{"id":5687,"date":"2013-04-16T08:16:46","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T13:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/?p=5687"},"modified":"2013-04-16T09:17:17","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T14:17:17","slug":"measuring-the-roi-of-your-social-media-campaigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/measuring-the-roi-of-your-social-media-campaigns\/","title":{"rendered":"Measuring the ROI of Your Social Media Campaigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"social<\/p>\n

Social media marketing can be a great tool for promoting your brand and engaging directly with customers and potential buyers. \u00a0But at the end of the day, you should be getting more from your marketing efforts than simply being a part of 'the conversation.'\u009d \u00a0If you want your actions on popular social platforms to translate into increased sales and profits, you need to learn how to measure the ROI of your social media campaigns.<\/p>\n

So, without further ado, here\u2019s a simple process that any business can implement, using the free Google Analytics program:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step #1 Set your social media campaign goals<\/h3>\n

The first step to measuring ROI in any situation is to determine the specific goals you\u2019ll be tracking. \u00a0In this case, let\u2019s assume that your goal is to use social media marketing to drive additional buyers to your website. \u00a0As a result, a sample goal might be to have 5% of the visitors your business receives from social media sites convert into paid product purchasers.<\/p>\n

Now that you know what goal you\u2019re measuring in this case, sales you\u2019ll need to set up goal tracking within Google Analytics.<\/p>\n

Begin by logging into the admin area of your account and clicking on the profile of the site for which you\u2019ll be creating goals. \u00a0From there, select the 'Goals'\u009d tab and click the '+ Goal'\u009d link in one of your goal sets. \u00a0This will pull up a screen that allows you to select between the four different types of goals that can be tracked within Google Analytics:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"social<\/p>\n

If your website\u2019s sales funnel results in visitors landing on a defined 'thank you'\u009d page (for example, 'http:\/\/www.yourdomain.com\/thankyou.html'\u009d), select the 'URL Destination'\u009d goal option and fill out the additional fields that this action triggers. \u00a0If you use a more complicated ecommerce system, select the 'Event'\u009d goal type and use the instructions found in Google Help\u2019s 'Conversion Overview<\/a>'\u009d documentation to accurately set up your goals.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step #2 Measure goal conversions from social media traffic<\/h3>\n

Once your goal is set up and activated, it will immediately start generating data on the number of sales occurring on your website. \u00a0However, setting up a conversion goal alone isn\u2019t enough to provide meaningful information regarding the ROI of your social media campaigns, as this reporting feature will detail sales that occur from all sources not just your social visitors.<\/p>\n

To filter out the goal conversions that have occurred from social visitors from those triggered by other referral sources, you\u2019ll need to set up an Advanced Traffic Segment within your Google Analytics account.<\/p>\n

To do this, navigate to the 'Traffic Sources Overview'\u009d screen within your reporting dashboard. \u00a0Immediately under the page\u2019s main header, you\u2019ll see a button labeled 'Advanced Segments.'\u009d \u00a0Click this, and then click the '+ New Custom Segment'\u009d button that appears in the lower right-hand corner of the segmentation menu.<\/p>\n

From the new screen that appears, add 'OR'\u009d statements utilizing the 'Source'\u009d metric to specify visitors that come from particular social media sources. \u00a0As an example below, the custom segment 'Facebook Traffic'\u009d captures all site visitors that arrive via both desktop and mobile Facebook platforms:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"social<\/p>\n

Create a custom segment for every social media website your site receives traffic from, being sure to include desktop and mobile domains, as well as any platform-specific URL shortening services (for example, 't.co'\u009d from Twitter). \u00a0Don\u2019t group all social domains into one 'Social Media Traffic'\u009d custom segment, as this will diminish the value of the data you generate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step #3 Adjust your social media marketing strategy based on data<\/h3>\n

Once your custom social segments have been created, return to the 'Goals Overview'\u009d reporting dashboard within the 'Conversions'\u009d menu and apply the custom filters you\u2019ve created to your data by clicking on the 'Advanced Segments'\u009d button. \u00a0This will allow you to determine how many of your website\u2019s conversions your social media visitors are responsible for.<\/p>\n

Finally, to fully capture your social media marketing ROI, compare the number of sales your social efforts have generated to the amount of time and money you\u2019ve invested into these campaigns. \u00a0Measure your ROI on a platform-specific basis, as it\u2019s not uncommon for a site to see a positive ROI from one social site and a negative ROI from another.<\/p>\n

Use this information to adjust your social media marketing strategy. \u00a0If you\u2019re seeing a negative ROI across all the social properties you\u2019ve invested in, you need to either improve your social media marketing techniques or cut back on the amount of resources you commit to this promotional strategy.<\/p>\n

But even if you\u2019re seeing a positive ROI, use the platform-specific information you\u2019ve generated to drill down further into your social media marketing strategies to see what\u2019s working and what isn\u2019t. \u00a0By consistently evaluating the performance of your social media activities and adjusting your strategies accordingly, you\u2019ll see an improvement in both your social network engagement levels and in your company\u2019s bottom line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social media marketing can be a great tool for promoting your brand and engaging directly with customers and potential buyers….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-web-and-hosting-tips"],"yoast_head":"\nMeasuring the ROI of Your Social Media Campaigns - HostGator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/measuring-the-roi-of-your-social-media-campaigns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Measuring the ROI of Your Social Media Campaigns\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Social media marketing can be a great tool for promoting your brand and engaging directly with customers and potential buyers....\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/measuring-the-roi-of-your-social-media-campaigns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HostGator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HostGator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-16T13:16:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-16T14:17:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/social-media-roi.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Taylor Hawes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@HostGator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@HostGator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Taylor Hawes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/measuring-the-roi-of-your-social-media-campaigns\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/measuring-the-roi-of-your-social-media-campaigns\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Taylor Hawes\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0519034239a8d6785a8238586f2f2754\"},\"headline\":\"Measuring the ROI of Your Social Media Campaigns\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-16T13:16:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-16T14:17:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/measuring-the-roi-of-your-social-media-campaigns\/\"},\"wordCount\":849,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/measuring-the-roi-of-your-social-media-campaigns\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/social-media-roi.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Web Hosting Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/measuring-the-roi-of-your-social-media-campaigns\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/measuring-the-roi-of-your-social-media-campaigns\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/measuring-the-roi-of-your-social-media-campaigns\/\",\"name\":\"Measuring the ROI of Your Social Media Campaigns - 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