You’ve come up with a social media strategy, written a content plan and created some funny or heart-warming posts – but how do you know whether your social media marketing is getting through to your audience? And what are the relevant metrics for tracking ROI on social media?
The good news is that all social platforms offer performance metrics to help you work it out.
Here are 7 social media KPIs you should be aware of:
Brand awareness metrics.
Who’s looking at your content? Awareness metrics help if you want to expand your brand, services or products to a wider audience.
1. Reach.
Reach is the number of people who see your content. Monitoring your average reach and the reach of each post, story and video helps you determine the type of content that appeals to your audience. It’s also helpful to know if your content is mostly reaching followers or non-followers – if non-followers are in the majority, it shows that your content is being shared and reaching a new audience.
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2. Impressions.
Impressions indicate how many times a piece of content has been viewed. Because customers can view a single post multiple times, this metric may be higher than reach. Look for the types of content that garner more impressions and focus your attention there – for example, video posts may get more re-watches and impressions than text.
3. Audience growth rate
Audience growth rate measures your current audience and how many new followers you gain within a specific time frame. It’s a good indication of how much exposure you’re getting and how many people are interested in your brand. To get the figure as a percentage, track your new followers (on each platform – Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), divide that number by your total audience on each platform and multiply by 100.
Engagement metrics.
Social media engagement metrics show how many people engage with your content on social media. They help you understand whether people are looking at your posts and if they’re interested in what you have to say.
1. Engagement rate.
The engagement rate measures the percentage of your audience reacting, commenting and sharing your content. To get your engagement rate, calculate your total likes, shares and comments, divide by your total followers and multiply by 100. For Facebook, your benchmark rate is 0.06% and for Instagram, 0.68%.
2. Amplification and virality rate.
Amplification and virality rates measure how much your content is shared. The higher these rates are, the more your followers are sharing your content and expanding your reach. To calculate your amplification rate as a percentage, you need to look at your followers. To do this, divide a post’s total number of shares by your total number of followers and multiply by 100. For the virality rate, look at your impressions. In this case, divide a post’s number of shares by its impressions and multiply by 100.
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ROI metrics.
You’ve dedicated a budget to social media marketing, but is it paying off?
Conversion rate is probably the most common metric for measuring your overall social media reach, and therefore the most valuable at assessing the overall effectiveness of your social media marketing strategy. Conversion rates are basically the number of people who take some sort of action on your social media pages and can be measured using the following methods:
1. Click-through rate (CTR).
The click-through rate shows how often people follow links in your posts to access new content. If the number is high, you can assume your social content is doing a good job of intriguing your audience and promoting your business. To get the click-through rate as a percentage, divide the total number of clicks (per post) by the total number of impressions for that post and multiply by 100. For paid ads, you’re aiming for a benchmark of 1.1%.
2. Cost-per-click and impressions.
Cost-per-click (CPC) calculates how much you pay for each click on a social ad. Cost-per-mille (CPM) calculates how much you pay for every thousand impressions of your social ad. These metrics can be found in the analytics section of the social media platform where you’re sharing the content.
RELATED: 5 social media marketing hacks you need to know.
Make your social media marketing work as hard as you do.
If you want to gain new customers and grow your business, your social media posts must perform at their peak. Social metrics can help keep tabs on things like your click-through rates, audience growth and impressions, so you can find out what’s working, tweak your approach and maximise the value of your social media budget.
Need some help getting your social up to standard? Check out our guide to social media advertising for small businesses.
