As we move forward, measuring return on investment (ROI) from social media data remains a vital part of marketing strategies.
With social media platforms continuously evolving and new challenges arising, it's crucial for marketers to gauge the impact of their social media efforts effectively.
Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals for social media platforms has become even more crucial in today's dynamic environment.
Marketers must define clear objectives that align with current trends to drive success through social media.
Whether it's increasing brand engagement, driving website conversions from social media users, or enhancing customer satisfaction, setting goals that are specific, measurable, and relevant to the 2024 marketing landscape will ensure a focused and effective approach.
In this article, we will explore the latest strategies and techniques to measure ROI from social media, taking into account the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing.
To showcase the impact of your social media strategies and ensure alignment with your clients and internal stakeholders in 2024, it's crucial to focus on specific data points that highlight ROI and overall success.
Here's a breakdown of the key social media data you should pay attention to:
To effectively measure results and track growth on social media, it's essential to establish a clear framework.
Here's how you can track growth in a meaningful way:
Choose the timeframe that aligns with your goals and objectives.
Consider options such as weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, or even individual campaign durations.
If you're focused on short-term growth, opt for weekly or monthly comparisons. For long-term social media analysis, assess year-on-year growth.
Once you're clear on what you want to measure, you'll need to start collecting the social media data and producing your reports.
In this section, you'll learn how to gather and report on the data from the native social networks, Google Analytics, and Sendible's reporting hub.
Each social media platform provides insights and analytics to help you understand how your brand is performing.
Let's take a look at some of the metrics available on each social media channel.
Facebook Insights provides a wealth of data to help you understand the social media users that make up your audience.
Engagement is broken down into several sections.
You can find plenty of information on your reach, engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares and clicks), as well as social media metrics on how your posts are performing in general.
This really helps you understand how your social media performance is going.
Overview
The Overview section provides a 28-day snapshot of your Page’s performance:
Home
On the left sidebar, navigate to Home to get a bit more detailed Page overview for the last 28 days.
Here you'll find important metrics such as the total number of followers, post reach, post engagement, new page likes, and new page followers.
Page Overview
Just under the Home tab, you'll see the Page Overview. Navigate to this section to get a neat overview of the most important data collected for the past 28 days.
Content
Under the Content section, you'll be able to get a good grasp of your content performance.
You can choose the timeframe (last 7, 28, 60, or 90 days) as well as the order of posts by date, reach, or engagement.
For a more detailed analysis, just click on a post from the list to learn more about the specific metric you're interested in.
Audience
Finally, navigate to Audience to learn more about the demographics of your followers.
What are the most important Facebook metrics to track?
Of course, the answer to the question of what Facebook metrics to track will vary depending on your or your client's specific business objectives and metrics. However, in general, these are the metrics that tend to be most important:
You can navigate to Instagram Insights either directly from your profile by tapping on the Professional Dashboard or by tapping on the hamburger menu at the top right and then tapping on the Insights option.
Account insights
The first thing you'll come across is the Account Insights section, which provides a comprehensive overview of the accounts that have been reached in the last 30 days, followed by a sneak peek of your top-performing post.
Overview
To gain a better understanding of your content pillar strategy, you can expand the analytics by selecting a timeframe from the drop-down menu on the top left.
Then, you'll be able to see the number of Posts, Stories, and Reels you shared for the chosen period. It's easy to navigate each content type and dive deeper into the insights.
Progress
Check out your overall performance trends for the past six months by clicking on the Progress tab located just below the overview section.
Content
Click on the See all just next to the Content you've shared section to gain more insights.
From here, you have the option to view all of your content or filter by specific post types. You can also sort your content by engagement level and choose your preferred metric, either Accounts Engaged or Accounts Reached.
What are the most important Instagram metrics to track?
Determining the most important Instagram metrics to track is a million-dollar question that depends entirely on your pre-set KPIs. However, here are some of the most popular metrics to keep an eye on:
To access X (Twitter) Analytics, simply navigate to the left sidebar and click on More. Then, select Creator Studio from the drop-down menu and choose Analytics.
Overview
This 28-day dashboard provides an overview of your top-performing Tweets and introduces you to the influencers in your network. It showcases high-level statistics and acts as a gallery of your most successful content.
Tweet Activity
To access your tweet insights, head to the Tweets section on the top menu or click on View all Tweet activity under the Top Tweet section in the Overview.
You'll have all the details on how many people have viewed, Retweeted, liked, and replied to your Tweets. Plus, you can filter by Promoted-only Tweets, adjust the date range, and export the data as a .CSV file.
More
From the More drop-down menu located at the top bar, you can dive even deeper into data:
What are the most important X (Twitter) metrics to track?
It's important to note that the choice of metrics to track depends on your specific social media objectives and KPIs.
To get to LinkedIn Analytics, head over to your LinkedIn Page and click on the "Analytics" tab located at the top of the page. This will give you access to valuable insights on how your LinkedIn Page and its content are performing.
Once you're in, you can choose from a variety of overviews from the drop-down menu, including:
Visitors
Before diving into the data, choose the desired timeframe.
Followers
Leads
Keep in mind that leads collected from your Page Home and Product pages are only available for 90 days after submission.
Content
Keep track of how your organic and sponsored posts are performing over time with engagement metrics.
Competitor analytics
Head to this section to see how your LinkedIn Page's follower and content metrics stack up against those of other Pages on the platform. Note that the time range filter doesn't affect the total number of followers or the top-performing competitor posts.
Here you'll see the comparison of follower metrics, as well as organic content metrics.
Are you running an employee advocacy program? Amazing! This section provides valuable insights into how your employees are posting recommendations and how LinkedIn members are engaging with those posts.
What are the most important LinkedIn metrics to track?
Remember, the specific metrics you track will depend on your business objectives and the actions you want your LinkedIn Page to drive. By regularly monitoring metrics listed below, you can assess the effectiveness of your LinkedIn marketing strategy, make data-driven optimizations, and demonstrate the ROI of your LinkedIn efforts:
Conversions: Monitor the number of conversions resulting from your LinkedIn Page, such as form submissions, lead generation, or website purchases. This metric helps you gauge the direct impact of your LinkedIn efforts on driving valuable actions.
Click-through Rate (CTR): Track the percentage of clicks on your LinkedIn Page's posts or ads compared to the number of impressions. CTR indicates the effectiveness of your content in capturing audience interest and driving traffic to your desired destinations.
Engagement Rate: Measure the level of engagement on your LinkedIn Page, including likes, comments, and shares, as a percentage of impressions. A higher engagement rate signifies that your content is resonating with your audience and generating interest.
Lead Generation: Assess the number of leads generated through LinkedIn, such as form submissions, newsletter sign-ups, or contact requests. This metric helps evaluate the quality and effectiveness of your LinkedIn Page in generating actionable leads.
Content Performance: Evaluate the performance of your individual posts and content. Track metrics such as impressions, clicks, engagement, and conversion rates specific to each piece of content to identify what types of posts are most effective in driving ROI.
TikTok Analytics is a powerful tool that provides insights into the performance of your TikTok content, allowing you to optimise your strategy for maximum engagement and growth.
Overview
Content
Followers
LIVE (for creators with LIVE access):
We know managing TikTok can be challenging, so we've created this handy TikTok management checklist! You can also take a look at our list of ways to promote your business on TikTok.
Google Analytics allows you to extend your data capture by tracking your website activity. For instance, you can see from which networks your visitors came, how long they stayed on your site, check which content they downloaded, and much more.
Let's take a look at a few metrics you could track.
Looking at all the traffic coming to your website allows you to compare social media with other channels and their performance. Access this area by logging into your Google Analytics account and navigating to Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels:
Acquisition:
Behaviour:
Conversions:
(More on Conversions and Goals below...)
The above metrics are all valid starting places for tracking overall website activity. But with Google Analytics, you can drill down further to get specific social media reports.
For example, you could click 'Social' from the available 'Channels' to display the social media data for each network:
Or, to save you time and help visualise the data, you could create a custom dashboard showing:
Pro Tip: Here’s a guide to proving social media ROI and building your custom dashboard.
The most accurate way to track traffic coming to your website is by adding UTM values to your links. When used correctly, UTM values show you:
The best way to prove your ROI in Google Analytics is to use Goals and Conversions. You can create goals to track different leads such as newsletter subscribers, contact form submissions, content downloads, product trial signups, and, ultimately, new customers.
This way, you can learn much more about the anonymous traffic on your website to further optimise it.
So far, you've seen metrics and insights from the different social media networks' native platforms and Google Analytics.
These data sources are all valid and useful when reporting on your successes.
But what if there was a way to combine the best of these sources in one place?
That's one of the benefits of using Sendible's reporting suite.
Reports Hub
The Reports Hub is available on all plans and gives you nine ready-to-go social media reports for an instant snapshot of your social data that will help you better understand your campaign performance.
The area includes one overall 'Engagement' report that provides insights into your combined audience, post engagements, posts, and mentions across all the channels you manage.
These metrics are key when performing social listening for your brand.
Custom reports
You can take advantage of our Custom Reports feature to create reports that showcase your brand and demonstrate ROI through over 100 modules. Our drag-and-drop report builder makes it easy to tailor your reports to each client and provide them with valuable insights.
Automated reports
Make reporting on success a breeze for your clients by automating reports to be sent to key stakeholders, team members, and clients on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. This saves time and ensures everyone is up-to-date with the latest insights.
Website traffic reporting with Google Analytics
Our Google Analytics report can help you understand how your social media content is affecting website visits. By identifying which social channels are driving the most traffic, you can focus your efforts on the most effective strategy.
Don't worry, finding and gathering social media data for your reports is a breeze once you know what to look for.
Once you've determined your method for tracking and reporting your brand's growth, you can easily extract the necessary data from the best sources and showcase your performance.