A social media campaign is the brand’s attempt to reach a certain audience through social media outlets. But how can you know if your campaign was successful? And what does success even mean in this case? Understanding these metrics is key to being able to track success, and it should be one of the first things you do when planning a new social media campaign.
Before you start a campaign, it’s always best to have some sort of goal in mind. What do you want to accomplish with this brand? Is it to increase brand awareness? Or maybe you want to drive more traffic to your website. Whatever the case may be, those should be some of your main metrics for success.
Measuring campaign success helps drive future brand decisions and provides insight into marketing strategies for brand managers looking to expand their brand’s image. This way, brand managers can always be on the same page and ensure all future branding efforts are well-planned.
The key to achieving success is choosing the right metrics for your brand, but this option is really up to each brand manager. If you’re not sure what kind of measuring strategies to implement for your business, you can always use brand tracking services to get started and determine what to track for your brand.
The most important metrics that every social media manager should be aware of are brand awareness, brand lift, reach, and engagement. These metrics represent the overall brand image of your campaign to your audience and brand managers alike.
Brand Awareness
This metric represents how many people are aware you exist online. By looking at search volume trends over time (i.e., Google Trends), brand managers can correlate brand growth with successful social media campaigns to measure brand awareness.
Of course, awareness isn’t just limited to the search volume trends. You can also measure awareness by mentions and sentiment. By doing so, brand managers will be able to see how brand awareness has affected brand image positively or negatively.
So, how can you use this metric to improve your campaign? The answer is easy. As awareness increases, the more your audience will trust you and be willing to engage with your content.
Brand Lift
This metric represents brand lift in sales. Social media administrators need to look at brand lift when trying to figure out how successful the campaign was because it establishes ROI. You could be getting brand awareness, but what does that do for you if it doesn’t translate into sales?
Making sure that your efforts translate into sales can help brand managers better work with brand ambassadors and social media administrators. This way, if the strategies aren’t creating the desired output, brand managers can make changes to their existing campaigns quickly.
So, how can you use this metric to improve your campaign? One of the best ways to use brand lift is by tracking purchase intent. If you can show that your social media campaign has led to an increase in purchase intent, then you know you are on the right track.
Reach
Reach is how many unique people are seeing the brand’s content. This metric shows how far your content can spread beyond who you are targeting. Reach includes all the impressions and interactions, unlike engagement which only indicates what individual users have done with your content.
When measuring reach, it’s important to look at the total numbers and the reach of the influencer. Brands with large followings are more likely to get their content seen by more users than brands with small followings because people will be more excited about new content from larger accounts.
So, how can you use this metric to improve your campaign? Make sure you’re reaching the right audience. Marketers will likely want to look at reach and engagement together because they typically go hand in hand.
Engagement
The metric that matters the most is brand engagement. This metric shows how many people are engaging with your brand on social media. Whether it’s liking, sharing, or commenting on brand posts, engagement metrics show what your audience thinks about your brand and how they feel about the content you’re producing for them.
Of course, this metric varies from platform to platform. On Facebook, engagement is measured by likes and comments. On Twitter, it’s measured by favorites and retweets. With Instagram, you get more engagement through the number of likes you receive on your photos.
So, how can you use this metric to improve your campaign? The most important way to use this metric is by tracking it over time. Tracking engagement over time gives you an idea of how the campaign changes the brand image of your company and whether it’s improving.
With all of these metrics in mind, it’s time for brands to start creating social media campaigns that will truly make an impact. Use these metrics to measure your campaign success and determine if the strategies you’re using are working or if they need a little more work.
So keep a close eye on these metrics for every new social media campaign going forward. Make sure your efforts are paying off and that you’re making positive strides with brand image because that’s what digital marketing is all about.
