What is the biggest mistake finance brands make when measuring a social media campaign?

“A big mistake finance brands fall into is putting large media budgets behind paid social media campaigns and driving traffic to a site with a poor user journey,” explains Cimino. “There’s no point driving users to your website if it isn’t ready for them.” Financial marketers need to strike the balance between a website that delivers a good user experience that also converts customers.

From Frith’s perspective, the biggest mistake financial marketers make is they collect campaign data and measurements, maybe put them in a report, with no interpretation or follow up actions. “The biggest mistake is failing to interpret measurements and turn them into practical actions that either improve the campaign in terms of its objectives (conversions, traffic, costs etc) or take on learnings that inform the next phases of work,” he says. “Whether that be making changes to messaging and content, changing user-journeys and UX or optimising channels. Measurement is about improving performance.”

What are best practice examples of how to measure and act on social media performance?

“We recently worked with Citi who took advantage of the precise audience targeting on LinkedIn to create a range of audience segments that were tested frequently and optimised for best performing over time,” says Frith. “Citi’s approach was a good example of measure often, optimise frequently.”

“Our team here in London encourages clients to set up hard and soft onsite goal conversions and put monetary values to each of those goals,” says Cimino, whose work with Aberdeen Standard Investments has picked up more than 20 awards including the MFEA Best Social Media Campaign and Digital Innovation awards. “Attention time on site, +2 pages per session and scroll rate could all be softer goals, but a harder goal could be a user watching a certain percentage of an onsite video, downloading a PDF, completing a form submission or visiting certain pages of your website that aren’t the landing page of the ad.”

What tools would you recommend financial marketers use for social media measurement and tracking?

For Frith, the right measurement tool comes down to the level of understanding and sophistication of the marketer. “Native ad platforms (Linkedin, X, Facebook) provide good reporting which may work well for more sophisticated marketing teams, while easy to understand dashboard platforms such as Funnel or Google Data Studio can be useful when sharing metrics across the wider business,” he says. “Other tools such as SEMRush provide great insights into important aspects of campaigns such as keywords.” There’s a whole host of free and specialised SEO tools that every financial marketer needs.

“Google Analytics or Adobe Experience Manager are essential for tracking campaign activity on the destination website or landing page and for monitoring user behaviour once they have entered the branded digital environment,” says Frith.

How frequently should finance brands be monitoring social media marketing campaigns?

“The frequency of measurement depends on the objective, duration, budget and content of each individual campaign,” says Cimino. “For some of our clients, campaigns need to be monitored multiple times daily, while others are just twice a week.”

What’s one of the biggest misconceptions around measurement and ROI?

“Measuring the success or effectiveness of a campaign isn’t just looking at an ROI figure in £ or $ but looking at how users engage with the site and analysing the onsite soft and hard goal completions,” explains Cimino.

Frith adds, that attribution is still one area that isn’t well understood, which is made more difficult by the fact that it isn’t a precise science. “The full user journey for any digital offering needs to be mapped from beginning to end (which may include offline components) and the role of paid campaigns in that user journey needs to be understood so that any analysis of ROI is making accurate or at least well-informed attribution.”

How is finance marketing different to other industries in terms of measuring effectiveness?

“Most finance businesses are looking for long-term loyal customers versus other industries that may be more reliant on one-time customers or purely product-based activity,” says Frith.

“To gain customer loyalty, trust and transparency is crucial, and an ongoing effort finance brands must always work towards. This results in a heavier focus on content and social media marketing centered around education, expert insights and thought leadership as opposed to the product promotion favoured by other brands,” he says.

“While the impact of content on trust is far less clear cut to measure, trust is an important metric that can be quantitatively measured through engaging surveys and also tracked to a certain extent by engagement metrics.”

Wherever your brand is based in the world, The Dubs has financial content marketing experts who can help you implement a social media marketing strategy that delivers measurable results. Get in touch.

The post How to measure the effectiveness of social media marketing appeared first on Financial Marketer.

While it might seem all well and good to have a cheap click and a high CTR, you need to consider what’s happening to these users once they’ve clicked and left the social platform to engage with your content? Are they the correct audience and therefore sticking around to engage with, your content? Or, are they outside your target audience, barely hanging around long enough to glance at your page? To really understand what’s driving the success of your content campaigns on social media you need to arm yourself with the right data and insights. Here’s how to set your finance brand up to do just that.

Website engagement for content campaigns

To measure the success of a content campaign on social media you need to consider and track website engagement, which initially will require some work to set up. There are a number of ways to do this, but the simplest and most effective way is to use Google Analytics in conjunction with your chosen social platforms, be it Facebook, X, LinkedIn or Instagram.

This includes setting up a variety of Google Analytics goals and events to track, including:

• Page view duration
• Page scroll rate
• Video plays to 50%
• Clicks on Contact Us or product pages
• Pages per session 3+
• Conversion (purchase or form completion)

This alone will help you to establish a good understanding of how users are engaging with your website. But you can take it a step further…

UTM codes

Tagging all your content with UTM codes is an essential step in measuring the success of your social campaigns. A UTM code is a simple code that you can attach to a custom URL in order to track a source, medium, and campaign name. It will allow Google Analytics to tell you where website visitors came from and the specific campaigns that got them there.

By including targeting details in your campaign name, you will be able to track the success of that targeting and the effectiveness of every single campaign line, attributing a cost value to each website engagement metric. Armed with this data, you will then be able to change tact where necessary to achieve the best possible results.

UTM codes should be added at the end of every ad. There are multiple UTM Code builders available for free on the internet, including this useful template.

A UTM code allows Google Analytics to tell you where website visitors came from and the specific campaigns that got them to your site.

Attribution

Along with tagging, it’s best practice to run multiple campaign lines at once, promoting the same content with variations on targeting. And because all ads have appropriate UTM codes, you will be able to attribute the best Goal Conversion Rate and Cost per Goal Completion to various source, medium and campaign names. You can access this in Acquisition in Google Analytics.

Optimising your content

Once you have goal data and platform spend per campaign line you can attribute a cost per goal completion for each campaign line. This will give you an idea of how well your money is being spent, optimising your content where you identify inefficiencies.

Collating data and insights

Tools such as Funnel IO allow you to collate multiple data sources into dashboards, making it easier to track, review and act on performance insights.

Not enough to simply measure the success of your social campaigns, you need to be responding to these insights and optimising your approach in real-time to achieve the best results.

Still struggling to argue the case for content? Here’s how to prove to the c-suite that it’s worth the investment.

And to extend the reach of your social content, familiarise yourself with the 17 reasons why people share on social.

The post Measuring the success of content-led social media campaigns appeared first on Financial Marketer.

One of the most significant and indisputable takeaways from Newswhip’s State of Content & Social Strategy 2016 report is that Facebook’s dominance is not only rock solid – it will continue to grow, largely thanks to innovative new products such as Video, Live Stream and Instant Articles.

The survey compiled data from 250 respondents across news, PR, publishing and marketing.

Here is everything else you need to know about the social landscape in 2016 – and what’s coming down the pipeline.

Facebook is Driving a Social-First Landscape

With 40% of US adults getting their news from Facebook, and the social giant driving between 21-40% of respondents’ monthly traffic, compared to 0-10% for all other platforms combined, organisations are increasingly adopting a social-first approach and tailoring content to fit with Facebook’s new products. 

Platforms Driving Most Traffic Other than Facebook
(By number of respondents)

X 123

Google 27

LinkedIn 23

Reddit 14

Pinterest 12

YouTube 10

Messaging apps 4

Social Media is the New KPI

Data gleaned from social is being used to the point where KPIs and key metrics are no longer the benchmark. 41% of publishers, brands and agencies are using Facebook shares, Instagram comments and tweets to measure content engagement and success for both themselves and their competitors.

Furthermore, 34% are deep diving into audience trends, reader interests and analytics to better understand audiences and engage with loyal fans. Social media is also credited with giving brands more personality, as it allows for the creation of engaged deeply rooted communities, with shared values and beliefs, outside an organisation’s website.

Most Important Social Media Metrics in 2017
(By number of respondents)

Facebook shares 72

Video Views 51

Retweets 38

FB comments 37

FB reactions 35

X mentions 29

Instagram mentions 23

Instagram likes 16

Reddit upvotes 9

Metrics Becoming Less Important in 2017

FB likes 51

Instagram likes 26

Reddit upvotes 26

X mentions 25

FB comments 24

Retweets 22

Instagram comments 20

FB shares 12

Video views 11

Key takeaway? Facebook reactions, comments and shares will be the most important social media metric in 2017.

The Platforms Predicted to Emerge as Social Leaders in 2017

(By number of respondents)

Facebook 103

Instagram 81

Snapchat 66

X 42

LinkedIn 25

Pinterest 11

Reddit 3

Key takeaway: Snapchat is on the rise due to its Millennial fan base. CNN and DailyMail have emerged as winners of using Snapchat discover, which they have used to create live stream, and user-generated content.

According to Wynton Hall, Managing Editor and Social Media Director, Breitbart News, Snapchat and Instagram are nipping at Facebook’s heels “because they allow for visual, emotion-laden storytelling that niche publishers can use to forge a community where readers nod in agreement and say to themselves, ‘Yes, these people get me. I want to be part of this community.’”

Data gleaned from social is being used to the point where KPIs and key metrics are no longer the benchmark

Adds Samantha Barry, Head of Social Media and Senior Director of Strategy, CNN, “For CNN, social plays a big part in making sure we’re reaching our audiences where they are – on Facebook, in messaging apps, in Snapchat, on X and more. Our long term aim with social distribution is to create a CNN news habit for every generation on every platform.”

Of course if there are winners, there must also be losers – with 96 respondents claiming X will be less important to their 2017 social media strategy, and 23 citing Google+ as less of a priority.

Most In-Demand Skills

Experience with data and analytics, followed by a deep understanding of social ecosystems are considered the most valuable skills for employees to have. Also ranking high on the list is strategy and expert knowledge of which platforms work for different content, and how to cater to algorithms. Third party analytics are increasingly in use, with 30% of respondents using external analytics platforms such as Buzzsumo, Newswhip, Chartbeat, Brandwatch, ComScore and Hootsuite.

Clickbait is Dead and Native is the New Black

Savvy audiences demand quality and there are plenty of places they can get it if your content does not provide it. The overarching theme that emerged in the report was that genuine content needs to align with and interests current events.

Enter native, with 91% of respondents saying it will be more important to their strategy in 2017. According to the report, “Native content allows social media users to enjoy content seamlessly delivered into their social feed, intending to blend articles and videos with the posts of friends and family.”

The challenges, however, include the high cost, proof of ROI, and creating quality content. “When a publisher puts content on a social platform, there is often a revenue option (for example, Facebook puts ads into Instant Articles published by news companies), but the publisher doesn’t have as much control over how that revenue is delivered, nor does the publisher have as much insight to the audience associated with it,” said Paul Caluori, Global Director of Digital Services, The Associated Press.

Distribution is the Lifeblood of Social

Over half (52%) of respondents said social distribution is “absolutely essential to their organizations,” rating it a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 importance. The ranking was the same for the importance of social strategy in relation to effective social distribution. According to the report, “The biggest segment of survey respondents said Facebook drives between 20 to 40 percent of their monthly traffic.” This is attributed to the fact the platform now has more mechanisms with which people can engage.

Challenges for Distribution

Human resources 32%

Financial resources 22%

Changing algorithms 12%

Revenue generation 14%

Paid Media vs Organic

Organic is seen as a way of building trust, and successful paid campaigns depend on strong organic content: 58% said it’s essential to boost content with paid media, with 62% of organisations surveyed saying they invest in paid media. Interestingly, views are no longer the content strategy benchmarker and have been replaced by engagement and redistribution.

Changing Algorithms are a Concern

What is abundantly clear is that organisations are more focussed than ever on the challenge of constantly changing algorithms. The ability to bypass “changes to social algorithms, and knowing how to cross pollinate across different social platforms to achieve effective social distribution,” will be a priority for organisations in 2017. Also, ranking high on the to-do list will be a deeper study of audience analysis and behaviour, drilling into the science of what makes something viral, and also having the data required to “capitalise on social trends.” Monetising social distribution will remain an issue.

Video is Skyrocketing

Over the next year, 92% respondents said video will become increasingly important to strategy, with 66% planning to significantly grow their video offerings. Leading the way is the social-only NowThis, which has seen distribution grow 10 times in the past year to 1 billion views per month.

Respondents also reported the following problems for video content creation:

Resources 37%

Content quality 19%

Good tactics 16%

Virality and reach 14%

Quality 7%

Monetisation 5%

Copyright 2%

What will your social media strategy look like in 2017?

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The post 2017 Social Media Trends Forecast appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Social media is a fickle world obsessed with fans, followers and Klout scores. KPIs are vague at best and campaign targets are tenuous. So how do you measure the true ‘success’ of your social media campaigns?

1. Define the Why

Before you start tracking anything, define why you’re tracking that metric. This is more important to your campaign than any ‘defined’ metric out there. Okay, so you’ve doubled your number of followers, but why is that helping your business? What do you want from these followers? Are you building a long-term relationship? Do you need to convert them to an action in the short-term such as signing up to your mailing list. Once you have defined goals, only then can you make the most of tracking your metrics.

2. Engagement

Engagement is a catch-all word in social media. We know that we want our audience to interact with us but we also need to measure that interaction. It’s easier said than done when tracking across multiple platforms but a simple formula breakdown for this is something like: Number of audience comments/replies per post.  The higher the conversation rate, the more your audience is truly interested in what you’re saying. Don’t assume a like is an act of engagement with your post, it requires little effort and should be considered a separate metric. Analytics expert Avinash Kaushik defines likes as an Applause metric  rather than an engagement metric, which is a great way to better categorise these metrics.

3. Amplification

Aside from interacting with your business, social media campaigns are unique in that they provide a series of extended networks to whom you can actively promote your wares. The metric from this is Amplification Rate, which is the number of retweets or shares for your post. Make the most of this. Don’t just look at flat numbers but take into account how other influencing factors such as time of posting, messaging and platforms, impact the metric.

Tweets provide a great opportunity to A/B test your headlines, and potentially roll out your findings to other platforms

4. Click-through-Rate (CTR)

We’re used to A/B testing across most digital marketing platforms – alternating email subject lines, showing multiple Adwords adverts etc. – but A/B testing in social media is underused. CTR measures the number of people who click through on a link after seeing your post. Tweets provide a great opportunity to A/B test your headlines, and potentially roll out your findings to other platforms.

You should be posting the same tweet multiple times across any given day (use a tool like Buffer for this) in order to be seen in the timeline of as many of your target audience as possible. Try subtly changing the text of your tweet and see what impact this has on your CTR. Learn which hashtags resonate the most. Does the URL name make a difference (use a tool such as Bit.ly to test this)?

5. Response Rate

One final metric that should not be forgotten is the monitoring of your own community management. Potential and existing customers will often use social media to reach out to you; if you do not have a clear response strategy in place you could be missing out on valuable opportunities to convert or extend the relationship you have. Ensure your team has a clear plan of how to respond, and within what timeframe, so you can avoid being on a future Social Media Fails list.

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The post 5 Social Media Metrics That Actually Matter appeared first on Financial Marketer.