Engagement over hours.
Average Engagement by Hour
Engagement Trend by Year
Long-term engagement evolution
Line chart showing Average Engagement over years.
Average Engagement by Year
Optimal Posting Times
Best Hour: 22:00
Worst Hour: 9:00
Viral Post Characteristics
Threshold Score: 968
Viral Posts: 1821 (5.0%)
Content Length Analysis
Engagement by Content Length
How article length affects engagement metrics
Bar chart showing Average Engagement by content length bins.
Average Engagement by Content Length
Length Insights
<1K:
125
4,070 posts
1-5K:
166
5,555 posts
5-10K:
189
7,941 posts
Distribution
<1K
11.2%
1-5K
15.3%
5-10K
21.8%
10-20K
21.7%
20-50K
22.8%
50K+
6.4%