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Why Evaluate Social Media Campaigns?
Social media is an indispensable tool for organizations to communicate with the public. Evaluating and tracking social media
campaign metrics will help you make informed decisions to optimize your content and achieve your communication goals. This
document will help you to dene your goals and objectives, identify key performance indicators, gather and interpret social media
data, and develop recommendations for campaign optimization.
Define Goals and Objectives
Campaign Goals
To develop a plan to evaluate your campaign, it is essential to rst dene your campaign’s goals. These goals serve as broad
statements that outline the overarching strategic purpose of the campaign. By dening clear goals, you provide a sense of
direction and focus for all campaign activities, ranging from brainstorming to content creation to evaluation. These goals should
align with your organization’s mission and broader objectives.
Example Organizational Mission Example Campaign Goal
Example
Decrease the number of drug overdose deaths in
the United States each year.
Educate the public about the lifesaving
power of naloxone.
Campaign Objectives
Campaign objectives translate your overarching goals into specic, measurable targets that allow you to determine if and when,
you achieve your campaign goals. To write eective objectives, follow the “SMART” framework:
• Specic: Make the objective simple, clear, and concise.
• Measurable: The objective should be quantiable, and you should have access to the necessary data.
• Achievable: The objective should be realistic, and you should be able to accomplish it by your deadline.
• Relevant: Directly relate your objective to each specic goal.
• Time-bound: Set a deadline to accomplish your goal.
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SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN EVALUATION
Dening objectives requires you to identify key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs are metrics used to measure your progress
toward your objectives. Each objective should include one KPI.
Common KPIs and what they can tell you about your campaign’s performance are listed below.
KPI Denition What It Tells You
Reach The number of unique users who have
been exposed to a piece of social media
content. A user who sees a post twice will
be counted once.
The size of the campaign’s audience, the
number of people reached, and the visibility of
the campaign.
Impressions The total number of times a piece of content
has been displayed to users. A user who sees
a post twice will be counted twice.
The exposure of the campaign, the potential
audience size, and the visibility of the campaign.
Engagements The number of times users have interacted
with a piece of content. This includes likes,
comments, shares, clicks, and other actions
users can take.
The level of user interest and involvement
in the campaign, and how the campaign is
resonating with users.
Engagement rate The proportion of users exposed to a piece
of content who interact with the content.
Typically calculated as (engagements/
reach)*100.
How interested users are in this content
compared to other content.
URL clicks The number of times users follow a link
included in a post.
Whether the campaign is convincing users to
visit a website to learn more.
Followers Users who choose to subscribe to a social
media account to see the content posted by
that account.
How many people are interested in hearing
more from the account. Net follower growth
over time indicates whether an account is
getting more or less popular.
Example Campaign Goal Example Campaign Objective
Example
Educate the public about the lifesaving
power of naloxone.
Receive at least 20,000 impressions on campaign
content in the rst 6 weeks of the campaign.
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Track Metrics
You can track your KPIs by using the social media platforms’ built-in analytics reports (also called “native” analytics) or through a
social media management platform. This section describes each approach. Although there are numerous large and small social
media platforms on the internet, this guide focuses on the four social media platforms that are most commonly used by public
health organizations: Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Using a Social Media Management Platform
Social media managers (SMMs) are third-party apps or websites that can be used to help you manage multiple social media platforms
in one place. They enable you to schedule content for each of your accounts and often oer analytics modules to help you analyze
social media data. Sprout Social is a robust SMM that oers content management, publishing, analytics, monitoring, and many other
features. Although using an SMM is not required, free or low-cost SMMs are available. It may be helpful to consider the number of
users, number of social media accounts, supported platforms, and scheduling when deciding whether an SMM is right for you.
The sites listed below are some of the most popular, far-reaching social media platforms today. However, the social media
world is always changing and growing, and other platforms may be an ideal t for your needs. Consider your organization’s
goals and resources as well as a platform’s purpose, audience, and metrics/analytics when choosing a platform.
Facebook
Facebook is a social media platform used for sharing written content, images, and videos with a general
audience. The platform aims to build community through tactics like Facebook events, Facebook groups,
and posts that ask questions for the audience to answer. Facebook has the largest audience of any social
media platform in the United States, with an estimated 243 million monthly active users in the United
States alone. Around 55% of U.S. Facebook users are older than age 34.
You can create a Facebook Page for your organization to disseminate content, and review the Facebook
Page metrics using the Facebook Insights tab.
X/Twitter
X/Twitter is a fast-paced platform with real-time posts. It primarily revolves around written content
and often includes images, videos, and shortened links for more information. It is often used for
disseminating bite-size information with links to websites with more in-depth information. Content
on Twitter tends to perform best when it can be tied to a current event or news story. X/Twitter has an
estimated 95.4 million users in the United States. Worldwide, about 63% of X/Twitter users are male and
38.5% are between ages 25 and 34.
You can set up a Professional Account for your organization to access account metrics (see account
Analytics). There are also FAQ instructions for converting an account to a Professional Account.
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Instagram
Instagram is a visually focused platform with an emphasis on engaging images and short videos.
Links cannot be shared on standard Instagram posts, so Instagram posts often direct users to visit the
“link in bio” for more information. Instagram has about 143 million users in the United States and has
the youngest user base of the four major social networks, with 30.8% of users being between ages 18
and 24. Although some Instagram account features can be accessed from a computer, the majority of
Instagram’s functionality is only accessible on the mobile app. A unique feature about this platform is
that it can be linked to Facebook, enabling posting to both channels simultaneously.
You can set up a business account on Instagram for your organization and nd instructions to view
metrics (on the mobile app only). Similar to Facebook, you can access and interpret your Instagram
account’s Insights.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a professional networking platform designed for users to build professional connections
and share career updates and opportunities. LinkedIn is frequently used for sharing thought leadership
content in both short- and long-written formats. LinkedIn has about 206 million users in the United
States, with many users (39%) being between ages 30 and 39. LinkedIn’s audience is highly educated,
with 98% reporting at least some post-secondary education.
You can create a LinkedIn page for your organization to share job openings, organizational updates,
new health information or guidelines, and other announcements intended for professional audiences.
Instructions for accessing LinkedIn page metrics can be found here, and tips for interpreting your
metrics are available here.
Tracking Web Data
Website data are valuable for evaluating social media campaigns. The data reveal how users are interacting with your website
following exposure to social media posts. To track user behavior, consider tagging the links in your social media posts. The most
common way of doing this is by including UTM parameters. These parameters are added to the end of a URL to create a tagged
link, which allows you to track how a campaign, post, or creative drives trac to your website. Data resulting from tagged links can
be viewed and managed in a link tagging tool, such as Google Analytics or Adobe campaigns. You can learn more about tagging
and tracking links here.
Interpret Data
After collecting your data, the next step is to analyze and interpret it. Start by asking:
• Are you on track to meet the objectives you set for the campaign?
• Are there any characteristics that your top posts share that might explain why they’re performing well?
• Are there any characteristics that your low-performing posts share that might explain why they aren’t doing well?
Consider the following aspects when analyzing your data: tone of voice, call to action, hashtag use, image type, text on the image,
publishing time, day of the week, and post length. Keep in mind there is no universal formula for each characteristic because
the eectiveness of dierent post characteristics may vary depending on your audience and objectives. You can reference these
guides for general recommendations on best practices for posting frequency, timing, image specications, and post length.
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Develop Recommendations
Once you’ve generated insights from your data, convert them into actionable recommendations. Consider how these insights
align with your goals and objectives, and identify ways to improve, or course correct, your campaign based on the collected data.
Campaign Objective Insights Recommendation
Example
Generate 150 engagements
on campaign posts in the rst
6 weeks of the campaign.
Posts with images are
getting more engagements
than posts without images,
but posts without images are
reaching more people.
Prioritize publishing posts
with images and limit
text-only posts.
Example
Reach 15,000 users with
campaign posts in the rst
6 weeks of the campaign.
Posts with images are getting
more engagements than posts
without images, but posts
without images are reaching
more people.
Prioritize publishing
text-only posts and
limit posts with images.
Establish a routine for monitoring your campaign performance on a regular basis. For example:
• Short-term campaigns (3 months or less), monitor weekly.
• Mid-term campaigns (4–8 months), monitor every 2–3 weeks.
• Long-term campaigns (8+ months), monitor at least monthly.
Iteration and evaluation are key. Each time you implement a new recommendation, establish a timeline for evaluating that
change and deciding whether to adopt it long term. If your posts’ performance does not improve after implementing the change,
consider testing a new recommendation. Continue this process throughout your campaign to continually optimize your content
and improve your campaign’s performance.
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