Social Media Marketing: Foundations to Practice · Foundations of Social Media Marketing
Setting Goals and KPIs for Social
Vague goals like 'grow our social presence' cannot be measured or defended in a budget conversation. This chapter covers how to set goals that are specific enough to actually guide decisions.
A goal like 'grow our social presence' cannot be measured, cannot be defended in a budget conversation, and provides no basis for deciding whether a specific campaign or piece of content succeeded or failed. Specific, quantified goals tied to a timeframe, such as 'increase Instagram-driven website traffic by 20 percent over the next quarter,' give a team a concrete target to plan against and a clear basis for later evaluation.
Key Takeaways
- Vague goals like 'grow our presence' cannot be measured or defended; specific, quantified, time-bound goals can.
- KPIs must match the objective: reach/impressions for awareness, engagement/saves for consideration, conversion/CPA/ROAS for conversion.
- Leading indicators (engagement, saves) signal whether a strategy is on track before lagging indicators (revenue, followers) confirm the outcome.
- Establishing a historical baseline before setting a growth target is necessary to judge whether a later result is genuine improvement.