Relax, count to 24. With every count, you’ll be getting a better understanding of key performance indicators for your social media presence.

Gaze into the near future: in 2024, seven social networks will report over a billion monthly users each, and fourteen more social media platforms will have users adding up to another half a billion.  

What are social media KPIs?

How do you direct those users into your funnel? What is the best time for you to post? Do people share your content, or are they rewatching it in secret? Should you be posting more cats? (yes, always) What drives customers to your page, and how successful are you? 

When it comes to bigger audiences, you can’t rely on your gut feelings alone. You have your metrics as a battle plan and your KPIs as the higher-level planning instrument, an overall war strategy.

You need them to move towards your business objectives and build, execute, and pivot your strategy. You need them when drafting a budget. Well, maybe you need less than 24, depending on your strategy and how many billions of social network users you plan to engage.

The 24 social media KPIs to track

Humans are puzzling; the theory of rational consumers was debunked a long time ago. To make sense of human behavior, social media accumulates user likes and dislikes and shapes them into a sea of numbers.

It’s a vast body of data, and we can only monitor so many patches of it. Let’s bring some order to the chaos, shall we?

Social media KPIs for reach and brand awareness

The beginning of all is the awareness stage. You can build your reputation gradually or invest in a professional who’ll make you go viral, but these metrics will show you how relevant your strategy was to begin with. Did you get your target audience right, can they see you, or are you talking to the void?

1. Impressions

Impressions measure the total number of times your content is displayed, regardless of any reaction. This KPI tracks the visibility of your social media posts, and you can figure out the potential audience size. High impressions equal good content exposure, but they don't necessarily mean any engagement or action.

For instance, whether you show a Reel to your friends or look at it multiple times yourself, any social network will count all views as impressions.

2. Video views

How do you know if your video is any good? How can you be sure that a broad audience finds it engaging? A high number of video views can attest to both.

Note that social media platforms have no set-in-stone standard for what counts as a video view. For example, on TikTok, it’s one second; on Facebook, a view is counted after three seconds; and on YouTube, it's 30 seconds. 

3. Post reach

This KPI is much like Impressions but totally different. Unlike impressions, which count every instance a post is viewed, it measures unique users who have seen your post. This social media KPI is crucial for assessing how well your picture of a cute cat is spreading across your audience.

4. Clicks

That’s how many times users click on your content, links, or social media profiles. This KPI shows the engagement and interest levels of your audience. High click rates can indicate that your content is interesting enough or that you have a banger CTA. Clicks are further divided into:

• link clicks 
• profile clicks
• call-to-action button clicks

5. Follower count: active vs. inactive

Strictly speaking, the follower count KPI is one foot into the engagement stage. Maintaining the interest of your audience is essential, so inactive followers indicate how well you are keeping the topic/vibe/aesthetic chosen.

However, inactive users remain aware and not engaged. Active followers, on the other hand, are in the engagement phase. A higher active follower count indicates your content is growing in the right direction.

6. Audience growth rate

There are no surprises or hidden meanings here: it measures the rate at which your social media audience is growing. A steady audience growth rate is a healthy indicator that your content is consistently attracting new followers.

Divide the number of new followers gained in a period by the total number of followers at the start of that period, then multiply by 100 and add % at the end. And that’s how you calculate your audience growth rate. 

 7. Web traffic

How effective are your platforms at driving users to your website? Web traffic is vital for assessing the direct impact of your social media efforts on your site’s performance. High web traffic from social media channels can suggest successful content and engagement strategies.

To get insights into which platforms are driving the most traffic and which content types are most effective, add UTM parameters (tags) to your social media posts. These tags will be reported to Google Analytics, showing both traffic sources and the kind of content that interests your audience.

Social media KPIs for engagement

What’s the point of putting anything out there and not getting any reaction? Engagement KPIs show your relevance to your target audience - whether whatever you have to say about your product or your presentation is pulling their strings.  

 8. Reactions

As they say on YouTube, “Like” is the equivalent of “thank you.” Likes, hearts, wows, and even crying emojis—all of those are immediate emotional responses to your content, and they are very important. 

While some argue that those reactions are a shallow vanity metric, they show the sentiment triggered. It’s been years since YouTube removed a dislike button, but the debate over the variety of reactions on social media platforms continues. 

 9. Comments

Build the community and amplify the engagement. Encourage your existing and potential customers to interact with you publicly. Is your content generating comments? Great, you are starting a discussion. There are content creators who are becoming an attraction solely because of their way of replying to comments. 

Just look at this post going viral: the likes on comment replies demonstrate a very high level of engagement—so high that this social media manager of the National Park Service channel was getting marriage proposals. Talk about engagement KPIs.

 10. Shares

Shares have become a freestanding communication channel with its own evolutionary path. In the early years of social media platforms, it was common to share content providing personal commentary and explaining one's own opinion on the subject. Now we just send funny Reels to family and even create our own narrative by simply putting them up in our Stories. And this is only one social platform example. 

Sharing is not only an action of approval—we have likes for that. Shares are basically an endorsement of your content, support, and exposure to valuable content. 

 11. Share of voice and brand mentions

Share of voice is one of the social media KPIs for brand awareness that benchmarks your brand’s visibility against your competitors. Measuring the frequency of mentions on social media can give you insights into your reputation and awareness.

It’s not as much a marketing KPI as it is a communication and holistic image kind of thing. There are different tools and approaches to monitoring the share of voice and brand mentions, and all of them give you a pretty solid idea of whether your brand is the buzz on social media. 

 12. Average engagement rate

The average engagement rate KPI is not, in fact, average. It can be high if your content is interesting to your audience, or it can be as low as the relevance of whatever you are posting drops.

To calculate the average engagement rate, divide the total number of engagements (likes, comments, shares, etc.) by the total number of followers, then multiply by 100. This provides a percentage representing engagement levels.

 13. Profile visits

Profile visits measure the number of users who visit your social media profile. This KPI helps you understand the level of interest in your brand. High profile visit rates can indicate that your content is driving curiosity and engagement.

Profile visits can be driven by compelling content, effective calls to action, and the strategic use of hashtags. 

 14. Amplification rate

Do you want to know if the audience thinks your content is worthy of sharing? Or, how well do your posts resonate with your followers? The amplification rate measures the ratio of shares per post to the number of overall followers. It indicates the extent to which your content is amplified by your audience. 

To calculate the amplification rate, divide the number of shares by the total number of followers, then multiply by 100 and add %. This helps you assess the viral potential of your content.

Social media KPIs for conversions

There will be a lot of calculating in this part. So sharpen your pencils; we’re going to do some math.

15. Click-through rate (CTR)

The click-through rate (CTR) measures how often people who see your ad actually click on it. The higher the CTR, the more compelling your ad is to your target audience. 

To get your click-through rate, divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions, multiply it by 100, and add % at the end. For example, if you run a Facebook ad campaign and receive 1,000 impressions with 70 clicks, your CTR is 7%.

16. Conversion rate

The conversion rate tracks the percentage of users who complete a desired action after clicking on your ad (making a purchase, signing up for an email, or downloading an app). 

You can find it by dividing the number of conversions by the number of clicks, multiplying by 100, and adding the % sign. For instance, if 300 people click your Instagram ad and 30 of them make a purchase, your conversion rate is 10%.

17. Cost per click (CPC)

The cost per click (CPC) is the price you pay for each click on your ad. It's a critical KPI for assessing your ad budget and managing your campaigns better. To lower the CPC, you should take a holistic approach that includes targeting, bidding, and overall ad quality. 

18. Cost per thousand impressions (CPM)

Cost per thousand impressions (CPM), where “M” stands for "mille," measures the cost of your ad being seen 1,000 times. 

The average CPM largely depends on a platform. For example, while TikTok's CPM tends to be lower than other major platforms, the choice ultimately hinges on your campaign objectives. To optimize CPM, improve the quality of your ads and targeting. Also, use A/B testing to find the best-performing creatives. 

19. Bounce rate

You charmed a customer with your social media post and lured them to your landing page. They look at one page on your site, and off they go—not interested, not amused, maybe even disappointed. 

The most common reason visitors bounce off is that they are not as engaged as you’d like them to be. Constantly monitoring, adjusting, and beautifying your content is the key to a low bounce rate. Change formats, use better-quality visuals, add CTAs and relevant links, and see what happens. 

20. Sales revenue

Do you want to understand what financial impact is attributed to posting cats on Instagram? Then understand the ROI of your social media marketing strategies by tracking sales revenue generated from social media campaigns.

We’ll be doing some more math along the way. Thankfully, sales revenue can be traced through native analytics tools, so no additional calculus is required for now.

Social media KPIs for customer satisfaction

It’s not only about your marketing goals. These metrics show how your brand, content, and product work holistically. You have already succeeded in appealing to your target audience; they have trusted you enough to buy your product or service. Now, it’s very important to understand how they feel about it. 

There’s always room for growth, and your customers can show you the way.  

 21. Reviews and testimonials

Ah, the peer pressure to get a better rating. Reviews and testimonials sound great as an idea: what better way to advertise yourself if not with the “bandwagon effect”?

But if you see those as sources of information, a whole new plane opens. Do not only track the positive/negative ratio. Try to extract the precious gems of information from an otherwise shy audience. And always reply to those when possible. 

22. Net promoter score (NPS)

Sticks and stones won’t break your bones, but a low net promoter score can. 

Step one: survey your customers, asking how likely they are to recommend your brand on a scale of 0 to 10. 

Step two: subtract the percentage of those who wouldn’t (scores 0-6) from the percentage of those who would (scores 9-10) to get your NPS.

It’s plain to see: the higher the number, the better the job you’re doing. 

23. Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

Hopefully, you liked doing math. Because then you can use customer satisfaction scores to measure, yes, customer satisfaction with your products or services. 

Phase 1: Throw a survey; they are very good for understanding customer experience anyway

Phase 2: Ask your customers to rate your product or service on a scale of 1 to 5 

Phase 3: Split the number of happy customers (scores 4-5) by the total number of responses, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

How to set social media KPIs

There are some questions only a good friend or a good analyst will ask. The all-time favorites are “What for?” and “And then what?”. Those questions are necessary, so we’d pick our battles wisely. Here’s how you can understand which KPIs are truly important for your business.

Define your objectives

Meta, having the biggest user pool, gives a pretty good idea about the logic of picking your ad objectives—they correlate with relevant metrics. There have been recent changes made to this list by Meta, you can read all about it in our blog. At the moment, their suggested list looks like this:

• Sales (conversions, catalog sales, messages)
• Leads (instant forms, messages, calls, and sign-ups)
• Engagement (messages, video views, post engagement)
• Traffic (link clicks, landing page views)
• Awareness (brand awareness, video views)
• App promo (app installs, app events)

All these demand a thorough investigation and even a dissection. For instance, to track brand awareness, your KPIs can be impressions, reach, and follower growth.

Choose a handful of KPIs to focus on

Let’s circle back to our opening thought: if you do not intend to get the attention of billions, do you really need 24 metrics? You understand your process, know your customers, and have your business goal. Focus on it.

What metrics are essential? There are tools that can process and automate big data, but those numbers are becoming obsolete if they are not relevant to your business.

Keep in mind that you have to review your chosen ones from time to time to keep them in check with your current objectives.

Look at your industry

Many great things have already been discovered. So set your KPIs with industry benchmarks and standards in mind. Whatever your product is, it exists in an ecosystem of consumers and competitors. Read the reports, check out the competitors' content (especially case studies), and visit webinars on a regular basis. 

Benchmark yourself against your competitors

It is impossible to notice any growth outside of the frame of reference. Every business frame of reference is made out of its competitors. As mentioned before, a business exists within an ecosystem, so your success is most adequately measurable against your competitors. 

Benchmark yourself against others, set areas for improvement, and get inspired by best practices. 

There are plenty of tools, both native to social media platforms and third-party, that do exactly that. We’ll mention a few of them below.

How to track social media KPIs

In business, no time or effort must be wasted. So, when you are looking for a way to track your KPIs, do not search for Excel templates or some other inventive ways to keep your numbers straight. There are numerous tools, both free and paid, designed to efficiently track the right social media KPIs and put them into neat reports. 

Native analytics tools

Every social media platform offers a built-in solution for you to track your KPIs. For example, Meta Business Suite absorbed Facebook Analytics and became a mega-tool for marketing and promoting content on all of their social media.

You have access to a whole knowledge base that you can navigate according to the size and type of your business. Facebook Page Insights are most useful to content creators looking to promote their Facebook Page.

Whatever social network you are using, there’s a native analytics tool sourcing those precious data for you: user behavior, content performance, and audience demographics. 

Third-party analytics tools

Are you present on more than two social media sites? Then tracking your social platform KPIs can be a pain in the… report. You have to collect all of the data from different native analytics tools, cross-reference it, and combine it into one comprehensive report. Please, no more math. For deeper insights and integration across multiple platforms, try the One-Click Report by Madgicx. 

You’ll appreciate seeing your performance across Meta, Google Ads, GA4, TikTok, and Shopify in one live dashboard. Plus, you can share dashboards with clients and teammates using a public link, so they can appreciate them, too. 

One-Click Report has a more versatile and clear UI than a native analytics tool, and it offers templates that contain the most important metrics you should focus on. Gain a better understanding of your social media performance and grow your cross-platform KPIs with the One-Click Report. You can start for free today.

Conclusion

Here you go: you have billions of social media users, 24 important social platform KPIs, and one great solution for your cross-platform analytics and reporting. Update your brand strategy with the most important KPIs; start with the necessary ones and build up from there. With a reliable and clear dashboard, you don’t have to fear missing something important about your social media presence.