Social media is key to any modern marketing campaign. But how can you tell if all your efforts are actually paying off?
That’s where ROI or “return on investment” comes in.
By tracking your ROI, you can know what the impact of your social media marketing is – and know where to focus your efforts.
How to measure the ROI of your social media marketing efforts
One: Mentions
Social media is often used to build brand awareness. In some cases, there’s a single campaign or moment that makes a brand blow up. Most of the time, though, you have to work to build brand awareness over time.
So how do you measure the impact of your social media marketing efforts on brand awareness?
You track positive brand mentions. There are plenty of tools to do that, some great options are listed on Social Media Examiner.
Mentions, by the way, go hand in hand with increases in the engagement your brand sees on social media: More comments and questions from real customers are a great barometer for the success of your brand’s online presence.
Two: Website traffic
Another way to determine your social media marketing efforts are working is to track the traffic to your website. You want to see if the overall traffic is increasing and analyse the source of that traffic. An uptick in site visits originating from social means the work you’re putting in is paying off.
The best way to track website traffic, and traffic sources, is Google Analytics. This program allows you to see the referral source for all your website traffic, so you’ll be able to how many people are coming from each of your social media platforms.
Three: Sales
Most companies want to make sure their social media marketing efforts are paying off with sales. It makes sense: Social media marketing costs time and money and businesses need to see those factors affecting their bottom line in a positive way.
Here again, setting up Goals in your Google Analytics is a simple way to measure this. Specifically, you’ll want to track which goal conversions come from which social media accounts. Once you know which social media platforms are leading to the most sales, you can channel more of your social media marketing budget in the right direction to better capitalize on the customers who buy from you.
Four: Influencers
Getting influencers on your side is a big deal these days! That’s because just one post from the right influencer can put a brand on the map.
Understand that influencers are generally paid to mention your brand, and many will reach out to brands in the hopes of striking up a sponsorship deal.
If you’re interested in working with an influencer, you’ll want to vet them thoroughly. Get a media kit that includes their follower and website demographics. Check their engagement rates and the quality of their comments and followers. Many other factors come into play here, but these are among the most important.
Five: New leads
New leads are people who show interest in what your brand does but haven’t purchased from your company. There are many ways to work on converting leads into customers, two of the most popular and successful being email marketing campaigns, and paid social media campaigns.
Social media is an excellent way to reach out to warm leads and convert them into paying customers. The process of doing so is easily trackable, and determining ROI on these campaigns is straightforward. Discuss your budget with a professional social media management company first, to determine if your conversion goals are realistic.
