Are you struggling with driving offline sales and getting a Return-On-Investment of your social media marketing?
Do you have trouble justifying social media budgets or the importance of the social media in the media mix?
These problems exists because measuring the impact of social media marketing on sales is more difficult for brick-and-mortar businesses and near impossible without the right tactics and tools.
Social media is fun and useful for consumers but for companies it means business. Marketers and business managers have to prove the relevance of their marketing programs. It isn’t easy to argue for any program without reliable evidence to support it. What better way to prove your marketing works than with data backed reporting?
Findings from a Deloitte survey commissioned by Facebook reveal that social media has become a sophisticated mix of media channels in which “Technology capabilities have evolved drastically, yet businesses have not kept up. The unique ability of digital channels to engage, measure, and create two-way dialogue is reason enough for businesses to take it seriously as a powerful tool.”
Facebook is by far the leading social network for both users and marketers and over the years has developed some really great solutions to help marketers.
Depending on your marketing goals and business size, implementing any of the four tactics outlined here can help you collect the data you need to improve your Facebook marketing and determine the Return-On-Investment.
- Audience Insights help you learn more about your target audience on Facebook so you can create more relevant content. This tool helps you see demographic data, reach and engagement rates of your organic and paid posts. With this information, you can see what type of content resonates better with your audience.
- Adverts Manager/Power Editor Reports help you to understand the business impact of the adverts that you serve on Facebook and Instagram and with easy to read reports. There are a number of metrics you can report on including all insights, amount spent and cost per result.
- Offline Conversion Tracking allows you to track when transactions occur in your physical store after people see or engage with your Facebook ad by matching customer transaction data from your CRM or POS to ads reporting tools. This is a great tool to measure ROI of your advertising.
- Location based ads enables multi-location businesses that need foot traffic to show ads to nearby people and help drive more people to their stores. A comparison of historical and campaign period visitor and sales data will give a clear view of the impact your ads.
A strategic approach to social media is necessary for a successful campaign. Knowing the why, what, when, where and how of every single action you take on social media helps you align activities with business goals, providing a clear path to success and pin-pointing areas in need of improvement.
When you start to view your social media as a major part of your business plan, then you are able to properly allocate the necessary resources and establish KPIs and milestones that will improve your return on investment.