KPIs not only help you know if your campaign is on track, but also point out where you need to make adjustments to achieve better results. In this article, we will explore the most important KPIs when promoting on social media and their practical significance.

What are KPIs and why is measurement necessary in social media marketing?

Before delving into specific KPIs, let's clarify the concept. KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are metrics used to measure effectiveness, designed to assess the success of an activity against its initial goals. In marketing, KPIs help businesses understand whether their promotional campaigns are reaching the right customers, generating revenue, and justifying the costs incurred.

What are KPIs? Why are they important?

Measuring KPIs in social media marketing is especially important because:

• Social media platforms are inherently "real-time." If you don't monitor them regularly, a small mistake in targeting or content can quickly deplete your budget.
• KPIs help businesses see the big picture: from reach and engagement to conversion rates and revenue.
• More importantly, KPIs provide a foundation for improvement. Instead of guesswork, you'll know exactly what needs changing, from content and visuals to targeting strategies.

In other words, without KPIs, social media advertising is just "throwing money away."

8 Social Media KPIs You Can't Ignore

Each social media platform offers its own metrics system, but to avoid getting overwhelmed by too many metrics, businesses should focus on core KPIs that can be applied across all channels. Here are the 8 most important KPIs you need to closely monitor to evaluate marketing effectiveness:

1. Reach - Content coverage

Before talking about conversions or revenue, the first step is how many people have seen your content. Reach is a metric that measures the number of unique users who see your post or ad:

• Practical meaning: Reach indicates the extent to which your message can spread. For example, a post with a reach of 50,000 means that 50,000 people have been exposed to that content at least once.
• When to pay attention: If reach is low, it could be because the content isn't engaging enough, hasn't been optimized for algorithms (e.g., on Facebook, TikTok), or the advertising budget isn't appropriate.

2. Engagement - Level of interaction

High reach doesn't guarantee success; what matters is how customers react to the content. Engagement includes likes, comments, shares, saves, or any action that shows interest.

• Practical meaning: High engagement indicates that the content resonates with customer insights. For example, a video receiving many comments sharing real-life experiences demonstrates that it creates a connection.
• How to use: Businesses can compare engagement rate = total interactions / total reach. This is a useful metric for evaluating the "attractiveness" of content, regardless of advertising budget.

3. CTR (Click-Through Rate) - Click-Through Rate

If the post includes a link (e.g., Landing Page, product website), then CTR is one of the most important KPIs. This is the percentage of people who clicked on the link divided by the total number of impressions:

• Practical significance: CTR indicates whether your content is compelling enough to "stimulate action." A great headline, eye-catching images, and a clear CTA (Call-to-Action) will significantly increase your CTR.
• For example, a campaign might have 100,000 impressions but only 500 clicks (CTR = 0.5%), indicating you need to optimize your CTA or adjust your messaging to better suit your target audience.

4. Conversion Rate

After a customer clicks on a link, the most important thing is whether they take the next action: filling out a form, making a purchase, downloading an app, etc. Conversion Rate measures this final outcome:

• Practical meaning: This KPI is directly linked to revenue. A campaign with a high CTR but low conversions means that customers are interested but not yet convinced to take action.
• Application: SMEs can track conversion rates to optimize landing pages, sales messages, or the purchasing process.

5. CPM & CPC - Advertising Costs

When running social media ads, you need to consider the cost:

• CPM (Cost per Mille): Cost per 1,000 impressions
• CPC (Cost per Click): Cost per click
• Practical significance: CPM and CPC help you understand whether your budget is being used effectively. For example, if the CPM is too high, it may be due to inaccurate targeting or unengaging ad content.

6. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) - Cost of acquiring new customers

CAC is the total marketing and sales cost divided by the number of new customers acquired. This is one of the "critical" KPIs to determine if a campaign is truly profitable.

• Practical implication: If you spend 200,000 VND to get a customer to buy a 150,000 VND product, then the campaign is clearly ineffective.
• Application: SMEs can combine CAC with Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to determine whether an investment is worthwhile.

7. Sentiment Analysis - Customer Sentiment Index

Beyond "hard" numbers, what customers say and feel about the brand is also a crucial KPI. Sentiment Analysis measures the percentage of positive, neutral, or negative feedback:

• Practical implication: An article may have thousands of comments, but if the majority are negative, it's not a success.
• Applications: Businesses can use social listening tools (such as Buzzmetrics, YouNet Media) to track customer sentiment, thereby adjusting content and campaigns accordingly.

8. ROI (Return on Investment) - Return on Investment

Ultimately, the "ultimate" KPI in any marketing campaign is ROI. This is the metric that shows how much profit you get for every dollar spent.

• Simple calculation: ROI = (Revenue – Costs) / Costs x 100%
• Practical significance: A positive ROI indicates a profitable campaign, while a negative ROI means a loss. This is an indicator that management uses to decide whether to continue or stop the campaign.

Methods for measuring Social Media KPIs

After identifying the key metrics to monitor on social media, the next question is: How can you collect and analyze this data to make timely adjustments to your strategy? The answer lies in the measurement tools you can refer to below:

Original platform

With native platforms like Meta Business Suite for Facebook and Instagram, TikTok Analytics , or LinkedIn Analytics, you can directly track key metrics such as reach, impressions, follower growth, and engagement.

For example, on Meta Business Suite, the Insights section lets you see details about how many people have seen your content, how often it's displayed, and the engagement rate. TikTok and LinkedIn also have similar analytics, helping you compare each post and adjust your content accordingly.

The advantage of these tools is that they are free and directly from the platform, but the disadvantage is that you will have to log in and analyze each channel individually, which is quite time-consuming if the business operates across multiple platforms.

Google Analytics (GA4)

Google Analytics (GA4) is an indispensable tool for evaluating the quality of traffic from social media to your website. By attaching UTM tracking to shared links, you can know exactly which channel, or even campaign, generates the most traffic and conversions.

In GA4, the Acquisition → Traffic acquisition → Session source/medium section allows you to filter data to see if users are coming from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or TikTok, and analyze their behavior after visiting, such as time spent, number of pages viewed, and bounce rate. This is especially important if you want to demonstrate the ROI of social media.

GA4 customer tracking interface

However, to make the most of GA4, you need to set up UTM and configure GA4 correctly from the start. This requires some technical knowledge; otherwise, the measurement results may be inaccurate. Furthermore, analyzing the data effectively is also a challenge because there is so much complex data involved.

GTG CRM

For small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam, a more comprehensive option is GTG CRM.

GTG CRM - An all-in-one AI-integrated marketing platform with numerous features.

This is an all-in-one AI-integrated marketing platform that lets you connect multiple social media channels, schedule and create posts, manage multi-channel messaging, and especially track KPIs centrally from a single dashboard.

GTG CRM's intelligent AI helps you create multi-channel advertising content.

Instead of using each tool separately, you can view the reach, CTR, CPC, etc., from your posts or ads directly in GTG CRM.

GTG CRM provides a dashboard that reports detailed performance data for multi-channel advertising.

Additionally, the AI integrated into GTG CRM helps you quickly create posts and images for multiple platforms.

Creating cross-platform content with AI is easy.

In summary, if you're just starting out, the basic tools are sufficient to get you started. If you want to evaluate traffic and conversions, Google Analytics will give you a more comprehensive view. But if you want to save time, manage centrally, and turn data into concrete business actions, GTG CRM is the optimal solution for SMEs.

If you're still unsure which metrics to track for each social media platform, SEMRush has compiled a detailed guide to help you easily identify and select the most important KPIs to measure campaign effectiveness.

The metrics to monitor for each platform are provided by SEMRush.

Source: SEMRush

Conclude

Social media marketing isn't just about posting and running ads; it's more important to measure effectiveness through KPIs. From Reach, Engagement, CTR to Conversion and ROI – each metric is a "piece" in the overall picture of marketing effectiveness.

For SMEs, mastering and tracking social media KPIs not only helps you allocate budget effectively but also supports improving content quality, increasing conversion rates, and ultimately maximizing revenue. Instead of struggling with multiple separate and time-consuming applications, GTG CRM offers an all-in-one solution that helps you manage data, measure performance, and implement automated marketing on a single platform.