Most of us chance upon new products and brands while scrolling through social media. Infact, social media has become our go-to channel to explore what’s new in the market, leading to the start of our online shopping journeys.

But how we choose to interact with the brands we find is different. Sometimes we make the purchase right away and at other times, we choose to follow them for a while before clicking the buy button on their site and a few of us choose to make the purchase on the social media platform itself. 

This difference in online shopping journeys on social media is the very reason why most brands are not able to attribute revenue to these channels. 

But there are social media metrics that can be used to measure the success of social commerce, marketing and advertisements. 

Social Media Metrics and KPIs to Measure for eCommerce

Social media and eCommerce are deeply interlinked today. Hence, the knowledge of key social media metrics and KPIs is imperative for brands to analyze, monitor and measure indicators that allow businesses to make data-driven decisions towards perfecting their social media marketing strategies.

Here are some key social media metrics for eCommerce we recommend tracking: 

1. Follower Count

Your follower count is simply the total number of users who are able to see the content that you post or the number of people who follow your social media account. Some specific follower count metrics include:

• Active follower count: Number of people who have interacted with your brand's content in the past 30 days.
• New follower count: The increasing number of followers that indicate your strategy’s success.
• Annual follower growth: The follower growth of your brand on social media over a year.

2. Shoppable Feed Statistics

How many of your customers shop directly from your social media feed? Shoppable feed brings in a lot of opportunities for sale, so it is essential that you measure these statistics.

Check how often users buy directly from your feed and track which of your posts contribute to generating more sales. While each platform does offer some statistics on the same, we do recommend using an eCommerce analytics tool for better attribution. 

3. Impressions

Impressions are the number of times your post appeared in a user’s timeline or feed. This is a social media KPI that helps you understand your post’s performance. Note that an impression doesn’t necessarily imply that the viewer of the post actually saw it or read it, or made a purchase through it. 

4. Audience Growth Rate

Audience growth rate is another metric among key eCommerce metrics, that is measured to study how well you are gaining followers and audiences with time. This social media metric shows you how the number of followers you have, changes over time.

One way to calculate it is by dividing your Net New Followers number by your Total Audience number and then multiplying it by hundred.

5. Reach

Your reach is the total number of people who have seen your social media content. In other words, it is the number of people who have seen your social media post after it has gone live from your account. Your reach depends on your audience being online as well as the quality of your content.

It helps you understand your brand's visibility and potential audience size while identifying what your customers value. Your post reach percentage can be calculated by dividing your post reach number by the total number of followers you have and then multiplying it by hundred.

6. Potential Reach

Potential reach is a social media metric that counts the potential viewers of a post over the course of a reporting period. 

For example, if a follower of yours shares your post with their network, 2-5% of that person’s followers will factor into your post’s potential or theoretical reach. You can calculate your potential reach by multiplying the total number of mentions by the number of followers of the account that mentioned you.

7. Social Share of Voice

This social media metric measures how many users mentioned your brand account, compared to the number of users mentioning your competitor’s account. That is, this metric will give you an understanding of how well your brand is faring on social media compared to other brands in the industry. For this, frequently track mentions, shares and brand-related hashtags.

To calculate the social share of voice, divide brand mentions by the total number of mentions of both your brand and your competitor’s and multiply it by a hundred. This will give you your Social Share of Voice percentage.

8. Social Media Engagement KPIs

These social media KPIs for eCommerce measure how users interact with your content. It tracks your audience's social media engagement and impact measurement in relation to your brand. 

By tracking online engagement, you will be able to gain insights on how to improve your social media content for maximum impact. Some of the key social media engagement metrics include:

• Likes: The number of times followers engage with your social media post by tapping the “like” button on a given social media channel.
• Comments: This is the number of times your followers leave comments on your social media post. Keep in mind that a higher number of comments doesn’t necessarily spell good news as they can be both positive or negative.
• Shares: The number of times your posts are shared across by your followers.

You can calculate your average engagement rate by adding all the engagements your post receives to the total number of followers your brand has on social media and then multiplying it by a hundred. This will give you an idea of how engaging your content is on average.

9. Applause Rate

This is a social media metric that calculates the positive interactions or approvals that your brand got on social media. This can be actions like liking, favouriting, saving, retweeting etc. 

Divide the total number of applause actions by the total number of followers and multiply it by a hundred to calculate your applause rate percentage.

10. Click-Through Rate

Click-Through Rate or CTR is a measure of how many people saw your post and clicked on the CTA (call to action) it contained. This reveals whether or not your content engages and moves your audience to take action and helps assess the effectiveness of your content in driving traffic to your website or specific landing pages.

CTR percentage can be assessed by dividing the total clicks by the total number of impressions and multiplying it by a hundred.

11. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the number of users who act on the social media CTAs that you provide from the total number of clicks you get on that particular post. These actions can include visiting a website, subscribing or purchasing a product. Conversion KPIs are necessary to understand how your social media interactions are leading to actionable results. High conversion rates convey that your social media posts are able to make a positive impact.

Divide your conversions by the total number of clicks and multiply it by a hundred to know your conversion rate percentage.

12. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that clicked the link from your post but left the page without further action. For lower bounce rates, ensure that your content is engaging and your social media strategies provide a good user experience.

13. Social Media Story Analytics

Platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat house a story-based feed. Tracking the performance of your stories can help you streamline your social media marketing strategy to function better. Check on your story views, reach, exit rate and interactions to get an idea of things like what type of stories work, when to post, what holds attention better etc.

14. Cost Per Click

Cost Per Click or CPC is the cost you pay your social media platforms per each individual click on sponsored posts. Track this eCommerce metric so that you will know if your investments in your social media marketing strategies are paying off.

Divide your total ad spend by the total measured clicks and multiply it by a thousand to calculate cost-per-click.

15. Cost Per Thousand Impressions

This is another eCommerce metric that helps you track how well your social media marketing investments are paying off. Cost per thousand impressions is the amount it costs you every time 1000 people scroll through your sponsored media post.

16. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

The average cost associated with acquiring a new customer through social media efforts is your social media customer acquisition cost. Acquisition costs can include advertising, contentment creation, influencer marketing and other expenditure. Tracking your CAC aids in assessing how effectively and economically your customer acquisition strategies are working.

17. Social Media ROI

Social media ROI is the return on investment from your social media marketing efforts. That is, the performance and revenue generated from your advertising and social media marketing campaigns against the costs incurred for these said campaigns.

You can calculate social media ROI with this formula: (Social Media Returns – Social Media Marketing Costs)/100

18. Social Media Referral Traffic

This is the amount of traffic driven to your website from social media platforms. It helps evaluate the effectiveness of your social media content in driving website visits.

19. Customer Satisfaction Score

Customer satisfaction score or CSat is one of the key metrics that help businesses using social media for eCommerce to understand how well the content is catering to their customers. You can simply conduct polls on your social media to learn how happy your audiences are with your brand’s products, services and/or social media content.

20. Net Promoter Score

NPS or Net Promoter Score is one of the most important customer satisfaction eCommerce metrics that let you measure your customer’s or follower’s brand loyalty over time. You can ask your audiences via a simple poll or a survey, how likely they are to recommend you among friends. Based on the number of promoters and detractors you can calculate your net promoter score.

21. Sentiment Analysis

This metric examines mentions and comments on social media to determine the general attitude (positive, negative, or neutral) people have towards your brand. It offers information on brand perception and customer satisfaction.

22. Customer Testimonials and Reviews

The testimonials and reviews customers share on social media is also a key indicator that conveys how customers feel about the product or purchase experience your brand offers.

How Often Should You Measure Your eCommerce Metrics for Social Media?

We have listed the major eCommerce metrics and KPIs that need to be measured and tracked to understand your social media marketing performance and strategize progress towards growth. 

But how often should you measure your social media metrics? The answer can vary based on the kind of metrics.

Some social media metrics, like social media engagement, impressions, traffic etc. should be checked on a weekly basis. Metrics with larger sample sizes that aren’t easily influenced by variations in the span of a week, should be checked on a bi-weekly basis. These include AOV, cost per acquisition etc.

For metrics that deal with longer data windows like open rates, reach and micro conversions are to be checked every month. Finally, for understanding your business's performance on social media over longer periods of time, you should check your quarterly metrics like click-through rates, customer lifetime value and subscription rates via social media. 

When you are investing so much into your social media marketing efforts and using social media for eCommerce in dynamic and different ways, you should stay up-to-date and on top of your performance. In short, your social media metrics are your best friends! 

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