How To Use Google Analytics For Social Media

If you're a business owner or marketing professional, you lot hopefully sympathise the importance of having a social media presence. Profiles and accounts on Facebook and Twitter tin assist in your branding, engagement, and ecommerce efforts, forth with many other objectives. Only without the correct analytics, y'all may be left wondering, "How much do my social media efforts assistance my business?", or "How can I runway my social media performance?" These are very common but important questions.

In today'due south twenty-four hour period and age, information technology's possible to know exactly what is working and how much benefit is provided – equally long equally you lot have the right tools. Fortunately, with Google Analytics, this information is readily available.

How to runway your success with social analytics

Google Analytics is 1 of the most popular analytics platforms on the market place. And if you already have an account, you tin can use information technology to track and analyze data from your social profiles! Google Analytics social media tracking, or Social Analytics, is an easy to utilise tool that helps with measuring your social media performance.

Here are some tips to go you started with setting up and using Google Analytics social settings for reporting on social media analytics.

ane. Determine your goals

First, yous need to decide what your social media goals are. What is virtually important for you to go out of your social media efforts? Across platform-specific metrics like favorites or retweets (which are only visible in each platform's analytics features – not Google Analytics), you lot demand to figure out which metrics are important for your business.

Do you want to utilize your social accounts to direct traffic to certain pages on your site? Do you desire visitors to take certain deportment when they go at that place? Regardless of what your goals are, information technology's of import to ascertain them before you go started.

Without doing so, all the analytics in the globe won't help yous sympathise whether or not your time on social media is well spent. One time you've determined what you lot want to accomplish – traffic to a sure page, time on site, or conversions – ready up your goals in Google Analytics. If you've never done this earlier, Google offers a pace-by-footstep tutorial.

Hint: Your goals should exist consistent campaign-wide. The social analytics reports will filter out data that is not relevant to your social media campaigns. One time your goals are set up, you'll have access to all the social media-specific data that y'all need!

2. Become familiar with Google Analytics' standard social reports

Now that you accept your goals defined and set up, you are ready to employ Google Analytics for social media tracking. Google Analytics offers 8 standard reports on Social Analytics. You can find these reports inside Analytics by navigating through Reporting > Acquisition >Social.

The Overview report allows you to see the conversion value generated from social media.
Network Referrals will evidence you how much referral traffic each social network supplied to your site.
The Social Data Hub study allows you to see how people are sharing or interacting with your content off site.
The Landing Pages report allows you to see the engagement metrics for each URL for sessions that originated from your social networks.
The Trackbacks report allows you lot to see when your website content is baring shared, by whom and in what context.
Conversions. This is why it is important to fix up goals and assign them a value.
The Plugins study tracks when a "Tweet" or "Like" button are clicked on your site. For more insight visit Social Plug-In Analytics.
The Users Flow written report shows yous a map of the users visit starting with the social network to where they left your site or, better yet, converted.

three. Await at the reports specific to your goals

If you're just looking for a basic overview of your social performance, the Overview report is all you demand. This report shows you lot the total number of sessions, cleaved downward by social network, from social referrals and the total number of conversions to which your social media campaigns contributed. For someone that just wants to know the basic information, this should be plenty. Nevertheless, if you want to encounter results for specific social goals you've set up, you'll demand to dig a little more than.

As I mentioned in a higher place, the possibilities for goals you tin add to your entrada are nearly countless. Here's where to wait for the data you lot need:

Goal: Increment traffic to specific pages

The Landing Pages report shows which pages people are entering your website on and what social media network they are coming from. Information from this study provides great insight if you're trying to increment traffic to certain pages on your website. If yous add in a secondary dimension of "Social Network," and then you will be able to tell which social platform is driving the most traffic, and which social platforms you lot need to accept a 2nd look at for improve results

Goal: Increase conversions

If you desire to meet how your social activity is contributing to specific goals on your site, have a look at the Conversions report. This study directly correlates to the goals that you set upwards for your Google Analytics account. Offset, you lot'll demand to select which of your goals you desire to see data for by choosing from the drop-down menu in the top left corner: The Conversions report within Social Analytics will filter out all non-social conversions, and so break down conversions by social network.

The report volition too list out the total conversion value (set by you when you set up your goals) for your social media efforts overall and past each individual social media platform. If you've properly set up your goals, this written report should be a articulate indication of how your social media efforts are contributing to your conversion goals! Once again, having clearly defined goals helps you lot access the data you need within the Social Analytics reports. Make sure to reference the bullet point list in department 2 of this mail to assistance y'all find the written report that has the data you are looking for.

Once you go familiar with this data, you can hands pull together reports to show the value of your social media accounts and efforts. You will also have access to insightful data to show you how you tin can improve your social media efforts to more effective and to drive more than goal conversions! If y'all have any questions well-nigh using Google Analytics for social media tracking, or know of any additional methods I didn't mention here, allow me know in the comments below!