3 Analytics Every Social Media Manager Should Be Optimizing For

These days it feels like there’s an analytic for every action you can take on a platform in the social media marketing space. It’s great information for you because it gives you a direct look at what your audience and the broader online space enjoy seeing from you, but when there are so many KPIs to look at, it can be hard to tell which ones are the most important.

Of course, one of the main asks from any business is going to be online brand recognition and conversion to sales; but which ones are the most optimal for client growth? We’re breaking down 3 analytics that are the most crucial to any community manager as one of the Top Social Media Marketing Agencies in Canada.

Engagement rate

This one is a bit of a cheeky one because it encompasses all the ways people have interacted with your content. We’re talking likes, comments, shares, and clicks. This is your way to figure out which content is landing most with your audience. Not to be confused with impressions, which break down how many times your content is shown or, to put it simply, how many people could have seen your content.

When you get your business onto social, it's important to keep things evolving within your brand guidelines. Whether it's LinkedIn, Facebook, Tiktok, or Instagram, keeping an eye on this particular metric across your channels helps you track what content you could afford to make more of (and less of!)

For example, if you make Reels on your page and they gain a good engagement rate, but your infographics are underperforming, that’s a sign to adapt. Maybe make a Reel with the information from that infographic instead!

Reach

One of the most talked about KPIs, but the least understood. While we know now that engagement rate looks at all the ways people have interacted with your content, reach refers to how many people have seen your content in total. This includes content views that have led to a form of engagement, as well as passive views.

You may be asking “Why would a passive view be important? I want a high engagement rate!” While engagement is a great KPI, reach is just as important to your analytics. The wider your reach is, the more likely people within your target audience are likely to find your content. This is great for things like paid marketing campaigns where you want to ensure, as a small business, you’re getting the most out of your dollars spent.

Reach is also another great way to tell how your content is being received and what formats work best for your brand. For example, let's say you made a really informative Reel that got great reach and great engagement, and an educational infographic that didn’t perform as well. With the right analytics to back up your theory, you've now identified a guideline for what your audience would rather see from you.

Click Thru Rate

Perhaps the most coveted KPI, the click thru rate often has industry pros scratching their heads. If you’ve worked on the internet long enough, you know that getting people to click out from an app to a third-party site or even a blog is hard. So, when you see a post with a high CTR, it’s like hitting a gold mine.

This analytic is important to keep an eye on because if your main goal on social is to push audiences to your website or another landing page, you need to know what works best to set yourself up for success. So, if you make a really great infographic with the key points of a blog that gets a better CTR than an informative Reel announcing you have a new post to read, you now know that maybe your audience responds better to following a link in bio from that kind of content over others.

By now, you’ll have noticed a trend in our recommendations: use analytics to determine which content performs best with your audience and double down on that format. Of course, there’s always space to cash in on those timely trends and create something great, but ensuring clients are hitting those important benchmarks is always a priority; and these social media analytics are a great road map to learn what works, what doesn’t, and what to capitalize on. There’s a never-ending wealth of different KPIs to look at when you’re posting content for brands, and each one can be helpful in its own right. Analytics may seem overwhelming, but with the help of social media experts like the folks at Super Duper Studios in Toronto, figuring out how to best handle your social media analytics is a breeze.

On the hunt for a digital branding partner? Super Duper Studios is a digital branding agency in Toronto. We specialize in game-changing visual identity, websites that make sense, and double-tap-worthy social media content. Nice to meet ya! Email me at rebeca.mackinnon@itssuperduper.com and let’s chat.