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I know its not an easy task to calculate the ROI for Social media marketing. We can have a rough estimate by using Google analytics (goals / conversions). What other techniques are you using to calculate ROI from Social media efforts?
Likes are great for brand image & organic reach. But this necessarily doesnt mean that these likes = revenue.
You could use Facebook Pixels from your Power Editor, and set up the campaign strategy as Cost Per Conversion campaign (FB is exceptionally good at get your Target CPA)
Cost-per-Conversion Campaign --> pay by impressions.
Every single social media platform has a pixel or a piece of code that you could use to track ROI.
I wouldnt use GA to track ROI from social media, 21% of FB traffic gets misattributed to direct in GA!
in social media return of investment means ROI = (return – investment) / investment %.
ROI = (return – investment) / investment %.
This means that if you increase your return while keeping your investment the same, then you increase your ROI. This is good. If you decrease your return while keeping your investment the same, then the ROI goes down. That’s bad. A high ROI is better than a low ROI.
Because the ROI formula uses only two inputs – the return and the investment – the ROI formula is an easy way to measure and compare marketing campaigns.
Thanks Ali for posting a intuitive question in this section.
From my10 years experience I learned a lot about online marketing and still learning! I helped various concerns using the simple social media - ROI strategy and I shared the same in this section.
Like any business endeavor, you naturally want to have a fair idea on the return of your investment in social media and not simply jump right in just because it’s the popular thing.
The ROI cycle of social media can be separated into three stages.
LAUNCH ----------------------------- MANAGEMENT ----------------------------- OPTIMIZATION
Stage1: The Launch
At this stage,100% of your focus is on setting up accounts on the5 Social Packs: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube. While there are a number of other popular social networking sites, the5 are considered to be the critically important ones. You simply can’t afford not to have presence on all5 platforms.
The Launch stage is more of executional with the primary goal of getting started. Here are the details of this stage:
Approach: Executional
Objectives: Social Media Presence
Focus: Short-Term
Results: Negligible
At this point, you won’t be able to expect any significant impact or derive results.
Stage2: Management
At this stage, about60% of your company’s efforts will be focused on developing the5 social media sites. About10% of the focus is directed towards the creative and brand offer and20% on setting up quantitative metrics like inbound links, traffic, Facebook “likes”, etc. The remaining 10% will be focused on qualitative metrics such as survey results, pools and studying brand sentiment.
Approach: Tactical
Objectives: Customer Engagement
Focus: Mid-Term
Results: Increase in Traffic
Stage3: Optimization
During the Optimization stage,25% of the focus is on gaining more leverage on all5 social media platforms, and 30% will be distributed to creative and brand offer development, as well as the quantitative and qualitative metrics. The other25% of the focus will be directed to improving the conversion rate and the optimization of campaigns. The remaining20% will be used to measure success of the campaign which will be the basis of your ROI.
Approach: Strategic
Objectives: Social Media ROI
Focus: Long-Term
Results: Increase in Revenue
Despite what many social experts claim that ROI of social media cannot be measured, there is actually a way to measure it. This process will require a better understanding of your customer lifetime value (CLV) or the average revenue generated by a customer during their entire engagement period with your products and services. This figure will be used to compare the results that have been generated on your campaign in social media.
For example:
If a typical customer spends about $10 every month on a particular product and has been a loyal patron of a certain brand for about 3 years, this equates to the average customer lifetime value of $360.00.
Most companies are willing to spend about 10% of their CLV for the acquisition of new customers. This means, they are willing to spend $36 to acquire a new customer who is expected to spend $360 all throughout her engagement with the brand.
So if your social media efforts will cost you $36,000 for one full year, and your campaign will be able to generate1,000 new customers every year, then you definitely have a clear winner in your hands.
I hope my answer would help you in understanding the stages of social media ROI.
Your comments are most welcome.
Thanks and Regards
Feroz Khan Saleem
Measuring ROI for social media can be a bit of a puzzle, but here's my take on it. I start by using Google Analytics to set up goals and track conversions directly from social media. Unique tracking links are a must for tying sales and leads back to specific campaigns. Don’t forget to factor in engagement metrics like likes and shares-they show how well your content is connecting with people. Also, I always include multi-touch attribution to capture those clicks that don’t convert immediately but eventually lead to sales through other channels or direct visits. It really helps to see the full impact of your social media efforts.
ROI MEANS RETURN OF AN INVESTMENT, IT IS MEASURED BY DIVIDING INVESTMENT RETURN WITH THE INVESTMENT COST, ITS USUALLY EXPRESSED IN RETIO OR PERCENTAGE