How to measure and maximize social media ROI

Key points:

• To prove true ROI, look beyond vanity metrics and consider the full cost of your operation, including hidden expenses such as implementation fees, data storage costs, and productivity losses from disjointed tools.
• Maximize your budget by prioritizing strategies that lower costs while driving sales such as User-Generated Content (UGC) to reduce production spend by up to 9x.
• Integrate social customer care to drastically cut case handling times and support costs.
• Break down the silos between marketing, care, and sales by using a unified platform, allowing you to prove how social media interactions directly contribute to long-term business goals like Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and retention.

Your team may be excellent at creating content, but if you can’t tie your social media work to measurable financial results, executives will view your department as a cost center rather than a growth engine.

To justify budgets and secure future investment, move beyond surface-level vanity metrics and focus on Return on Investment (ROI). This guide takes you beyond the basics to explore Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), revenue-generating tactics like social commerce, and the long-term value of unified analytics.

What is social media ROI?

Social media ROI is a metric that demonstrates the value generated by your investments in social media. While typically measured in monetary value, it can also be quantified by non-monetary metrics (such as influence or lead generation) when direct revenue attribution is difficult.

How to measure and maximize your social media ROI

There are four key steps to demonstrating your brand’s success on social media.

Step 1: Align your team and vision

A major barrier to social media ROI is the siloed nature of large organizations. When marketing, customer care, and sales operate in isolation, they work with incomplete data.

It’s essential that you align your team on key objectives to deliver a seamless customer experience. For example, The University of Waterloo faced the challenge of telling cohesive, meaningful stories across dozens of departments with a very small central social team. By adopting Emplifi’s unified platform, they were able to centralize analytics, scale reporting, and streamline scheduling, which sped up reporting turnaround 4x and tripled the number of social media health reports they shared across campus.

Securing leadership buy-in

To gain C-Suite approval, align your social goals with business objectives. Before launching your next campaign, start having strategic conversations with leadership on:

• Short-term goals: How can social boost brand awareness or engagement this quarter?
• Long-term goals: How can we drive sales, enhance loyalty, and improve customer satisfaction over the next year?

When social media is linked to real-world ROI, your leadership team will be more invested in its success.

Step 2: Focus on high-ROI revenue pillars

To maximize ROI, prioritize strategies that drive operational efficiency and direct revenue like User-Generated Content (UGC) or live shopping experiences.

Pillar A: User-Generated Content (UGC)

UGC is a financial powerhouse because it reduces production costs while increasing trust.

• The cost advantage: Creating a single piece of in-house content can cost up to 9 times more than deploying a piece of UGC.
• Performance: UGC often drives higher engagement and Click-Through Rates (CTR) compared to traditional ads, resulting in a lower Cost Per Acquisition (CPA).

Case Study: Center Parcs

By partnering with Emplifi to curate authentic guest photos and videos, Center Parcs achieved a 15% increase in social engagement and a 40% uplift in positive brand sentiment, driving higher bookings.

Pillar B: Live shopping and commerce

Live video shopping bridges the gap between digital and in-store interactions, directly impacting Average Order Value (AOV). Real-time interaction helps overcome online shopping barriers, turning hesitant browsers into buyers.

Case Study: Bensons for Beds

Utilizing Emplifi’s Live Advisor solution, Bensons for Beds connected online shoppers to in-store experts. This resulted in a 20% rise in Average Order Value (AOV) for live shopping customers compared to standard online shoppers.

Step 3: Retain customers with exceptional social customer care

Integrating social customer care with traditional support channels is one of the fastest ways to prove ROI through cost reduction.

Social listening allows you to detect emerging issues before they escalate, protecting your brand reputation and looking after your customers.

During a viral incident in 2022, Hardee’s used Emplifi’s real-time listening to detect a spike in mentions. They took the opportunity to respond creatively, turning a potential crisis into a win, and generating 8 million impressions and a 300% increase in followers.

Step 4: Utilize unified analytics for accurate attribution

Most marketers calculate ROI based solely on ad spend and basic software fees. However, to present an accurate financial picture to the C-Suite, you need to calculate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

TCO encompasses every expense associated with your operation. Without a clear grasp of these factors, a “cost-effective” social media marketing solution can turn into an expensive liability.

Here are the key components you should consider when you’re talking to vendors:

Managing multiple, fragmented tools is costly. Consolidating tools into an all-in-one platform streamlines operations, reduces licensing fees, and enhances data sharing.

When Domino’s consolidated their social marketing, care, and listening into Emplifi’s unified platform, the results were immediate:

• 53% reduction in social case handling time
• Managed a 128% increase in social media volume without adding headcount

The long-term ROI pathway

Finally, understanding ROI means looking at the long-term value chain. It’s not just about today’s sale; it is about Lifetime Value (CLV).

1. Customer engagement: Leads to satisfaction.
2. Higher retention: Satisfied customers remain loyal and spend more.
3. Advocacy: Loyal customers increase your Net Promoter Score (NPS) and generate referrals.
4. Growth: This cycle drives sustainable long-term profitability.

Final takeaway: Maximize social media ROI by aligning your team and focusing on high-ROI pillars

Proving social media ROI requires more than a spreadsheet of ‘likes’. It requires a strategic approach that calculates Total Cost of Ownership (TOV), leverages high-efficiency content like UGC, and unifies marketing and care to reduce operational waste.

By consolidating your tools and focusing on these high-impact areas, you can transform your social media operation from a cost center into a primary driver of business growth.

Get a demo of Emplifi’s unified platform to bring your team together and focus on the key metrics that lead to business growth.