Although social media has become one of the main elements of our online lives, many affiliate marketers in the iGaming space – and in general – don’t know how to effectively measure their results and how to create a social media campaign that would turn out profitable.
Here are some of the main things you can do to make that happen:
1. Setting Goals
Before you can focus on anything related to measuring ROI, you have to set specific goals that you want to achieve with social media.
The most popular ones involve:
- increasing your site’s reach,
- driving direct traffic,
- getting affiliate link clicks, or
- generating leads through opt-in forms.
Once you have the general goal set, you need to figure out the specific performance targets. For example, if it’s direct traffic you’re after, how many new visitors would you consider a success?
2. Choosing the Platforms
On social media, not all platforms are equal. Depending on the angle you’re taking in the niche, you might find much better success on Twitter, rather than on Facebook, for example.
Here are some of the main differences between the top platforms on the web (*source):
3. Pick Your Tracking Tools
If you’re using paid social media marketing channels, like Facebook Ads for example, then you have tracking mechanisms built right in. However, with standard social media sharing, you do need to introduce some third-party tools to get a good view of what’s going on with your campaigns:
Free Social Media Analytics Tools by SimplyMeasured.
This is a great set of reporting tools for all the major social media platforms. With it, you can have a closer look on things like: your Twitter followers and their characteristics, your Instagram followers, your Facebook fan page, your competition on Facebook, your Google+ page, your Vine profile, and your social media traffic as a whole.
HootSuite has been an important part of the social media landscape for a long time now. It delivers a range of management and performance measuring features. Just to name a few, you can schedule your social media updates to go live on multiple channels, and you get access to over 30 different reports.
In short, Social Mention is like Google Alerts for social media. You can use it to track your mentions and other crucial types of posts that can be a good representation of the goal that you’re currently pursuing.
When using any of the above tools, it’s important to always start by creating day-one reports, which you will then be able to use as a point of reference when assessing your results.
4. Reporting and Resetting Your Campaign
The true value of using advanced reporting and tracking tools lies in the possibility to then review your numbers and make adjustments for future campaigns.
Some things to focus on:
- Impact. Is there more interest in the products you’re promoting among your audience?
- Reputation. Is your audience’s response positive?
- Platforms. Which platforms bring the most results?