Globally, more than 4.26 billion people used social media in 2021, and that number will grow to approximately six billion by 2027.
Considering that there are over a hundred social media metrics, inexperienced marketers could try to track as many as possible and waste valuable time.
To prevent that, we made a list of the 25 most important social media metrics that will help you monitor your SMM results.
Table of Contents
What Are Social Media Metrics?
Metrics for social media marketing are data points that show how effectively your SMM campaign is performing.
You can use relevant measurements to evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy for each business goal you're aiming to accomplish on social media.
Social media metrics provide marketers with valuable insights: from how many people saw your content to the return on investment (ROI) your tactic delivers.
25 Social Media Metrics to Track in 2023
The most important metrics for social monitoring in 2023 are the following:
1. Reach
Your social media reach is the number of people who see your content. You can measure the average reach value or reach for each social media post.
Also, it is essential to determine what percentage of your reach are followers and non-followers. If many people who don’t follow your brand see your content, that is a sign that active followers are engaging and sharing it over social media.
2. Impressions
Social media impressions show the exact number of times people saw your content or ad.
Impressions can be higher than reach because the same person can return to your content and read it several times. If the number of impressions far exceeds the reach, you have created an appealing piece that engages users and grabs their attention.
Every social media platform counts impressions differently. Twitter and Instagram record impressions each time a user sees content, while Facebook counts impressions every time a paid ad is displayed.
3. Brand Mentions
The number of times a brand's name is mentioned or tagged on social media platforms in a given time frame is a social media metric known as brand mentions.
Brand mentions can provide valuable insights into how often people talk about a brand and what they say. These metrics can also help businesses to track their brand awareness, monitor customer sentiment and identify potential opportunities for engagement with their audience.
Some social media monitoring tools allow businesses to track brand mentions in real time and provide sentiment analysis to determine whether the mentions are positive, negative, or neutral. By analyzing the data, businesses can better understand their online reputation and adjust their social media strategies accordingly.
4. Conversion Rate
The goal of every marketing strategy is lead conversion — a purchase, newsletter subscription, e-book download or some other type of engagement with your content.
The number of leads visiting your landing page and performing the desired action increases your social media conversion rate.
To calculate the conversion rate, you must make your calls to action (CTAs) trackable using UTM parameters. Find out how many clicks and conversions your page has received and follow this formula:
Conversion Rate Percentage = Conversions / Total Clicks x 100
A low conversion rate indicates your CTAs and landing pages could use adjustment.
5. Cost per Click (CPC)
The fee you pay every time a user clicks on your social media ad is called cost-per-click. This metric helps you determine the success of your marketing campaigns.
If your CPC is too high, you should reduce your bids and track advertisement results on lower positions. Otherwise, you won’t achieve a return on investment.
The social media platforms you advertise on provide CPC analytics. Still, you can calculate it using this formula:
Cost per Click = Total Ad Spend / Total Measured Clicks x 1000
6. Cost per Mille (CPM)
Also called cost per thousand impressions, this metric shows how much you pay for a thousand impressions on your social media ad.
Like CPC, you don't need to calculate this data since social media platforms provide it as a part of advertising analytics. However, here is the formula:
Cost per Mille = Total Ad Spend / Total Ad Impressions x 1000
7. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The click-through rate shows how frequently users click on a link in your post that leads to the landing page. CTR helps you understand which marketing approach gets the best response from your audience.
If this metric is low, that could mean two things: you’re targeting the wrong audience or your copy is not compelling enough for your audience to wish to find out more.
Calculate your social media CTR following these steps:
Click-Through Rate = Total Clicks / Total Impressions x 100
8. Bounce Rate
A social media metric that measures the percentage of users who clicked on your post but left the page ("bounced") without taking any actions (clicking on a link, watching a video or filling out a form) is called bounce rate.
The bounce rate provides insights into how engaging and relevant your content is. A high bounce rate may indicate that the content is not meeting the user's expectations or that it is not effectively conveying the intended message. On the other hand, a low bounce rate indicates that the content is resonating well with its audience and prompting further engagement.
To calculate the bounce rate, use the following formula:
Bounce Rate = (Total number of single-page sessions) / (Total number of sessions)
9. Audience Growth Rate
The metric that measures the percentage of new followers your brand gets at a particular time is the audience growth rate.
To calculate the audience growth rate percentage, select the reporting period and use this formula:
Audience Growth Rate = New Followers / Total Audience x 100
10. Total Engagement Rate
Social media engagements include all user interactions with your brand — likes, shares, comments and mentions. The engagement rate is the number of all reactions your brand receives relative to your follower's number.
To calculate the engagement rate, follow this formula:
Engagement Rate = Number of Engagements / Number of Followers x 100
To increase engagement on Instagram, Facebook or other social media platforms, follow the best SMM practices:
- Post consistently
- Interact with your followers
- Use convincing CTAs
11. Engagement Rate per Post by Followers
This social media metric measures how actively your followers engage with your social media content on a particular platform.
It is calculated by dividing the total number of interactions (likes, comments and shares) that a post receives by the total number of followers you have and multiplying by 100 to get a percentage.
Engagement Rate per Post by Followers = ((Likes + Comments) / Posts) / Number of Followers x 100
This metric is important because it can help gauge how well your content resonates with your audience and whether your social media strategy is effective.
12. Engagement Rate per Post by Reach
Engagement by reach measures how effectively your content is engaging your audience on a particular platform.
It is calculated by dividing the total number of interactions (likes, comments and shares) that a post receives by the total reach of the post and then multiplying that by 100 to get a percentage.
Engagement Rate per Post by Reach = ((Likes + Comments) / Post) / Reach x100
This metric helps you determine how well your content resonates with your audience, even beyond your existing followers.
A higher engagement rate per post by reach indicates that your content effectively captures the attention of people who are not yet following you. At the same time, lower results show that your strategy lacks effectiveness in terms of reach and engagement.
13. Amplification Rate
Among the most important social media KPIs is the amplification rate — the proportion of posts' total shares to total followers on social media.
The amplification rate is calculated by dividing the number of shares or retweets a post receives by the total number of followers you have and multiplying that by 100 to get a percentage.
Amplification Rate = Total Post Shares / Total Followers x 100
A higher amplification rate means your content is being shared more widely and reaching a larger audience than your immediate followers.
14. Virality Rate
The most important social media metrics to track include virality rate, too.
Similar to the amplification rate, the virality rate also measures how shareable your content is, but with one difference. Instead of using followers as a percentage, the virality rate determines shares as a percentage of impressions.
To calculate the virality rate of your social media posts, follow this formula:
Virality Rate = Number of Shares / Number of Impressions x 100
15. Return on Investment (ROI)
The ROI is one of the most important metrics for social media marketing for all marketers and business owners because everyone wants to see their marketing efforts’ profit.
To calculate social media ROI, use this formula:
Social Media ROI = Returned Investment / Investment Made x 100
If your ROI is more than 0%, your SMM campaign is profitable. If it is below zero, you should adjust your strategy because it causes waste.
According to a survey that included 1,600 marketers, here are the social media platforms that bring the most significant ROI in 2022:
- Facebook - 21%
- Instagram - 18%
- LinkedIn - 14%
- TikTok - 12%
- YouTube - 11%
16. Keywords
Words the audience types into the social media search bar to find objects of interest are target keywords for your marketing campaigns. Tracking keyword performance can improve your overall SMM strategy and boost each of the metrics from our list.
Use social media analytic tools like Google Analytics or SEMrush to optimize your keywords and grow your online presence.
17. Traffic to the Brand’s Website
Many business organizations use social media accounts for one primary goal — to increase traffic to their brand's websites.
If your business niche demands high traffic on your website, the platforms you should focus on are Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Measure how many visits you record directly from social media using Google Analytics or HubSpot tools.
18. Video Views
Last but not least, the video views metric indicates how many users watch videos you’re creating. Each social media platform defines video views differently, but the first few seconds of the watch time counts as a view.
The video views metric is complemented by a video completion rate, which shows how many users watch your videos until the end. This metric gives insight into whether your content satisfies your target audience’s taste.
19. Video Completion Rate
If you want to know how many viewers watch your entire video (from the beginning to the end) on a particular social media platform, you'll need to measure the video completion rate.
To calculate the video completion rate, use the following formula:
Video completion rate (VCR) = (Number of viewers who watched the entire video / Total number of viewers) x 100
A higher video completion rate means your videos are appealing and capture people's attention until the end, while a lower rate indicates you need to improve your content.
20. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net promoter score is a unique metric demonstrating customers' loyalty to your brand. It answers their satisfaction with your brand and whether they would recommend it to a friend or family.
Determining NPS is easy. Ask customers to rate your brand on a scale from 0 to 10. Categorize answers according to the score range into three groups:
- Detractors: 0 – 6
- Passives: 7 – 8
- Promoters: 9 – 10
Apply the results in the following formula to calculate your NPS:
Net Promoter Score = Promoters - Detractors / Total Respondents x 100
21. Social Share of Voice (SSoV)
You can find out how exposed your brand is on social media and how often people mention it if you calculate the social share of voice.
Use social media measuring tools, like Mentionlytics, Hootsuite and Sprout Social, to get the number of your brand’s mentions.
Calculate your SSoV using this formula:
SSoV = Brand Mentions / Total Mentions (Yours + Your Competitors) x 100
22. Social Sentiment
While SSoV indicates how often people mention your brand, social sentiment evaluates users' feelings toward it — whether they perceive it positively or negatively.
You can track social media mentions and categorize them according to their sentiment to analyze social sentiment. Another option is using social media sentiment analysis tools like Hootsuite, Digimind, Crowd Analyzer or TalkWalker.
23. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) measures how happy customers are when interacting with a brand on social media platforms. Customers are typically asked to rate their satisfaction with the support they received; scores are typically reported on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10, with higher scores indicating higher satisfaction levels.
The formula for calculating CSAT is:
CSAT = The Total of the Scores / Number of Respondents x 10
By monitoring social media CSAT scores over time, brands can gain insights into how well they are meeting customer needs on social media and identify areas where they need to improve their social media customer service efforts.
24. Top Referring Social Channels
The social media metric "top referring social channels" refers to the platforms driving the most traffic to your website. This metric can provide valuable insights into which social media channels are most effective at driving engagement and conversions.
You can use tools like Google Analytics to track top referring social channels. By analyzing data further, they can gain insights into the content types and messaging that resonates with their audience on each social media platform.
25. Revenue From Social Channels
Tracking social media metrics wouldn’t be complete without knowing where your profit comes from.
Revenue from social media channels refers to the revenue generated from sales or conversions from social media platforms. This metric provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of a business's social media marketing efforts in driving revenue and achieving business goals.
To identify which social media channels generate the most revenue, use the Google Analytics tool. You will gain insights into the types of content driving conversions on each social media platform. Focus on the channels and content generating the most revenue and improve the rest of your content to make it more profitable.
Why Is Social Media Metrics Tracking Important?
Social media measurement is important because it shows the effectiveness of your SMM campaign and its impact on your overall business progress. Professional social media marketing agencies keep track of all the important metrics.
Metrics show which sectors of your strategy deliver results and which could use improvement, allowing more efficient management of your resources and preventing waste.
Besides financial success, metrics provide big data on social media and introduce you to the audience’s online behavior and the brand’s perception among customers.
Metrics also improve decision-making, targeting, personalizing and overall campaign success.
Modify your SMM tactic following the feedback from social media metrics and watch your brand progress towards your business goals.
Wrapping up on Social Media Metrics
An average social media user spends 144 minutes scrolling social networks.
As a marketer or business owner, you have as much time to grab his attention and engage him with your content.
The 15 social media metrics we’ve listed above will show you how successful your attempts are.
