ROI, KPI, CLV, WTF? (Part 1: Vanity Metrics)
Whether you’re discussing return on investment, key performance indicators, customer lifetime value, or one of the many other buzz terms we as digital marketers hear so often, there’s A LOT of acronyms flying around these days to track performance. The key question is, when you’re strapped for time and really just want to see/show results, what’s the most effective way to do this?
We at Firecracker discuss this question often and the answer is simply...it’s not that simple. Each client has a different marketing goal and different set of needs, and reports should be tailored to what matters to them, not what you think makes you look best. As social platforms have expanded over the years, so have the analytics that go along with them, and based on each client’s goals, there’s different metrics that may resonate with them. With that said, to keep these blogs shorter than your final undergrad paper, we’re going to make this topic into a miniseries on our blog, focusing on different types of metrics for each post.
First up, there’s the vanity metrics, which is term that *sounds* like a dirty word – and many modern marketers think it is – but we argue that these metrics do actually have validity in showing the health of your campaign! Vanity metrics tend to be more general in nature, like follower count, likes and page views. They don’t tell a marketer much about consumer behavior, but they are important for showing MoM or YoY improvements and evaluating how your content is resonating with your audience. (And also tend to be the most important to certain CEO’s for some ~*~crazy~*~ reason that may or may not have anything to do with them wanting to clown their kids for having more social media followers than them.)
These metrics are easily accessible on the native social platforms, as well as in measurement tools like Sprout Social or scheduling platforms like Later. (We at Firecracker swear by these tools; S/O to our analytics homies!) When you’re reporting on vanity metrics, keep in mind that these are just a baseline and they should not be the entirety of your measurements, as they don’t tell the whole picture. We recommend tracking the following monthly:
Follower Growth: Rate of growth on each platform. Note that it’s usually helpful to get more granular here and look at both the number of followers gained and number of followers lost to track trends and make sure you’re not losing your audience. Although growth can fluctuate based on the current size of your account (accounts with a smaller number of followers tend to have a higher monthly growth percentage), you should aim to see a consistent growth pattern month over month. One caveat: If you or your client has, at any point in time, purchased followers, the rate of followers lost will be higher and it will drag down your overall growth rate. This is because the platforms have figured out those dirty little tricks and tend to purge fake or inactive profiles regularly for a myriad reasons to try to keep things “fair.” One more reason you should never take the easy route on social; it just doesn’t pay off!
Reach/Impressions: These metrics are useful to see how many people your content actually reaches. Due to the algorithm, the ability to share posts, the popularity of hashtags, and the “discover” tabs available on some social platforms, not everyone that follows your account actually sees your content and not everyone that sees your content actually follows you. This is helpful to measure which posts tend resonate with your target audience, as well as how your community management efforts and hashtag strategies are performing.
Post Likes: Likes are the most simple type of action a user can perform and don’t require much investment from your audience, but it’s a useful first step to track engagement and test which types of posts perform best for your brand, both for their aesthetic and caption. Keep in mind this number should also be compared to the reach of your post; if your likes seem especially low or high, take a look at your post reach and see if the drop or spike correlates there as well.
Page/Profile Views: This metric is a very easy way to track rate of discovery; who is looking at your page and how many people are you reaching outside of your core audience each month? Comparing this to your rate of growth is also helpful; are people visiting your page and then following, or are you seeing a high number of visits with low growth? If so, you may want to revisit your overall strategy.
In our next metrics-themed post, we’ll focus on getting a bit more granular on organic social, looking at metrics that provide stronger insight into consumer behavior and customer lifetime value. Stay tuned!
Until next time,
The Firecracker Team
