In this Q&A, hear insights from top industry experts, including a CEO and a Head of Marketing, reveal the secrets to effectively measuring ROI. The article kicks off with advice on tracking engagement, conversions, and brand sentiment, and wraps up with a unique perspective on prioritizing cost per minute of attention. With twelve expert insights, this guide provides a wealth of knowledge to elevate your social media strategy.
- Track Engagement, Conversions, and Brand Sentiment
- Monitor Direct Conversions and Behavioral Trends
- Analyze Conversion-Oriented Metrics
- Look into Tangible Social Wins
- Use Multi-Touch Attribution for Comprehensive ROI
- Compare Lead Quality Against Ideal Customer Profiles
- Measure Deep Engagement and Social Capital
- Track Customer Lifetime Value
- Spotlight Business Outcome Metrics
- Focus on Website Traffic
- Set KPIs Aligned with Lead Generation Goals
- Prioritize Cost Per Minute of Attention
Perspectives on How to Measure Social Media ROI
Track Engagement, Conversions, and Brand Sentiment
Measuring ROI on social media marketing ensures that resources drive business results by tracking the effectiveness of campaigns in generating engagement, leads, and sales. It helps optimize strategies, improve budget allocation, and connect social efforts directly to business goals.
To measure the ROI of social media marketing, I focus on quantitative metrics and qualitative insights that connect back to our overall business objectives and goals. The three main categories I look at for ROI measurement are engagement, conversions, and brand sentiment.
First, engagement metrics (likes, comments, and shares) gauge how the content our company is promoting is resonating with our audience. We can start to see trends in the content types and topics of higher value to our audience, which will help further drive our social strategy.
Second, conversion metrics, such as click-through rates (CTR), lead generation, and sales attributed to social channels, are critical as they directly impact revenue and customer acquisition goals. We track this through a connection with our social media tools and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, which our sales team uses to track active opportunities and customer acquisition.
Lastly, I track brand sentiment through social listening to assess how the market perceives our brand. I use social listening tools to track brand sentiment, analyzing keywords, hashtags, and brand mentions to capture customers’ opinions and emotions about our organization. This provides insights into overall perception, allowing us to adjust messaging and content proactively.
This approach to analyzing ROI on social helps optimize budget allocation, maximize impact, and refine strategies based on data-driven insights.
Elyse Flynn Meyer
Owner & Founder, Prism Global Marketing Solutions
Monitor Direct Conversions and Behavioral Trends
To measure ROI on social media, I look at both direct conversions and engagement metrics that indicate brand growth and lead generation. For direct ROI, I track conversions from social channels using Google Analytics with UTM parameters. This helps me see exactly which campaigns or posts are driving sales, sign-ups, or specific actions tied to revenue.
I also prioritize engagement metrics like click-through rate (CTR), shares, and comments—these show how well the content resonates and whether it’s building a community. Engagement is crucial because it often leads to conversions indirectly, creating brand loyalty that’s harder to quantify but essential for long-term ROI. By tracking both direct conversions and engagement trends, I get a clearer picture of how social media is impacting the bottom line and the brand as a whole.
Andrew Lee Jenkins
Owner, Andrew Lee Jenkins
Analyze Conversion-Oriented Metrics
To accurately measure ROI on social media, we focus on metrics that connect engagement directly to lead quality and conversions. While traditional metrics like clicks, shares, and engagement rates give us a sense of content performance, we dig deeper by analyzing conversion-oriented metrics such as cost per lead and lead-to-customer conversion rate.
We continuously test different post formats, visuals, and hashtags to see what resonates best with our target audience. For example, analyzing the performance of various content types—like short videos, infographics, or industry insights—allows us to optimize based on what drives meaningful interactions. We also check posting times and engagement patterns to refine our timing, ensuring our content appears when our audience is most active.
One key part of our strategy is to monitor each campaign’s impact on our funnel. By integrating data from social platforms with CRM insights, we’re able to track leads from their initial interaction on social media all the way to conversion, providing a full picture of social media’s contribution to our revenue. Seeing attribution is crucial; it helps us understand the journey a lead takes before contacting us.
Often, somewhere in those many touchpoints, there’s a social media interaction or a click-through to our website. Knowing these steps allows us to see exactly where social media fits into the broader customer journey, which helps refine our approach to each interaction along the way.
Kinga Fodor
Head of Marketing, PatentRenewal.com
To measure the ROI of our social media marketing efforts at Rail Trip Strategies, I focus on both quantitative and qualitative metrics that give us a clear picture of how effectively our campaigns drive engagement, generate leads, and ultimately contribute to revenue. The core metrics I prioritize include engagement rates, click-through rates (CTR), and lead generation directly from social media channels, as these give a more tangible sense of how our social media efforts impact the sales funnel.
Engagement rates are crucial because they indicate how well our content resonates with our audience. High engagement—likes, comments, and shares—means that our content is relevant, which is essential for building brand awareness and trust. Click-through rates tell us if we’re successfully moving prospects from social media to our website, where they can learn more about our services or download valuable resources. It’s a good indicator of how well our social media posts are capturing attention and driving action.
Most importantly, I track lead conversions that come specifically from social media. By using UTM tracking on our links, I can monitor which social posts or campaigns generate the most leads and ultimately move them down the sales funnel. This helps us tie social media efforts directly to lead generation and, further down the line, actual revenue.
Overall, these metrics allow us to measure both the brand-building impact and the lead-generation power of our social media campaigns. By focusing on engagement, click-through rates, and conversions, we get a clear view of how social media contributes to our broader business goals and ROI.
Reed Daniels
Owner, Rail Trip Strategies
Use Multi-Touch Attribution for Comprehensive ROI
At our company, we also use multi-touch attribution to measure ROI, which lets us see the entire journey—from the first interaction on social media to the final conversion. This gives us a clear view of which posts or platforms are adding the most value, even if they’re just one touchpoint among many. By looking at the bigger picture, we ensure that our strategies aren’t missing key ROI contributors.
For us, audience growth rate holds significance because it indicates the health of our social strategy over time—if we’re consistently attracting new followers, we know we’re staying relevant. However, it’s not just about numbers; we analyze follower quality, ensuring new followers align with our target clients. This helps us refine our approach and ensure long-term brand alignment.
Jason Hennessey
CEO, Hennessey Digital
Compare Lead Quality Against Ideal Customer Profiles
In my experience, the social media channels have been very performance-oriented. And the natural metrics have been CPC and the value of measurable leads, either direct (clicks) or indirect (tracked with 3rd party cookies) generated from the campaigns.
However, with the shift from 3rd party cookies, we see a need to measure also based on the quality of leads from each channel (how well they match our ideal customer personas) as we can see that some customer types are worth more than others. And our ICP is also more likely to convert from lead to purchase.
This also means that we need to bring the customer data closer to marketing, as we see this as the true validation that we are doing the right things—if we attract what we know to be the right customer types.
So the metric we have added is how well the traffic and leads match our ICPs.
Martin Bergqvist
CEO, Samhub
To me, ROI on social media is more than direct conversions or sales. I see it as a dynamic cycle that promotes audience engagement and brand loyalty over the long term. My first measure of success is deep engagement. People should not be just liking but also sharing conversations, leaving comments, and sparking conversations as well. High-quality engagement signals that our content resonates beyond boundaries and tells us we’re making an impact that will translate into loyalty and support over time.
Next, I focus on “conversations”—the general mentions and conversations that spark our brand presence online. These are not immediate measures of income but what I call “Social Capital.” This social capital is the currency that increases our brand credibility and trustworthiness over the long term.
Lastly, I track the actions of my followers, especially those who engage with multiple pieces of content across weeks or months. These recurring touchpoints are valuable indicators of sustained audience engagement. My ultimate metric? I measure success by how often social engagement seamlessly transitions to customers, and more importantly, loyal advocates.
Raviraj Hegde
Svp of Growth & Sales, Donorbox
Track Customer Lifetime Value
To measure the ROI of social media, I focus on conversion rates and how they contribute to revenue and customer lifetime value (CLV). Conversion rates are tracked by using UTM parameters and tools like Google Analytics to attribute website actions—like sign-ups or sales—back to specific social campaigns or posts. For local and transactional businesses, we also use call-tracking software.
This data allows us to pinpoint which social interactions drive revenue, not just traffic. From there, we connect these conversions to CLV to understand the true long-term financial impact of each campaign. By focusing on these metrics, we ensure social media isn’t just generating engagement but is effectively driving profitable growth.
Tim Nicklas
Founder & Marketer, FollowerWave
Spotlight Business Outcome Metrics
To measure the return on investment (ROI) of our social media marketing efforts at TruBridge, I prioritize a combination of metrics that give a comprehensive view of both engagement and business impact. For us, engagement metrics—such as likes, comments, shares, and click-through rates—are essential for gauging how well our content resonates with our audience and drives interest. However, to truly understand ROI, I focus on metrics that tie directly to business outcomes, such as lead generation, conversion rates, and customer acquisition cost (CAC) from social channels.
To calculate ROI, we track the number of leads or sign-ups generated from specific social media campaigns, then analyze how these leads progress through our sales funnel. For example, I assess the percentage of leads acquired via social media that turn into sales-qualified leads and, ultimately, paying clients. This allows us to attribute revenue directly back to our social media efforts, providing a clear picture of financial impact.
I also prioritize cost per lead (CPL) and CAC, especially for paid campaigns, as these metrics reveal how efficiently we’re converting social engagement into valuable prospects. By tracking CPL and comparing it across different social platforms, I can allocate resources to the channels that bring in the highest-quality leads at the best cost.
Finally, we look at customer lifetime value (CLTV) for leads generated through social media, as it allows us to evaluate whether our social efforts are bringing in clients with a higher retention rate or more long-term value. Combining these engagement- and outcome-focused metrics gives us a well-rounded understanding of ROI, allowing us to make data-driven decisions about our social strategy and optimize our efforts to maximize returns.
Sandra Stoughton
Director, Marketing Operations, TruBridge
Focus on Website Traffic
At Channelwill, we measure the ROI of our social-media marketing campaigns by focusing on metrics that relate to our business goals. We prioritize engagement rate and traffic to our website and landing pages.
Tracking engagements, such as likes, shares, and comments on our LinkedIn posts, helps us determine how many potential leads interacted with our content. Based on this, we can gauge content relevance depending on whether the engagement rate is high or low. Higher engagement rates reveal that our content resonates with decision-makers in logistics and supply chain roles.
We also add UTM parameters to our social-media marketing campaigns to monitor the number of visitors visiting our website and landing pages. Moreover, we assess their behavior once they are on the landing pages, including how much time they spend on product pages and filling out demo requests.
Tracking these two crucial metrics helps us measure the ROI of our social-media marketing efforts effectively and determine if our objectives of boosting brand recognition and attracting converting traffic have been achieved.
Steve Yang
COO, Channelwill
Set KPIs Aligned with Lead Generation Goals
Working in social media for as long as I have means you get a lot of people asking, “What is the ROI?” or, “How do you know if it’s working?” And honestly, there are many things you can be doing to monitor your social media ROI.
One of the first things you can do is set KPIs that align with your overall goals for lead generation. This can include things like click-through rates, conversion rates, and engagement on posts. After you have set the parameters you want to measure by, you can use tools like Google Analytics to see platform-specific metrics to see which platforms are giving traffic to your landing page. This can be made easier by setting up UTM parameters on links, which can directly attribute website traffic and lead conversion to specific posts or campaigns.
This is more on the data side, but you can also make it easier with the social campaigns themselves. If you are having exclusive offers on one day, you can more easily see how well it’s working at driving leads. This is usually through discount codes, which give you a great benchmark against which to work for your regular posts.
However, the key to having an overarching social strategy is to make sure that you’re regularly putting time into reviewing your data and seeing what is and isn’t working. This will give you the opportunity to refine your approach and be constantly ideating for success—and overall, enhance your ROI.
Breanna Hendry
Social Media Marketing Director, Minky Couture
Prioritize Cost Per Minute of Attention
Traditional metrics, like clicks, likes, and shares, offer a surface-level snapshot of engagement but often miss the depth of user interaction. Prioritizing the “Cost per Minute of Attention” shifts the focus to the quality of engagement. This metric calculates the investment required to capture each minute of a user’s focused attention, providing a more nuanced understanding of how social media efforts translate into meaningful user interactions.
For instance, when a social media campaign leads users to spend significant time exploring content, engaging with features, or delving into educational materials, it indicates a higher return on investment. This approach values attention as a scarce and valuable resource, recognizing that a smaller audience deeply engaged is often more impactful than a larger audience with fleeting interest.
By analyzing how social media initiatives contribute to extended user sessions and repeat visits, it’s possible to gauge the effectiveness of marketing strategies in fostering long-term relationships. This method also aligns with the ultimate goal of building customer loyalty and enhancing lifetime value rather than just driving immediate, one-time actions.
Moreover, incorporating qualitative data such as user feedback and sentiment analysis enriches this measurement, capturing the emotional resonance and overall satisfaction derived from the content. This holistic perspective acknowledges the complex pathways through which social media contributes to a company’s success, offering insights that traditional metrics might overlook.
This approach challenges conventional wisdom by valuing depth over breadth, providing a fresh lens through which to view social media ROI.
Derek Pankaew
CEO & Founder, Listening.com
