Which Marketing Analytics REALLY matter?
Are marketing analytics really that important? Yes! They tell you if your work is worth something and give you information about what your customers want. Those numbers can transform into dollars if you take advantage of what they're telling you. Dig into the wealth of information you can access on your social media account and get a lot more bang for your buck!
The Guru Brand Archetype is all about numbers, statistics, and charts, skillfully interpreting all that to create a useful actionable course of action for their clients. Today we're going to be talking Gurus Speak, so get your Guru on and learn how to enjoy all those numbers and charts!
Getting Started With Facebook Analytics
Facebook is often the first social media outlet that businesses join. They throw up their page, add their hours and they're off! Except that no one sees the page and no one interacts.
Social media requires attention. It needs content to work. Once you've made content, you need to share it and find followers who are interested in your products. After you've gone to all the work of making all that content it can be really easy to be done, but that's only when the party is getting started!
Content without marketing analytics is like putting a note in a bottle and throwing it in the sea hoping that it will reach women between the ages of 25-40 who like exercise (Or whatever your target market actually is) You have a built-in bottle GPS on your social media accounts and you should be using it.
You can locate your Insights on the sidebar of your page directly in Facebook or in the Facebook Business Suite where you can access your Facebook page and Instagram account at the same time.
Keep an Eye on These Facebook Marketing Analytics
Once you've found all the line graphs and numbers here's what you look for:
- Engagement
- Reach
- Page Likes
- Facebook Referral Traffic
- Facebook Ad Metrics
So Why Do Those Analytics Matter?
Engagement tells you which pieces of content are working the best. If a post has high engagement that lets you know people are engaging with your content in some way. Likes, clicks, playing videos, and comments all are a part of the engagement. Reach is about how many eyeballs saw your content. Page likes are about who decided your content was so great they wanted to like your page.
Facebook referral traffic is a really important marketing analytic because it tells you who actually went to your website from Facebook. You can't find this one on your Insights page. You'll need Google Analytics installed on your website for this one because it's about who's been going to your website from social media. Google not only tells you who's come from Facebook they've got the deets on all the social media platforms and other places you might be generating referrals from. You'll need to navigate to “Acquisition”, then click “Social”, and then “Network Referral” in order to see it.
Facebook Ad metrics will only have data if you're doing paid advertising. If you're a small business you may think that you'll just make organic reach work, but you shouldn't shortchange yourself. If you're going through all the trouble of making great content on Facebook, making Facebook Ads should be an important part of your marketing campaign.
Getting Started With Instagram Analytics
Instagram is becoming increasingly important in many businesses marketing plans. Knowing how to access and understand your marketing analytics for Insta can help you target your content to reach new customers and make some moolah.
You can access Instagram Insights on the Facebook Business Suite, but it's actually better to access Insights for Insta on your phone unless you have third-party software like Hootsuite. You'll want to look at your data over a thirty-day time period to get a better sense of what is actually going on with your account.
Marketing Analytics To Watch for Instagram
- Impressions
- Engagement rate
- Trending or branded hashtags
- Click-throughs from your bio link
- Follower growth
So Why Do Those Analytics Matter?
Alright so you've got your thinking cap on and you've accessed your Insights. Impressions and Engagement rate will tell you how many people have seen your posts and how many people have interacted with your posts. You can see your top posts, and learn about what kind of content your target market is looking for.
Trending or branded hashtags are how people find your content on Insta. Sharing posts isn't possible on Instagram, so instead it's important to tag every post with hashtags that are being used in your industry as well as branded hashtags that are specific to your brand. In our case #socialmediamanagement is a industry-specific tag we'd want to use and get data on, while #wordsmatter and #WordSlayer are two of our branded hashtags we'd watch.
Click-throughs are the money makers. That's where people decide to go offsite and actually visit your website. Keep an eye on that to know if your content is creating action.
Follower growth tells you if your content is getting people to ask for more. Following means, those people are interested in your content and your brand. You've moved them along your marketing funnel toward purchasing your product.
So What Do I Do With All Those Marketing Analytics?
Whatever platform you're using, marketing analytics is the morse code of your success. They tell you how your audience is responding to your efforts, what to do more of, and what to do less.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
-Albert Einstein
Don't make yourself crazy by trying the same content over and over without success. Do like the geniuses do and try something different.
If staring at all those numbers and graphs doesn't make you feel like a wise guy, our mob might have a racket for you. We know how to make those numbers sing, and get your social media going so you can focus on what you do best. Your words matter so let's get your content working for you, rather than you working to grind out content.