Social Media KPIs and Metrics, Track What Matters

Did you know there are 4.8 billion social media users worldwide? It represents 59.9% of the global population! And out of this massive percentage, many are not making the most of the platforms. As a marketer, focus on the social media metrics of your campaigns and assess their success rate.

The best way to measure that is to track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Choosing the right KPIs is critical for understanding social media performance. Shift focus from surface-level metrics like followers and likes. Marketers need actionable insights into goals like brand awareness, lead generation, and sales.

Read on to identify the most relevant social media metrics. Learn to track them for enhanced engagement.

Top 8 Social Media Metrics to Track

Here are the top 8 social media metrics that brands should track this season.

1. Engagement Rate

Engagement rate is calculated by dividing engagements (likes, comments, shares, etc.) by reach or impressions. Benchmarks vary widely by industry but often fall in the 1-5% range. It reflects how well your content resonates with your audience and their willingness to interact with it.

Higher rates signal you’re connecting with your target audience. Lower rates could mean poor content quality or targeting the wrong audience. Track this metric closely to guide content creation and increase visibility.

2. Impressions

Impressions refer to the number of times your posts are displayed to users, which offers visibility. More impressions expand reach and brand awareness. While vanity metrics don’t guarantee business success, increased impressions signal your content is visible to more accounts, which is critical for recognition. Impression data could be used to double down on top-performing posts.

3. Reach

Reach represents the number of unique accounts that see your posts over a period. A broader reach expands your potential audience and brand awareness. While impressions show exposures, reach better indicates market penetration. Reach growth over time can demonstrate improving interest and community building.

4. Click-Through Rate

Click-through rate is the percentage of users who click on links within your posts. It signals genuine interest and content quality by quantifying readiness to take action. Click-throughs that redirect offsite rather than your owned channels require the highest conviction.

5. Follower Growth Rate

Follower growth calculates your net increase in new followers for a specific timeframe. This fanbase expansion helps enhance future reach and visibility. But focus on follower loyalty and retention, too. Always remember- quality over quantity.

If follower counts rise but engagement drops, you risk building an inactive audience. Use growth trends to assess marketing and engagement strategies.

6. Conversion Rate

Conversion rates comprise the number of users executing your intended calls-to-action – signups, purchases, downloads, event registrations, etc. Conversions are a vital e-commerce metric showing real transactions and bottom-line impact. Conversion tracking provides clear ROI measures for your efforts. Optimise design and messaging for higher conversion rates. Let performance data guide investment into well-converting content types and campaigns.

7. Cost Per Click

Cost per click (CPC) represents the average expense of each click-through generated on social media content like native ads or boosted posts. To calculate it, divide total advertisement spending by the number of clicks achieved. Tracking CPC helps gauge paid media efficiency.

Lower CPC indicates more organically obtained traffic. However, focus on conversion metrics since cheap clicks alone don’t guarantee valuable customers.

8. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS measures user brand loyalty and satisfaction on surveys by asking, “How likely are you to recommend us to friends or colleagues?” The score ranges from 0-10. Those answering 9-10 are promoters, people answering 7-8 are passives, and people voting below 6 are detractors. Subtract the percentage of detractors from promoters to yield NPS (-100 to +100).

Higher positive NPS signals stronger customer relationships. Social media drives lower NPS than other channels but remains useful for benchmarking, especially against competitors.

How to Identify Relevant KPIs

KPIs show the efficiency with which a business can achieve its set objectives. To identify relevant KPIs, define what success looks like for your goals. Then, develop indicators that show you're on the right track.

• Consider common KPIs like reach, engagement rate, and conversion rate. Incorporate metrics tailored to your target audience personas. Assess their demographics, interests, and platform preferences for the same.

• Align KPIs with your campaign goals, such as increasing brand awareness or driving engagement. For each goal, prioritise 2-3 vital KPIs that best show performance.

• Connect metrics to specific content types and platforms for insights into what's working.

How to Track and Analyse KPIs

Leveraging data to power your campaigns is the key to a successful marketing strategy. Here are some ways to keep a check on your social media metrics:

• Build custom dashboards to display your vital few metrics across social media platforms.

• Segment your data by platform, content type, campaigns, formats and audience demographics. Look for variations across segments to dig deeper.

• Set up alerts for critical thresholds so you can respond to changes. For example, alerts for spikes in brand mentions or drops in engagement rate.

• Use these insights to optimise your social media strategy based on the observed data.

Tools to Track Social Media Metrics

We’ve discussed what to track and how to optimise campaigns. Now, let’s explore some tools to measure the metrics in social media marketing:

1. Google Analytics^[1]

Google Analytics is a popular free tool that allows users to track social media metrics and perform all web analytics. It provides an overview of traffic and engagement from all social platforms. It has some key features, including:

• Social source and campaign tracking to see traffic and conversions from social channels.

• Demographic and user behaviour tracking.

• Custom dashboards with metrics like clicks, engagement rate, video views, etc.

• Integration with other Google tools like Google Ads for cross-channel reporting.

2. Hootsuite Analytics^[2]

HootSuite is another popular web analytics platform. It levies a fee based on the chosen plan. The three kinds of plans are:

• Professional (INR 1,915/month)

• Team (INR 7,540/month)

• Enterprise: price depends on the number of users (5 minimum).

3. Brandwatch^[3]

Brandwatch is another popular social listening and analytics tool. It gathers brand mentions, reviewing sentiment, and understanding of competitors. The paid tool allows in-depth qualitative examination of content.

4. Sprout Social^[4]

Sprout is an end-to-end social media management platform with robust analytics capabilities. It has 4 kinds of plans starting at USD 249 per month. The advanced plans offer:

• Custom reporting and tracking for owned social profiles and campaigns.

• Highlighting brand mentions and keywords.

• Influencer analytics to track partnerships and campaign performance.

• Data integrations with Google Analytics and more.

5. Rival IQ^[5]

Rival IQ is a paid tool comprising three plans starting at USD 239 per month. The competitive intelligence tool provides these features:

• Compare owned metrics to competitors' engagement, growth, followers, etc.

• Identify high-performing competitor content for benchmarking.

• Insights for improving performance based on competitive data.

Bottom Line

Growth Jockey insists on tracking the right social media KPIs aligned with campaign goals and target audiences. Mere reach and likes in numbers are a thing of the past. Marketers today must focus on actual engagement, conversions, and sales.

Tracking hundreds of social media metrics is time-consuming. Instead, identify the 2-3 vital KPIs per goal. Run real-time checks and segmentation analysis, compare benchmarks, and test new metrics. Companies with a proactive, data-driven approach to content strategy are bound to win this competitive social media marketing game. Marketers needing help to strengthen their social media strategy can seek help from the Growth Jockey team.

FAQs

1. Why track KPIs if a company creates quality content?

Metrics allow you to:

• pinpoint what content resonates

• spot trends and optimisation opportunities

• demonstrate concrete ROI

• inform data-driven decisions on where to invest time and resources

2. How often should performance data be assessed?

Ideally, examine real-time reports daily to identify what’s working well and areas to improve. Schedule monthly check-ins to digest trends over longer periods, guiding future best practices and goal-setting.

3. Which metrics indicate audience sentiments towards a brand?

Follower counts show community growth or shrinkage over time, indicating changing perceptions. Meanwhile, steady or increasing engagement rates suggest sustained positive sentiment and affiliation with fans.

1. Google Analytics - Link ↑
2. Hootsuite Analytics - Link ↑
3. Brandwatch - Link ↑
4. Sprout Social - Link ↑
5. Rival IQ - Link ↑