Social media can deliver a strong ROI if businesses define clear goals, understand their target audience, and measure meaningful results beyond likes or shares. Success depends on having a focused strategy that aligns content, platforms, and calls-to-action with measurable business outcomes. Without a clear plan or tracking, social media becomes a time cost rather than an investment.
The ultimate question…
“If I post on social media, will I see a return on investment?”
The short answer is yes, you can see a return on investment from social media; however, it will depend on…
- What return on investment looks like to you?
- If you have a clear marketing strategy in place?
Let’s review these now so that you can ensure a return on investment (ROI) from not only your social media marketing but every marketing activity you do.
Let’s dive in.
What does ROI mean to you?
Firstly, what does return on investment mean to you? This might not necessarily be confirmed sales. It could be to increase brand awareness, drive more traffic to your website, generate more sales leads, or expand your mailing list contacts. Before you can measure the ROI of your social media marketing, you need to set SMART goals to determine WHAT you want to achieve. What are SMART goals?
S: Specific
When setting your goals, you need to be specific. The goals need to be clear in your mind. Think about it in detail, and don’t be too generic.
M: Measurable
Set measurable goals. To reach a goal, you will need to follow it and effectively measure it. Assessing your progress will help you stay focused, meet deadlines and feel that excitement of getting closer to reaching your goal.
A: Achievable
Set attainable and realistic goals. Look at what has worked well in the past and use this to determine how achievable your goal really is.
R: Relevant
Your goal must make sense for you, your business or your organisation and has to be linked to its values and purpose.
How important is it to you? How will achieving it will help you, and how will it contribute towards your long-term ambitions?
T: Timely
Every goal needs a target date, so you have a deadline and something to work towards. Without a deadline, it’s far easier for you, or your team, to procrastinate and take longer than you should, to reach it.
Learn more about setting goals and check out some examples.
Once you know what you want to achieve, you will need to develop a marketing strategy to ensure a return on your investment.
Developing a marketing strategy
We say it time and time again, but strategy is key when it comes to marketing. You need to develop a marketing strategy that aligns with the overall business and marketing goals. Having a clear marketing strategy with your business and marketing goals in mind will ensure that you see ROI.
Your social media marketing strategy should include:
- Who are you trying to reach?
- What platforms do you post on to reach them?
- What content do you share?
- How often do you post?
- What is your call to action?
- What hashtags do you use?
- Should you do advertising as well as organic posting?
Having a marketing strategy that covers the above points will ensure you have a clear sense of direction with your social media marketing, which directly relates to your goals. That is the key to ensuring ROI.
How can you measure ROI?
Once you have determined your goals and marketing strategy, and before you start your marketing activities, you will need to know how to measure and calculate ROI. Being able to measure and calculate your ROI effectively is a crucial part to ensure that your marketing strategy is working effectively and that you are making progress in achieving your goals. You can achieve this through various marketing tools, including platform insights and Google Analytics.
Measurement:
- Social Metrics: Reach, impressions, engagement rate (likes, comments, shares).
- Website Metrics: Users, new users, bounce rate, traffic source (especially LinkedIn referral traffic), time on site, and conversions (e.g., downloads or inquiries).
- ROI Calculation:
– Inputs Tracked: Time spent on content creation, posting, community engagement, and any ad spend.
– Outputs Measured: Increase in qualified traffic, lead generation (form fills/downloads), and eventual sales (if trackable).
– Example: For every £1,000 spent in time and promotion, the campaign delivered X% more traffic and Y new leads valued at £Z, resulting in a 3:1 return on investment.
Example:
Goal: Increase website traffic.
Strategy: post on LinkedIn 2-3 times a week to reach architects with visually appealing content, such as case studies with a call to action to read the full case study on the website.
Measurement: Reach & Impressions of the social media content as well as website users, new users, bounce rate, and traffic source.
You must track the time, costs, and ad spend associated with your social media marketing activities to determine the expenses you are incurring versus what you are getting out of it.
Tie effort to outcomes: It’s not enough to show reach, show what that reach resulted in (traffic, leads, sales).
Add £ value: Show what was spent versus what was gained.
Include conversion data if possible: Even a rough idea of inquiries or downloads helps bridge the value gap.
Benchmark improvements: Compare “before” and “after” metrics (e.g., “Website traffic from LinkedIn increased by 72%”).
Client Case Study: Eyelash Excellence
Goal: Increase Sales
Strategy: Create a Black Friday Sale Campaign, which will be sent to the customer database, offering a limited-time discount on products. This will drive traffic to the website and increase sales.
Measurement: Confirmed sales through the website.
This Black Friday email campaign saw a sales increase of over 300% compared to other emails.
Why?
- A clear goal and strategy were created.
- We had a defined way to measure the ROI from the email through Shopify, Google Analytics and trackable links.
- We joined the Black Friday Trend
- We had a strong call to action to ‘buy now’
- Clear discount codes
- Further discounts were added to sale items as well for ‘added value’
- Created a sense of urgency to buy
Calculating the ROI:
Amount Invested Divided By Amount Returned = ROI
Amount Invested examples: Costs of the time and resources spent on the email design, website development for code creation, perhaps graphic design.
Amount Return: confirmed sales on the website.
Conclusion
Does social media have a good ROI?
Yes, any marketing activity can yield a good ROI However, to ensure your campaigns are successful, you need to determine your SMART goals and have a clear marketing strategy. Having these two crucial components in place BEFORE you start marketing will set you on the right path for seeing an ROI.
Seeing an ROI? – GREAT!
Not seeing an ROI? – Review your strategy!
Are you ready to start seeing ROI from your social media activities?
