Sprout Social Inc.
09/23/2024 | News release | Archived content
Social Media Analytics Social Media Engagement Social media conversion: 10 Ways to boost your conversion rate
The sooner you start tracking social media conversions, the better.
Having a social media presence is practically a requirement for brands today.
But that doesn't stop skeptical stakeholders from questioning its value as a channel.
Meanwhile, modern marketing is all about being "data-driven." Tying your social marketing to business results can be challenging without the right tools.
The reality? Tracking conversions is critical to truly understanding your social media ROI. That means uncovering what's working, what's not and how your efforts are making an impact.
This post explains how tracking and boosting your social media conversion rate can help.
What is a social media conversion?
Social media conversions refer to completed actions taken by your social customers and followers. Conversions cover everything from social purchases and newsletter sign-ups to content shares. When someone "converts," it means they've completed your desired action.
How to calculate social media conversion rate
Calculating your conversion rate from social media is straightforward at a glance.
Simply divide the total number of conversions (actions) by the number of people reached.
Here's a quick formula we can work with:
Social media conversion rate = (number of conversions / total audience) × 100
For social media conversions, this typically requires looking at the organic impressions or reach of a post or campaign. You can also look at Google Analytics or paid impressions for sales-focused tracking.
Calculating conversions is key to measuring the effectiveness of your social media marketing strategy. Granted you've set up conversion-tracking properly and with purpose.
Below we dig into four steps to make it happen.
Define your conversion goals and funnel
Before you get knee-deep in analytics, you need to be clear about your outcomes.
Because your conversion goals may change depending on the social media campaigns you run.
For example, do you want more newsletter subscribers? More traffic to your site? More leads from social ads? All of the above are totally fair game, granted they're defined beforehand.
Track your social traffic
For each conversion goal, you need to verify you can track your desired actions. Doing so depends on your tech stack and how granular you want to get with social media conversions.
For example, you can use tools like Google Analytics to monitor traffic from your social channels. From here, you can identify key stages customers go through before taking any given action.
Consider how you can take conversion tracking a step further with tools like Sprout Social's URL tracking. This feature allows you to create unique, trackable links for your social content. This results in precise social conversion rate monitoring across posts, ads and entire campaigns.
Leverage reporting tools
Native analytics can only take you so far when it comes to conversion tracking.
That's why we recommend using Sprout's comprehensive reporting tools to connect specific goals and outcomes to your campaigns. This helps in identifying which strategies are successful in driving conversions.
For example, the Web Conversions report is available in Sprout for paid campaigns. This report paints a clear picture of how your social ad traffic is engaging with your website and how many people actually convert.
Coupled with Sprout's Link in bio tool, you can send social traffic straight to your desired landing pages and promotions with click-tracking. Applying SproutLink to your social accounts is a low-hanging way to learn about your social customers and get better attribution for your social efforts.
Analyze the data
Your data will highlight what's working, what's not and where there's room for improvement.
If this is your first time tracking social media conversions, the results can be eye-opening.
For example, you may note that traffic from TikTok converts way higher than visitors coming from Instagram. Or that a particular type of product or post drives most of your conversions.
You may also realize that your initial conversion goals were too ambitious or you have missing pieces in your reporting. If so, you can adjust and make improvements for future campaigns.
10 strategies to boost your social media conversion rate
Now that we've gotten tracking sorted and set up, it's time to explore how to optimize.
Here are ten ways to improve conversion rates across your social media campaigns.
1. Optimize conversion landing pages
First thing's first: how you design your landing pages is make-or-break for conversions.
Above all, you need to prioritize a smooth and seamless user experience. That means:
- Designing your page with clear buttons, calls-to-action and places to click
- Avoiding clutter on your landing pages with too much imagery or excessive animation
- Double-checking that your crucial links or calls-to-action aren't below the fold
On that note, make sure your pages load ASAP on mobile devices. That's where most of your traffic is likely coming from. Beyond that, these landing page examples can inspire your own.
2. Strategically use product-specific landing pages
In some cases, you may be sending your social media traffic to a general landing page.
But one of the best ways to increase conversions is to not treat traffic as one-size-fits-all.
Highlighting a specific product on a specific landing page makes the customer journey feel more personalized and consistent. This can help boost conversions and avoid drop-offs.
For example, check out how Krave uses their SproutLink to do exactly that.
Each of their Instagram photos links out to specific product pages and landing pages depending on where visitors tap.
This strategy reduces friction for visitors as they don't have to search further when they land on-site. In short, you can funnel traffic directly where they need to go to convert.
3. Use video to engage and promote your business
Product-related videos go hand-in-hand with a higher social media conversion rate.
Known for increasing conversions and the time spent on any given page, there's a reason why video-centric posts and ads are all the rage among brands. Videos do double duty of showing off your products in action and catching the eyes of social customers.
Here are some popular types of social video content to consider to lift conversions:
- How-tos and tutorials
- Before-and-after videos
- Reviews and testimonials
From TikTok to Instagram and YouTube, there are tons of opportunities to present videos throughout the customer journey. This includes organic social posts, ads and landing pages. Test different formats over time to see just how much video content can move the needle.
4. Create compelling calls to action
Using the right calls to action is crucial for driving social media conversions.
Ideally, your CTAs should be relevant to your offers and content. Avoid generic "Click here" phrases and statements whenever possible. This applies to your social media landing pages, product pages and ads alike.
Below is an example of LinkedIn that uses a relevant "Join Us" CTA based on the offer presented.
Like most other aspects of lifting conversions, testing different calls-to-action can help you refine your results over time.
5. A/B testing your posts for conversion rate improvement
Just like any sort of marketing metric, analyzing your social media conversion rate means looking at your data. A little bit of creative testing goes a long way.
For example, do you know what types of content score the most engagement, clicks and traffic to your website? By understanding your posts by the numbers, you can adjust your content strategy to align with your social media conversion strategy.
No brand is going to get it "right" from day one. Upping your conversation rate means playing the long game of analyzing and optimizing.
The good news is that tools such as Sprout can help speed up the process so you don't have to endlessly experiment. Features like the Post Performance Report for content analysis can identify key characteristics that resonate with specific audiences.
Based on these numbers, you better determine what content is resulting in engagement and likewise when. By regularly looking at your analytics, you can split-test your organic campaigns to figure out which posts are most poised for engagement.
6. Uphold brand consistency
Be consistent with your branding across all touch points across networks.
As soon as someone has to wonder if they're on the "right" site, that's not good. Details like color schemes, links, landing pages and more across TikTok, Instagram and other channels are all part of your brand identity.
This helps with brand awareness and familiarity and likewise will improve your conversion rate.
7. Show social proof with user-generated content
Serving as social proof and a much-needed sense of authenticity, user-generated content is second to none for driving social media conversions. That's why making customer photos, videos and reviews a cornerstone of your marketing strategy is a smart move.
Increasing your social media conversion rate doesn't mean keeping those creatives confined to social media. Use them in ads, on your landing pages and even on product pages.
Curating user-generated content is an expectation for modern brands and likewise, a subtle way to encourage sales.
8. Use social listening to stay on top of buying trends
No industry or customer base is totally static.
We mentioned earlier that scoring customers is about experimenting and evolving. This means keeping up with industry trends as well as the wants and needs of your customers.
Sprout's social listening features make it a cinch to understand exactly what people want and expect from your brand. This ensures that your social presence never grows stagnant.
From what customers are saying about you to trending topics worth mentioning in your sales-related posts, these insights can directly influence your social sales strategy.
9. Use social commerce for direct conversions
Through social commerce, customers can check out directly from social media posts. This saves time both for shoppers and in your own marketing efforts to drive conversions.
Consider how you can highlight products directly without worrying about pushing traffic from a post to a specific product page. The quick purchase process makes buying more appealing to customers who might otherwise abandon their cart or continue on browsing in their social feed.
10. Track your social analytics and conversions
With reporting and analytics, you can tie specific goals and outcomes to campaigns to understand what's converting and what's not. This means URL-tracking, identifying trends among traffic sources and digging into the quality of your social traffic.
And you won't know how you're doing until you start benchmarking and looking at your social media analytics.
Improve your social media conversion rate
Customers don't take action on social media by accident.
Having a social media conversion strategy is essential to any brand that wants to generate customers from their social channels.
One of the best ways to do that is to have the right tech stack and tools to track interactions with your audience.
Getting more insights means going beyond basic tools. Features within Sprout help brands dig deeper into conversion data for more actionable insights and attribution. Check out our guide to social media reporting to see how Sprout can help you meet your brand's social conversion goals.
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Brent Barnhart
Brent Barnhart is a professional writer and content critic. When he's not battling the latest buzzwords, you can often find him strumming the nearest guitar. Feel free to bug him on Twitter or check out his website (brentwrites.com)