24 Social Media KPIs Every Brand Should Track

Drowning in vanity metrics while stakeholders demand tangible results that actually contribute to the bottom line?

Social media KPIs can help you cut through the noise.

In this article, we'll go over 24 top KPIs that tie your brand’s social media content directly to revenue, leads, and customer retention, and show how social media analytics turns raw data into actionable strategies. Let’s take a look.

What are social media KPIs?

Social media KPIs (key performance indicators) are analysis points that have measurable values which help you analyze the effectiveness of your social media campaigns and overall strategy.

By understanding social media KPIs measurement and monitoring them against specific marketing goals, you can optimize performance and make more data-driven decisions.

What are some examples of KPIs? Think engagement rates and conversion rates.

But don’t confuse KPIs with social media metrics. They’re not interchangeable. Think of KPIs as the big-picture storytellers, revealing how well your strategy is working, while metrics are the raw data points feeding the narrative.

Metrics tell you what’s happening, but key performance indicators for social media tell you why it matters.

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Why is social media KPIs tracking important?

Social media KPIs help establish a transparent performance tracking system that allows marketers to analyze the effectiveness of their social media strategy. By tracking KPIs, you can:

• Align your social media efforts with business goals: By tracking your social media KPIs, you can ensure that every post, campaign, and interaction contributes to measurable business growth. For example, campaign KPIs like conversion rates or paid social KPIs (such as cost per lead) directly link efforts to ROI.

• Identify what works and what doesn’t: Not all content or campaigns will give the same results. KPIs tracking can help you identify what content types and platforms drive the most engagement, conversions, or revenue.

• Highlight trends in consumer behavior and preferences: KPIs can offer deep insights into consumer behavior and help you analyze how customers interact with your brand’s social media content. For instance, tracking engagement across different content pillars can reveal what resonates most with your audience.

• Demonstrate effectiveness to stakeholders: KPI reports provide clear, data-driven insights into the effectiveness of social media strategies, making it easier to secure stakeholder buy-in for future initiatives and budget allocations. For each stakeholder meeting, you can use social media KPI reports to showcase progress on measurable metrics, such as CAC or lead generation.

• Execute competitive benchmarking: By setting KPIs for your brand’s social media and comparing them with competitors, you can spot your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. Benchmarking against industry averages also helps you discover growth opportunities that you can leverage in the future.

24 essential social media KPIs by business objective

Enough with the chit-chat. Let's get down to business and walk through all the social media KPIs that are essential to track for marketers.

Awareness and reach KPIs

Awareness and reach are fundamental metrics for measuring how well your brand is expanding its audience and visibility across social media. Take a look at the top KPIs in this category:

#1. Follower count and audience growth rate

Follower count measures the size of your social media community across different platforms. However, having a large number of followers means little if you're not gaining new ones consistently.

Awareness KPIs like audience growth rate indicate how many new followers you have gained over a fixed period of time. It directly shows whether the social media campaigns you’ve been running have been effective enough to expand your reach and community.

To get a holistic view of your brand's growth, compare the overall follower count and growth rate across all social media channels together. Social media analytics tools like Socialinsider offer a Brand Report feature that simplifies this process.

Just connect your social profiles to Socialinsider, then integrate them under one brand to access aggregated data, and analyze the combined impact of different profiles, and track growth trends.

#2. Impressions and reach

These metrics help businesses assess the effectiveness of their content strategy and determine whether or not they are expanding their audience.

For example, if impressions are high but reach stays the same, it means your content is being shown repeatedly to the same audience instead of reaching new people. In this case, it’s recommended to experiment with different content formats to see if some changes in your approach can help you expand your reach.

#3. Video views

Video views count the total number of views received by a particular video. High views indicate increased audience interest.

It helps brands identify which video formats attract the most attention, allowing them to tailor content to audience preferences and boost interest across platforms.

For example, if educational videos consistently attract more views than promotional ones, your audience likely prefers informative content. Similarly, if short, funny clips drive higher engagement, your strategy may benefit from a more casual, engaging approach.

#4. Mentions

Social mentions refer to how often your brand or products are mentioned on social media through posts, comments, or replies. These mentions can include direct brand tags, implied references in text, or even branded hashtags.

Brands can track mentions across social media platforms to gather customer feedback and identify sentiment: positive, negative, or neutral. This analysis helps customer service teams recognize what’s working and what needs improvement.

Tracking mentions allows you to spot opportunities for engagement, such as responding to customer inquiries, acknowledging loyal followers, or addressing complaints before they snowball into bigger problems.

#5. Share of voice

Share of voice (SOV) shows how much people talk about your brand compared to your competitors. A higher SOV means your brand is more visible and influential in your industry.

SOV can be calculated as a percentage of the brand’s social media mentions, media coverage, ad impressions, or organic search traffic.

Tracking SOV helps you understand your brand’s position in the market and why customers choose your brand over competitors.

Engagement KPIs

When it comes to social media, it’s not just about being seen. Your content should be able to spark conversations, reactions, and shares. Engagement KPIs tell you if your audience is, in fact, paying attention to your content.

Let’s take a look at the top engagement KPIs.

#6. Engagement rate

Engagement rate measures the total percentage of people who interact with your social media content as compared to your number of followers or the people your content has reached.

A high engagement rate indicates that your content is relevant to your followers. A low engagement rate could mean your content isn’t interesting to your followers or that many of them aren’t actually part of your target audience.

What’s important to remember is that engagement rate can also vary by platform due to different user behaviors and content formats. A 2.5% engagement rate is average on TikTok but outstanding on Instagram, for example, as per our 2025 social media benchmarks report.

#7. Likes

Likes aren’t everything. Even Instagram lets you hide them. But the double tap on social media posts can be a quick indicator of whether the audience appreciates or ‘likes’ your content.

However, engagement benchmarks, including average likes, differ across social media platforms. Understanding these variations helps set realistic expectations and build platform-specific strategies. For instance, TikTok gets 9x more likes than Instagram.

#8. Comments

Comments are the foundation of social media engagement. When people take the time to type out a comment on your page, whether it's praise, criticism, or just a question, it means your content made them stop scrolling.

It's even better when your followers start interacting with each other in the comments, as it signals to the social media algorithms that your post is worth showing to more users with similar interests and demographics.

#9. Shares

Post shares are one of the major engagement KPIs for social media posts as they prove that your content is valuable and relevant enough for followers to share with their network.

Unlike likes or comments, which mainly keep engagement within your existing followers, shares introduce your content to entirely new users, boosting visibility and organic growth.

More shares lead to more exposure without additional ad spend. Social media algorithms also favor shared content, pushing it to more users as it indicates high relevance. The more people share your post, the more likely it is to snowball, expanding your brand’s influence.

Below you'll find some benchmarks that will help you set accurate targets for this goal.

#10. Click-through rate

CTR measures how many people click on a link in your social media post compared to the number of people who see it. A high CTR means you have an effective call-to-action (CTA). A low CTR indicates that people are seeing your post but aren’t clicking the link.

You can use A/B testing to improve CTR by experimenting with different elements of your post, such as headlines, CTA wording, visuals, and link placements, to identify what resonates best with your audience.

When incorporating links on social media, remember that these platforms aim to keep users engaged for as long as possible. As a result, posts with external links typically receive less reach compared to those without them.

Conversion and revenue KPIs

While reach and engagement KPIs provide useful insights into your brand’s social media performance, conversion and revenue KPIs can tell you exactly how your campaigns contribute to the business’s bottom line.

Take a look at what KPIs you should be tracking when it comes to conversion and revenue.

#11. Conversion rate

Conversion rate calculates the percentage of users who take a desired action after viewing and interacting with your social media content. The action could be signing up for a demo, making a purchase, clicking on a landing page, or downloading a case study.

A low conversion rate may indicate that your CTA isn’t strong enough, your landing page isn’t optimized for conversions, or you’re targeting the wrong audience.

#12. Cost per conversion

Cost per conversion measures the overall efficiency of your ad spend by calculating how much it costs to acquire a customer or lead through social media. A lower cost per conversion means a more cost-effective campaign. If the CPC is too high, you may want to refine your audience targeting or modify ad creatives.

#13. Social media leads

Social media leads refer to the total number of potential customers acquired through your social media platforms.

Likes, shares, and views are easy to track but don’t always translate to business growth. To measure true social media ROI, focus on whether your content drives qualified leads.

#14. Social media sales

This conversion KPI tracks how many sales originate from your different social media profiles, making it the ultimate indicator of your social media marketing success.

Tracking where your sales really come from can help you refine your marketing strategy and identify platforms that drive the most sales.

That said, make sure to set realistic expectations (and goals) when it comes to sales. Just because you gain 20K followers on Instagram doesn’t mean you’ll be able to turn 5K or even 2K followers into paid customers.

Not every follower is a prospective customer. Many of them could be your existing customers, industry peers, or just fans of your brand. They may never end up making a purchase at all.

#15. Revenue attributed to social media

It measures how much revenue can be directly linked to social media campaigns or organic activity. It can help you understand which platforms and concepts drive actual revenue rather than just engagement.

You can then use the insights to allocate more resources and budgets to your main revenue-driving campaigns.

#16. Customer acquisition cost from social media

CAC calculates the total cost of acquiring a new customer through social media, including advertising, marketing expenses, and other costs.

For B2B SaaS companies where the customer lifecycles can be long and acquisition costs high, CAC is an important benchmark to assess the performance of social media campaigns.

By comparing CAC to Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), which is the total revenue a business can generate from a customer, you can assess whether your marketing efforts are profitable and sustainable in the long run.

A lower CAC indicates that your business is able to acquire new customers in a cost-effective way. A high CAC could indicate that you need to reassess the effectiveness of your social media strategies, ad targeting, or creatives.

#17. Social media ROI

Social media ROI is all about calculating the profitability of social media marketing campaigns. The KPI can help you determine if your campaigns are able to generate more revenue than they actually cost.

While the revenue can include sales, conversions, and subscriptions, your social media costs could include content creation, ad spending, influencer partnerships, and even marketing tools.

Tracking ROIs for each campaign helps you ensure that marketing budgets are allocated and used effectively to maximize results.

Customer service KPIs

When customers have a bad experience, at least half of them will complain publicly on social media. And when these customers don’t get a response at all, 81% will never recommend that brand to their friends.  

Take a look at the top customer service KPIs you should track through your social media channels.

#18. Response time

Response time measures how quickly a company replies to customer queries or complaints on social media. According to McKinsey, customers spend 20-40% more money with brands that respond to their complaints on social media, while brands that ignore complaints have a 15% higher churn rate.

Fast responses are crucial, as 40% of customers expect a reply within the first hour, and 79% expect one within 24 hours.

Beyond sales, faster response times also improve customer satisfaction, brand trust, and loyalty.

#19. Customer satisfaction score

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) measures how happy customers are with your products, services, or support. CSAT can be calculated with a customer survey that asks respondents to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10.

Beyond surveys, social media also plays a key role in assessing customer satisfaction. Platforms like Facebook allow customers to review and rate businesses and publicly share their experiences. Positive reviews build trust and credibility, while negative feedback, if left unaddressed, can harm your brand reputation.

Tracking CSAT alongside social media reviews by addressing complaints, acknowledging feedback, and thanking satisfied customers can improve brand image and customer loyalty.

#20. Relevant comments from ICP

Tracking relevant comments from your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) helps you understand how high-value prospects engage with your content. These interactions can indicate buying intent and lead to meaningful conversations or even conversions.

Analyze patterns across multiple interactions to get deeper insights. Look for recurring themes in comments or frequently asked questions. Then, use these themes to tailor your content and improve product positioning.

For example, suppose multiple prospects ask about specific product features. In that case, it might indicate a gap in your content or an opportunity to highlight those features more in your social media content.

Content performance KPIs

Content performance KPIs help measure how well your social media content connects with your audience. Let’s take a look at the top KPIs for this category.

#21. Best-performing content types

Not all content formats perform equally. This KPI identifies which content types, such as text posts, images, reels, or carousels, generate the highest engagement, shares, and conversions.

Best-performing content types can vary across platforms, so analyzing platform-specific trends is important. You need to look into what works and why it works for a specific platform.

Based on the analysis data, put together a list of best practices and industry benchmarks for each social media platform and tailor your content strategy accordingly.

#22. Top-performing content pillars

Content pillars are the core themes that a brand consistently covers on its social media channels. Monitoring this KPI helps identify which content themes are the most popular among your followers, allowing you to build a laser-focused content strategy with high-impact topics that drive engagement and sales.

Using AI-powered analytics, Socialinsider can help you automatically sort your social media posts by content pillars and give you insights into which themes drive the most engagement.

TIP: You can also conduct social media competitor analysis to discover your competitor’s top-performing and find out what’s working for them.

Community building KPIs

When you have a strong online community, your customers continue to engage with you beyond just buying products. Brands that successfully build communities on social media see 4% of their online traffic convert to sales.

#23. Active member ratio

Having a large community means little if members aren’t actively participating. Active member ratio measures the percentage of engaged members on your social media channels.

A high active member ratio suggests an engaged community, while a low ratio may signal passive or inactive followers who aren’t engaging with the brand’s content.

To improve active member ratio, focus on engaging your online community. Publish more interactive content like polls, quizzes, and Q&As, have interesting discussions to build deeper connections, or hold challenges and contests for your followers.

Also, prioritize quicker responses to comments and DMs as it can make your followers feel more valued.

#24. User-generated content volume

User-Generated Content (UGC) volume tracks how many social media users create and share content related to your brand. According to a McKinsey report, 75% of the content associated with brands that have strong online communities is user-generated.

By inviting customers to share their experiences, testimonials, or creative uses of your product, you can create a more authentic connection with your online audience. Consider holding challenges or competitions to further motivate users to share content.

Besides improving social proof, UGC also provides insights into customer preferences, making it a powerful tool for community-driven marketing.

How to set social media KPIs?

Take a look at the steps to set your own social media KPIs.

Decide on your social media goals using the SMART criteria:

• Specific: Clearly define what you want to achieve
• Measurable: Make sure the progress can be tracked with quantifiable data
• Achievable: Set realistic goals based on resources and industry benchmarks. Make sure
• Relevant: Align social media KPIs with broader business objectives
• Time-bound: Establish a timeframe for achieving the goals.

For example, if your goal is to increase sales from LinkedIn, a SMART goal could be: Increase revenue from LinkedIn ads by 20% within six months by optimizing targeting and improving ad creatives.

Choose relevant data that needs tracking based on those goals

Once business goals are set, select social media marketing KPIs that directly measure progress of these goals. Some examples include:

• Brand awareness coals: Track reach, impressions, and brand mentions
• Engagement goals: Measure likes, shares, comments, and active followers
• Lead generation goals: Monitor click-through rates (CTR) and leads
• Sales and revenue goals: Analyze conversion rates, revenue attributed to social media, and CPC

Conduct competitive and industry analysis for benchmarking

To set realistic performance targets for your brand, start by conducting competitive and industry benchmarking.

Analyzing how similar brands perform across various social media KPIs can offer valuable insights into what success really looks like in your particular industry.

Instead of focusing on a single metric, assess multiple KPIs together to gain a well-rounded view of your competitor’s performance.

For example, while impressions may indicate brand visibility, analyzing engagement levels and conversion rates together can help determine if that visibility translates into meaningful conversations and sales.

You should also benchmark against industry standards to make sure your goals are both ambitious and achievable while helping you close performance gaps.

Create a measurement calendar and reporting framework

Regular tracking helps evaluate progress and make adjustments on the way. You should implement a structured plan to:

• Determine reporting frequency: Such as weekly for engagement tracking, monthly for conversions, and quarterly for revenue impact.
• Decide which analytics dashboards to use for automated tracking.
• Establish review meetings to assess KPI performance and optimize strategies accordingly.

How to track social media KPIs?

A big part of using social media KPIs is selecting the right tools that can help you monitor social media KPIs in real-time.

Use native analytics tools for basic analytics

Each social media platform provides built-in analytics tools that offer basic data related to engagement, reach, conversions, and audience behavior.

• Facebook and Instagram Insights: Measure post reach, engagement, story/video views, and follower growth.
• LinkedIn Analytics: Track post views, company page engagement, and lead generation.
• X (Twitter) Analytics: Monitor tweet impressions, retweets, profile visits, and audience demographics.
• TikTok Analytics: Assess video watch time, completion rates, and engagement
• YouTube Studio: Analyze watch time, subscriber growth, and video engagement

Note that while the tools above can provide data about your social media channels, they lack in-depth competitive analytics.

Use Socialinsider for advanced social media analytics

Socialinsider provides comprehensive social media analytics and competitive benchmarking, simplifying KPI tracking and making it ideal for brands that need deeper insights.

With Sociainsider, you can:

• Identify top-performing content types and track engagement across different social media platforms.
• See which content themes resonate the most with your target audience.
• Compare KPIs like engagement, reach, impressions, followers' growth, and more against competitors.

Integrate multiple data sources with Looker Studio

Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) allows marketers to combine multiple data sources into one interactive dashboard for a complete 360 degree view of your brand’s social media performance.

It allows you to:

• Integrate platforms like Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and more.
• Automate reporting by pulling live data from various channels.
• Create customized dashboards.

Final thoughts

There are dozens and dozens of social media KPIs to choose from. If you try to track each one of them, you'll only get overwhelmed. Instead, choose the right KPIs that matter to your business and track them consistently to build strategies that drive engagement, retention, and revenue.

Tools like Socialinsider simplify this process by offering AI-powered insights to identify top-performing content types, uncover competitor benchmarks, and analyze cross-platform performance.

Analyze your social media performance and benchmark competitors!

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