How to Choose The Right Metrics for Social Media Campaign Success – Ultimate Guide

When you’re trying to grow your brand online, whether through social media ads, SEO, or improving customer retention, it’s easy to get lost in the numbers. 

Which metrics to track and when? Not all metrics are created equal because every stage of your marketing journey demands a different type of metric tracking.

To truly understand how well your campaigns are performing, you need to focus on the ones that matter to your brand and marketing stage. Knowing how to measure the success of a marketing campaign is essential for understanding what resonates with your audience and for optimising future efforts. By honing in on these key metrics, you’ll be able to make smarter, data-driven decisions that can boost your overall success.

At House of Marketers, we want to help you cut through the noise and focus on the metrics that matter most for your specific goals. 

Whether you’re at the top of the funnel building awareness, in the middle generating leads, or focusing on conversions, we’ve got you covered. Even if you’re at the end stage, working on retention, don’t worry—we’re here to guide you. 

This guide will walk you through the most important metrics for each marketing stage.

 

1. Top of the Funnel Metrics to Consider

Tracking engagement and reach at the top of the funnel gives insights into how to measure a successful marketing campaign and identify high-performing content.

As you kick off your social media campaigns tracking cost-based metrics, audience growth, engagement, and brand awareness will provide insights into how effectively you’re drawing in potential customers at the earliest stage of their journey.

a. Cost Based Metrics for top of the funnel

Cost-based metrics like CPM, CPV, CPF, and CPE are all about evaluating how effectively you’re using your budget to achieve reach and engagement. Here’s how each one contributes to a clear picture of your campaign’s cost efficiency:

• CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) shows how much you’re spending to display your ad 1,000 times, helping refine budget allocations for maximum reach.
• CPV (Cost Per View) offers insights into your video’s appeal and ability to attract an audience right from the start.
• CPF (Cost Per Follower) is a valuable metric for growth-driven campaigns, CPF reveals your cost per new follower, essential for building a lasting social presence.
• CPE (Cost Per Engagement) gives insight into how effectively your content drives audience engagement, from likes to shares and comments.

b. Audience growth

Audience growth metrics track the size and growth of your follower base across social media platforms.

While often considered a vanity metric, follower growth tells a bigger story about your brand’s awareness, the health of your channels, and whether you’re outpacing competitors or falling behind.

Here are a few key metrics:

• Follower growth: The net number of new followers gained over a period. It helps prove the ROI of specific campaigns or content.
• Follower growth rate: A percentage showing how quickly your audience is growing, calculated by dividing the number of new followers by your initial follower count.

c. Social Media Engagement Metrics

Social media engagement refers to how your audience interacts with your content—likes, shares, comments, and clicks. It’s more than just having followers; it’s about how engaged those followers are with your brand.

Here are a few metrics to track social media engagement:

• Post engagement rate: Measures how often users interact with your content, including likes, comments, shares, and reactions.
• Shares: Shows what content resonates so much that users are willing to share it with their networks, amplifying your brand awareness.
• Video completion rate: Indicates how captivating your video content is—do users watch until the end or drop off after a few seconds?

d. Brand Awareness Metrics

Brand awareness metrics like impressions and share of voice offer insights into how to measure marketing campaign success and evaluate your brand’s visibility.

These metrics track how visible your brand is to potential customers and how much of the conversation your brand owns in the market.

Track these metrics to measure brand awareness:

• Impressions: The number of times your content is displayed to users, whether they engage with it or not.
• Reach: The number of unique users who saw your post.
• Share of voice (SOV): Measures how much of the market conversation is about your brand compared to competitors. The number of times your brand is mentioned on social media, whether or not you’re tagged.

Once you’ve captured initial interest, it’s time to nurture those interactions and guide potential customers further down the funnel. 

The next stage focuses on metrics that track meaningful actions, signaling a deeper level of engagement.

 

2. Middle of the funnel Metrics

At the middle of the funnel, the focus shifts from awareness to action. Cost-based metrics and conversion indicators provide insights into how well your campaign is moving potential customers closer to conversion, whether it’s encouraging sign-ups, app installs, or landing page visits.

When it comes to how to measure marketing campaign success in the middle of the funnel, conversion rates and CPL provide a clear picture of audience engagement and interest.

a. Cost Based Metrics for middle of the funnel

CPLPV (Cost Per Landing Page View) tracks the cost of each landing page visit, providing insights into the efficiency of your ad’s ability to draw users to your website.

CPL (Cost Per Lead) is essential for lead-generation campaigns, CPL measures the cost to capture a lead, indicating the ad’s success in attracting potential customers.

CPI (Cost Per Install) is useful for assessing the effectiveness of driving mobile engagement.

CPC (Cost Per Click) gives insights into the appeal of your ad’s call-to-action and messaging.

CPR (Cost Per Registration)  helps to evaluate campaigns focused on sign-ups or user account creation.

b. Conversion Metrics

Conversion rate tells you how many visitors take a specific action—whether it’s a purchase, sign-up, or download. A higher conversion rate means your messaging and content are working well to drive results.

Here are some pointers on what to track for this,

Leads: Counts the number of potential customers showing active interest, crucial for follow-up engagement.

App Installs: Shows the total installs driven by the campaign, reflecting its success in mobile engagement.

Registrations/Signups: Measures how many users complete a sign-up or registration process, a solid indicator of deeper engagement.

Add to Basket: Tracks how many users add products to their cart, indicating purchase interest.

Checkouts: Reflects completed purchases, a key metric for conversion-focused campaigns.

Now it’s time to track the metrics that lead directly to revenue and long-term loyalty. 

 

3. Bottom of the Funnel Metrics to Consider

Bottom-funnel metrics like CPA and CLV are key to how to measure the success of a marketing campaign in driving conversions and loyalty.

At the final stage of the funnel, it’s all about closing conversions and maximising the value of each customer. 

a.Cost Based Metrics for bottom of the funnel

Cost per acquisition (CPA) calculates how much you spend to gain a new customer. It’s crucial to understand whether your marketing spend is generating returns.
By tracking CPA, you can gauge whether you’re spending efficiently on acquiring new customers. A lower CPA means more bang for your buck, allowing you to reinvest in more growth.

How to measure it:
Divide your total campaign spend by the number of conversions. If you spend $2,000 on ads and acquire 5 new customers, your CPA is $400.

Formula: (Marketing Costs) ÷ Number of Customers Acquired

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) reflects the total cost of acquiring a new customer, providing insight into the efficiency of your marketing spend at the point of conversion.

ROI (Return on Investment) compares the revenue generated against your marketing investment, giving a clear picture of the financial return from each campaign. 

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) evaluates the revenue generated per dollar spent on advertising, a critical metric for refining ad spend on high-performing campaigns.

 

b.Customer Retention Rate

Customer retention metrics track how well you’re keeping existing customers engaged and loyal to your brand. Retaining customers is often cheaper and more effective than acquiring new ones. 

Customer Retention Rate (CRR) is calculated by subtracting the number of new customers acquired during the campaign from the total number of customers at the end of the campaign, then dividing that result by the number of customers at the start of the campaign, and multiplying by 100 to get a percentage. (check infographic)

Key metrics include:

• Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures how likely customers are to recommend your brand to others.
• Returning visitors: Tracks how often customers come back to your social channels or website.

Learning how to measure marketing campaign success through both customer acquisition and retention metrics ensures a well-rounded view of campaign effectiveness.

c. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

CLV measures the total value a customer brings to your business over the span of their relationship with you.

A higher CLV reflects customer loyalty, helping you focus on retaining customers and increasing their long-term value, rather than chasing one-off purchases.

While cost metrics assess how efficiently you’re acquiring customers, retention metrics focus on how well you keep them coming back. Building a loyal customer base not only boosts revenue but also enhances your brand’s value through consistent engagement and organic growth.

Tools for Tracking Social Media Metrics

Now that you know what to track, how do you track it?

Tracking social media metrics manually is impractical, and the right tools can streamline this process. Major platforms offer built-in analytics tailored to measure campaign success effectively.

Understanding how to measure successful marketing campaigns can guide you in allocating budget effectively across various platforms.

Meta Business Suite (Facebook & Instagram)

A unified dashboard for Facebook and Instagram, Meta Business Suite allows you to track:

• Profile Performance: Monitor trends and reach over time.
• Cross-Platform Ad Spend: Manage ad budgets for both platforms.
• Engagement Metrics: Analyse likes, shares, comments, and demographic insights.

TikTok Analytics

TikTok Analytics provides essential metrics for short-form videos and live content. Key features include:

• Video Performance & Engagement: Track views and identify top-performing content.
• Most Active Times: Find optimal posting times to maximise reach.
• Advertising Metrics: Advanced metrics for ads, including tracking visitor actions and retargeting options.

These tools ensure efficient metric tracking, helping you optimise and adjust your campaigns with data-driven insights.

House of Marketers Insights

Prioritise Metrics by Funnel Stage

Tailor metrics to your funnel stage so your efforts are aligned with your business goals. Ensure your efforts align with your business goals.

Make Data-Driven Decisions for Campaign Success

Track every metric closely to ensure your ad spend targets the most profitable channels, and always compare with industry standards for optimisation.

Leverage Platform-Specific Analytics

Use tools like Meta Business Suite and TikTok Analytics to gather insights unique to each platform, helping you fine-tune your strategy and maximise engagement. 

Learn more about which platform is better for your advertisement campaigns here.

Track the Entire Customer Journey: Monitor customer interactions from awareness to retention. Focus on metrics like NPS and CLV to nurture long-term relationships and build loyal brand advocates.

Use Data to Predict Trends: Meta’s new up-to-date features and updates show that social media is a landscape constantly in a state of flux. Beyond tracking past performance, metrics can predict future trends. Monitoring social listening and engagement helps identify emerging content preferences, guiding future strategies.

Conclusion 

Determining how to measure if a marketing campaign is successful ultimately depends on your goals and key metrics at each stage of the funnel.

Tracking the right metrics is essential to running a successful social media campaign. By understanding which metrics matter most at each stage of your marketing funnel you can make informed decisions that enhance your strategy and boost your results.

Determining how to measure if a marketing campaign is successful ultimately depends on your goals and key metrics at each stage of the funnel.

House of Marketers is a leading TikTok agency and  we specialise in helping brands navigate the complex world of social media marketing. If you need expert guidance in optimising your campaigns, driving engagement, and tracking the metrics that matter, we’re here to help. 

Contact House of Marketers today to take your social media campaigns to the next level and achieve the success you’re aiming for!