How to Measure Your B2B Social Media ROI

Have you ever put up a post that you guessed would successfully pull in customers and just hoped for the best? It’s a lot like tossing a message in a bottle into the ocean and waiting for a reply.  

Yeah, well, it’s time we stopped guessing and started getting smart about what works.  

Why? Because 20% of that hard-earned marketing budget is being funneled into your company’s social media efforts, but are you just splashing cash around or are you investing it wisely? This isn't Vegas; we can't rely on luck. We need to be sure that every post and every share is getting the job done and then some.  

Now, just imagine actually knowing which posts are your MVPs and which ones are just warming the bench.  

Well, what if we told you that’s possible by measuring your social media ROI? In the world of returns, every like, comment and share is a potential lead. Its where strategic insights make your marketing budget feel like an investment rather than a hopeful hunch.  

In the words of marketing guru Dan Zarrella, “Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed."  

So, grab a coffee — and maybe your favorite calculator — and let's make sense of all those likes and shares in a way that adds up to more tangible business success. Because let's face it, in the end, we want our social media to not just be social, but also to mean serious business.  

What is ROI in B2B social media? 

If you’re wondering what makes your social media efforts more than just digital chatter, ROI or return on investment is the answer. It is a measure of how much value you get from your social media activities compared to how much you spend on them. In simple B2B terms, ROI in social media boils down to this question: "Is the cash we're throwing into social media marketing giving us a financial high-five in return?"  

So, why is ROI so important for B2B social media? Well, because it helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your social media strategy, justify your budget and resources and optimize your performance. By measuring your ROI, you can answer questions like: 

• Which social media platforms are the most profitable for my business? 

• What types of content generate the most engagement, leads and sales? 

• How does the performance of my social media campaigns stack up against other marketing efforts? 

• How can I improve my company’s social media strategy to achieve its goals? 

So, how do you crunch these numbers exactly? Let's break it down with a basic formula: 

ROI = (Return from social media – Investment in social media) / Investment in social media × 100% 

Here are what the components mean. 

📈 Return from social media: It’s the total value of the benefits you get from your social media activities. It can include:  

• Revenue from leads generated via social platforms  

• Value from improved brand visibility  

• Cost savings from customer insights gathered through social interactions 

💸 Investment in social media: It’s the total amount of money you spend on your social media activities. This can include:  

• Advertising or promotion expenses 

• Content creation or curation expenses 

• Software or tool expenses 

• Labor or time expenses 

This formula gives you a percentage that represents the ratio of your profit or loss to your investment. For example, if your return is $10,000 and your investment is $5,000, your ROI is: 

ROI = ($10,000 - $5,000) / $5,000 x 100% = 100% 

This means that for every dollar you spent on social media, you got two dollars back.That’s a good ROI! 

However, calculating social media ROI is not always that simple. Depending on your business model, industry and goals, you may need to adjust the formula or use different metrics to measure your return and investment. 

What is a good ROI in B2B social media? 

Let’s take a moment to consider the dynamic world of B2B marketing, where 75% of buyers are influenced by social media content and 62% of B2B marketers generate leads through platforms like LinkedIn. This context sets a high bar for what effective social media engagement can achieve.  

But what is a good ROI in B2B social media at the end of the day? The answer depends on many factors, such as your goals, industry, target audience, competitors and budget. There is no one-size-fits-all formula for calculating ROI, but you can use some common social media metrics and benchmarks to guide you. 

Some of the metrics you can use to measure your social media ROI are: 

• Clicks: How many people click on your social media posts and visit your website or landing page? 

• Interactions: How many people engage with your social media content by liking, commenting, sharing or mentioning your brand? 

• Share of voice: How much of the online conversation about your industry or niche is related to your brand? 

• Leads: How many people fill out a form, download a resource, sign up for a webinar or take any other action that indicates their interest in your product or service? 

• Sales: How many people purchase your product or service as a result of your social media efforts? 

Interesting Read: 10 social media lead generation tactics with examples 

Some of the benchmarks you can use to compare your social media ROI are: 

• Your own historical data: How has your social media performance changed over time? Are you improving or declining? 

• Your competitors’ data: How are your competitors doing on social media? Are you ahead of them or behind them? 

• Industry averages: How does your social media performance compare to the average of your industry or niche? Are you above or below the norm? 

Read More: Social media benchmarks every marketer must know 

Good ROI, therefore, isn't a static number but a reflection of your strategy's alignment with these dynamic metrics and benchmarks. It's about how well your content resonates, evidenced by the fact that posts with images see 2.3 times higher engagement, or how well you can improve your overall lead quality and conversion rates, a strategy 46% of B2B marketers swear by. And let's not forget, the engagement metrics (likes, shares and comments). These are the pulse checks of your strategy's health, guiding over 64% of marketers in their quest for social media success. 

In this context, good ROI is less about hitting a universal target and more about outperforming yesterday's metrics, staying above industry averages and constantly recalibrating to the rhythm of B2B buyer behavior. It's a dance of numbers and narratives, where the value of your social media investment is as variable as the market itself.  

How to measure your ROI in B2B social media?  

Now, let’s simplify measuring ROI in B2B social media with a straightforward, step-by-step process. These steps are easy to follow, so you can track your social media success without getting lost in the jargon. 

Step 1: Set your targets

Start by aligning your social media objectives with your overall business goals. Once you have that figured out:  

• Define your goals: What's your endgame with social media? More leads? Better brand recognition? Ensure your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. 

• Pick your metrics: Choose the metrics that best reflect progress toward your goals. Think beyond likes and reposts! If your goal is to increase sales, focus on metrics like lead generation rates and conversion rates. If brand awareness is your aim, look at engagement levels and reach.  

• Be realistic: Set achievable targets. For instance, aim to acquire 500 leads in three months at a cost of $2.75 per lead. 

Step 2: Tally your expenses  

Include every possible expense related to your social media efforts. This includes:  

• Social media management and reporting tools. If these tools serve multiple purposes, allocate a portion of the cost to social media. 

• All ad expenditures across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. 

• Salaries for full-time staff and hourly rates for contractors involved in your social media campaigns. 

• Physical or digital assets purchased specifically for social media content creation. 

• Fees to agencies or independent strategists, but make sure not to include ad spend already accounted for elsewhere in your budget. 

Step 3: Assess your performance  

Find the right tools to quantify your campaign's performance.  

Choose wisely: Leverage platform-specific analytics (like LinkedIn Insights), Google Analytics for deeper dives or comprehensive tools like Sprinklr for both scheduling and advanced reporting. 

• Track rigorously: Utilize UTMs (Urchin Tracking Modules) and tags to make post-campaign analysis smoother. 

  

Step 4: Assign value to your goals  

Add monetary value to each of your social media goals.  

• Historical data: Use past performance to estimate the value of achieving your goals. For instance, if 1 in 10 email subscribers converts and each customer's lifetime value is $150, then 12,000 subscribers equate to a $180,000 value. 

• No data? No problem: If you're new, look at industry benchmarks or make educated guesses based on audience engagement levels. 

Step 5: Do the math

• Add up costs: Combine all social media-related expenses. 

• Calculate ROI: Apply the ROI formula mentioned earlier to find out your percentage of return. 

Step 6: Review and adjust

• Beyond ROI: While ROI is crucial, it's not the be-all and end-all. Use tools like Sprinklr to dig deeper into the data and benchmark against competitors. 

• Stay agile: Continuously analyze, refine and improve your strategy based on data insights. 

Remember, success in social media doesn't happen overnight, especially for B2B companies. It's all about playing the long game, sprinkling in consistent efforts, seasoning your strategies with data-driven insights and always being ready to tweak the recipe. 

Sprinklr Social – Your Unified ROI measurement platform 

If you want to measure and improve your social media ROI, you need a platform that can help you plan, execute, analyze and optimize your social media campaigns across multiple channels and platforms. And Sprinklr Social is a unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform that enables you to do just that. 

Sprinklr Social offers a range of features and capabilities that can help you measure and improve your social media ROI, such as: 

• Gathering real-time data: Sprinklr’s listening capabilities allow you to track conversations and interactions across 30+ digital channels to help you gain immediate insights into your social media performance. 

• Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities: This feature of Sprinklr helps to track performance and measure ROI across owned, earned and paid media. It also integrates data from multiple sources into a unified, clear report. 

• Benchmarking: Sprinklr can help uncover AI-powered, critical insights across brand health, campaign performance, competitor benchmarking and more. 

• Sales engagement: The Sprinklr platform also helps empower your sales teams to grow leads by reaching more prospects and delivering personalized content faster. 

  

With Sprinklr, you can not only measure your social media ROI but also improve it by optimizing your social media strategy and tactics based on actionable data-driven insights.  

Conclusion 

And just like that, you've unlocked the secret level in the game of B2B social media success! Measuring ROI doesn't have to be as daunting as a boss battle when you have the right strategy and tools at your disposal.  

Tricky numbers can actually be your fun little minions who are helping you to ace the game. So, crack open that chest of data, throw in some smart analysis and watch as the ROI reveals itself like the ultimate level-up in your strategic gameplay. Remember that every click, like and share is telling you a story, so make sure you're all ears, and the “wow” factor in your social media story will write itself.  

Ready to start writing your own success story? Dive in and explore what Sprinklr can do for you today.