WTF is a CPA? Breaking down metrics in organic and paid advertising, and what they mean.
What it means when your campaign has a million impressions, CPC is up, and CTR is down.
Hopefully if you're engaged in paid advertising on social media, you aren't just setting a campaign and forgetting it. But whether you are running campaigns on your own or you have an agency sending you reports every month, are you able to decipher what they *really* mean? Below, we'll break down commonly used metrics in paid and organic social media and what they tell you about the health of your content.
Reach
The total number of unique (individual) accounts that saw your post or advertisement within the selected time frame. I like to think of reach as how many people saw your billboard during a period of time.
Impressions
The total number of views on your post or advertisement within the selected time frame. This could include the same account more than once.
Link Clicks
The number of clicks on the ad that led to the location you determined.
Amount Spent
The total amount of money spent in the selected date range.
Frequency
Used in paid advertising, frequency is the average number of times the same person has seen your campaign. High frequency could lead to ad fatigue, high CPC and low CTR, meaning it is time to change that message and creative!
Cost-per Result (CPR) or Cost-per Action (CPA)
The number of results or actions divided by the total amount spent. Results depend on campaign objective and could be: messages started, forms submitted, emails collected or links clicked. CPR is sometimes referred to as cost-per referral, which measures traffic.
Cost-per Click (CPC)
The number of clicks divided by the total amount spent. Similar to cost-per-result, depending on the campaign objective.
Click-through Rate (CTR)
Total link clicks divided by total impressions: the percentage of people who saw your ad and took action via link click.
This could be a link click or a general click-through rate, which includes clicks to your profile, on photos, comments, or to expand your caption. There is also unique CTR, which measures unique clicks, and an all CTR, which includes duplicate clicks by the same user, so it is important to distinguish in reporting.
CPM (Cost-per mille)
Not to be confused with million, CPM stands for the cost per 1,000 impressions. Used to compare campaign or channel performance by telling you the average investment needed to get in front of 1,000 people.
Engagement
Includes the total of comments, reactions, shares and saves on your post or ad. At APMD< engagement data is analyzed weekly for trends based on content pillar, content type and performance, with changes being made to future strategy as needed to maintain optimum performance.
Looking for a hand with your social media management? Get in touch today at ashley@ashleydoesads.com or by calling/texting (302)514-1986.
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