In today's digital age, the presence of e-commerce brands on social media platforms has become nothing short of essential. With consumers increasingly turning to social media for brand discovery and product exploration, it's imperative for Shopify store owners to leverage these platforms effectively. 

However, measuring the social media marketing performance can be a daunting task. The diverse ways in which consumers consume content, engage with brands and progress through their customer journey make it challenging to attribute concrete success metrics to social media efforts. 

According to a research we conducted, social revenue is underreported by a whopping 245%. 

Nevertheless, fear not, for in this blog, we'll unveil the key strategies and tools that will empower you to accurately measure social media campaigns and ensure your Shopify store thrives in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

How do you measure the social media campaign success of your Shopify store?

There are several ways in which you can measure the success of social campaigns for your Shopify store, including using the insights provided by the platforms themselves. But here are a few that we have seen work the most accurately: 

1. Post-purchase survey 

A post-purchase survey is a valuable tool for gathering customer feedback and understanding how they found your e-commerce store, including which specific platforms or channels led them to your products. 

This approach allows you to attribute customer acquisition to specific social platforms and campaigns, providing concrete data on which platforms are driving the most sales. You can use this data to allocate your marketing budget more effectively, focusing on the most successful channels.

Here's a detailed explanation of how to use this method effectively:

• Implementation: After a customer makes a purchase from your e-commerce store, send them a follow-up email with a brief survey. You can also display the survey on the order confirmation page or within the customer account area on your website.
• Survey Questions: Ask specific questions to determine the source of their discovery and the social platforms they used. Sample questions may include - How did you first hear about our store, which social media platform influenced your decision to shop with us, did you find us through a social media ad, a post, or a recommendation from a friend?"
• Data Collection: Collect and analyze the responses to gain insights into the customer's journey to your store. Keep detailed records of the responses for future analysis.

Categorize and segment the survey responses based on the platforms mentioned (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) and the type of content (ads, posts, user-generated content). Calculate the percentage of customers who found your store through each channel.

Hear about how ModCloth uses post-purchase surveys to gauge social success: 

2. Brand Exposure Metrics

Brand exposure metrics provide insights into the visibility and reach of your e-commerce store's social media campaigns. 

Understanding brand exposure metrics helps in evaluating the effectiveness of your social campaigns in creating brand awareness, driving website traffic, and attracting a broader audience. It provides actionable insights to optimize future campaigns for better reach and engagement.

Here's a list of social media customer engagement metrics to measure for your campaigns:

• Website Traffic: Monitor the number of visitors (site visits) and the pages they view on your website coming from your social media campaigns. Tools like Google Analytics can provide this data, enabling you to assess the effectiveness of driving traffic from social platforms.
• Search Data for Branded Keywords: Use tools like Google Search Console to track the volume of searches for your brand's keywords. An increase in branded keyword searches indicates a higher level of brand awareness generated through your social campaigns.
• Video and Content Views: Track the number of views on videos and other content shared through your social media channels. Video views can indicate audience engagement and interest in your products or services.
• Number of Blog and Email Subscribers: Keep track of the number of blog and email subscribers who were acquired through social media campaigns. This indicates the success of your campaigns in driving leads and expanding your email marketing reach.

3. Lead Scoring and Social Conversion Rate metrics

Measure social media campaigns with these metrics that help in assessing the quality of leads generated from social media campaigns and their conversion into customers.

Lead scoring allows for the prioritization of leads, focusing efforts on those most likely to convert, and tailoring marketing strategies accordingly. Social conversion rate metrics provide valuable insights into the ROI of social campaigns and guide optimization strategies to enhance conversion rates.

• For Lead Scoring: Implement a lead scoring system to rank and prioritize leads generated from social media based on their engagement, demographics, behaviors, and interactions. Assign values to different actions such as form submissions, downloads, or webinar registrations.
• For Social Conversion Rate: Calculate the conversion rate of visitors from social media platforms into leads or customers. Divide the number of conversions (leads or purchases) by the total number of visitors from social media and multiply by 100 to get the conversion rate as a percentage.

4. Popularity metrics

Popularity metrics provide an overall view of your e-commerce store's social media presence and brand awareness. They help you measure social media campaigns’ success of your campaigns in terms of audience size and appeal, enabling you to make informed decisions about resource allocation and content strategy

• Number of Followers on Various Platforms: Track the number of followers on each of your social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and others. This metric indicates the size of your social media audience.
• Audience Demographics: Dive deeper into the demographics of your followers. Look for insights such as age, gender, location, and interests. Understanding your audience's characteristics can help tailor your content and campaigns to their preferences.

5. Engagement metrics

Calculate the engagement rate by combining likes, comments, shares, and clicks, and then dividing it by the total number of followers or reach. This metric gives an overall measure of how engaging your content is.

Social media engagement metrics help you assess the success of your social campaigns by measuring how well your content resonates with your audience and how actively they participate. Higher engagement indicates a more involved and satisfied audience, which can lead to increased brand loyalty and conversions.

6. Share of Voice and Sentiment

Two important metrics to measure social media campaigns to consider are "Share of Voice and Sentiment" and "Influence." These are also representative of your brand’s social media awareness levels. 

• Share of Voice (SOV): Share of Voice (SOV) is a metric that measures your brand's presence and visibility compared to your competitors within a specific market or industry on social media. It quantifies how much of the online conversation your brand occupies.
  
  A high SOV suggests that your brand is dominating the online conversation, which can indicate strong brand awareness.
  
  To calculate your SOV, follow these steps:

         - Identify your main competitors in the e-commerce space.

          - Measure the number of mentions or conversations about your brand and each competitor.

          - Calculate your brand's share of the total conversations to determine your SOV.

• Sentiment Analysis: Sentiment analysis involves assessing the tone and sentiment of mentions, comments, and conversations about your brand. You can categorize sentiment as positive, negative, or neutral. Use sentiment analysis tools or manual review to determine sentiment.

7. Influence

Influence metrics are key to understanding the reach and impact of your social campaigns. 

Influence metrics help gauge the reach and impact of your content. High-quality inbound links can improve your search engine rankings, while social engagement metrics show that your content is resonating with your audience. The extent of content sharing and endorsement indicates how influential your campaigns are in the digital space.

Here's how to perform social media measurement and interpret these metrics:

• Inbound links from reputable websites to your content indicate the authority and trustworthiness of your e-commerce store. 

• Measure the number of retweets & comments your content receives on Twitter and Google+. These actions demonstrate that your content is valuable and shareable.

• Track the number of likes, shares, and comments your Facebook posts receive. These metrics showcase engagement and the virality of your content on the platform.

• Analyze how frequently your content is shared on social media platforms, blogs, and other websites. Track the extent to which your content is endorsed by influential individuals or brands.

Conclusion

In e-commerce, measuring the social media campaign effectiveness is crucial for staying ahead. It's essential to recognize that each customer's journey originating from social media can differ significantly. 

To thrive in this environment, ensure a seamless path from product discovery to purchase. 

That’s where SimplicityDX AI Social Storefronts comes in. 

With our AI Social Storefronts, you can bridge the gap between social media and brand websites that offer commerce experiences. By connecting the engagement between the two platforms, our storefronts are designed to give you the ability to understand multiple buyer intent and interests, and map the success of your social campaigns more accurately. 

Our exit attribution further enables you to capture the exact trigger point from social media that encouraged the shopper to visit your storefront and make a purchase. 

Using AI Social Storefronts has enabled leading brands like ModCloth not just reduce their customer acquisition costs by almost 50%, but also decrease the bounce rate of the traffic stemming from it. 

Want to know more about their approach to social campaigns and how they measure success? 

Book a demo of SimplicityDX today.