As a social media entrepreneur or marketer, tracking your social media ROI (return on investment) is essential. The entrepreneur Gilad Krein believes you can measure social media campaigns’ ROI and effectiveness for your online business. With a better understanding of your ROI, you can maximize tactics that work and eliminate those that don’t. This article will show you how to measure your social media ROI marketing. Also, Krein will provide tips to improve it so you can boost the value of your social media activities.

What does social media ROI mean?

Social media managers may be asked, what is a social media ROI? If you are encountering the concept of social media ROI for the first time, worry not.  Gilad Krein notes that 70% of his clients have never heard of the term ROI. ROI stands for return on investment. Therefore, social media ROI refers to the return on investment from your social media activities and expenses. Generally speaking, social media ROI is the value of your social media activities divided by the investment made.  Here is a simple formula for calculating social media ROI:

(Return – an investment made) / investment made X 100 = social media ROI

If your ROI value exceeds 0 percent, you’re making money from your social media campaigns. A negative value means you’re losing your money.

“Measuring social media ROI helps you build, refine and expand your social media marketing for your online business”, says Gilad Krein. “It allows you to shift resources and tactics to be more effective, making your social media marketing efforts worth it.”

Gilad Krein explains why it’s crucial to quantify and measure ROI on social media

The following vital reasons why measuring social media ROI is critical for your online business:

 Demonstrate the value of social media brand marketing

Social media marketing requires time, energy, and financial investment. With ROI, you can easily measure all your social media activities and investments in revenue generation and customer establishments.

Your social media strategy should be measured to determine its effectiveness

Measuring social media ROI helps you evaluate social media marketing tactics for your online business. Entrepreneurs need to understand how much value your social media campaign has generated in terms of money.

You can improve what doesn’t work while doubling down on what works

Measuring social media ROI allows you to understand your social media strategies’ effectiveness. If none work, you can figure out how to make them work. On the other hand, you can maximize those strategies that are yielding remarkable results.

Make social media budgets more informed and backed up

The ability to prove the value of your social media marketing comes in handy when making your yearly budgets. Knowing your social media ROI performance lets you prioritize the most critical social media marketing needs.

 How do you calculate social media ROI according to Gilad Krein?

You must set KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure social media ROI effectively. The common KPIs to help you do this include:

  • Engagement: this refers to the level at which people interact with your content or brand. Engagement can be defined by a host of actions by people interacting with your social media content. They include likes, comments, shares, clicks, brand mentions, and steps one takes after seeing your post.
  • Views: this refers to how many people have seen and interacted with your post. It determines how far your social media travels, audience size, and shares. In social media, reach is more difficult to measure than engagement, as feelings and interactions are harder to quantify.
  • Leads: social media is a great lead generation tool. Lead generation doesn’t necessarily translate to purchases. For your ROI, leads can translate to other profitable actions like subscriptions, newsletter signup, or a subscription.
  • Conversions: Gilad Krein describes conversions as the most important KPI. You need to know how your posts convert to sales to maximize your social media sales. 

What are the ways to increase social media ROI, according to Gilad Krein

Here are some tips Krein thinks you should consider if you are wondering how to increase your social media ROI.

Testing and optimizing

It is impossible to know what works and what doesn’t without experimenting. You shouldn’t cross-post social media content. Always use new imagery, keywords, and headlines, change your audience, and try new ad formats to see the results. Test your organic content, too. For example, add a call to action like direct messaging to measure the engagement and reach. Once you understand the best strategies to use for your social content, you’ll increase ROI.

Iterate and gather intelligence

Social media is dynamic; Features, content, and strategies are constantly changing. Your customer needs and your business priorities and resources might shift. What worked today might not work tomorrow. You must pay attention to these shifts to adapt and adopt new strategies over time. This is referred to as the art of social listening. 

For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook and Instagram business goals fell while Tik Tok and Pinterest grew popular. Social media strategies based on such information are more likely to increase ROI gradually, bringing value to your online business. 

Consider the overall goal

In his experience advising online entrepreneurs, Gilad Krein has discovered that most online businesses have failed because of short-term ROIs.  While you might achieve a lot with your short-term ROI, you might lose sight of your long-term brand goals. Getting noticed on social media platforms can be challenging with so much content.  However, you shouldn’t jump on to social media trends to increase your visibility and engagement. Such things can annoy your current audience and can damage your brand in the long run. Remember, the big picture of social media ROI includes valuable non-monetary returns like strengthening customer relationships.

In conclusion – social media ROI is a process worth investing 

Every online entrepreneur must measure their social media marketing ROI to achieve better business outcomes.  Remember that measuring social media ROI is always an ongoing process. Therefore, you should continuously analyse and track those efforts while adjusting to social media and brand changes. Social media analytic tools can help you track your ROI. With the right tools and knowledge, you can optimize your social strategy for success and maximize your social media ROI.