Stop overthinking social media metrics
Social media is a data-rich environment, but you shouldn’t be afraid to go exploring.
Social media metrics can be difficult to get your head around. It doesn’t have to be that way, so why is understanding it all so hard?
Many analytics platforms appear intimidating, but once you start to understand the terminology, things get a whole lot easier.
Let’s take a quick look at some some of the most common metrics you are likely to find on social media.
Click-through rate (CTR)
The number of clicks that your ad or post receives divided by the number of times that your ad is shown. You’ll see CTR across every social media platform. While it’s a basic stat, it’s crucial in understanding, at a glance, just how effective your ads are.
Engagement (reactions, comments, shares, and clicks)
Engagemnet is an umbrella term that represents how well your audience is responding to your social media content. Across platforms, you’ll often see Engagement Rate as a key metric. All this means is the number of post engagements divided by impressions or reach.
Impressions and reach are easily (and often) confused social media metrics, so let’s break them down separately.
Impressions: how many times your post appears on someone’s timeline/feed.
Reach: the potential number of unique viewers your post may have. This is often your follower/like count plus the follower/like count of accounts that shared your post.
Cost-Per-Click
A paid advertising term that refers to the actual price you pay for each click in your pay-per-click (PPC) marketing campaigns. Every click in a PPC campaign represents attention from a person who is searching for something that you offer.
The next time you’re stressed while checking your social media stats, keep these definitions in mind.