How to Track and Measure Social Media ROI to Scale Your Biz
Ever wondered if your DIY social media efforts are actually paying off? All of those likes and comments might feel good…but are they paying the rent?
The truth is, while engagement has the potential to produce returns, that isn’t always the case. In fact, it’s not uncommon for brands that are marketing to the wrong audience to see an increase in engagement and a decrease in conversions.
If you’re looking for a true return on investment (ROI), it comes down to linking your time, budget and content to measurable (and meaningful) outcomes. Or in simpler terms, are you making enough money to actually warrant the precious time you’re spending on your socials?
What is Social Media ROI?
The easiest way to think about social media ROI is by comparing the investment you make in social media to the return you receive. Traditionally, ROI is linked to dollar signs, but when it comes to social media ROI, there are other potential returns that aren’t directly related to money.
For example, if you’re a solopreneur or a small business running your own social media, you’re investing a lot more than cold hard cash — you’re investing time. In this case, you’d want to consider whether the amount of money and the time you’re spending is bringing in a return greater than your input.
Maybe your DIY efforts are paying off well enough to warrant handling your socials on your own. Or perhaps you’ve discovered that while you’re breaking even, your wasted time actually throws you into the deficit. So, you hire a social media manager who ends up giving you a 10x ROI in both TIME and MONEY.
Aside from the obvious returns — money and time — returns could also include things like increased brand awareness, quality leads or client retention (more on this later).
Define Social Media ROI & Business Goals
The first step in figuring out your social media ROI is setting a clear goal.
If we asked you right now what your social media goals are, you’d likely respond with wanting to boost brand awareness, increase engagement and start driving more sales.
At surface level, sure, that’s what we all want. But the number one way to fail at social media is by having a strategy that lacks clarity.
Think about it. If you don’t know exactly what your goal is, how are you going to track the right metrics and prove your ROI?
Here are some of the key ROI goals to consider when planning your social media campaigns and strategies:
Brand Awareness: Brand awareness is at the top of the funnel. The priority at this phase is reaching as many people as possible (specifically within your target audience) and sparking interest.
Followers & Community: Next up comes building your community. This is where you sway new people to join your social media community and trust your brand as the go-to in your industry.
Engagement: Once you’ve built your social media community, you need to focus on driving engagement and creating content that resonates. This should occur consistently and focus on client retention and conversion.
Conversions & Sales: Leads are great, but conversions are better. Whether your campaign was targeted on email sign-ups, booked strategy calls, course sign-ups or product purchases, the focus here should be measurable outcomes.
Retention: At the bottom of the funnel, we have customer retention. What are you going to do to keep your followers engaged and coming back for more? How can you nurture and celebrate your loyal customers? Bonus points if they spark referrals, too.
Understanding which campaign goal you are targeting will make it easier to track and measure your social media ROI.
How Do You Track Social Media ROI?
Tracking social media ROI starts with understanding which key performance indicators (KPIs) are worth tracking, and which are not.
One of the ways we like to track social media ROI at Do Epic Shit Media is to start by defining your business goals and matching KPIs to each goal.
Let’s look at some common social media KPI’s:
Reach: How many unique users saw your content? This is important for brand awareness campaigns.
- Aligns with brand awareness campaigns.
Followers and Growth: Tracking your follow and unfollow rates can help measure how your audience is growing over time and how well your content attracts new people (and keeps them around).
- Aligns with brand awareness, community-building and retention campaigns.
Engagement: This may include tracking likes, shares, comments and saves. This information is important for measuring connection and content resonance. But remember, engagement is only truly valuable if you’re attracting the right audience.
- Aligns with engagement and retention campaigns.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): CTR tells you how many people are clicking from your posts to your link in bio, landing page or offer. You can take it further by tracking how far they click on your website for more insight.
- Aligns with conversions and sales campaigns.
Share of Voice (SOV): SOV measures how often your brand is mentioned compared to competitors in your industry.
- Aligns with brand awareness, community and potentially conversion campaigns.
Average Order Value (AOV): AOV tracks the average amount customers spend, which helps understand sales performance.
- Aligns with conversions and sales campaigns.
Cost Per Click (CPC): CPC indicates how much you’re paying (in ads or boosted posts) for each click — key for paid ROI.
- Aligns with conversions and sales campaigns.
Customer Lifetime Value: The projected revenue you’ll earn from a customer throughout the relationship.
- Aligns with retention campaigns.
Measuring Social Media ROI
The simplest way to calculate social media ROI is using this formula:
ROI = (Return – Investment) ÷ Investment x 100
For example, if you spend $500 on content creation and ads and earn $2,000 in sales from those efforts, your ROI would be:
($2,000-$500) ÷ $500 x 100 = 300% ROI
But remember, return doesn’t always mean money. Depending on your goals, your ROI might look like:
- 50% increase in website traffic
- 3x growth in email subscribers
- A new wave of repeat customers
- Higher retention rates among clients
To measure these types of returns, you’ll need to connect your social media metrics with deeper business analytics. Tools like Google Analytics, Meta Insights and CRM reports are key to understanding what’s actually driving results.
Boost your ROI with Full-Service Social Media Management
If you’ve made it this far, you’re either feeling super optimistic about your DIY social media efforts or you’re entering full-fledged panic mode. We get it (literally, we do this all day, every day) — it’s a lot to take in.
Right now, you might be thinking, “But how can I be sure hiring a social media manager will give me a big return?”
And while we can’t predict what the exact ROI would be from hiring us in this blog, we’re certain about one thing — you will get your mf time back! Time that could be used to scale your business in other areas.
Ready to maximize your social media returns? Apply to work with us today, and let’s Do Epic Shit together!