Your social media campaign is an essential part of your social media marketing strategy that must compete with other internal strategies for resources and attention. Because of this, measuring the return on your social media investment is necessary.
Tracking your social media ROI allows you to dedicate the appropriate time and resources to what works best.
What is Social Media ROI?
Social media ROI is the benefit your business receives from dedicating time and resources to promoting social media strategies. You can measure ROI in dollars or by this simple formula: Profit/total investment x 100 = social media ROI (this is shown as a percentage). This formula is simple to use if all the variables are present. However, that’s not always the case; not all success is quantifiable.
Sometimes, you can determine social media or content marketing ROI by non-monetary items such as page views, downloads, and email list sign-ups. To determine how much you can gain from consumer actions, consider using analytics to decide which social media strategies result in a conversion. This will help you determine how valuable social media is to your brand.
Why Measuring ROI is Essential
Nothing is more helpful than concrete and measurable results when proving social media’s value to clients or stakeholders. That’s when measuring ROI comes in. Clear ROI data allows you to show where your company’s efforts and resources are being used efficiently.
How to Prove ROI with Social Media Goals
When pitching a strategy to a boss or stakeholder and trying to earn resources, the key is to define social media goals that align with your company’s business objectives. For example, if your company has a conversion goal for the quarter, you can illustrate how social media can drive leads. If your company aims to increase website traffic, showcase data revealing the number of people who visit the page via social media.
While social media often creates brand awareness, studies have shown that only 34 percent of businesses feel that social media is responsible for positive business outcomes. When proving the value of a social media strategy, you must measure ROI as it relates to broader company objectives.
Developing Social Media Goals
Creating specific social media goals can help your company get on the right track with a social media strategy. Here are some goals to consider, along with the measurements you should take to achieve them:
- Increase Engagement Through Social Media: Measure basic social media metrics, which include likes, retweets, shares, mentions, and favorites. More in-depth metrics might include the bounce, applause, and amplification rates.
- Increase Website Traffic: Analyze URL clicks and leads originating from social media.
- Increase Brand Recognition: Examine the follower growth rate across different social media platforms and the percentage change over time. Also, look at reach and clicks by region.
How to Measure Social Media Success Through ROI
While defining social media goals is important, the job isn’t done until you’ve successfully proven ROI. This is a challenge for many marketers looking to increase social media and content marketing ROI. Fortunately, there are several tools available that can help you achieve this goal.
There are many analytics tools available on the market today. Some include Google Analytics, Hootsuite, and SEMRush. Many of the tools available today include ROI dashboards, competitor analysis tools, and other features to measure your success. Once you decide which goals to focus on and which tools to use, it will be time to run a report on your ROI.
Reporting Your Social Media Return on Investment
You should always track your social media progress so you'll be able to prove ROI through easy-to-access data. Here are some best practices for reporting social media data:
- Use templates: Analytics templates allow you to track metrics without having to build a custom report every time. They present data in an easy-to-read format, allowing you to effectively share information with bosses and stakeholders.
- Look at metrics daily: Analyze metrics frequently to ensure you're reaching your goals. Social media campaigns have a very short life cycle. Therefore, it’s important to stay on top of data as it’s happening.
- Choose a timeframe: Set a timeframe that works for your business and stick to it. Some analytics programs allow you to send reports to your inbox each week, so you don’t have to pull the reports yourself.
Adjusting Your Social Media Strategy
First of all, determine what works and what doesn’t, then it’s time to adjust your social media management strategy. The goal of tracking ROI isn’t just to show that social media is necessary; it’s ultimately to add value to your social media campaigns.
The Key Ingredient Missing From Your Social Media Strategy
Over to You
Developing social media goals to meet your company’s objectives should be a constantly evolving process. Start with revamping a failing or stagnant campaign.
Then, measuring ROI for social media provides important insight into your campaigns' success. This will allow you to tailor and improve your strategy to meet your goals.