Why Are Social Media Ad Analytics Important?

Social media advertising is taking the world by storm. A whopping 93% of marketers worldwide are now using social media in their marketing strategy, as social media ads are being seen as one of the most effective tools in advertising.

Social media ad analytics play a critical role in helping businesses evaluate the performance of the campaigns, allocate budget effectively, gain audience insights, and measure ROI. But before we look at these in more detail, what actually are social media ad analytics, and what are some examples?

What Are Social Media Ad Analytics?

Social media analytics are the collection and analysis of metrics and data points that help you measure the performance of your social media ads. These metrics will help you assess your social media marketing strategy on both macro and micro levels. 

Social media analytics measure a wide range of key metrics to assess performance of a social media post/ad. These metrics can include engagement metrics such as likes or shares, reach and Impressions, click-through rates and conversion metrics, but we’ll look at these further down.

The Best Analytics to Track for Social Media Ad Performance

There are a number of analytics you should be tracking to determine the performance of social media ads, such as click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate and cost-per-acquisition (CPA). Let’s look at these in more detail…

Click-Through Rate

One of the best ways you can measure the performance of your ad is through its click-through rate (a good CTR is 5 to 20%). This metric refers to the ‘number of clicks advertisers receive on their ads per number of impressions’ and basically indicates how engaging your ad is.

By keeping a close eye on your click-through rate, you’re able to gauge a better idea of how well your ad is being received by your target audience, and if there is anything you need to change to improve it.

You could improve the CTR by adding clear direct calls to actions, to help prompt your audience and carry out the desired action, and therefore helping to boost your CTR. 

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate refers to 'the percentage of visitors to your website that complete a desired goal (a conversion) out of the total number of visitors'. It therefore measures the percentage of people who take the desired action after clicking on your ad, whether it be signing up to a newsletter, adding an item to the cart, making a purchase etc.

Measuring your conversion rate can help you to understand the success of your ads and inform your future decisions when it comes to social media ad strategy.

Discover how to improve your TikTok ads conversion rate here. 

Cost Per Acquisition

Another useful metric that can be used to measure ad performance and inform social media efforts is cost-per-acquisition.

CPA ‘measures the total cost to acquire one paying customer’, and is worked out by dividing the total marketing cost by the number of new customers. For example, if you spent £1000, and gained 100 customers, your cost-per-acquisition would be £10.

By measuring and analysing your CPA, you can determine the effectiveness of your social media advertising efforts, how cost-effective your ads are, and what you can improve on in future campaigns.

4 Reasons Why Social Media Ad Analytics Are Important

Social media ad analytics are important because:

1. They provide insights into the performance of ad campaigns
2. They allow you to measure the ROI
3. They allow you to allocate your ad budget more effectively
4. They provide valuable insights into your audience 

1.They Provide Insights Into the Performance of Ad Campaigns

Social media ad analytics like click-through rates, engagement metrics and conversion rates provide transparent insights into the performance of each ad campaign.

When it comes to analysing the performance of ads, Many people find Google Analytics to be incredibly useful, evidenced by the fact that ‘more than half of businesses rely exclusively on Google Analytics (GA) for their web analytics’. 

There are also popular tools like Meta Ads Manager and Instagram Insights that allow you to understand a better idea of your traffic and ad performance with your audience.

This evaluation helps in identifying what works well and what needs improvement when composing your future ad campaigns.

At Aura Ads, we track ad performance, offer insights, and use this data to improve your next set of assets.  Get in touch with our friendly team today and see how we can help your social media ads level up. 

2. They Allow You to Measure the ROI

Another benefit of tracking ad analytics is that they allow businesses to measure the return on investment (ROI) of their advertising efforts. 

Without identifying things like conversion rates, how are you supposed to tell how well the ad has done, and what your return on investment is? 

It’s also important to track metrics such as cost per acquisition (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), and lifetime value (LTV) of customers acquired through ads, to help you determine the profitability of the ad campaigns so that you can make informed decisions about future investments in social media advertising.

3. They Allow You to Allocate Your Ad Budget More Effectively

Understanding the performance of social media ads gives you all the information needed to allocate advertising budgets more effectively. 

By identifying which ad campaigns, platforms, or targeting options are delivering the best results and yielding the highest ROI, you can allocate resources to the most profitable channels and optimise their budget for maximum return and impact. 

4. They Provide Valuable Insights Into Your Audience

Lastly, in addition to performance insights, ad analytics provide valuable insights into audience demographics, interests, behaviours, and preferences. 

By analysing this information, you can gain a deeper understanding of your target audience and tailor future ad campaigns to better resonate with their interests and needs.

There we have it! If you’re looking to invest in your ad creative, our team of creative strategists at Aura Ads are here to help you every step of the way. Schedule a call with our friendly team today and see how we can help.

We will tailor your creative to your campaign objectives and business goals, ensuring our creative has the biggest impact.

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We are Aura Ads, a unique performance creative agency designed for D2C eCommerce brands. We help clients sell more online and grow at scale with our bespoke video and static creative delivered on a monthly basis.

For more top tips from our experts, check out our social media marketing blog. 

Written by Kate, for Aura Ads.