Today, social media marketing and digital marketing are achieving such sky-high appraisal and popularity, that every new business and the majority of age-old profit-making brands are in this race! Gigi Hadid, the famous fashionista, commented, “We get to live in a time that we get to use social media as a tool”.
Social media is a very powerful tool for any business, and so they invest moderate to large chunks of money in building their online presence. In simple words, social media ROI is the return you get after investing to market your product through social media. Before diving deep into the process of calculating this ROI, let’s first understand the need to do so.
Why should you keep an eye on social media ROI?
While some budding startups and businesses chase their own tail by pushing in bulk amounts of money, others are slaying their digital marketing game by running campaigns, ads, and paid collaborations. Their lead conversion rates have just been shockingly organic. So why is this difference? In 99% of cases, the latter section of ventures reflected on their social media ROI, to understand what to do more, and what not to do more.
This ROI gives the exact estimate of how much returns are obtained from the cost spent in an attempt to enhance the online reputation of the brand. It shall point out the wrong path in which the effort has been the most, and guide you to the best way to improve your audience engagement and traffic. This, in turn, will channelize the company resources to the most effective turnover.
Next up are the possible ways following which you can calculate your ROI for good!
How to track and calculate the ROI most effectively?
Practically speaking, the social media ROI is not always about the direct return of money for money. Basically, your ROI is specific to your business goals and requirements! Maybe a business looks to achieve brand awareness from its Instagram-ran ads, and another business targets to unlock the audience traffic and engagement on their page. And of course, some other pages may be interested in inspecting their product sale from promotion. Thus, it’s a completely personal target to set the basis for tracking their ROI.
Here are some of the most common metrics associated with the judgment of social media ROI.
1) Engagement
Probably, one of the most important metrics which may come up in one’s mind is engagement. Engagement refers to the number of likes, shares, comments, and saves received on your content.
2) Lead count
This is an important parameter in determining the ROI, as it states which content and which strategy has resulted in the generation of leads. The lead count is a brilliantly under looked measure of your business hike.
3) Content reach
Reach is yet another crucial metric to track your ROI. By reach, you can determine the number of people who have interacted with your post on your page. This reflects the popularity of your content.
4) Conversion rate
Generating leads through your feed engagement is the first step to building your successful brand. But the real deal is to crack the conversion rates, i.e., converting your leads list to profit-generating clients and customers to buy and use your product.
All these metrics listed above can be observed from your social media analytics tools. If you crave more advanced insights into the performance of your business model, you may prefer using paid third-party applications for the purpose. As already discussed, the ROI is highly subjective, as it differs according to the expectations of the business.
Ending Note
By analyzing the above parameters, you surely calculate your desired ROI. If your ROI score doesn’t seem convincing, you can always develop right from there. Targeting the right audience is always the most crucial step to make, which the insights will help you know. Be consistent with trying out different ways to build the content that suits you best. You may also prefer connecting your social media team to an expert influencer to boost your game further up the ladder.
The bottom line is don’t lose hope. You might not taste success at the start of this journey, but constant testing and optimizing will help you soar to new heights!
Sandeep Goel is the founder and CEO of Obelisk Infotech, with over a decade of experience in digital marketing. He started his career as an SEO Analyst, refining his skills with US clients, which deepened his understanding of digital culture. Sandeep is passionate about writing and regularly shares insights through blog posts. He plays a key role in company growth by implementing processes and technologies to streamline operations.