20 Social Media Metrics to Track (With Formulas and Benchmarks)

More doesn’t necessarily mean better. Think emails in your inbox, glitter on a Mother’s Day card, hot sauce… That applies to social media metrics, too.

It’s tempting to track everything your analytics dashboard throws at you. But not all social media metrics are created equal, and the ones worth your time come down to your specific social media marketing goals — whether that’s testing a new format, growing an audience, or getting more people to your website.

Metrics are most helpful when they guide your next move — adjusting your content, switching up your posting schedule, or even thinking up new products. In this guide, I’ll walk you through 20 social media marketing metrics, what each one tells you, how to calculate it, and how to turn the right handful into KPIs.

Key takeaways

• Social media metrics vs. KPIs: Metrics are everything you can measure on your accounts. KPIs are the three to five metrics you tie to a specific goal and target, such as lifting LinkedIn engagement rate from 4% to 6% in a quarter.
• Engagement rate is the most widely used metric for judging whether content is landing. The formula is total engagements ÷ reach × 100.
• Typical engagement rates differ by platform. Buffer’s analysis of 52+ million posts found 2025 medians of about 6.2% on LinkedIn, 5.6% on Facebook, 5.5% on Instagram, 4.6% on TikTok, 4.0% on Pinterest, 3.6% on Threads, and 2.5% on X.
• Reach vs. impressions: Reach counts the unique people who saw a post. Impressions, which many platforms now report as views, count every time it was shown, including repeats.
• Replying to comments is linked to higher engagement on every platform Buffer studied, with up to 42% more on Threads and 30% more on LinkedIn.
• Posting consistently protects your growth. In Buffer’s data, accounts that skipped a week of posting grew followers more slowly than their own usual rate.
• Vanity metrics like follower count and likes are most useful when you turn them into a rate, such as follower growth rate or engagement rate.
• Click-through rate, conversion rate, and return on ad spend are the metrics that connect social media activity to revenue.

Social media metrics are the numbers you use to see how your content is performing against your social media goals.

Any time you check how many people liked a post, clicked a link, or followed your account, you’re working with social media metrics. Each one tells its own story about your content’s reach and impact.

Social media metrics vs. social media KPIs 

You may hear people refer to metrics as “social media KPIs,” or key performance indicators. They sound similar, but they aren’t exactly the same.

• Metrics include every single thing you can measure on your social media channels.
• KPIs are the specific metrics you’ve chosen to track towards your goals, usually with a target attached.

A metric becomes a KPI when you tie it to a goal and a number. A few examples:

• Goal: build awareness for a new product → KPI: grow monthly reach by 20% over the next quarter
• Goal: build a more engaged community on LinkedIn → KPI: lift average post engagement rate from 4% to 6%
• Goal: drive signups from social → KPI: 150 signups a month from social referral traffic

You can track dozens of metrics, but you need only three to five KPIs to understand whether you’re close to or far from achieving your goals.

Start with the goal, not the metric. Here’s every metric in this guide at a glance, with the formula and the goal it’s most useful for:

Pick the metrics that match your goal and choose three to five as your social media KPIs. Then note where each one sits today before you set a target. A baseline makes “good” mean something for your account rather than someone else’s.

Say your goal is getting more people to your website. You might pick click-through rate, social referral traffic, and conversion rate. If your posts currently average a 0.8% CTR and send 400 visitors a month, those are your baselines. A realistic target might be a 1.2% CTR and 600 visitors a month by the end of the quarter. Without the starting numbers, you wouldn’t know whether 1.2% was a win or a slip.

Vanity metrics vs. actionable metrics

Vanity metrics are numbers that look impressive but don’t tell you what to do next — total follower count, likes on their own, or a single post’s impressions.

They aren’t useless. Follower count still matters for creator partnerships, and impressions are a fair top-of-funnel signal. They just work better paired with a rate or an outcome:

• Follower count → follower growth rate
• Likes → engagement rate
• Impressions → click-through rate

If a number can go up without changing anything you’d do differently, it’s probably a vanity metric on its own.

Engagement metrics show how people are responding to your content — not just seeing it, but actively doing something about it. When you track these signals, you start to see clear patterns in what your audience enjoys and comes back for.

1. Engagement rate

Formula: Engagement rate = total engagements ÷ reach × 100

Engagement rate tells you how much your audience is interacting with your content.

Things like likes, comments, shares, or saves all count towards engagement rate. It’s a quick way to understand whether your content is catching people’s attention and prompting them to respond.

Some tools divide by followers instead of reach (useful for comparing accounts of different sizes), and LinkedIn includes clicks in its own engagement count. Whichever version you use, stick with it so your numbers stay comparable over time.

Freelance social media marketer Rebecca Broad uses this metric as a gut check while creating content. “Keeping engagement rate in mind means I constantly assess visuals and copy and ask ‘why would anyone care?'” says Rebecca.

“Why would someone who sees this post stop scrolling and spend precious time and energy engaging with it?” It’s a perspective that can help you keep your audience at the center of every creative decision.

What’s a good engagement rate? It depends heavily on the platform. Buffer’s State of Social Media Engagement report, which analyzed 52+ million posts from 200,000+ accounts, found these median engagement rates in 2025:

Medians from accounts posting through Buffer only. Each platform defines engagement differently, so compare your numbers within a platform, not across them. A 4% engagement rate is below the median on LinkedIn and above it on X.

(More context in our guide to average engagement rate.)

You can track engagement rate:

• for a single post
• across a campaign
• over time on a platform

Each view gives you slightly different insights — from how well a specific piece of content landed to how your audience is engaging week over week.

Post engagement rate

Post engagement rate shows you which posts are making people stop and react — not just scroll by.

This type of social media engagement also tells the algorithm your content is worth sharing more widely, though engagement types are often weighted slightly differently on each platform. For example, shares (especially in DMs) are a strong signal to the Instagram algorithm. Meaningful comments carry weight on LinkedIn, especially when they get a conversation going.

Buffer Insights shows each post’s engagement rate for you, so you can spot patterns without exporting everything to a spreadsheet and working it out by hand.

Track this metric when:

• you’re experimenting with new content formats
• you’re promoting a message you want to stand out
• you want to keep a general eye on what your audience responds to

How to use post engagement metrics

When you see a spike in engagement, don’t stop at the number — figure out what’s behind it. Was the post tied to a trending topic? Did you ask a question that got people talking? Did the visual pop in the feed?

Those are the kinds of clues that can guide what you post next. And if something really clicks, look for ways to repurpose it elsewhere — Rebecca often reworks strong LinkedIn posts into blog CTAs (calls to action).

On the flip side, if engagement is low, that’s your cue to experiment. Change up the format, try a different tone, or shift your focus and see what sticks.

Campaign engagement rate

Campaign engagement rate shows how an entire social media campaign is landing — messaging, post timing, and creatives together.

Because campaigns often span multiple formats and run over several days, this metric can reveal patterns you may not spot while looking at individual social media posts alone.

In Buffer, you can use tags to segment posts related to a specific campaign and then see its engagement rate with one filter. 

Track this metric when:

• you’re launching a new product or service
• you’re running a seasonal promotion (Black Friday + Cyber Monday, anyone?)
• you’re raising awareness on a topic

How to use campaign engagement metrics

For brands, campaign engagement rate is a helpful way to adjust your approach mid-campaign. If engagement’s low, you might rethink your next post or shift your ad spend. It’s also a practical way to test influencer or creator partnerships before making bigger commitments in future campaigns.

Creators can include strong campaign engagement rates in pitches and media kits. A solid campaign engagement rate shows brands that you won’t just get them in front of people — you’ll get people talking, following, and maybe even buying.

Platform engagement rate

Platform engagement rate gives you a broader view of how your content is performing across an entire social media platform. When you track this over time, you’ll start to see whether your audience is still responding or if engagement is beginning to dip.

Buffer shows the overall engagement rate for each channel you connect, and you can set a custom date range to see how it changed over a specific period, such as before and after a strategy shift.

Track this metric when:

• you’re evaluating whether your overall social strategy is working or needs a shift
• you want to know if the platform is still worth your time, or if your focus might be better placed elsewhere

How to use platform engagement metrics

If engagement is steady or trending up, it’s a sign that the platform is worth continued time and effort.

If it starts to fall, it could mean your content needs a refresh, your posting rhythm needs tweaking, or your audience is moving elsewhere — and it might be worth following them. 

Before you pack up, check the platform-wide trend in the table above: Instagram’s median engagement rate fell around 26% between 2024 and 2025 across Buffer’s whole dataset, so a dip there isn’t necessarily about you.

Formula: Total number of comments per post (also evaluate the quality of engagement)

Comments count the replies people leave on your posts. They take more effort than a like, which makes them one of the clearest signs that a post gave someone something to say.

Comments are also the engagement you can do the most about. In Buffer’s analysis of nearly two million posts, posts where the account replied to comments earned more engagement than the same account’s posts without replies: 

• +42% on Threads 
• +30% on LinkedIn
• +21% on Instagram 

(That’s a correlation rather than proof of cause, but it held on all platforms studied.)

Track this metric when:

• you want to know which topics start conversations, not just get a quick tap
• you’re building a community and want to see if people talk to each other, not just to you
• you’re testing questions or prompts in your captions

How to use comments

Judge comments by quality, not quantity. Are people asking questions about your content? Are they sharing their own experience with the topic? A handful of thoughtful comments tells you more than a hundred fire emojis.

Replying is how you turn comments into more engagement, and into a community. Buffer pulls comments from all your connected channels into one place, so you can reply without opening each app (and getting pulled into scrolling while you’re there).

And when a comment sparks an idea, you can turn it straight into a new post from inside Buffer (instead of scrambling to note it down somewhere so you can remember it).

3. Shares

Formula: Amplification rate = shares ÷ followers × 100

Shares (also called reposts or retweets) count how many times people pass your content on to their own followers or send it to someone directly.

A share puts your content in front of people who don’t follow you yet, which is why platforms treat it as a strong signal. If you want a rate rather than a raw count, use the amplification rate.

Track this metric when:

• you want to grow beyond your existing audience
• you’re testing whether a piece of content is useful or relatable enough to pass on
• you’re comparing which formats travel furthest

How to use shares

Look at what your most-shared posts have in common. Often it’s a clear takeaway, a strong opinion, or something people want to send to a specific friend or colleague. Make more of that, and make it easy to share — a single, self-contained point travels further than a post that needs context.

To spot patterns faster, ask your AI assistant (connected to Buffer through MCP) “Which of my posts got the most shares, and what do they have in common?”

4. Saves

Formula: Save rate = saves ÷ reach × 100

Saves count how many people bookmarked your post to come back to later. They’re available on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and X (as bookmarks), though not every platform shows them publicly.

A save means someone found the post useful enough to keep, which is why saves tend to follow tutorials, checklists, and reference-style posts.

Track this metric when:

• you’re creating educational or how-to content
• you want to know which posts have long-term value, not just a quick reaction
• you’re testing carousels or other formats designed to be revisited

How to use saves

Saves are one of the best sources of content ideas you have. Each save tells you that someone wanted to come back to that post, so look at your most-saved posts and ask what made them worth keeping. Was it a step-by-step process, a checklist, a set of examples?

Then build on it. A post that explained one tip can become a series covering the rest. A popular checklist can become a downloadable template. And if the same topic keeps pulling saves, read the comments on those posts too. Follow-up questions there are often your next post, already written for you by your audience.

5. Average watch time and completion rate

Formulas:

• Average watch time = total watch time ÷ total views
• Completion rate = completed views ÷ total views × 100

Average watch time (sometimes called average view duration) is the number of seconds people spend watching your video. Completion rate is the share of viewers who watched to the end.

These are two of the clearest video performance metrics — a higher average watch time means viewers are sticking around for longer. They matter even more on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where watch time influences what gets recommended or shown to more people.

Depending on the platform, you might be able to track average watch time for your full library or just individual videos. YouTube gives you both, while Instagram Reels focuses on video-by-video performance.

Track this metric when:

• you’re experimenting with different video lengths or formats
• you’re comparing video content performance across platforms
• you want to see which topics or styles keep people watching

How to use video engagement metrics

A longer average watch time suggests your content is working, whether it’s the pacing, the topic, or how the video opens. Use that to guide what you make next.

If people are dropping off early, open the retention graph for that video. Most platforms show one in their analytics, including YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels. Look at where the line drops, not just how far:

• A steep drop in the first three seconds means the hook isn’t working. The topic may be fine, but the opening didn’t give people a reason to stay. Rework the first line or first frame before you change anything else. Buffer’s free Hook Generator can give you a few options to test.
• A sudden dip in the middle usually lines up with a slow section, a long intro, or a point where the video stops delivering what the hook promised. Cut or tighten that part next time.
• A gradual slope to the end is normal. Compare your completion rate across similar videos to see which lengths your audience sticks with.

Reach and awareness metrics

Reach and awareness metrics tell you how often your posts are being shown and how far they’re traveling. Content can’t make an impact if no one’s seeing it.

6. Reach

Reach tells you how many different people saw your post or ad. Each person is counted once, whether they saw that post one time or five times.

If a post has a reach of 15,000, that means 15,000 different people saw it.

It’s one of the key metrics that Hailley Griffis, Director of Communications and Content at Buffer, tracks. “Different communities and social networks will engage differently, but if you are reaching an increased number of people, then you’re doing something right,” says Hailley.

Reach helps you compare which formats, topics, or platforms are getting seen the most.

Track reach when:

• you’re testing different formats to see which ones grab more attention
• you want to understand which topics or messages your audience cares most about
• you want to see if posting at different times or on different days helps you reach more people
• you’re reviewing which platforms your audience is most active on

How to use reach

Just like you did with engagement rate, start by checking which posts had the highest reach, then dig into the context. Was it the topic? The timing? Did someone share it and extend your audience?

Hailley reviews her reach every couple of weeks to find these patterns and make small adjustments that add up over time.

One thing she’s noticed: showing up regularly makes a difference. “My reach continues to increase on Threads the more I stay consistent,” says Hailley.

“I’ve spotted the same pattern for other creators too. While my Threads engagement is still growing, I’ve also seen increases in overall reach in the last few months of maintaining consistency.”

Buffer’s data shows a similar pattern for growth. Across 4.8 million channel-weeks, accounts that skipped a week grew followers more slowly than their own baseline.

7. Impressions and views

Impressions count how many times your content is shown on someone’s screen, even if it’s to the same person more than once.

For example, say someone taps through to an Instagram post from your stories and then also sees the post in their feed the next time they open the app. This counts as two impressions, even though it’s the same person.

It’s easy to confuse impressions with reach, but they measure different things. Reach tracks how many unique people saw your posts. Impressions count all views, including repeat ones.

For Meryoli Arias, Head of Social Media at Glide, impressions are a north star metric. “As a social media marketer, my main focus is top-of-mind relevance. And the number of times my message and brand are in front of X amount of people (impressions) helps me with that,” she says.

Track impressions when:

• you’re testing or comparing content formats
• you’re checking if the algorithm is showing people your posts
• you’re measuring overall brand awareness

Just keep in mind: a post can rack up thousands — even millions — of impressions without leading to more followers or engagement, or meeting your business objectives.

“I had a viral post that hit 2 million impressions. Something that took me two minutes to create was being appreciated by so many people,” says Meryoli. But despite its success, the post didn’t do much to boost any of Meryoli’s business goals, like increasing click-throughs or sign-ups.

“I learned that virality is not and should never be the goal of social media. A good tap in the shoulder for the ego does not equal business success.”

In Buffer, you can see a post’s reach and impressions side by side (for channels that support both). That makes it easy to spot which posts reached lots of new people and which ones were mostly seen again by the same people. 

If impressions are well above reach, the post was shown to the same people multiple times. If the two are close, most views came from different people.

How to use impressions

Look at which formats, topics, or post styles get the most impressions, then tweak your formats, posting schedule, or content collaborations to build on what’s working.

If your impressions start to slide, check three things before you overhaul your content:

• How often you’re posting. Impressions are closely tied to how much you post. In Buffer’s LinkedIn data, moving from one post a week to two to five meant about 1,182 more impressions per post. And in our Instagram analysis, weeks with no posts at all pulled follower growth below an account’s usual baseline.
• Which formats you’re using. Some formats are built for reach. On Instagram, Reels get around 36% more reach than carousels, even though carousels earn more engagement.
• Whether it’s just you. Check the platform-wide trends in the engagement rate table above. If a whole platform is down, the dip may say more about the platform than about your content.

Audience growth metrics

Audience growth metrics show who’s following along and how that community is growing or changing. They help you see who’s in the proverbial room, so you know who to talk to in your content.

8. Follower growth rate

Formula: Follower growth rate = new followers in a period ÷ followers at the start of the period × 100

Follower growth rate tracks how quickly new people are choosing to follow your account over time. Follower count is one of the most visible social media metrics, and often one of the first numbers people look at when trying to measure progress — the growth rate turns it into something you can compare month to month.

If you started the month with 2,000 followers and gained 150, your follower growth rate is 7.5%.

For Meryoli, it’s another north star metric. She uses follower growth to see whether her content is reaching new people and growing her audience — a sign that it’s drawing attention and building momentum.

Buffer Insights tracks follower growth for every channel you connect and compares it with the previous period, so you can see straight away whether this month’s growth sped up or slowed down.

Track this metric when:

• you want to see if your content or campaigns are reaching fresh eyes
• you’re measuring the impact of a recent launch, collaboration, or experiment
• you’re setting goals for overall brand awareness or community growth

How to use follower growth

Follower growth can be a helpful KPI, but it’s most meaningful when paired with metrics like engagement and conversions. A rising follower count on its own doesn’t say much about whether those followers are taking action. That’s why it’s sometimes called a “vanity metric” — it reflects potential reach, not impact.

Use it as a signal, not the final measure of social media success. If your follower count is going up but comments, likes, or clicks aren’t, it might be time to adjust your content or CTAs to better engage your followers or reach the right audience.

9. Audience demographics

Audience demographics show you what kinds of people make up your audience — details like age, gender, and location.

It’s a simple way to check whether you’re attracting your target audience. You can use that information to create more content for the people already following you and adjust your social media strategy if you need to reach someone else.

Track this metric when:

• you want to know if you’re attracting your target audience
• you’re considering a shift in content style or topics and want to check fit
• you’re preparing a brand or investor pitch or media kit that needs audience proof

How to use demographics

Start by comparing who’s actually following you with who you want to reach. If they match, keep doing what you’re doing, and use the data to fine-tune your tone, visuals, and timing.

If they don’t, your content is probably speaking to the wrong people. Say you sell project management software to team leads in their 30s and 40s, but most of your followers are students aged 18 to 24. That’s usually a sign your posts lean towards general productivity tips rather than the problems team leads deal with every day. 

Shift some of your posts to the questions and frustrations your ideal audience has, like running meetings, managing workloads, or reporting to leadership. Then check your demographics again in a month or two to see whether the mix is moving.

If you’re a creator, demographic data can also strengthen your pitch to brands. When you show that your audience lines up with who they’re trying to reach, you become a much more appealing partner.

Brand health metrics

Brand health metrics show whether — and how — people talk about your brand, which helps you see what’s working and where there’s room to improve. Social media monitoring and listening tools make it easy to track those conversations and see how people feel.

10. Brand mentions

Formula: Total mentions in a set period

Brand mentions measure how often your brand name pops up in posts, captions, or comments, whether someone tags your @handle or just types your name. Not every mention comes with a tag, so if you’re just relying on notifications, you’re likely missing pieces of the bigger conversation.

You can keep tabs on your brand name, key hashtags, and any phrases associated with you across different social media platforms. There’s no fancy formula here — it’s simply the total count of how many times you’re mentioned across the time you’re checking for.

Track this metric when:

• you want to measure brand awareness across multiple platforms
• you want to catch early signals from campaigns, partnerships, or product launches
• you’re keeping an eye out for potential issues before they escalate

How to use brand mentions

Brand mentions can show patterns in who’s talking about you and what gets them sharing. Maybe a campaign hashtag takes off, or you notice more chatter after a launch or big announcement. This data helps you fine-tune your ad targeting, spot potential brand advocates, and even connect with super fans who are already cheering you on.

Brand mentions also play a key role in tracking brand sentiment and share of voice (both coming up next).

11. Brand sentiment

Formula: Positive sentiment rate = positive mentions ÷ total mentions × 100

Brand sentiment measures how people feel about your brand, content, or product — whether their comments and posts are mostly positive, negative, or somewhere in between.

While mentions tell you how often your brand comes up in conversation, sentiment reveals what’s actually being said and how people feel.

Reading through comments and mentions yourself gives you a sense of sentiment, but this gets tricky as your audience grows. Sentiment analysis tools can help by reviewing those mentions automatically and tagging the tone behind each one.

For example, “This candle smells incredible and lasts for days” would register as positive. A comment like, “This package took ages to arrive and came damaged” would lean negative.

Track it when:

• you’re checking reactions to a product launch, seasonal campaign, or new collaboration
• you’re seeing a spike in mentions and want to understand what’s causing them
• you’re exploring ways to turn positive sentiment into testimonials or social proof

How to use brand sentiment

For brands, check sentiment on specific campaigns to see if you’ve nailed it — or if there’s something you need to adjust. Are customers complaining about shipping times? Check if the issue is with the carrier or internal logistics. Are they unhappy that you’re non-responsive? That’s where the customer service metrics below come in.

For creators, sentiment can help you spot which products or resources are really hitting home. Combine that with metrics like sales or click-through rates (more on this below) to figure out what to offer next. Are people loving your habit tracking template? A goals template might be a natural next step.

12. Share of voice

Formula: Share of voice = your brand mentions ÷ (your mentions + competitor mentions) × 100

Share of voice measures how much of the conversation in your space is about you, compared with your competitors.

If your brand was mentioned 300 times last month and your three main competitors were mentioned 900 times between them, your share of voice is 25%.

You count competitor mentions the same way you count your own. There are two ways to do it:

• With a social listening tool. Add each competitor’s brand name, @handle, and branded hashtags as keywords, the same way you set up tracking for your own brand. The tool collects every mention across platforms over the period you choose, and most will calculate share of voice for you. Our roundup of social listening tools compares the options.
• By hand. For a quick snapshot, search each competitor’s name, handle, and hashtags on each platform for a set period, such as the last 30 days. X’s advanced search lets you filter by date, and Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn let you search by keyword. Log the counts in a spreadsheet. This works for two or three competitors on one or two platforms, but it gets slow fast, and you’ll miss untagged mentions.

Whichever method you use, track the same keywords for every brand, over the same period and on the same platforms. Otherwise, you’re comparing different things.

Track this metric when:

• you want to measure brand awareness against competitors, not just against your own past numbers
• you’re running a campaign meant to get people talking
• you’re entering a new market or category

How to use share of voice

Track it over time rather than as a one-off. A rising share of voice after a campaign is a good sign it cut through, and a falling one while your mentions stay flat usually means a competitor is getting louder. 

Customer service metrics

Customer service metrics tell you how well you’re looking after the people who reach out to you on social media. For a lot of customers, a comment or DM is the first place they go with a question or complaint, so these numbers shape how people feel about your brand.

13. Response time

Formula: Average response time = total time to first response ÷ number of messages answered

Response time is the average time it takes your team to reply to a message, comment, or mention that needs an answer.

Track this metric when:

• you handle customer questions or complaints through social media
• you want to set (and meet) a service standard for your team
• you’re seeing negative sentiment that mentions slow replies

How to use response time

Set a target that fits your resources, then check it weekly. If your average creeps up, look at when messages arrive versus when your team is online — gaps around weekends and time zones are a common culprit. Our guide to customer service response time covers how to set a realistic target.

14. Response rate

Formula: Response rate = messages replied to ÷ messages received × 100

Response rate is the share of incoming messages, comments, or mentions that get a reply.

Track this metric when:

• you want to make sure nothing slips through the cracks
• you’re comparing how well different channels are covered
• you’re building community and want people to feel heard

How to use response rate

Not every comment needs a reply, so decide what counts (questions, complaints, and direct mentions are a good start) and track against that. Replying is also good for reach: as we covered under comments, posts with replies earned more engagement across every platform Buffer studied.

Conversion and ROI metrics

Conversion and ROI metrics show how your content drives results like website traffic, signups, sales, and a better return on your ad spend. If you’re deciding where to invest time or budget, these are the numbers that point you in the right direction — and the ones that help you calculate social media ROI.

15. Click-through rate (CTR)

Formula: CTR = link clicks ÷ impressions × 100

Click-through rate measures how often people click on a link after seeing your post or ad. If you’re sharing a link to your latest blog article, product, or signup page, CTR reveals how effective your post is at turning an impression into a visit.

Most major social media platforms — including Facebook, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Threads, and Bluesky — support clickable links in posts. Instagram is a little different: you can’t add links to regular posts (yet), but you can add them to stories with link stickers.

If you use a trackable link — known as a UTM — you can find out exactly how many people landed on your site from a specific post. Rebecca tracks CTR for posts that send people off a social media platform to understand what’s catching people’s attention and prompting them to click.

CTR isn’t a conversion metric — it won’t tell you if someone actually bought those earrings or joined your course. But it’s a strong sign your content is drawing people one step closer to your business objectives.

Track this metric when:

• you want to send people to a product page, landing page, or signup form
• you’re checking whether your ad spend is leading to site visits
• you want to compare how different CTAs or headlines perform

How to use click-through rate

A high CTR is a good sign that your copy, images, or CTA are piquing your target audience’s interest. If CTR isn’t where you hoped, that’s your cue to try something new: tweak your message, refresh your visuals, or experiment with different CTAs to see what gets people clicking.

Brands can use CTR to spot which ads or posts are compelling enough to get people to click through. If a product drop post isn’t driving many clicks, consider changing up the copy or shifting your targeting for the next round.

For creators, a strong CTR is useful in brand pitches — it shows you can send real traffic, not just rack up views. If CTR drops, see it as a nudge to switch up your post structure, test new formats, or experiment with fresh ways to encourage clicks.

16. Social referral traffic

Social referral traffic is the number of visits your website gets from social media platforms.

CTR tells you how many people clicked; referral traffic tells you how many of those clicks actually arrived on your site, which pages they landed on, and what they did next. You’ll find it in your website analytics (like Google Analytics 4) under traffic sources, and UTM-tagged links let you break it down by post or campaign.

Track this metric when:

• you want to know which platforms send the most visitors
• you’re comparing organic and paid social as traffic sources
• you need to show social’s contribution alongside email, search, and other channels

How to use social referral traffic

Compare traffic by platform and by landing page. A platform that sends fewer visitors who stay longer and convert more is often worth more than one that sends a flood of quick bounces.

17. Conversion rate

Formula: Conversion rate = conversions ÷ clicks × 100

Conversion rate is the percentage of people who complete an action after clicking through from social — buying something, signing up, downloading, or booking a call.

If a post sends 400 people to your signup page and 20 of them sign up, your conversion rate is 5%.

Track this metric when:

• you’re running a launch, promotion, or lead-generation campaign
• you want to know whether social traffic is the right traffic, not just a lot of it
• you’re comparing how different platforms or posts contribute to sales

How to use conversion rate

If CTR is strong but conversions are low, the problem usually isn’t the post — look at the page people land on and whether it delivers what the post promised. If both are low, start with the post and the audience you’re targeting.

18. Cost-per-click (CPC)

Formula: CPC = total ad spend ÷ number of clicks

Cost-per-click — or CPC — is an ad-specific metric that tells you how much it costs you for each click on your ad. It’s a useful way to keep tabs on how your ads are performing when your goal is to bring people to a specific page.

Because CPC measures cost, this is one social media metric where a higher number isn’t a good thing. A lower CPC, on the other hand, means you’re paying less each time someone clicks.

You can calculate CPC for individual ads or look at it over an entire campaign.

If you spent $50 on an ad that received 100 clicks, your CPC for the ad would be 50 cents — $50/100.

If you spent $500 on a campaign that received 2,000 clicks, your CPC for the campaign would be 25 cents — $500/2,000.

Track this metric when:

• you’re running ads to drive traffic to a site, store, or signup page
• you want to compare CPC across social media channels to see where your budget goes further
• you’re testing ad variations to see which one drives more clicks for less

How to use cost-per-click

Start by looking at the range of CPC across your ads. If one version costs more to get a click, look at the difference in copy, visuals, or CTA — did one include a clear benefit? Was it shorter, more specific, or better matched to the audience? Use this information to adjust new ads in the campaign.

Compare CPC by platform, too. If one consistently gives you lower costs, consider shifting more of your ad spend there or repurposing what worked in the creative or copy on other channels.

19. Cost per thousand impressions (CPM)

Formula: CPM = total ad spend ÷ impressions × 1,000

CPM is what you pay for every 1,000 times your ad is shown. Where CPC measures the cost of a click, CPM measures the cost of being seen.

If you spent $200 on an ad that was shown 40,000 times, your CPM is $5.

Track this metric when:

• you’re running awareness campaigns where clicks aren’t the main goal
• you’re comparing how expensive it is to reach people on different platforms
• your CPC jumps and you want to know whether ads got pricier or fewer people clicked

How to use CPM

Read CPM alongside CTR. A rising CPM with a steady CTR means it’s costing more to reach people, but a steady CPM with a falling CTR means the ad itself needs work.

20. Return on ad spend (ROAS)

Formula: ROAS = revenue from ads ÷ ad spend × 100

Return on ad spend (ROAS) measures how much you earn for every dollar spent on ads. It’s one of the clearest ways to check whether your paid campaigns are turning clicks into income.

While CPC measures how much your ads cost you, ROAS measures how much your ads earn you.

So, if you made $5,000 from a Facebook campaign and spent $1,000 on ads, your ROAS would be 500%.

Digital marketing consultant Laura Holyer considers ROAS (and revenue) one of the top paid social media metrics to track.

It’s a platform-specific metric, and both the revenue and the ad spend data come from the same place — usually the social media platform’s own tracking tools. That means your numbers can be affected by things like cookie restrictions or missing conversion data.

That’s why, says Laura, you should take the numbers “with a pinch of salt” if they’re coming from the platform itself. “Then we look at Blended ROAS figures as one of the top metrics,” she says.

Instead of looking at each platform in isolation, Blended ROAS looks at the bigger picture: how much total revenue you’re earning across all channels — organic social media, Google searches, email newsletters, paid ads — compared to what you’re spending on advertising.

Formula: Blended ROAS = total revenue across all channels ÷ total ad spend across all channels × 100

If your business brings in $8,000 overall after spending $1,000 on ads across all channels, your Blended ROAS is 800%.

Track this metric when:

• you want to measure whether your ad spend is converting into sales
• you’re comparing which channels are bringing in the most return
• you’re trying to decide where to shift budget or prioritize spend

How to use return on ad spend

Use ROAS to spot which campaigns are bringing in sales and which ones might need a change in direction — whether that’s updating the offer, tweaking the creative, or rethinking the channel.

Laura points out that the impact of a campaign also shows up in ways other than revenue. If you’re running a brand awareness campaign, you might not see sales right away — but you might notice more people searching for your brand. These kinds of shifts can be a sign your campaign is working, even if it takes people a little longer to act.

Once you know which metrics to pay attention to, the next step is figuring out how to track them. Most platforms offer built-in analytics tools, and there are third-party options that bring everything together.

Platform native insights

Most social media platforms come with built-in analytics, so you can keep an eye on key metrics without ever leaving the app.

What you’ll see (and how much detail you get) depends on the platform, and sometimes on your account type, but nearly all of them cover the basics: impressions or views, reach, engagement, follower growth, and demographic data.

• LinkedIn offers these metrics at both the post and account level (here’s our walkthrough of LinkedIn analytics).
• Instagram creator and business accounts go even deeper. The data breaks down views and engagements from followers vs. non-followers, and the percentage of views by content (and audience) type. You also get data about when your audience is most active each day of the week.
• X/Twitter analytics are only available to premium users. These detailed metrics include both post- and account-level impressions, engagement, link clicks, and follower growth. Link clicks are an important metric here, since posts directly support clickable links. Free users still get access to basic insights at the post level (see our guide to X analytics).
• Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, and Pinterest all have built-in metrics you can use to measure your social media performance on those channels (see our guide to TikTok analytics).

It’s always helpful to see all those metrics right where you create and post, but there’s a limitation — network-specific tools only show you what’s happening on that one platform.

If you’re sharing content on more than one social channel (and chances are, you are), these built-in dashboards aren’t going to give you the whole story. Third-party social media analytics tools come in handy if you want to see every channel side by side.

Native analytics show you one platform at a time. If you post on more than one, you’ll spend your reporting time switching between apps and copying numbers into a spreadsheet. A social media analytics tool brings every channel into one view, so you can compare them side by side and spot trends over time.

Buffer Insights is built for that. Here’s what you get:

• Every channel in one dashboard. See reach, engagement, follower changes, and your top posts across Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, X, Bluesky, and more. Then drill into a single channel when you want the detail.
• Progress you can compare. Likes, comments, impressions, and new followers are each compared with the previous period, so you can tell at a glance whether things are moving in the right direction.
• Weekly takeaways, not just charts. Insights suggests what to do next based on your data, such as adjusting your posting schedule, posting more often to hit your goal, or reposting content that performed well. Each suggestion comes with a one-click action.
• Reports you can hand over. Export reports as PDF or CSV to share with your team or clients (on paid plans).
• Answers from your AI assistant. Connect Buffer to Claude, ChatGPT, or another AI tool, and ask questions like “What were my top posts last month?” without opening a dashboard.

Every metric in Insights comes with a definition and shows when it was last updated, so you know exactly what you’re looking at.

Insights is included on Buffer’s free plan, and paid plans add longer history and exports. Get started for free →

How to measure social media success

Here’s a simple routine to start with:

1. Pick one goal for the next quarter — awareness, engagement, growth, traffic, or sales.
2. Choose three to five metrics from the table above that match it, and write down where each one sits today.
3. Set a target for each, which turns them into KPIs.
4. Check content metrics weekly (engagement, reach, watch time) and KPIs monthly, so you spot patterns without overreacting to one post.
5. Change one thing at a time — format, timing, topic, or CTA — so you can tell what moved the number.

What are the most important social media metrics?

The most important social media metrics are the ones tied to your goal. For most accounts that means engagement rate (is content landing?), reach (is it being seen?), follower growth rate (is the audience growing?), and click-through rate or conversion rate (is it driving action?). Pick three to five, not all 20.

What’s the difference between social media metrics and KPIs?

Social media metrics are everything you can measure on your accounts. KPIs are the few metrics you’ve connected to a specific goal and target — for example, “increase LinkedIn engagement rate from 4% to 6% this quarter.”

How do you measure social media success?

Set a clear goal, choose the metrics that reflect it, record a baseline, and check progress on a fixed schedule. Success is movement towards your target over time, not one viral post.

What is a good engagement rate on social media?

It depends on the platform. In Buffer’s analysis of 52+ million posts, median engagement rates were around:

• 6.2% on LinkedIn
• 5.6% on Facebook
• 5.5% on Instagram
• 4.6% on TikTok
• 4.0% on Pinterest
• 3.6% on Threads
• 2.5% on X

Compare your rate to your own past performance and to the median for that platform, not to other platforms.

What are vanity metrics?

Vanity metrics are numbers that look good but don’t tell you what to do next, like total follower count or likes on their own. They become useful when paired with a rate — follower growth rate instead of follower count, engagement rate instead of likes.

How often should you review social media metrics?

Check content-level metrics like engagement and reach weekly, and review your KPIs monthly. A quarterly look at the bigger picture (including a social media audit) helps you decide whether your goals or platforms need to change.

How do you track social media metrics?

Use each platform’s built-in analytics for channel-level data, UTM links and website analytics for traffic and conversions, and a social media analytics tool to see every channel in one dashboard.

This article was originally written by Shivani Shah and updated by Rochi Zalani in November 2026.