Must-have indicators in SMM: what is important to analyze?

Author of the article

Valeria, smm-manager at VAU Agency

To begin with, there is no stable universal list of indicators for SMM specialists to analyze.

The choice of indicators for analysis depends on the goal of the project. For example, if our goal is to increase brand awareness, these will be some indicators, if we want to increase sales, these will be others.

In this article, I will analyze the basic metrics that are important to analyze to evaluate the results of your work.

And let's start with the base - an indicator that is a must-have for analysis.

1. ENGAGEMENT RATE

ER formula by coverage: (reactions ÷ coverage) x 100%.
ER formula by subscribers: (reactions ÷ subscribers) x 100%.

ER allows you to assess how the audience reacts to content.
To do this, divide the number of reactions by the number of subscribers or reach. It's better to divide by reach because this way we take into account the actual number of people who saw the post.

ER by subscribers is suitable for comparing different posts with each other, as well as for assessing the level of engagement on competitors' posts.

2. COVERAGE RATE (REACH)

Reach is a useful metric for understanding the actual views of content.

It is not the sum of views, but the number of unique viewers.

It is important to understand the difference between unique views and total views. Unique views show how many unique users have seen your post at least once.

This metric helps you assess how much of your audience interacts with your content.

Reach rates depend not only on algorithms and content, but also on the chosen promotion strategy in general - memes and humor always get more views than informational materials, but they do not always solve the problems of your project.

Reach is divided into 3 types:

Paid Reach - the audience that saw the content in an advertisement.
Organic Reach - subscribers who have seen content in a feed or on a page.
Viral Reach - users who have seen the content but are not subscribers. Such reaches most often appear through reposts or recommendation feeds.

3. AND THEN WE MOVE ON TO THE NEXT IMPORTANT INDICATORS - CLICK-THROUGH RATE AND CONVERSION RATE.

Click-through rate (CTR) is an important metric that reflects the audience's interest in your content.

This number shows how many times users clicked on a link.
A high number of clicks indicates that the content is interesting and encourages users to interact.

Conversion rate, in turn, shows how effectively these clicks are converted into targeted actions.

These can be purchases, registrations, subscriptions, or other actions that are important for the effectiveness of the project.

It is calculated as a percentage of the number of users who performed the targeted action out of the total number of clicks.

For example, if a link was clicked 100 times and 10 of them resulted in a purchase, the conversion rate will be 10%.

4. ANOTHER IMPORTANT INDICATOR FOR ANALYSIS IS THE NUMBER OF VIEWS.

Views show how many times a post has been seen.

For example, if a person comes across a post 7 times in the feed, the content will be credited with 7 views and 1 reach.

5. AND FINALLY, I WANT TO ADD ABOUT THE METRIC THAT SMM SPECIALISTS LIKE TO PUT IN THE FIRST PLACE - AUDIENCE GROWTH.

Growing the number of subscribers is a great trend, but don't forget that numbers alone mean nothing.

If the number has increased, but the reach or engagement rate is falling, it means that the subscribers were not targeted.

So, choose the metrics to analyze according to your project goals to accurately assess performance, and make adjustments to your strategy to achieve the best results.