Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics used to determine the effectiveness and ROI of paid social media advertising campaigns. Setting up the right KPIs and regularly monitoring them is crucial for understanding what’s working, what’s not, and how campaigns can be optimized over time.
Some of the most important KPIs to track for paid social ads include:
Engagement KPIs
Engagement metrics show how well your ads are resonating with your target audience. High engagement indicates your messaging and creative are compelling and relevant.
- Impressions – The number of times your ads are displayed.
- Reach – The number of unique users who saw your ads.
- Clicks – The number of clicks on your ads.
- Click-through rate (CTR) – Clicks divided by impressions, shown as a percentage. Industry benchmarks vary by platform.
- Engagement rate – Total engagements (clicks, likes, shares, comments) divided by impressions.
- Video views – Number of times your video ads were viewed for 10+ seconds. For YouTube, 30+ seconds.
- View-through rate (VTR) – Video views divided by impressions, shown as a percentage.
Conversion KPIs
Conversion metrics allow you to understand how your ads are driving desired actions on your website. This could include sales, signups, downloads, purchases, etc. Conversion metrics depend on your campaign goals.
- Registrations
- Leads
- Trial signups
- Purchases
- Add to carts
- Checkout initiations
- Content downloads
- Orders
- Sales revenue
When examining conversion metrics, also look at:
- Cost per conversion – How much you spent to acquire each conversion.
- Conversion rate – Conversions divided by total clicks.
- Return on ad spend (ROAS) – Revenue generated from conversions divided by total ad spend.
Brand KPIs
Brand metrics demonstrate how your ads are influencing brand awareness, perception, and equity.
- Brand searches – Number of searches for your branded keywords.
- Website traffic – Increase in organic traffic to your site.
- Brand mentions – Increase in brand mentions on social media.
- Brand favorability – Survey metrics on brand opinion and sentiment.
- Brand awareness – Survey metrics on aided/unaided brand awareness.
Cost KPIs
Cost metrics allow you to analyze the ROI of your ad spend and make optimizations.
- CPC (cost per click) – Average cost per click.
- CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) – Average cost per 1,000 impressions.
- CPI (cost per impression) – Average cost per impression.
- CTR – Monitor changes in click-through rate over time at the ad set, ad, keyword, and/or placement level.
- CPO (cost per order) – Average cost to acquire each order.
- ROAS – Monitor changes in return on ad spend over time.
Engagement Benchmarks by Platform
Here are typical engagement benchmarks to aim for by paid social platform:
Platform | Metric | Benchmark |
---|---|---|
Facebook / Instagram | CTR | 0.9%+ |
CTR | 0.5%+ | |
CTR | 0.8%+ | |
YouTube | VTR | 25%+ |
CTR | 2%+ | |
Snapchat | VTR | 50%+ |
TikTok | VTR | 50%+ |
Benchmarks will vary over time and by industry vertical. Work with your social and analytics teams to define appropriate engagement rate goals for your campaigns and audiences.
Tracking KPIs
Here are some best practices for tracking and optimizing your paid social KPIs on an ongoing basis:
- Connect your social accounts to analytics and attribution platforms like Google Analytics to import cost, engagement, and conversion data.
- Build campaign dashboards in your analytics platform to monitor KPIs.
- Segment data by campaign, ad set, ad creative, age, gender, interests, keyword, placement, and more to uncover optimization opportunities.
- Set up real-time alerts for decreases in engagement or conversions.
- Define weekly, monthly, and quarterly benchmarks.
- Hold regular performance review meetings to discuss trends and iterate.
- Continually A/B test new creatives, audiences, placements, and messaging.
- Align on a unified set of KPIs across teams – don’t silo data.
Common Paid Social Campaign Goals
The types of KPIs you track should align with your campaign goals. Here are some of the most common goals for paid social campaigns:
Brand Awareness Campaigns
- Reach
- Impressions
- Frequency
- CPM
- VTR (for video ads)
- Brand search lift
Traffic Campaigns
- Clicks
- CTR
- CPA
- CPC
- Website sessions
- Bounce rate
Engagement Campaigns
- Engagement rate
- Likes
- Shares
- Comments
- Video views
- VTR (for video ads)
Conversions Campaigns
- Conversions
- Conversion rate
- CPA
- ROAS
- CPO
- AOV
Tailor your KPIs based on your unique objectives. Over time, continue refining your metrics as you learn more about your audience and which levers truly drive performance.
Conclusion
Defining and tracking the right KPIs is essential for maximizing your paid social advertising results. Monitor both engagement and conversions metrics to get a holistic view of performance. Regularly analyze your data segmented by campaign, creative, audience, placement, and more to uncover optimization opportunities. Set benchmarks based on historical performance and industry standards. Continuously refine your KPIs as you iterate. With the right metrics framework in place, you’ll be well equipped to boost campaign ROI over time.