How Can You Use Google Analytics To Monetize Social Media Marketing Efforts
Every marketer today understands the importance of social media marketing, more or less but many among them are still not able to pinpoint how. They are doing everything they are expected to do that forms the activity around social media marketing, like making profiles, engaging with the audience and posting new content every day, but they are not really sure if all of it is working and to what extent.
Google Analytics can play the saviour here. Read on to effective tagging of social media in Google Analytics and how to effectively use the social media report generated thereafter.
Knowing Goals and Setting up Goal Conversions
First determine what’s of conversion means to you; is it app / e-book / brochure download, form completion, number of page viewed or amount of time spent on any page or something else? Set Goal within Google Analytics accordingly. Go into Admin Tab>> select view>> click Goals>>Add New Goal. You can also select among some predefined templates if you do not want to use Custom for starting.
Having clarity on what you want the visitors to your page to do (like buy something or subscribe to your newsletter) will help you to measure the value you are getting from your efforts.
Determining yourKey Traffic Sources
Where exactly (that is on which social media) most of your target audience frequents and thus the traffic to your site is coming from can be a valuable metrics, because this is where you need to shift your focus to. So you should be in Traffic Sources section,picking Sources and All Traffic. This would present you with the list of the websites sending traffic back to yours.
Traffic from different sources is grouped separately in Channels report. Compare traffic from every medium and sift what is important for you. You can review total site visits per channel, engagement and conversion rates and decide which social media channel is best for you. Reports can also be compared according to month, year or any particular period. How a specific strategy for individual network is working for you keeping your goal on mind.
Reviewing Conversions through Social Platforms
Often a customer discovers about a brand / product on social media but becomes a customer only after a remarketing effort. And the credit (attribution) is being taken away by the PPC. Your task is to track where actually the conversion is coming from and in what percentage; only then any specific changes in the website could make sense as well as spending on any particular conversion source like Twitter or Facebook.
In ‘conversions’ section of Google Analytics, you can view the goals. Click Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels > Assisted Conversionsto review the conversions social media has helped you in.
Creating a Social Media Marketing Dashboard
Setting up a social media marketing dashboard within Google Analytics helps you to look at the value social media is giving you. Create a new dashboard by going into Dashboard>>New Dashboardto pick Blank Canvas, giving a name to your new dashboard, and finishing the process by clicking Create Dashboard. You can create multiple widgets like New Visitor Acquisition by Network,Conversions by Network, Pages Per Session by Network, Time on Site by Network, etc. using this as per your needs.
Measuring your efforts on social media marketing through the reports generated by Google Analytics is a crucial for your strategizing further. Just be sure what your goals are to get the maximum benefit when you begin with the whole process.
