Social Media Campaign Metrics: How To Measure Success

Social media provides unparalleled reach, enabling businesses to connect with a global audience and precisely target specific demographics. An effective social media campaign offers real-time engagement and interaction, allowing immediate feedback and building brand loyalty.

A paid social media agency can ensure successful campaigns using relevant metrics such as the following:

• Engagement metrics.
• Follower growth.
• Reach and impressions.
• Clickthrough rate (CTR).
• Cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-conversion (CPC).
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC).
• Return on investment (ROI).
• Customer lifetime value (CLV).
• Churn rate.
• Sentiment analysis.

Are you ready to learn about these social media metrics? Let's go!

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Engagement Metrics

Engagement metrics are critical indicators of how well content resonates with the audience. These metrics include likes, comments, shares, and clicks on posts. Engagement indicates the level of interaction and interest that the content generates. 

High engagement metrics mean a strong connection with the audience, which increases visibility, brand awareness, and business growth. Engagement metrics include the following:

• Likes and reactions are the number of likes, hearts, thumbs up, or positive reactions to posts.
• Comments indicate how much the content sparks conversations. The more comments, the better.
• Shares or retweets expand the content’s reach. Like the comments, more shares and retweets are better.

To calculate the average engagement rate, use this formula:

(Total Likes, Comments, and Shares / Total Followers) x 100 = Average Engagement Rate

Engagement rates vary depending on the social media platform, the type of post, and the industry. For instance, generally, the benchmark for Instagram posts is higher than those of Facebook. However, in the travel industry, Facebook photos do better than Instagram. But when it comes to videos, TikTok outperforms Facebook and Instagram (in all industries surveyed). 

No matter which industry or which platform, growth is essential. Whether the piece of content is a short video or a live event, the business must use a similar strategy to recreate the same engagement or surpass it.

Follower Growth

The follower growth rate is the increase or decrease in followers or fans on social media profiles. This metric gauges the organic growth of the audience over time. Marketers must analyze follower growth to assess the effectiveness of their content, campaigns, and engagement strategies.

To calculate follower growth, use this formula:

(# of New Followers / # of Existing Followers) x 100 = % Follower Growth Rate

A steady follower growth rate month after month typically means the business is doing something right and its community is growing reasonably.

Reach and Impressions

Reach and impressions help marketers understand the extent of their content's visibility. Reach represents the total number of unique users who have seen the content, indicating the potential audience. That means the higher the number of impressions, the better, right? Well, not always. 

A campaign can have high impressions but not reach the right audience. For instance, a campaign gets a 100,000-impression score but only 1% engagement. The marketer has to review the campaign to see if anything has been missed. The campaign might not have been set up right to reach the intended audience, or the copies might not be engaging.

Impressions and reach work best when measuring campaign success with other metrics, such as engagement rate and ROI. Together, these metrics give marketers a complete picture of campaign effectiveness.

Clickthrough Rate (CTR)

CTR in social media marketing measures the effectiveness of content in encouraging users to take specific actions. This typically clicks on a link or call to action within a post. CTR is calculated as the percentage of users who clicked on the link out of the total number of users who saw it. 

Marketers consider various factors defining CTR, such as search engine optimization (SEO) and social media. The basic formula to calculate CTR in social media marketing is:

CTR = (Number of Clicks / Number of Impressions) x 100.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC) 

Cost-per-click (CPC) is a paid advertising bidding model where an advertiser pays each time someone clicks on their ad. The CPC of a campaign is the amount the business pays for each click and is calculated in every auction.

CPC provides insight into the cost of a paid ads campaign.

Having a high CPC means paying a relatively high amount for each click on your advertisement. This can occur due to competitive keywords, low ad quality scores, the desire for top ad placement, targeting competitive audiences, campaign settings, and industry competitiveness.

The formula for calculating CPC in an advertising campaign is:

CPC = Total Cost of Advertising / Total Number of Clicks.

Sites like Statista can offer information on your field's average cost per click. If a company sees that its CPC is higher than the standard for its industry, this could mean its ad campaigns are less relevant and less engaging than competitors'. Time for a refresh! 

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

CAC quantifies the expenses of acquiring a new customer through advertising and marketing efforts on social platforms. Marketers calculate CAC by dividing the total cost of marketing campaigns by the number of new customers gained for a specific period.

To calculate CAC in the context of social media marketing, you can use the following formula:

CAC = Total Cost of Social Media Marketing / Number of New Customers Acquired

CAC is important for businesses because it assesses the efficiency and sustainability of their customer acquisition strategies. It guides budget allocation and campaign optimization decisions to ensure a positive ROI.

CAC is often mentioned in the same breath as customer lifetime value (CLV). Acquiring new customers is great — but are you keeping them? Since it's more expensive to bring on new customers than retain them, customer retention is vital.

Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI measures the financial performance and profitability of social media campaigns. It's calculated by comparing the revenue generated from social media campaigns to the cost of these campaigns.

ROI gives you a clear understanding of the actual return on your marketing investment, allowing you to assess the effectiveness of campaigns and make data-driven decisions on resource allocation. The basic formula for calculating ROI on social media is as follows:

ROI = (Net Profit from Social Media - Cost of Social Media Marketing) / Cost of Social Media Marketing

In digital marketing, an ROI of 5:1 is generally regarded as an achievement. This means that for every dollar invested, you will receive five dollars in return. But marketers who want to stand out from the competition and get more out of their investment set their sights on achieving an even more impressive 10:1 ratio.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

CLV is the total expected revenue that customers generate throughout their relationship with the brand. It factors in not just the initial purchase but also repeat purchases, subscriptions, and other ongoing interactions. 

CLV helps businesses make informed decisions about customer acquisition costs, retention strategies, and the overall long-term profitability of their social media marketing efforts. There are different ways to calculate CLV, but one of the most common formulas for CLV is:

CLV = (Average Purchase Value x Average Purchase Frequency x Customer Lifespan).

CLV becomes more significant as a metric when you assess its relationship with CAC. It's not only less costly to keep old customers than draw in new leads: Repeat customers also spend far more than new ones.

Churn Rate

The churn rate is the rate at which followers or customers disengage from or stop interacting with the brand on social media platforms. It shows the loss of audiences or customers over time.

A high churn rate could mean issues with content quality, engagement strategies, or customer satisfaction, and it emphasizes the importance of addressing these concerns to maintain a growing social media presence. To calculate the churn rate, you can use the following formula:

Churn Rate = (Number of Users at the Beginning of the Period - Number of Users at the End of the Period) / Number of Users at the Beginning of the Period

When measuring success through churn rates, consider the age of the company in question. Older, more well-established businesses typically see less churn (below ten percent annually). Start-ups and SMBs have higher churn rates (often over ten percent churn). Keep in mind that the industry time and global/local economic landscape can affect these metrics as well.

Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis assesses the emotional tone and attitude of social media mentions, comments, and discussions about the brand or campaign. This metric determines whether the sentiment is positive, negative, or neutral.

Marketers can use sentiment monitoring to measure public perception, identify potential issues or crises, and adjust social ad strategies accordingly. Marketers monitor the Sentiment Score on social media platforms to accurately analyze their campaigns.

Summing Up Successful Social Media Campaign Metrics

Marketers prioritize metrics that align with their campaign goals and objectives. They often combine multiple metrics to comprehensively view their campaign's performance when creating a social media report. Finally, continuous monitoring is critical for all social media campaigns because it shows the effectiveness of campaigns on various platforms.

Let a paid social media agency with extensive experience in social media marketing and SEO boost your marketing efforts. Contact Digital Authority Partners (DAP) for your business's most updated social media marketing strategies.

Also, take a look at our guide to Social Media Tips from Successful Marketers: We're excited to talk to you soon!