WE ALL TALK ABOUT RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI). A PHRASE THAT IS COMMONLY USED IN BUSINESS MEETINGS ACROSS INDUSTRIES. BUT – IN COMMON WITH MANY OTHER MARKETING BUZZWORDS - DO BRANDS REALLY UNDERSTAND ROI AND HOW IT IS MEASURED, ESPECIALLY WITHIN DIGITAL MARKETING SECTOR?

In short, ROI is the analysis of performance by measuring data against your objectives and goals. Calculating ROI is important for growth and can help measure the impact and effectiveness of campaigns.

In theory, better performance of a campaign equals more reach, engagement and sales for the brand. However, in practice, it is much more complex. Without the right understanding and strategy, the time and money invested in digital marketing, especially social media, could be wasted.

…but don’t worry, we’re here to help – here are our 5 top tips on how to maximise your social media ROI in 2019.

1.       Have clear objectives

Just like starting any project, asking yourself ‘why am I using social media?’ and setting clear objectives is the key start to any successful campaign. You could be using social media for the following:

• Raising brand awareness – there is more to social media than just increasing sales

• Customer service and community building – building great relationships with your customers

• Advertisements that target specific customers – making the most of ad spend

• Or all of the above – as many brands do

Understanding your objectives can help you build metrics to measure a campaign’s performance.

2.       Set SMART goals and metrics

Goals. Goals. Goals. Creating goals and metrics helps to measure the performance of your campaign. Some of the metrics we use at UNBXD are:

• Reach – how many views has your campaign had?

• Engagement – how many comments, likes, clicks, saves and shares?

• Amplification rate – how many viewers have shared your content (i.e. brand ambassadors)?a

• Click-through-rate (CTR) – how many clicks to the main content have your ads received?

• Conversion rate – how many customers have directly purchased your product or subscribed to your newsletter or downloaded your content from your campaign? This varies per company depending on your objectives.

• Average order value (AOV) – what is the average customer spend through social media?

• Cost per acquisition (CPA) – how much does each customer cost to acquire?

We also recommend that goals should be S.M.A.R.T – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely – to ensure your goals are achievable.

3.       Measure your goals

Data is lots of different numbers meaning lots of different things – it can be overwhelming! Luckily, with these cool social media platforms that you can use to run your campaigns, there are also useful data tracking and analytical tools.

Here’s some of our top recommendations:

•  Sprout social

• Hubspot

• Google Analytics

Don’t forget analytical tools within social media platforms:

• Facebook Business Ad Manager

• Instagram Insights

• Twitter Analytics

4.       Know how much you are spending

Calculate your costs. How much is it costing you to run your campaign? Remember to account for the time/salary of the content creator as well as intangible costs. You can then use these figures to compare against the other data and calculate your ROI.

5.       Calculating ROI

The best way to calculate a campaigns ROI as a percentage is by using the basic formula:

ROI = (profit/costs) x 100.

e.g. ROI = (£600/£3000) * 100 = 20%

The higher the ROI percentage the more successful your campaign is! If your ROI is negative, then you may want to implement changes to your marketing strategies and social networks to achieve better performance for your campaigns.

If you’d like to discuss how UNBXD can help run your campaigns and maximise your ROI, get in touch with a member of the team today.