Measuring the true value of social media has always been a challenge for marketers. And with good reason: it’s hard to understand exactly what aspects of the social media mix are having the real benefits and what parts are merely passive by standers.
Similarly as Social Media is often an initial part of the buying process,it again remains difficult to know with absolute certainty which platforms are most directly responsible for buyer behaviour.
With Social Media now well and truly being past the 'let's wait and see stage', it inevitably is developing better and more reliable ways to measure and accurately allocate merit. Despite this, we know that the vast majority of buying is still done away from the social media site and specifically on the corporate website.
With this in mind, Google have designed a new range of social media reports contained in Google Analytics. These reports now providing greater ability to connect the social media and website metrics, and consequently providing greater insight into the true full value of the social channel for your business.
Google have overtly stated set out to target 3 key areas. Namely:
- To identify the full value of traffic coming from social sites and measure how they lead to direct conversions or assist in future conversions
- Understand social activities happening both on and off of your site to help you optimise user engagement and increase social key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Make better, more efficient data-driven decisions in your social media marketing programs
Consequently these new reports allow you better information that can be used as the basis for more robust decision making. The extended range of reports allows you to do more. These include:
Overview Report:
The Overview report allows you to see at a glance how much conversion value is generated from your social channels. A visit from a social referral may result in conversion immediately or it may assist in a conversion that occurs later on.
Referrals that lead to conversions immediately are labelled as Last Interaction Social Conversion. If a referral from a social source doesn't immediately generate a conversion, but the visitor returns later and converts, the referral is included as an Assisted Social Conversion.
Conversions Report: which goals are being impacted by social media
With the Conversions report, marketers can now measure the value of each individual social channel by seeing the conversion rates of each social network and the monetary value they drive to your business.
Social Sources - find out how visitors from different sources behave
The Social Sources report shows engagement and conversion metrics for each social network so you can see how people are interacting with your content and whether it’s leading to a desired outcome.
While the other reports show you the impact that social engagement is having on your site, the Activities Stream tab (located within the sources report) shows how people are engaging socially with your content off your site across the social web.
As has always been the way, Google continue to find bigger and better ways to add value to all their users.
Until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Daniele.
