Social Media KPIs Brands Should Track to Measure Marketing

Social Media KPIs Brands Should Track to Measure Marketing

As a business owner, your social media marketing efforts should go beyond regular posts or ads.

You must also monitor your activities to ensure that your efforts yield adequate results. So, there are specific key performance indicators (KPIs) you should rely on. Some of these include engagement, visibility, or conversion metrics. 

Social media KPIs give insights into audience behaviour, measure your online presence, and track customer satisfaction. However, this is only more effective if you set a goal or target before conducting social media activities like sharing content or promoting posts. That way, you'll know what to look for when tracking KPIs.

Note that different social platforms have an insights dashboard you can use to check other metrics. So, the data you need to improve your social efforts is easily accessible. Now, look at the social media KPIs your brand should monitor to measure your marketing efforts.

Setting SMART Goals for Social Media KPIs

Before diving into specific metrics, you need a framework to structure your social media goals. The SMART approach offers a practical way to set meaningful targets for your KPIs. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Specific goals focus on particular platforms or metrics rather than general aims. Instead of saying “improve engagement,” try “increase Instagram comment rates by 20%.” This clarity helps direct your efforts.

Measurable goals use concrete numbers you can track. If you can't quantify it, you can't manage it. This might mean tracking LinkedIn impressions growing from 5,000 to 8,000 monthly.

Achievable goals stay within reach based on your resources and industry benchmarks. Setting unrealistic targets like “gain 100,000 followers in a month” with a new account will only lead to frustration.

Relevant goals connect to broader business objectives. Your social media KPIs should support overall marketing strategies, brand awareness, or sales targets.

Time-bound goals include deadlines that create urgency and accountability. “Increase X engagement by 15% within 90 days” works better than an open-ended goal.

Apply this SMART structure to each social media KPI you track. This turns vague aspirations into actionable plans with clear success criteria.

1. Engagement metrics

Engagement metrics serve as valuable social media KPIs for measuring the interaction and involvement generated by your brand's social media content. They provide feedback on your content's effectiveness in capturing your target audience's interest. 

Let's see some vital engagement metrics you should look out for:

Likes and reactions

Likes and reactions are among the most fundamental engagement metrics. They reflect the immediate response of users to a brand's content. Typically, when active users on social media like a picture or video you share, it demonstrates their interest or appreciation. 

While Instagram only has “likes,” reactions are available on social platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. The aim is to ensure users have more specific ways to convey their feelings about your content. Some of these reactions include love, anger, and laughs. Here are the responses you'll find on LinkedIn:

Here's what you'll find on Facebook:

Likes and reactions provide a tangible measure of how well your content resonates with your audience. 

If you notice that your content isn't getting a lot of likes, consider trying different content types to see what they're more likely to engage with. 

Adverse reactions, of course, tell you that customers are displeased with your content. This may be because they didn't find the information helpful, or they were offended by the content. Whatever the case, monitoring reactions will help you understand what your audience wants you to share more often.

Comments

Comments provide a deeper level of engagement as they indicate that users actively participate in the conversation surrounding your content. More than the number of comments, you should pay close attention to the quality and sentiment of comments. This will offer valuable insights into the perception and preferences of their audience. 

For example, you may have a thousand comments and more than 500 customer complaints. While the social media algorithms will see this as good engagement, it's evident that customers are displeased with the content or simply concerned about some issues. See the highlighted example from Starbucks' comment section.

Like Starbucks, don't hesitate to respond to customer complaints in your comment section. It's one way to alleviate a displeased customer and give your brand a positive reputation.

To encourage more comments on your posts, lead the conversation by sharing fun or informative content and telling customers to contribute. 

Shares and retweets

Retweets are for X, while shares are for other social platforms. Both are potent indicators of content virality. When social media users share your brand's content with their network, it signifies that they find the content valuable enough to endorse and pass along. 

By tracking the number of shares and retweets, you can measure the reach and impact of your content beyond your immediate followers. 

One way to boost your shares is to encourage your followers to share your content with their audience if they find it valuable. 

Average engagement rate

The average engagement rate provides an overall picture of how effectively your content engages its audience. This metric considers a combination of the above—likes, comments, shares, and retweets—providing a comprehensive measure of the overall interaction generated by a brand's social media presence. Here's a simple formula breakdown for calculating your average engagement rate:

• Total engagement = Likes + Comments + Shares 
• Average engagement rate = Total engagement ÷ Total followers

Note: The total engagement will vary across different social platforms. For instance, Facebook's formula would be reactions + comments + shares. LinkedIn will be equal to likes + comments + shares + clicks. Typically, it's the sum of all interactions your posts get on a social network within a specific period.

You can also calculate your average engagement rate based on reach. In this case, the formula is total engagement divided by total reach. 

A high engagement rate indicates that people are interested in what you share on your social media account and want to interact with your content. This means you must intentionally create the type of content your audience enjoys. 

Thankfully, you can discover what your target audience enjoys by checking which social media posts are getting more engagement and posting similar content. For variety, consider using generative AI tools like Writer to get creative ideas for your social content. Here's an example:

Overall, monitoring the engagement metrics discussed here is crucial and will give you sufficient data to help foster meaningful connections and establish a loyal online community. 

Video Engagement Metrics

With video now dominating social feeds, tracking specialised video metrics has become necessary for brands. These metrics differ significantly from those for static posts and require specific attention.

View counts represent the most basic video metric, but platforms count views differently. Instagram counts a view after 3 seconds, while YouTube requires 30 seconds. TikTok counts a view almost immediately when a video appears in a user's feed.

Watch time measures how long viewers spend with your content. Longer watch times signal more engaging content and typically receive algorithm boosts. Facebook and YouTube prioritise videos with higher average watch times in their feeds.

Video retention rate shows what percentage of your video people typically watch. This helps identify drop-off points where viewers lose interest. Most platforms now provide retention graphs in their analytics.

Completion rate tracks the percentage of viewers who watch your entire video. Short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels focus heavily on this metric, as it indicates highly engaging content.

Each platform also has unique video metrics worth tracking. Instagram highlights Reels play separately from regular video views. YouTube emphasises subscribers gained from specific videos. TikTok tracks shares and “For You Page” appearances.

When analysing video performance, compare metrics within the same platform rather than across different networks. A “good” view count on LinkedIn might be disappointing on TikTok due to different audience sizes and behaviours.

2. Reach and visibility metrics

The reach and visibility metrics are social media KPIs that will help you assess how many people see your content. You can fine-tune your content distribution strategies when you monitor your reach and visibility metrics. 

For instance, you'll be able to determine the best time to post on each social platform so that more people can see your content. You can also tell what type of content will help you gain more Instagram followers, attract more Twitter followers, or even go viral on social media. 

So, what are the various reach and visibility metrics to check?

Follower count

The follower count represents the number of people who have chosen to engage with your brand and stay updated on its activities. While a large follower count may signify brand popularity, it is essential to consider the quality of followers and their level of engagement.

In this case, quality followers are those in your target audience— people who are more likely to buy your products or use your services.

If you monitor your follower count consistently, you can tell when your number of followers is declining or increasing. It may be impossible to prevent people from unfollowing your brand on social media. But, as a brand, you want to ensure that the number of new followers you gain exceeds those who unfollow you.

In cases where you notice a rapid decline in followers, consider posting more frequently or implementing strategies to help you gain more relevant followers. For instance, you can distribute your digital business card with social media links online or offline.

The good thing about this strategy is that people won't have to search manually to find you on social media. All they need to do is scan the QR code, and they'll get to your social media profiles instantly.

Retention Metrics and Audience Growth Rate

While raw follower counts offer a snapshot of your audience size, retention metrics reveal the complete picture of audience stability. Many brands focus exclusively on gaining followers while ignoring how many they're losing.

Follower churn rate measures the percentage of followers lost during a specific period. Calculate it by dividing lost followers by total followers at the beginning of the period. A high churn rate might indicate content that doesn't meet audience expectations.

Audience growth rate provides a more nuanced view than raw follower counts. It captures net growth as a percentage, calculated by subtracting followers lost from new followers, then dividing by your starting follower count. This metric helps normalise growth across accounts of different sizes.

A healthy account typically maintains at least a 5% monthly growth rate. Rates below 1% suggest stagnation, while consistent negative rates indicate serious problems with your content strategy.

Follower retention periods track how long users typically remain followers before unfollowing. Longer retention periods correlate with stronger community building and higher lifetime value from social media followers.

Most social platforms don't provide these metrics directly, but tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Iconosquare calculate them from available data. These insights help determine whether you're truly building an audience or simply replacing churned followers with new ones.

Impressions

Impressions measure the number of times your content appears on users' screens. It does not matter if the user engages with the content or not. This metric accounts for both organic and paid reach. It purely focuses on revealing the potential exposure of your content.  

Also, with impressions, it's important to note that a single user can see your posts multiple times on their feed, and each time, this will be recorded as a new impression. For example, your Instagram post may appear on a user's feed once; this counts as one impression. If the same user sees this post again— maybe shared by the user's friend or seen on the Explore page— it'll count as another impression, making it two impressions.

A low impression means that only a few people are seeing your content. As a result, the likelihood of getting engagement or even being seen by potential customers will be low. You want to ensure your content suits your target audience to prevent this. Consider using relevant hashtags so that the ideal users can see your content.

Reach

Reach refers to the number of unique accounts that see your post. Unlike impressions, “reach” will not double-count content visited more than once by a single user. So, even if a single user sees the same content two or three times, it will be recorded as a single reach. 

“Reach” provides a more refined perspective on the actual size of the audience across your posts. However, just like low impressions, low reach indicates that only a few people have seen your content, reducing the chances of engagement and even conversions. Some reasons you may have low reach could be:

• Poor-quality content that will not encourage any interactions— a signal that your content is not relevant, so the social algorithm is less likely to show it to more people.
• Using irrelevant hashtags or not using hashtags at all.
• You are not posting at the right time – in this case, when most of your audience will be active, so they can see and engage with your post.
• You are not encouraging your audience to like or share your post.

If you pay attention to the above, you can optimise your posting strategy so that your social media account can reach more people. Of course, you must complement this with an excellent customer engagement strategy for the best results.

3. Conversion metrics

You may need to check these social media KPIs outside the social media platforms– instead, look to your website analytics dashboard or use Google Analytics to get these insights. 

Conversion metrics allow you to measure the effectiveness of your social media efforts in driving specific user actions. Such actions may include clicking the link to your website or online store. Typically, it depends on the action you want your audience to take.

Let's look at some of the vital conversion metrics you should monitor.

Website Traffic

Website traffic is a vital conversion metric that measures the number of users who visit your website through social media channels. 

As a business, there's a high chance that the purpose of your social media marketing activities is to create awareness and lead potential customers to your storefront (website). 

Tracking your website traffic allows you to assess the effectiveness of your social media content in driving users to explore your website further. Also, monitoring website traffic helps you understand the impact of your social media presence on generating interest and engagement with your products or services.

Poor social media traffic indicates that you need to boost your efforts. This may mean you must be more precise about your brand's messaging or provide concise call-to-actions on social media.

Another key conversion metric to monitor is click-through rate (CTR). This measures the percentage of people who click on your link after seeing your content. The formula is simple: divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions, then multiply by 100. For example, if your post gets 100 clicks from 5,000 impressions, your CTR is 2%.

CTR reveals how well your calls-to-action and content pull readers into taking specific actions. Low CTRs often indicate a disconnect between your content and what users expect after clicking.

Average CTRs vary widely by platform. Facebook ads average around 0.90%, X ads about 0.86%, and LinkedIn ads typically see 0.39%. Organic posts generally perform better than ads, with rates often 1-2% higher.

Industry benchmarks matter too. Finance and healthcare typically see higher CTRs than retail or entertainment. Compare your performance to industry standards rather than general averages.

Other social media conversion metrics

There are other social media conversion metrics you should consider looking at. You can also look at the percentage of your website visitors from social media who perform a specific action on your site. These actions include purchasing, filling out a form, or subscribing to a newsletter. 

For such conversions to be tracked, UTM parameters come into play. 

UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. UTM parameters refer to a unique set of codes added to the end of a URL that make it easy to track. Typically, it's how analytic tools like Google tell where your traffic is coming from.

Whether it's your website traffic, email, form signups, or purchases you're tracking, by analysing these social media conversion metrics, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your social media campaigns when it comes to driving specific actions.

You can also compare your conversion rate to your industry's benchmark. Here's a breakdown of various conversion rates across industries according to Unbounce:

These benchmarks will help you set more realistic conversion goals when planning your brand's social media campaign and any marketing campaign. It's also how you can tell whether your brand is hitting the mark.

Return on investment 

Return on investment (ROI) helps evaluate the profitability and effectiveness of your social media marketing efforts. It measures the revenue generated against the costs incurred for social media campaigns. Here's a simple formula for calculating your social media ROI: 

A negative ROI means you've spent more on social media than you earned from it. That, of course, is a loss. A positive ROI indicates that your social media efforts are profitable.

Monitoring your ROI helps you identify high-performing campaigns, optimise your advertising spend, and maximise the overall return on your social media investments. You'll also be able to make data-driven decisions when budgeting for future campaigns. 

4. Customer satisfaction metrics

A solid and loyal customer base is crucial— not only to your social marketing efforts but to the overall success of your brand. That's why you want to ensure that your customers are satisfied. 

Customer satisfaction metrics are social media KPIs that provide insights into customers' perceptions and experiences. These metrics help you monitor customer satisfaction with products, services, and social media interactions. 

With CS metrics, you're equipped with data that can help you enhance your brand offerings to improve your overall customer experience. 

In the following sections, we'll look at some exciting customer satisfaction metrics you should track.

Sentiment analysis

The sentiment analysis examines social media conversations to gauge how customers feel about your brand. Typically, sentiment analysis focuses on overall emotions, opinions, and user attitudes instead of specific comments or brand mentions. 

Sentiment analysis uses advanced algorithms and natural language processing techniques to determine whether customer emotions are positive, negative, or neutral. Social listening tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or BuzzSumo help determine your customer sentiment. 

By monitoring sentiment analysis, you can identify areas for improvement and ensure your brand has a positive reputation overall.

Net promoter score

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty and satisfaction metric developed by Frederick Reichheld, a renowned business analyst and author specialising in allegiance. 

During his research on survey questions associated with consumer behaviour and business growth, Reichheld discovered that the most effective inquiries revolved around the likelihood of customers making referrals rather than simply asking if they were satisfied with a brand's product or service.

The NPS calculation involves surveying customers and asking them to rate, on a scale of 0 to 10, their likelihood of recommending the brand to others. Based on their responses, customers are categorised into three groups: promoters, passives, and detractors. 

Promoters are customers who provide ratings of 9 or 10 and are highly likely to recommend the brand. Passives give ratings of 7 or 8 and are considered somewhat satisfied but less likely to promote the brand actively.

Detractors, conversely, provide ratings of 0 to 6 and are unlikely to recommend the brand, often expressing dissatisfaction.

The Net Promoter Score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. The resulting score can range from -100 to 100—a score between -100 to -1 shows that most customers are detractors.

An NPS between 0 to 49 indicates mixed sentiments among customers — some are passives, and some are promoters. 50 -100 shows that you have more advocates.

Ultimately, NPS is a guiding tool for improving customer relationships and advocacy. For instance, you can focus on converting detractors into promoters by addressing their concerns, improving your products or services, and delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Customer feedback 

Monitoring specific customer feedback and reviews (as opposed to the public's general sentiment about your brand) allows you to understand customers' firsthand experiences and opinions.

It gives you more specific information about what you can do to improve every aspect of your brand. So, if a user complains about the “automated sending feature” of your email marketing software, for instance, you can do something about that specific feature.

Social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or X allow you to run surveys that you can maximise for collecting customer feedback. You can achieve this by sending direct messages to your customers or sharing a survey link in a social media post. Here's an example from Elite Care Services:

Monitoring your customer feedback and reviews is an effective way to foster a positive brand reputation. You can quickly identify specific negative feedback and work towards resolving specific issues customers have with your product or service. 

Additionally, you can use positive feedback and reviews as social proof by sharing them on your profile or website. This way, you'll be able to attract other potential customers to your brand.

5. Social Media Benchmarking Tools

Measuring your social media KPIs in isolation provides limited value. The real insights come from comparing your performance against competitors and industry standards through benchmarking tools.

Sprout Social's Benchmarking feature lets you compare your performance against similar businesses. It provides industry averages for engagement rates, posting frequency, and response times across major platforms.

HubSpot's Social Media Reports offer industry-specific benchmarks alongside your own metrics. They emphasise conversion metrics to help connect social activities to business outcomes.

Hootsuite Analytics includes competitive analysis features that track competitor metrics without requiring access to their accounts. The platform automatically identifies accounts similar to yours for comparison.

Rival IQ specialises in competitive benchmarking across social platforms. Their reports show where your brand stands compared to specific competitors and industry averages. They're particularly strong on engagement rate comparisons.

These tools help set realistic goals based on what's actually achievable in your industry. For example, a 1% engagement rate might seem low until you discover the industry average is 0.5%.

When using benchmarking tools, focus on trends rather than absolute numbers. A steady improvement in your metrics relative to competitors matters more than hitting arbitrary targets.

Most of these tools offer free trials or basic versions before requiring paid subscriptions. Start with these to figure out which metrics matter most for your specific industry and goals.

In Closing, Social Media KPIs

Tracking social media KPIs is paramount for brands looking to optimise their marketing efforts, understand their audience, and enhance their overall social media performance. 

This post showed the usefulness of monitoring engagement, reach and visibility, conversion, and customer satisfaction metrics. With these metrics, you can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your social media strategies. 

Also, regularly monitoring these metrics enables you to make data-driven decisions, refine your marketing campaigns, and build strong and lasting connections with your target audience. 

Now that you know this, stay proactive in tracking and analysing your social media KPIs to ensure your marketing efforts are aligned with your business goals and drive meaningful results. Good luck!