It’s not as simple as setting a goal and tracking your progress with KPIs to track and measure Social Media ROI.
According to CEO Emeric Ernoult’s presentation, Agorapulse recently analyzed 10,650,123 social media posts, which exclude Instagram. A link was found in 32% (3393,506) of those posts. Only 1.8% of those posts (64,884) had tracking parameters.
This means that 98.2% (or more) of social media posts that could result in revenue or conversions will not be tracked.
What is the point of measuring social media ROI so infrequently? It could be a lack of prioritization.
Not necessarily.
Agorapulse interviewed 300 social media professionals to find out about their business impact on social media. While 98% of respondents believe it is important or very important to measure social media’s business impact, only 35% do so.
Are CMOs feeling the same? Adverity found that 38% of CMOs consider measuring Social Media ROI their greatest challenge. Marketing Charts reports that 98% of CMOs believe that measuring ROI or ROMI is their biggest challenge.
Why?
Before you can prove Social Media ROI, there are three major hurdles to overcome: lack of knowledge, lack tools and time constraints.
Data is the key to every hurdle.
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#1 Social Media ROI Hurdle
High-profile companies responded to consumer demands for greater privacy, transparency, and control over how and where data was used.
Apple has released iOS 14.5, which means all apps must ask users to consent to data collection. Google Chrome plans to end third-party cookie tracking by 2024. This initiative was delayed twice.
This is great news for consumers. It’s bad news for social media managers and marketers. Particularly if we are trying to prove and measure Social Media ROI.
We won’t be able to track the consumer’s journey through the funnel if we don’t have third-party data.
We will not know where consumers are from, how they interact with them, and where they’ve fallen off. Since iOS 14.5 was released, only 10% of iPhone users have shared their data with advertisers. It was previously up to 70%
We’ll have a harder time improving our social media ROI if we have less data. How can we tell what’s working and what isn’t? We’ll need to do more to track our progress towards our KPIs, and ultimately our goal.
Ratz says that measuring Social Media ROI has been much more difficult since iOS 14.5 was released. “Permissions to disable tracking have been a major problem.”
#2 Social Media ROI Hurdle
Too many data points at once
Despite having our third-party tracking capabilities removed, however, we still have huge amounts of data thanks to advanced technological and analytical tools.
Sometimes we are faced with so much data that it can become a frustrating task to find meaningful metrics on social media that will help us track and demonstrate progress towards our KPIs. This is especially true if you collect data from multiple sources and store it in multiple spreadsheets that you manually update.
“Suppose you have an Omnichannel presence and you sell products from multiple platforms, websites, or URLs. It can get tricky when you have a lot of data.
Social Media ROI Hurdle #3
Data cannot always be trusted
Paul Ince, a marketing expert, says that data can be trusty. “Can you trust what you see on Facebook or any other platform?” Sometimes we have trouble articulating the entire situation with data and all its limitations.
CMOs are more than one third less likely to trust the data at their disposal. Why?
Fear of the unknown is what causes mistrust. Social media data and insights are based on algorithms, web analytics platforms and other sources. What do we actually know about these things?
Are you able to explain the workings of Instagram’s algorithm? Are you able to explain in detail how Google Analytics collects user data?
We can overcome these data-centric hurdles and measure Social Media ROI.
Get Over the Social Media ROI Hurdle #1
“Even though you may not know 75% of the happenings, it will give you enough guidance so that you can make good decisions about where to spend your money to get a good return on your investment.” (Azriel Ratz).
Don’t be discouraged by the loss of third party web browser data. Instead, invest in tools that hook up to comprehensive analytics platforms and provide real-time reporting.
Ratz says that even if you aren’t 100% sure where every dollar is coming, tools such as Shopify, Google Analytics and Agorapulse will provide enough data to help you determine where the next dollar should go.
Ratz mentions Agorapulse specifically because it is the only social media management platform which automatically adds UTMs for every link you post on social media.
Agorapulse, the only tool that can connect to Google Analytics, allows you to track users and their interactions with your content in real-time.
“Diving into data is the best way tell the story and evaluate whether your efforts have actually had an impact on the different platforms.” (Julia Jornsay – Silverberg).
Agorapulse allows you to access data that will show you your progress towards your KPIs. It also lets you see how much money you are spending on social media campaigns and how much you make.
Agorapulse’s integrated ROI calculator allows you to assign monetary values and metrics that are important, such as:
Engaged fansImpressionsLink clicks
You can track your earnings as you publish content.
Yes. Agorapulse can accurately measure Social Media ROI.
“If you use efficient naming conventions, it’s possible to see how much you spend on each social media platform versus how much you bring in.” (Deonnah Carolineus).
This could be the solution to all your Social Media ROI issues.
Lisa Gautreau is one of the beneficiaries. She uses Agorapulse as the brand and communication manager at Plezi to show the ROI of all social media activities she and her team undertake.
“We add UTMs every time we share a link. She says that this allows her to track each campaign’s performance daily.
This means that the sales team will always identify the source of the client when they sign a new client. It makes me happy to see the’social networks’ and know that my efforts have had an impact on business.
“This is the key: Use UTMs or configure them via Agorapulse to see what’s driving your income.
“Notoriety is great, but evidence of conversions and turnover are better!”
Ratz says, “If you use the right UTMs, you can collect good data and track how your performance, which platform drives traffic, and which campaign is driving that traffic.”
“Focus upon the big picture: Look at where sales are coming in and do more of it.”
#2: Overcome the Social Media ROI Hurdle
How to overcome data burnout
It is easy to consolidate and streamline data collection, making it easier to manage, more time-consuming, and less dependent on spreadsheets and manual processes.
How? How? By investing in the right tools and making sure you tag your content correctly.
“Analytical tools are quite great. Carolus says that you can drill down to the data to track the more obscure types of things.
“I still use Google Analytics to track social results, particularly when it comes to traffic or conversions. It is easy to view your social media efforts within the Google Analytics funnel.
As we have seen in the previous chapter Agorapulse, the only social media management platform, directly connects with Google Analytics.
Agorapulse’s reporting function automatically pulls data directly from social media sites that you use. It records every piece of content you post. This reporting feature pulls all this data into clear dashboards, allowing you to quickly see how you are tracking towards your KPIs.
There is no need to maintain spreadsheets containing manually added UTMs. It doesn’t take much to pull data from social media accounts and create performance reports. You don’t have to go through mountains of data in order to determine the metrics that will prove your performance.
All you need is Agorapulse.
Gautreau says, “Use the right tools. It really does make a difference.” Agorapulse is a social media management tool that can save you time. You will be able to analyze and discover new creative ideas and help make a difference.
Get Over the Social Media ROI Hurdle #3
How to trust data you have
This obstacle is more difficult to overcome.
How can we trust the data we collect if we don’t take a javascript programming or algorithmic programming course?
“Triangulating data across multiple sources will assure you that you are seeing the same story throughout all your data collection points.” Paul Ince
You could, for example, compare the data from your Facebook ads to the data in Google Analytics and your ecommerce platform.
Compare the insights from all of your data sources. This will allow you to spot inconsistencies and help you rectify them. It will also reassure you that all your data sources are accurate.
Ince says that triangulating data can help you to make sense of data and create a narrative about the performance and the expected outcomes.
You could also go analog and ask your customers the original data source-your customers-questions.
“We encourage businesses ask their customers questions about us: How did you hear? This is what you saw. What was your impression of this… Collect the data from first-hand.” (Paul Ince).
This will ensure that your data is accurate and trustworthy. It also helps to strengthen customer relationships.
Lauren Garner, VP Marketing at Trinity Packing Supply, says that there are limitations to measuring Social Media ROI. Therefore, we use the feedback from our clients to measure social ROI.
“While we are unable to give a precise dollar amount for those social efforts, our content keeps us in the forefront and opens doors for growth opportunities.
We have resolving some of the problems with Social Media ROI.
Download your FREE ebook on social media to learn how you can improve it. Call to schedule a demo or learn more.
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