Social Media Marketing ROI remains one of the most debated topics in the world of online marketing.

Have you ever asked yourself why?

One main reason is that the effectiveness of social media marketing efforts is not very clear, compared to other channels for example Google Adwords where every impression, click and conversion is easily measured and accounted for in €€€ terms.

Contrast that to measuring the value and impact in monetary terms of a retweet, like or follow on social media.

However, social media is not going away and further, its impact in the business space is more and more apparent and far reaching as the new generation of the workforce climbs the ranks and increases its spending power as a result.

Management are no doubt wondering how Social Media Marketing yields any positive efforts.

If you find yourself in such a position, you need to identify methods of measuring Social Media Marketing ROI. 

Is Measuring SMM ROI Important? 

ROI provides proof that your marketing efforts are bringing in positive efforts.

Businesses are still finding it hard to measure the financial impact of Social Media Marketing ROI.

That should not be the case. 

Measuring social media marketing ROI is critical as it provides key insight and data to:

• Identify where you need to improve
• Determine the social media channels that are effective and should be "doubled down on"
• Establish how certain changes affect your social media goals 

According to a survey conducted by Convince & Convert, more than 41% of companies interviewed admitted that they had no clue whether their SMM efforts, were paying off.

A separate study conducted by Altimeter revealed that more than 56% of businesses are unable to tie social media marketing, to business outcomes.

It is clear that most businesses invest in social medial marketing, without measuring the effectiveness of the campaigns.

With that in mind, below are some tips to help companies measure social media marketing ROI.

Define Your Goals 

Goals are important in life, whether you are starting a new workout plan or saving for a home.

The same case applies to measuring SMM ROI.

The goals you set should be quantifiable and very specific to a campaign.

This implies that the goals you set should be easy to attach a digital value.

With clear goals, you can know exactly what you are measuring. For example:

• Leads Generated
• Website Traffic
• Purchases 
• Email list sign-ups 
• eBook downloads 

Choose the Right Platforms 

Your resulting strategies and social media goals must be aligned with your platforms.

Some people prefer Twitter, while others are Facebook diehards. Others are on Instagram and Pinterest.

In short, don’t expect to use one marketing campaign across all platforms.

Determine where your fan base spends most of their time in order to position your plan.

When profiling your target market, you must determine who they are, the platforms they use, and the amount of time spent on those platforms. 

Track Campaigns 

After choosing your goals and selecting the right platforms to align with, you should proceed to track them.

The simplest way to tracking social media is to use great software.

There are numerous tools out there, which you can use to measure and track campaigns. We use HubSpot for everything and it does an excellent job of reporting on traffic and lead sources to closed revenue for our clients.

Report Findings 

Whether you are reporting to yourself, or to management, you need to find a way to document and report the results.

You also need to determine a reliable time-frame, like a weekly, monthly or even yearly.

You can then use the reports created, to determine the marketing campaigns that were most successful, and the platforms that are giving a higher ROI. ]

HubSpot allows Grow Inbound to track our leads generated by source, for example, Twitter or Linkedin.  Tracked right through the leads life-cycle to closed revenue we can identify which sources and campaigns have lead to closed customers.  Tracked and measured over time is hugely powerful.

Evaluate Results & Review Goals

Once you have statistics, you can easily calculate ROI and then evaluate the results in order to determine whether your marketing efforts have succeeded or failed against your stated goals.

Over time you will be able to identify trends and understand in more detail which routes and channels are effective for your organisation meaning you can ramp up or scale back on particular social routes where appropriate.

Measurement of social media investment is not a dark art.  

With the right tools and data driven mindset you easily take a strategic approach to using social for lead and revenue generation.  

Key is that strategic and planned approach to executing and measuring it and not underestimating its value to your organisation.