Here’s a quick breakdown of the KPIs you should be on the lookout for.

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Organic: Engagement rate, click-through-rate, social traffic referrals, website page actions (e.g., form submissions, purchases)
Paid: Conversion rate, return on ad spend (RoAS), cost per conversion
Marketers who are diligent about tagging outbound content have the ability to conduct more granular analysis. For example, fashion retailer River Island has over 160 active tags they apply to content to track more qualitative insights like consumers’ preferences for UGC content versus official brand photography.

Using Sprout’s Tag Performance Report, they analyze and compare self employed data performance, which helps them decide how to allocate budgets for different creative assets and ad campaigns.

A screenshot of Sprout Social's Cross Channel Tag Report, which helps users track the performance of cross-channel campaign content.

Once you identify your audience’s preferred content formats, look for ways to transform them into shoppable posts. Thanks to emerging functionality across social platforms, everything from video to UGC can turn into a conversion opportunity.

3. Use conversational commerce to nurture buyers on social
One of the obvious benefits of social media is that it gives both consumers and businesses a convenient, accessible way to communicate with one another—and that value cannot be understated. Research from The 2023 Sprout Social Index™ shows that the majority of consumers (76%) place equal value on brands that prioritize customer support and brands that respond quickly to customer needs.

Conversational commerce combines messaging and shopping, enabling consumers to use chat or voice assistance to make purchases from a brand. Chris Messina, who coined the term, says it’s all about “delivering convenience, personalization and decision support while people are on the go, with only partial attention to spare.”