Are You Measuring the Right Facebook Results?

| 2060 Digital

Naturally, Facebook marketers want to seize every opportunity they can to increase conversion rates and turn leads into sales. But the nature of Facebook doesn’t lend itself to easily reporting on ROI. So what do you measure then? And how do you know if what you’re measuring is really the best way to tell how much return your business is seeing from its presence on the site? The truth is, Facebook doesn’t make it easy on marketers – you’re going to have to do a little digging to see that your efforts are worth it. Here’s how to measure the right Facebook results.

If you were to name the first thing that comes to mind when asked about Facebook metrics, would you say Reach? You probably would. Reach is displayed on every individual Facebook post your business puts out and appears at the top of your Admin Panel. Regardless of whether it’s Facebook’s fault or not, marketers and the people they report to look to Reach to tell them how their campaigns are doing. But rather than reporting true ROI, Reach can create confusion and foster unrealistic expectations. Bottom line: Reach is not the most accurate, nor the most telling metric available.

First, let’s talk a little about how Facebook works.

On average, a Facebook user gets around 1,500 stories that could appear on their News Feed in one day. However, Facebook only displays 300. These 300 stories belong to brands and friends with whom a user interacts most. Obviously, it’s very important for brands to break into that top 300, but very few do.

A Facebook marketer simply cannot reach every Facebook user who likes their page. Only around half of your Facebook fans are online on any given day. After your post goes up, you’ll be able to reach an even smaller percentage of users who are online during the couple of hours after.

So, the number you see next to Reach indicates only a fragment of the people who just happened to see your post because they were engaged with your brand and just happened to be online at the right time. And that’s just it. Reach only indicates the number of people who happened to see your post. It says nothing of what they did after they saw it.

Repeat after me: “Reach does not equal revenue.”

As John Loomer writes in his article, “Why Our Obsession with Facebook Page Post Reach is All Wrong,” Reach is rarely an indicator of success. Reach doesn’t guarantee link clicks, post shares, website traffic and lead conversions – real indicators of ROI.

So, what metrics should you focus on?

  • Engagement – It’s extremely important to focus on your engagement rate. Comparing your audience growth rate along with overall engagement will help you develop an appropriate marketing strategy that continually improves. You can track this in Facebook’s Insights.

  • Acquisition – Acquisition or Website Visitor Frequency Rate can help you optimize a targeted content strategy. You can use tools like Google Analytics to gather information that will help you accurately track site referrals from your Facebook page.

  • Conversion – This is perhaps the most important metric marketers need to consider. You need to know if visitors to your website through your Facebook page are getting converted into leads. Using Google Analytics or another kind of software program that tracks where website visitors are coming from will help you measure this as well.