Data analytics has become an essential aspect of social media marketing. By using data analytics tools, businesses can gain insights into their audience's behaviour and preferences, measure the success of their campaigns, and adjust their strategies accordingly. In this blog post, we will discuss some of the recommended strategies and tools for data analytics in social media marketing.

Strategy 1: Set goals and KPIs

Before starting any social media marketing campaign, it is crucial to define your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). This will help you determine which metrics to track and how to measure the success of your campaign. Some of the common KPIs for social media marketing include engagement rates, click-through rates (CTR), and conversion rates.

Strategy 2: Monitor and analyse your social media metrics

Once you have set your goals and KPIs, it's time to start monitoring and analysing your social media metrics. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offer built-in analytics tools that allow you to track your metrics in real time. These tools provide you with valuable insights into your audience's behaviours, such as the time they are most active on social media, the type of content they engage with, and their demographic information.

Strategy 3: Use third-party analytics tools

In addition to the built-in analytics tools offered by social media platforms, there are also several third-party analytics tools that can help you gain even more insights into your audience's behaviour. Some popular third-party analytics tools for social media marketing include Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social.

These tools provide you with a comprehensive view of your social media metrics across multiple platforms, allowing you to track your KPIs more effectively. They also offer features such as social listening, which allows you to monitor mentions of your brand on social media and respond to customer feedback real time.

Strategy 4: A/B Testing

A/B testing involves testing two variations of the same campaign to see which one performs better. For example, you could test an aspect in your social visual, email, or website to find out the preferred angle or tone. The aspect could be either the subject line, image used, call to action, or even the content to see which one generates more clicks or conversions.

A/B testing allows you to optimise your campaigns for better performance, and it can also help you identify which elements of your campaigns resonate most with your audience. Furthermore, it allows you to make the necessary improvements to boost engagement, cut down bounce rates, and enhance conversion rates. To perform A/B testing, there are various free and paid tools that you could use, such as HubSpot, Google Optimize, Optimizely, and more.

Strategy 5: Offline tracking

Another metric you could track is the footfall of your outlets or competitors’ outlets. At ADA, we help clients to track footfall by means of geofencing desired points of interest (POI) or outlets and monitor footfall trend month-on-month via IFA (identifier for advertisers) in smartphones. For post campaigns, besides tracking engagement, CTR, and conversion online, it is an added advantage to be able to track offline footfalls, in comparison to footfall and cross-visitation of competitors’ outlets.

For instance, we worked with an oil & gas client to monitor footfall at petrol stations in Malaysia. To measure post campaigns performance, we mapped out campaign periods (including client’s and competitor’s campaigns) and found out who the visitors were, which petrol brands they supported, and when they visited them. Combining online and offline tracking enables our client to gain better insights and make impactful strategies to drive growth.

Make informed business decisions with data analytics

Data analytics is an essential aspect of social media marketing that can help you gain insights into your audience's behaviour and preferences, measure the success of your campaigns, and adjust your strategies accordingly. By using the strategies and tools discussed in this blog post, you can optimise your social media marketing campaigns for better performance and achieve your goals more effectively.