Even without spending money on promotion, the time and energy spent posting on social media or engaging followers should count in the bottom line of the brand. Whether you spend resources in terms of time or actual dollars, a prudent entrepreneur must evaluate how much the investment brought. A professional social media agency to measure the returns and determine whether it is value for money. But ROI for social media marketing is not a straightforward calculation as you are about to find out. Missing one element in your calculation will result in erroneous conclusions and wasted resources.
Most businesses and marketers calculate ROI based on ad spend. Unknown to them, every minute spent by the social media officer, internet hosting, branding, and setting up social media platforms that reflect your brand is part of the spend. Failure to consider these factors results in ROAS-Return On Ad Spend being mistaken for ROI-Return on Investment. How then do you measure ROI for Social Media Marketing?
Identification of Social Media Platforms
Businesses use social media for different purposes. The choice of a social media platform will depend on your target market and business model. Only choose a social media platform that will advance your business interests.
Social media is diverse and comes with features that suit different products as well as business models. Where customers require a lot of information, there is Facebook and text-blogging platforms. If demonstrations are necessary, video platforms like YouTube will suffice. A business that depends heavily on images is better using Instagram and other image friendly platforms. Some have combined the features to enhance the experience.
A business may use multiple social media platforms to achieve different goals. Luckily, measurement tools will provide distinct results for each platform and measurement metrics. Since you can isolate the investments made on each platform, it will be easier to calculate the returns.
Social Media Goals
Upon studying the features on different social media platforms and picking the best for your business, it is time to set goals. Social media goals will depend on expected results from a platform. Social media marketing goals include
- Reaching more customers
- Engaging potential and existing clients
- Generating leads
- Directing traffic to your site
- Conversions and sign-ups
- Revenue generation
- Running seasonal campaigns
The goals set must be SMART- Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. If you want more traffic to your website, for example, identify the tools you will use to measure the number of people who clicked onto your website from social media. When running a paid ad, measure the number of visits and resulting business against the expenditure in advertising. Consult experienced social media marketing agency to help you develop the best SMM goals for your business based on overall business objectives.
If you intend to boost your conversion rate, you should measure the conversions as a percentage of the traffic you received. A professional social media marketing agency in Singapore helps you to measure past performances and compare the results with paid or campaign results. The difference helps you to get an accurate ROI for your social media investment.
Identify Measurement Tools
Social media measuring tools provide extensive data that will aid in your decision making, especially on future investment in SM marketing. There are vanity metrics like shares, likes, and comments that give you an overall idea of your social media health. Never ignore these metrics because they introduce you to the comprehensive social media measurement metrics. The vanity metrics also help you to determine your performance against competitors and whether your content is resonating with the target audience.
The actual measuring tools should give you numbers and trends regarding
- Your target market reach
- Traffic to your site
- Engagement with the audience
- Conversions and sign-ups
- Lead generation
- Revenue generation
Filter your measuring metrics by determining whether the information given fits within your overall objectives, helps you to make better decisions in the future, and whether the measurement given is accurate. You may use multiple tools to measure the performance of your social media campaigns. Compare data generated by multiple tools to see the best middle-ground for you to operate.
Data Collection and Analysis
Collect as much data about your social media and digital marketing campaign as possible. Choose a tool that provides the most consistent and comprehensive data on social media marketing so that you can make more accurate decisions as well as conclusions. A lot of the SMM measurement tools are free but the advanced features could cost a fortune. Having identified the actual cost of social media campaigns and set objectives, analyze the data to determine whether the objectives were met and the percentage of ROI.
The Verdict
ROI for social media campaigns depends on the objectives set. With numerous tools and metrics to consider, the expertise of a social media agency Singapore will make it easier to track the success of your campaign. With the measuring tools, you have the data to evaluate and optimize your campaign.
