Social Media Metrics

Social media metrics are the numbers an app or a tool reports about your posts and ads, like reach, impressions and clicks. This group of our social media glossary will explain every metric in plain English, so you can read an insights screen or a client report and know what the number means.

Social Media Metrics in This Group

We are writing 32 entries in three kinds. Reach numbers count who saw a post, like impressions and organic reach. Action numbers count what people did next, like CTR, engagement rate, watch time and bounce rate. Money numbers count cost and return, like CPC, CPM, CAC and ROI. Tracking terms like UTM code sit here too, because they help a report show where a click came from.

How Every Metric will be Explained

Every entry will give the definition first. Where a metric has a standard formula, the entry will show it in one line and add a worked example that is labelled as an example. If an app counts a number in its own way, the entry will name the app. Every entry will also show the date we last checked it. A change is logged on our change log.

Which Metric should You Track First?

Start from your goal. Reach and impressions describe how many people saw a post. Clicks and conversions describe what they did after. Choose one number for every goal and compare it over time instead of reading every number at once. Compare like with like too: the same kind of post over the same number of days.

If a number looks odd, check the app name and the date range first. A different date range or a different app can change a number without any change in the post.

Other Glossary Groups

Read how we check facts in our editorial policy. Namrata Arora edits the glossary. Know a metric well? Send it through Write for Us.