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How to Write an RFP for Grants – Everything You Need to Know
Beth Goldowitz, who’s been managing nonprofit organizations for the past 20 years, says that when “managed correctly, grants can keep organizations afloat. They’re stable and predictable, a revenue stream that the organization can count on for the duration of a contract.”
But do you know how long it takes to write a single grant application?
Over 30 hours, and considering that grant writers usually get paid between $25 and $100 per hour, depending on their experience, it’s a significant cost. That’s why it’s so important for nonprofits to decide which grants to pick.
Your organization can make it much easier for applicants to assess if they’re the right fit for your project. It all comes down to getting your RFP for grants right, including adding the right sections and asking the right questions.
Before I dive deeper into the subject, let’s answer the question: what is an RFP for grants?
The Challenges of Writing an RFP for Grants
The Anatomy of an RFP for Grants
How to Write an RFP for Grants
Best Practices for Writing an RFP for Grants
What is an RFP for grants?
An RFP for grants, or Request for Proposals, is a document issued by grantors such as foundations and government agencies encouraging nonprofit organizations to submit proposals for funding.
Essentially, RFPs offer nonprofits an opportunity to secure funding for various initiatives, irrespective of whether they relate to education, healthcare, or environmental causes.
Each RFP is tailored to achieve a specific goal, so submitted proposals must be in line with the objectives outlined in the RFP.
The Challenges of Writing an RFP for Grants
I have spoken to a few people working at nonprofits to find out what challenges they came across, either while creating their own RFPs or preparing RFP proposals. Here are the most common obstacles.
Lack of Sufficient Information About the Procurement Process
The quality of your procurement process will impact the quality of the applications you receive. If you don’t share enough information about it, like the timeline, budget, selection criteria, etc., then two things might happen:
You will receive applications that aren’t the right fit for the project.
A lot of applicants who are the right fit won’t take part in the process as they’ll feel discouraged by the lack of clarity.
The more detailed and logical your procurement process is, the higher the chances of receiving high-quality proposals.
RFP Grants Failing to Communicate the Vision Clearly
This is an RFP grant challenge that has come up the most frequently.
Gauri Manglik, CEO and co-founder of Instrumentl, says that “many organizations struggle to articulate what specific issues they are trying to address and how the grant they offer will drive impact.”
What often happens is that RFP grant writers take a scattered approach instead of having a cohesive strategic framework. As a result, it’s hard for founders who give out grants to evaluate the proposal’s purpose and potential.
Manglik adds that “the most effective RFPs have a sharply defined focus outlining the goals, target population, and theory of change for proposed activities.”
Not Understanding the Legal Implications of the Grant
Grants often come with terms and conditions that must be followed to stay compliant. Failing to do so might result in penalties or even in grants being revoked.
These terms and conditions should be clear and easy to understand to minimize the risk of breaching them.
Jonathan Feniak, general counsel at LLC Attorney, says, “When writing RFP grant proposals, it’s crucial to understand the legal implications of the grant and factor any liabilities into your plan.
If any IP is developed with grant funding, you must specify ownership rights to avoid potential conflicts with donors later.”
Feniak also notes that proposals should clearly outline your expectations, and you must agree on whether the charity or the investor owns its rights.
“Generally, it’s best to consult your legal team throughout the RFP writing process to manage the risks and clearly outline IP ownership,” adds Feniak.
Ensuring clarity and specificity in the language used.
It’s vital to use a language that is not only clear but also specific so it’s easier for potential bidders to understand what’s expected of them. This applies to the requirements, objectives, and expectations of the project.
Kimberly Wall, co-founder of BibleKeeper, says, “The challenge lies in articulating the project’s goals, objectives, and expected outcomes clearly using words that are not really overwhelming the potential applicants with unnecessary details.”
Using the right language will eliminate confusion among nonprofits and make sure that their proposals accurately correspond to the needs of the RFP issuer.
The Anatomy of an RFP for Grants
RFPs for grants come in two forms: concise, short tables, where information is filled out in bullet points, and longer ones, which cover each section in detail.
The former aims to give a high-level overview, while the latter is where applicants take a deep dive into their proposal.
So, there isn’t such a thing as an “ideal” length for an RFP. These types of documents can take up multiple pages and usually function as downloadable PDFs.
If you’re wondering what elements grantors should include, then here’s an RFP structure we recommend at HubSpot.
RFP: [Project Name]
Proposal Due By: [Date]
[Organization Name]
In addition to the name, this section could also feature a short overview of your mission. Don’t include a long history of your organization. Instead, use this space to provide a bit of context on what it does and its target market.
Project Overview
A brief introduction to the project itself to let nonprofits know right away if it’s something worth bidding on — no longer than 1-2 paragraphs.
Project Goals
This section identifies what you hope to accomplish through assigning funds to relevant organizations. Specify what you’ll see as a “win” so everyone is on the same page.
Scope of Work
A description of the project and a scope of work — either detailed, if it’s a long RFP, or bullet points if it’s short.
Current Roadblocks and Barriers to Success
In this section, mention any potential constraints that could either disqualify certain candidates or increase the operational complexity of meeting goals.
Evaluation Metrics and Criteria
Here, you outline how you’re going to choose grantees. There are different approaches — some companies use simple “yes” or “no” evaluations to check if a proposal meets the project objectives.
Other organizations use percentages to score more important criteria higher than others.
Submission Requirements
Exact guidelines bidders must adhere to.
Project Due By
If there is a specific project delivery date, mention it in the RFP. This will help you filter out applicants who can’t guarantee completing it within the required timeline.
Budget
Here, you should include the target budget. Specify if this budget will be distributed among multiple organizations or assigned to a single grantee.
General Conditions of Contract
This could include information like:
Applicant’s legal status.
Your stance on subcontracting.
Indemnification, insurance, and liabilities.
Some templates also suggest asking questions that you expect bidders to answer — these can serve as a way to further check their alignment with your mission.
How to Write an RFP for Grants
So, now that you know what goes into an RFP, let’s learn how to write them. Below, I’ll describe the steps you should take when tackling this paperwork.
In each section, I’ll work through the steps, as I build a mock RFP for sustainability nonprofits.
My sample organization, Earthly Partners, is looking to fund sustainability projects based in the Southwestern United States. Let’s get started.
1. Identify the objectives.
In this step, I want to list all the key information, like goals, timeline, budget, and applicant profile.
As you gather these, you’ll likely come across some informational gaps or considerations that require expert knowledge, like legal considerations and grantor/grantee obligations.
This is an important preliminary stage, which should end with a complete list of information you’ll need to evaluate bidders.
Testing It Out
So, what does my organization, Earthly Partners, want to accomplish? We want to focus on fighting climate change in the South West, particularly through drought relief and community advocacy.
We are able to provide grants of up to $50,000 to each nonprofit.
2. Write an introduction.
Now, I want to provide a bit of information about the organization and the area we focus on. I may also include my organization’s values, current challenges, and the problems we would like to address.
Testing It Out
Here is an example of an intro to Earthly Partners’ RFP. Here, we highlight the mission that we focus on and a little bit about our mock organization’s history.
Earthly Partners is pleased to announce the availability of grant funding to support projects that align with our mission of environmental conservation and advocacy.
Established in 2010, Earthly Partners has been dedicated to promoting eco-friendly practices, water conservation, and community empowerment.
We recognize the importance of fostering innovative solutions and collaborations within our community, and through this grant opportunity, we aim to support projects that demonstrate creativity, sustainability, and significant impact.
We are most interested in projects focused on community advocacy for climate policies and drought relief.
3. Provide a project description.
This section should serve as a high-level overview. Potential applicants will look at it to quickly assess whether they can propose a relevant project within the required timeline and available budget.
Testing It Out
Here’s my project description for my mock sustainability nonprofit:
Grant Purpose: The purpose of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to solicit proposals for projects that address environmental conservation, climate change mitigation, or sustainable development.
We seek proposals that offer innovative approaches, foster community engagement, and contribute to the long-term sustainability and resilience of ecosystems and communities.
Grant Details:
Total Funding Available: $50,000
Grant Duration: 12 months
Grant Amount: Grants may range from $2,500 to $10,000
Eligibility: Nonprofit organizations and community groups operating within the Greater Metropolitan Area are eligible to apply.
Application Deadline: July 31, 2024.
4. List clear requirements.
Here, I can specify what exactly I need to know about the proposal. That includes asking the applicants for the project description and how it will help fulfill the goals of your grant.
Testing It Out
Continuing with the sustainability grant project from above, this section could look like the following:
Proposal Guidelines:
Applicants are invited to submit proposals that address the following key components.
Project Description: Provide a detailed description of the proposed project, including its objectives, activities, target population, and anticipated outcomes.
Project Impact: Clearly articulate the potential impact of the project on the environment or the local community. Describe how the project will contribute to positive change and address identified environmental or social needs.
Innovation and Creativity: Highlight any innovative approaches or strategies proposed to address the identified environmental or social challenge. We encourage applicants to think creatively and propose solutions that may be outside traditional approaches.
Sustainability: Demonstrate the project’s sustainability beyond the grant period. Describe plans for ongoing funding, partnerships, and stakeholder engagement to ensure the long-term success of the project.
Roadblocks to Success: Identify potential challenges or roadblocks that the project may face and describe strategies to overcome them. Consider factors such as regulatory hurdles, community resistance, funding constraints, or technical limitations.
Budget and Timeline: Provide a detailed budget that outlines how grant funds will be used. Include a project timeline with key milestones and deliverables.
5. Include a submission deadline.
Here, I want to call out the deadline for submissions and explain my preferred way of submitting proposals.
Testing It Out
For Earthly Partners, I want to have proposals by the end of July. I call that out, along with my preferred submission format, below.
Submission Instructions:
Please submit your proposal electronically to [email address] no later than July 31, 2024. Proposals should be submitted in PDF format and include the organization’s name, contact information, and the title of the proposed project in the subject line.
6. Be clear on the evaluation factors.
It’s important to explain all the elements your organization will pay attention to while evaluating applications.
Applicants who do not meet your criteria will likely withdraw from submitting their proposal if they don’t see they’re a good fit. This, in turn, will help you pre-qualify organizations and shorten the selection process.
Testing It Out
For Earthly Partners, I want to explain how we plan to evaluate applicants and give an overview of next steps. This allows me to explain what projects are likely to receive funding and the timeline for these evaluations.
Evaluation Process:
Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
Alignment with Earthly Partner’s mission and grant objectives.
Clarity and feasibility of the project proposal.
Potential impact and sustainability of the project.
Innovation and creativity of proposed approaches.
Budget justification and cost-effectiveness.
Notification:
Applicants will be notified of funding decisions by August 31, 2024. Successful applicants will receive further instructions regarding grant agreements, reporting requirements, and funding disbursement.
7. Proofread and edit the document.
I use the editing process to make sure that all the necessary elements are included in my RFP and that the instructions are easy to follow.
Failing to use easy-to-understand language might result in low-quality submissions. It’s a good idea to ask a few of your colleagues for feedback to ensure you’ve not missed any important details.
Best Practices for Writing an RFP for Grants
Here are a few considerations to take into account while preparing your RFP.
Dedicate time to selecting the right eligibility and application criteria.
This is, arguably, the single most important section of your RFP — perhaps even more important than “budget,” as NGOs will want to quickly assess their eligibility.
Esther Strauss, co-founder of Step by Step Business, agrees:
“Given the diversity of causes we support, from education to environmental conservation, finding a grant that provides the necessary funding and also aligns with our goals can be like searching for a needle in a haystack.”
Strauss says that, whenever applying for a grant herself, she needs to know if her organization can genuinely meet the grantor’s requirements while staying true to the organization’s objectives and values.
The need to get the application “right” can also extend to selecting the right application format or method. “The pressure to get it right is immense, as these grants can significantly impact our ability to serve our community,” she adds.
So, how can you make it easier for applicants to assess if they’re the right fit and avoid application mistakes?
Include clear information like:
Only bidders who meet at least X out of Y criteria will be considered.
Proposals must be sent in [FORMAT] by [DEADLINE]. Applications sent in through other channels will not be considered.
Application needs to include a proposed schedule.
Proposals must be shorter than [NUMBER] pages. Failure to comply with this guideline will result in an automatic rejection.
For a real-life example, you can also look at this RFP proposal from the U.N., which keeps the requirement descriptions clear and concise.
As you can see, the quality of the proposals and organization fit lies largely in your hands.
Simplify negotiations by including key contract terms.
Earlier, I’ve mentioned that many RFP grant writers struggle with translating legal requirements in the RFP.
Wayne Tung of Sendero wrote a great piece on this subject, encouraging RFP publishers to give it the same level of attention as requirements and scope.
“Many people do not include contract term requirements, such as legal and commercial terms, in RFPs. This results in prolonged negotiations,” or even failed grants, he says.
Featuring the main contract terms in the RFP shows respect for both parties — you as the project operator and the organizations seeking funding.
Sometimes, fewer questions are better.
I spent quite some time going through Reddit threads popular among the RFP community, and one of the most interesting points I’ve seen was about question-fit.
One Redditor, roger_the_virus, blatantly says grantors should avoid “useless questions that won’t provide helpful answers. I do my best to make sure we’re not asking for a bunch of information we don’t need and won’t do anything with.”
That said, when it comes to questions, don’t automatically discredit applicants who can’t answer all of them. Offer organizations that have pitched a fitting project and budget the opportunity to ask follow-up questions.
This will prevent them from submitting answers with low informational value, i.e., responses that are vague or unrelated to your query.
Speaking of supplementary questions, this leads to the next point.
Provide clear contact information.
The larger your organization, the less likely it is that there will only be one person responsible for proposal reception and answering questions from applicants.
However, even if it’s an entire office, you should provide contact information with the relevant communication method — either walk-ins between a specific time, like Monday to Friday, email address, or phone number.
Bear in mind that many nonprofits apply to RFPs ongoingly and will only do so if they see that the grantor can help with applicant requests. Here’s an opinion on Reddit from an RFP proposal writer, which garnered multiple upvotes:
“I won’t respond to an RFP unless they commit to giving me their time for detailed discovery and a chance for them to read me the RFP requirements line by line and why they’re important.”
Disclose any potential blockers.
Finally, be transparent about any potential roadblocks winning bidders might come across.
When applying for grants, NGOs need to know if they have the means to complete the project and if there are any other issues, like conflict of interest.
For example, say your organization wishes to assign funds to boost literacy rates in remote rural areas. One of the prerequisites could be having established relationships within target communities.
Such an approach will help preselect applicants, particularly those who don’t have the operational capacity to navigate around any potential constraints.
RFP for Grants Resources
Here are three resources that might come in handy while drafting an RFP for grants.
1. Candid’s Foundation Directory
Candid’s Foundation Directory shares essential information to help you make smart and strategic funding requests. These resources and tools give you access to funding opportunities that go beyond RFPs.
It includes a list of foundations, including their profiles, funding priorities, application procedures, and contact information.
RFP writers can go through the proposals that have been published already and use them as inspiration to create their own.
2. Free RFP Templates From HubSpot
HubSpot’s Free RFP templates are a great starter kit and will help you draft your request in no time.
This resource gives you two RFP versions — a shorter one and a longer one. Both documents are fully customizable, allowing you to easily add your company name and logo.
You can download them in PDF or turn them into a Microsoft Word or Google Docs file.
These templates include all the crucial elements of an RFP, such as:
Company name and background.
Project goals.
Expected project timeline.
Submission requirements.
Evaluation criteria.
Potential roadblocks.
Each section comes with a quick explainer to help you get the contents right.
Download HubSpot’s RFP Templates for Free
3. Reddit – RFP Subreddits
Unsurprisingly, Reddit is one of the best places to learn from RFP experts as well as understand the applicant’s perspective.
I especially recommend following the RFP subreddit and navigating into more intricate conversations and topics from there.
While many of the discussions cover not only grants but also commercial projects, the advice is universal.
It also goes without saying that you shouldn’t just lurk around the corner — if there’s a challenge you’ve come across while drafting your RFP, this is the community you should ask for advice.
Getting Your RFP for Grants Right
Writing the RFP is the first — and arguably — most important step in the entire grant process. How so? It’s up to you as the grantor to select the right questions and criteria and explain the purpose of the project.
Remember, the more information you provide potential applicants, the easier it will be for them to assess if they fit the grant objectives. And this, in turn, will lead to a higher quality of proposals.
While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all template for each project, there are certain must-have sections to include. So, refer to this article to get a head start next time you need to create an RFP for grants.
Good luck!
How These 6 Social Media Marketers & Creators Built Loyal Brand Communities
Over the past year, we’ve seen a major shift when it comes to the importance of building social communities. And, as of 2024, 86% of social media marketers say building an active online community is crucial to a successful social strategy.
Active social communities can establish your brand as an industry expert and provide additional value to your consumers. But understanding the importance of online communities and successfully building one are two different things.
That’s why I spoke with six social media marketers and creators who have worked with Vimeo, HubSpot, The Product Boss, Success Story, and Online Marketing Made Easy to learn tips for building and maintaining effective online communities.
Let’s dive in.
Building Brand Communities [Expert Tips]
1. Make sure your community-building tactics are unique to each platform.
Alexis Nash, Vimeo’s former Social Media Lead, believes that tightly-knit communities should be built across each platform your brand uses — as she puts it, “communities put the ‘social’ in social media!”
However, to effectively build strong communities on each platform, you need to adhere to the best practices of each individual channel.
Nash says amplified user-generated content with TikTok’s Duets feature in 2023. The company posted question stickers on Instagram Stories and reposted answers, sparking reciprocal dialogue.
Furthermore, they reward their most engaged followers by sharing exclusive material through Instagram’s “Close Friends” feature.
Nash explains, “[Adhering to the best practices of each channel] yields a nuanced experience reflecting audiences’ natural behavior on each network.”
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Jacqueline and her former co-host Minna of The Product Boss, a top-rated podcast that provides strategies and tips for product entrepreneurs, have cultivated more than 97,600 followers on Instagram alone.
They agree that one of the most critical components of building and maintaining a successful online community is by diversifying your content for each platform to fulfill the needs of that audience.
As they put it:
“We’re really proud to say we’ve built a really strong global community of product bosses around us. We love to show up socially in different ways.
We keep it pretty dynamic, whether it’s LIVE’s, IG stories, Reels, FB Group posts and events, and above all, we encourage them to show up WITH us and often thank them for doing so.
We are generous in our information and conversations, so we make it a fun, relatable, positive community to be a part of.”
Mat Cruz, former Community Management & Growth Specialist for the HubSpot Social Media team, agrees with this sentiment.
“You would never try to grow a plant in an environment that does not suit it,” he says. “Similar to plants, communities grow best when they are nurtured in environments where connection is easy and needs are not only met, but exceeded.”
Take the time to evaluate what types of content perform best on each platform, and what types of conversations happen on each.
Over time, you’ll want to create community-building strategies that are unique for each platform.
Or, if you don’t have the resources to dedicate to each platform, instead identify one platform you’d like to go all in on when it comes to cultivating a strong community.
2. Inspire your community through valuable content.
Amy Porterfield is a consultant for entrepreneurs, as well as the host of Online Marketing Made Easy, a top-ranking business podcast, and author of Two Weeks Notice.
She’s also built a strong, loyal social following — in fact, her Instagram alone has over 433,000 followers.
Porterfield believes the most important component of building a strong online community is good content.
As Porterfield told me, “When building your online community, your goal is always to leave your followers thinking, ‘If this is what they offer for free, I wonder what their paid content is like?’ So don’t be afraid to give your best stuff away for free.”
Porterfield continues, “It’s important to inspire your community to dream big, then consistently offer them irresistible free value to help support them in making progress on their dreams.”
For instance, you might post a video on Facebook and ask your community to weigh in with their own opinions. Alternatively, you might test out polls on Instagram to get your audience engaged in a quick and easy way.
Or, consider how Porterfield offers free Masterclasses to her social followers, like the one posted below:
Without grounding your community in truly valuable, thought-provoking content, it won’t be easy to compel them to stick around.
3. Get to know your community and identify what purpose your online community aims to serve.
A few years ago, I joined a yoga workshop because I wanted to connect with like-minded people who also enjoyed practicing yoga.
In other words: I wanted to find a community centered around my interests.
Similarly, people join online communities to connect with people who share their passions or goals.
So, to effectively cultivate an online community, Cruz recommends marketers take the time to understand their audiences’ interests and the goal(s) of your community.
“You’ll want to ask yourself what purpose your online community aims to serve. Is it to entertain? To educate? To engage in conversation?” Cruz told me.
He explains, “Knowing who and why you’re crafting connections helps you determine the next key decision — where to plant your community’s seeds.”
He used a community of artists as an example.
He says if you have a community of artists looking to share their work with other creatives, Instagram might be best.
Whether you’re sharing a tutorial via Instagram Reels or your latest collection through a carousel, Instagram’s platform has users primed to expect and engage with such content.
“On the other hand,” he explains, “if you are looking to host events and connect large groups of people, Facebook may be a better place to grow since its tools and features make it easy to create events, form groups, and host conversations.”
It’s up to you to identify the interests of your audience and how those interests might tie back to your business’ products or services. But it’s a vital component of building the right kind of online community for your brand.
Nash agrees that conducting research is an important step to take when building online communities.
She says, “[Vimeo] launched polls and asked questions on social to assess its users’ demographic makeup, needs, and behavior patterns. Use this data to nurture relationships with your existing community and provide value.”
As Nash puts it, “Many teams hyper-fixate on growing their follower numbers, alienating their existing community.”
Take a look at how Vimeo cleverly uses X to ask targeted questions and build a more comprehensive view of its X audience:
4. Provoke thoughtful debate, and be unique.
Scott Clary, host of Success Story podcast, has cultivated more than 85,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, and he encourages marketers to provoke thoughtful discussions with their online communities.
“This means challenging the status quo and encouraging your audience to think differently,” he says. “Give them something to question, something to debate, and something to challenge their existing beliefs.”
He explains they will be more likely to remember you, even if they disagree with you.
“This can also mean giving them a forum to debate important topics around your area of expertise,” he says.
Clary also recommends marketers embrace contrarianism because not everyone is going to love what you have to say.
“And that’s okay,” he says. “In fact, it’s healthy. If you try to please everyone, you’ll only end up pleasing no one. Be bold, be unique, and don’t be afraid to turn some people off. Your true fans will be all the more loyal for it.”
It’s important your brand remains empathetic, inclusive, and kind.
However, it’s equally vital for you to provide expertise or a thought leadership perspective to your community, and that might mean creating content that demonstrates your own brand’s stance on industry challenges and best practices.
5. Cultivate a vulnerable, genuine space for people to be themselves.
Finally, it’s vital to practice authenticity in your community. Humans join communities to connect with other humans.
So to cultivate a strong community, it’s your job as the community leader to foster a genuine, open space for people to be their full selves.
As Jacqueline and Minna put it, “You have to show up often, but imperfectly, and most importantly, genuinely — we ask them to stay, we ask them to follow us.”
They explain, “We ask them to interact and lean on each other, as we equip them on how to build their businesses. Asking and inviting them and taking care of their needs helps build a bond in your community.”
They add, “And, above all, be yourself — the right people for your community will gravitate towards you and the wrong people will be repelled, and that’s truly a good thing.”
For instance, take a look at one of The Product Boss’ recent Instagram post about the real struggles behind entrepreneurship. Most importantly, pay attention to the comments, filled with people who feel validated, heard, and understood.
Nash agrees.
As she puts it, “Think about LinkedIn’s evolution from a buttoned-up networking space to a true social platform.”
She says, “Users discuss everything, including mental health, family life, funny interactions they had that morning, and more. As LinkedIn communities let their hair down, brands may benefit from matching that vulnerability.”
She continues, “No matter what community-building tactics you choose, lead with humanity. Social marketers must tap into their empathy to make their audiences feel heard, improve their daily lives, and cultivate lasting relationships.”
Brand Community Examples
Here are some examples to consider when building a brand community. If at the end, you feel ready to carve out your own community, take a look at How to Launch a Successful Online Community: A Step-by-Step Guide.
1. Google invests in Labs.
At Google, community success comes in the form of collaborative groups, or what Google calls “Labs.”
Each Google Lab brings together approximately 100 thought leaders in specific industries to tackle some of today’s most pressing issues.
What I Love: Google Labs fosters mutual respect and concern among members, which spawns conversations, collaborations, and opportunities that were never possible before.
It’s part of what keeps Google at the top of every “most innovative” company list today.
2. Twitch succeeds with local groups.
Twitch attracts around 2.5 million people per month to watch and livestream digital video broadcasts.
Their approach is built on a two-sided marketplace: they need to attract broadcasters as well as audience members. Local community groups help them succeed.
Twitch has built a worldwide team to support over 40 local, city-based groups, each of which hosts real-life and virtual events that foster genuine friendships and deep relationships between local Twitch members.
However, local groups (and their leaders) must demonstrate how well they can bring members together, first.
These local groups allow Twitch to transform online interactions — which can often feel transactional — into connections that have real meaning.
Members return again and again to the brand, and recruit others to participate, because Twitch is a space where authentic emotional investments happen.
What I Love: Twitch has built a strong brand community that transcends the platform by focusing on the local aspect of community building.
3. Sephora says “yes” to beauty enthusiasts.
Sephora — one of the largest beauty retailers in the world — has invested in building a makeup enthusiast community that is both accessible on mobile devices and integrated into the shopping experience.
Inside the community, members can discuss a variety of beauty products and methods, regardless of whether they’re related to Sephora products or not.
Within the community, Sephora enables members to follow interesting topics and connect with fellow members, keep up with trends and chat with brands, and score access to exclusive events.
Community members can also gain access to beauty techniques and product information, engage with beauty company founders, and experience an affirming space with others who love the fun, play, and transformation of makeup.
Pro-Tip: When building a brand community think of ways you can bridge the gap between consumers and experts, creating a safe space for your customers to get advice and better insight into your products.
4. Roblox is its own digital world.
I simply can’t talk about brand communities without mentioning Roblox. If you don’t know, Roblox is an online gaming platform with 70.2 million daily active users as of January 2024.
The platform allows users to build games, generate virtual worlds, and create avatars to immerse themselves in the digital community.
Even celebrities like Lil Nas X, LeBron James, and Miley Cyrus have joined the Roblox metaverse by hosting special in-game meet-ups and concerts.
Pro-Tip: Roblox has created an entirely immersive experience for users. Think about the way your brand community can be immersive for your consumers.
What can make the community exciting and engaging in a way that will keep them coming back for more?
5. Tumblr maintains rapport with its users.
HubSpot marketing manager Erica Santiago recently spoke to the Chief Marketing Officer of Tumblr, Matthew Ryan, about how Tumblr has maintained a thriving online community since its inception in 2007.
“We lean toward two brand tenets,” he explained to Santiago. “The first one is fandom; we’re a great place for fans to really go deep into their particular fandom of choice.”
Ryan said other platforms are places where fans may go to give live reactions to their favorite series, but Tumblr is where fandoms live long after a series wraps.
The reason behind this, according to Ryan, is that is a platform that isn’t heavily driven by algorithms. It’s more of a “blank” platform that allows users to post and interact with whatever they want.
“Our users have the ability to create or produce their art and their stories around characters and plots they find compelling,” he said. “Fandom is a big source of our creativity and life on the platform.”
This leads to the brand’s second tenet—providing a virtual space for art and artists to thrive.
“We are a blank platform and one of the only platforms that still allows all media types and has done so since the inception of Tumblr … That gives artists, especially, a ton of freedom,” he said.
Pro-Tip: Think about your core audience and the unique qualities and interests they bring to the table. Find ways to build community around those qualities and interests. This shows you’re in tune with your consumers and what best serves them.
6. Apple builds a community to support questions and help consumers.
You might think a brand as massive as Apple wouldn’t have much use for online communities, but the company actually found a simple but unique way to incorporate the concept of community into its marketing.
Apple’s brand community consists of volunteers who are passionate and knowledgeable about the company’s products. They dedicate time out of their day to help customers with any questions or bugs they’re experiencing.
Apple rewards the volunteers by placing top commenters in an exclusive Apple expert community, lending legitimacy and trust to the volunteers and prompting more customers to seek their help.
Pro-Tip: Consider providing incentives and rewards for community members to be as active and as helpful as they can. These rewards can be access to exclusive features or spaces.
7. Adobe Support Community
If you’ve ever edited a video with Adobe Premiere, then you know there can be a bit of a learning curve when using Adobe and its products. In fact, there are some college courses dedicated to learning its basics.
That’s why Adobe has its own support community where creatives can gather online and trade advice on using Adobe products.
What I Like: Adobe understands that while its products are valuable, they can be complicated to newbies, so it fostered a community where its consumers can get the answers they need and grow as creators.
Ultimately, cultivating a strong online community takes time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run by enabling your brand to create effective, meaningful connections with your audience.
How to Measure Social Media Marketing ROI [With Expert Advice]
When building effective social media ad campaigns, the biggest question isn’t “How much should I spend?” It’s “For every dollar I spend, how much do I get back?”
In other words, it’s all about return on investment (ROI) — how are ad spending and customer conversion linked? Understanding this makes the amount you spend less important and instead lets you focus on the impact of your social ads.
In this piece, I’m taking a look at how to measure social media marketing ROI, how to improve it, and offering a look at eight tools to help you streamline the process.
Feel free to jump ahead to:
How to Measure Social Media Marketing ROI
Expert Tips on Measuring Social Media ROI, According to Experts
How to Improve Social Media ROI
How Much Should You Spend on Ads?
8 Best Social Media ROI Measurement Tools
ROI is a measure of spend versus value: If I spend “X” amount, how much do I get back? The best-case scenario is an ROI greater than one, where companies get back more than they spent on an investment.
Consider a manufacturing company buying a new piece of production line equipment that costs $10,000 but brings in $20,000 worth of revenue each year. The result is a positive ROI and a worthwhile investment.
While measuring social media ROI isn’t quite as straightforward since companies need to account for the reach and impact of specific ad campaigns, the underlying concept is the same: Over time, the goal is to get back more than you spend.
While specific measurement timelines and media metrics will differ, the role of ROI remains the same.
How to Measure Social Media Marketing ROI
One of the most popular and data-driven ways to measure social media marketing ROI is through paid advertising. The problem arises, though, when there isn’t a sound strategy in place to yield a positive return on investment.
How does this happen? Typically, social media marketers build a Google Ads campaign to rank for important search terms. The campaign drives clicks, traffic, and leads, but ultimately the ad spend outweighs the impact of the ads which is bad news for ROI.
These marketers end up learning a really expensive lesson, one that could be easily prevented by following these simple steps:
1. Develop a Budget.
Ads aren’t right for everyone. Some industries have extremely high competition with astronomical CPCs. Some products have too low of an average sales price for the economics to work.
To determine if ads are worth your time, I recommend you start by building a budget. This isn’t always an easy task, especially considering the hit many marketing budgets have taken over the past two years. According to Tequia Burt, Editor in Chief of the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog, market knowledge is a key component of this process. “As marketing leaders evaluate their budgets and organize their plans for the year ahead,” she says, “a bit of context and clarity can lend helpful structure.”
Consider that 55% of social media marketers plan to boost spending across areas such as branded influencer content, ads in social media stories, and ads in social media feeds. Knowing where and when this spending brings in the most returns is critical to driving ROI.
Featured Resource: Budget Templates To Manage Your 2024 Spend
Download Free Marketing Budget Templates
2. Continually Evaluate Ad Performance.
Try not to look at ads as a shortcut. It’s possible to get to a place with ads where they become a recurring source of profit, but typically that’s not how things start.
Don’t be surprised when a week after your campaign launches your ads aren’t generating tons of profit. “Around 80% of businesses online feel that they deliver great assistance via social media, but only 8 percent of their customers agreed,” says John Kopanakis, professor of Business Intelligence at Hellenic Mediterranean University. “Despite putting in a lot of effort, many marketers hardly reach their targeted sales. It is because they struggle to measure the impact of their social media efforts on their sales.”
As a result, incremental improvements in clickthrough rates and conversion rates can have a huge impact on profit. I recommend using the ads calculator to explore the impact these changes could have. Watch your ads like a hawk for the first month and you’ll avoid big mistakes.
3. Make Sure You’re Amplifying the Right Message.
Ads act like a megaphone to amplify your marketing campaigns and content. The more complete and well-developed your campaigns are, the better your ads will perform.
As Samuel Bu, Marketing Director at FortuneNote Chinese Business Magazine noted in a recent LinkedIn Pulse post, finding the right channel for your business is critical. While he highlights LinkedIn as a great way to generate leads and calls out Facebook’s huge impact on the social market, he also highlights challenges with platforms such as Instagram. Why? Bu says “Most likely, Instagram falls short of producing strong ROI due to its more intangible metrics — such as brand awareness, reputation, loyalty, and consumer engagement.”
Think about it: Which ads do you think perform better? Those promoting your homepage or those promoting a remarkable piece of content that helps someone?
Bingo. Those promoting awesome content.
Campaigns that use ads should be treated like other campaigns. Establish your goals first, build great content, focus your message and optimize your landing pages, then figure out how ads can help amplify your message. Taking this combined approach and only using ads as a strategic component of your marketing campaigns will pay off.
Expert Tips on Measuring Social Media ROI, According to G2 and Dropbox, and an Expert Social Media Consultant
To further investigate how to effectively measure social media ROI, I spoke with G2 and Dropbox, and an expert Social Media Consultant.
Let’s dive into their tips now.
1. Determine goals for each channel, and re-evaluate those metrics often.
Measuring ROI requires understanding how your social efforts contribute to the company’s bottom line — but this isn’t always a straightforward, one-to-one link.
For instance, the first time someone engages with a social post, they might not immediately purchase a product. Instead, maybe they decide to follow your brand on Instagram, and end up purchasing a product later on.
To accurately measure ROI, then, it’s vital you determine which social media metrics matter most to your team.
As Jenny Gardynski, Director of Communications at G2, told me, “When it comes to our organic social media presence, we look at metrics that demonstrate both our reach and engagement – in support of driving G2’s brand awareness. Key metrics we measure include follower count, impressions, and post link clicks.”
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Identifying specific goals for each campaign will help you accurately measure your social ROI. For instance, if your goal for your upcoming organic social campaign is to increase follower count by 3%, then hitting or exceeding that number demonstrates positive ROI.
Gardynski continues, “To determine what the proper goal should be per channel, we spend time benchmarking where we’ve been in the past, what our typical growth rate has been, as well as thinking ahead to what content and assets we anticipate fueling our social calendar. Since social media platforms are constantly changing — with new features and algorithm updates — it’s important to re-evaluate these metrics often.”
Determining historical data is a vital component of measuring ROI. This enables you to measure how your content typically performs on a given channel, and determine which area(s) of your social strategy are most effective.
2. Identify which metrics best translate into success for your social team.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to measuring ROI because ROI depends on each social team’s individual goals.
Susan Chang, Dropbox’s Director of Social Media, told me, “Anyone that works in social media knows that there is no shortage of metrics to track, which means that there are many different ways to measure ROI.”
Couple common metrics you might measure include:
Audience Growth Rate
Social Media Impressions
Social Media Conversion Rate
Social Media Engagement Rate
Customer Response Rate
Influencer Campaign Metrics
Traffic to Brand’s Website
Ultimately, each social team has its own unique objectives. For instance, Chang says, “It’s up to the social media team to design a program and set goals that are customized to their brand’s objectives and priorities. Sometimes, a brand will prioritize engagement rate, because their goal is to build community and create two-way conversations between their brand and their customers.”
“Other times,” she continues, “a brand cares most about conversions because they’ve invested in paid social as a viable source of revenue. Or, maybe the highest priority metric is traffic or CTR to an owned website because their goal is to educate their users and raise awareness about their brand’s capabilities.”
Chang adds, “The metrics we care the most about will change as the needs of our business evolve. The great thing about social is that you’re able to assess your brand’s needs and through analysis, identify the metrics that best translate into success for your team.”
3. Evaluate a paid campaign’s impact on Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs).
To measure the ROI of a paid campaign, you’ll want to evaluate the leads or customers you converted through your ad.
Achieving positive ROI on a paid campaign can be difficult. Oftentimes, brands end up spending more money than they get back. That’s where intent-based targeting becomes critical.
Laura Grass, G2’s Senior Marketing Manager, Enterprise & ABM, says, “When it comes to paid social, our primary focus is evaluating a campaign’s impact on Marketing Sourced Pipeline — which is evaluated by measuring the number of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) — as well as the MQL to Sales Qualified Lead (SQL), conversion rates, and later on, the number of open opportunities and their contract values.”
Grass adds, “We also look at metrics that reflect efficient campaign performance (including click-through rate, cost-per-click, and cost-per-lead or cost-per-conversion). Because we’re big believers in meeting people where they are in their buying journey, we leverage our own G2 Buyer Intent Data to retarget audiences that have engaged with our product page and other software in our categories on G2.”
I’d recommend considering leveraging intent data in your next social media campaign to target a smaller, more qualified subset of people. This can help you minimize the chance of a negative ROI by ensuring you’re reaching people who’ve already shown interest in your brand.
As Grass puts it, “This tends to narrow the campaign audience to in-market prospects, thus often increasing CPC and CPL from the get-go. But we tend to see the payoff in the pipeline. We consistently see higher conversion rates and higher ACV on paid social campaigns as a result of intent-based targeting, making the investment upfront well worth it.”
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4. Monitor your customer acquisition cost from organic and paid media.
Robert Benjamin, a Social Media Consultant, says, “My favorite tip for measuring my social media ROI is looking at blended CAC (cost of acquiring a customer) from both organic and paid media.”
Yes, I mentioned above that one of the most popular ways to understand your social media ROI is from paid campaigns, but you also get important information from your organic impact.
Benjamin says that a large organic base lowers your CAC and can make you much more competitive with your paid marketing efforts. He says, “Brands that are crushing organic marketing tend to do much better on the paid marketing front because they aren’t ‘creating ads’ – they’re creating posts that consumers organically engage with and then throwing gasoline on the fire with their paid marketing efforts.”
He adds, “Brands that are still only creating ads without testing them organically are simply increasing the rate at which consumers are seeing ads that they don’t want to interact with / resonate.”
Social Media ROI Formula
Chang mentioned above that there are multiple metrics you can use to measure ROI, and it’s true. You can also get a concrete answer about your ROI by using the social media ROI formula and actual monetary values.
Math isn’t my strong suit, so if you’re anything like me, you’ll be happy to know that the social media social media ROI formula is straightforward:
(Total Revenue – Total Investment) / Total Investment x 100
Total Revenue: the amount of money generated from your campaigns
Total Investment: the amount of money you put in when creating the campaign, like resources, labor cost, CPC, etc.
When you run your calculation, a negative result means you spent more money on your campaigns than you got back, and a positive result means the opposite.
What’s considered a good ROI varies, but the consensus among marketers is that a 5:1 ratio is a good ROI, as it translates to earning $5 for every $1 spent.
Here’s an example. Let’s say I spent $2,300 on my Instagram campaign, and when it wrapped it generated $10,000 in revenue. Here’s what my equation looks like:
(10000-2300) / 2300 x 100 = 334%
Results show that I have a positive return on investment. Numbers-wise, I made $3.34 for every dollar spent (3:1 ratio).
How to Improve Social Media ROI
So you’ve calculated your social media ROI and found room for improvement, or maybe you’re satisfied but want to make sure your strategies are as effective as possible.
Whatever the case, I’ll now review key strategies to improve your social media ROI.
1. Understand your audience.
In my opinion, the best way to positively impact your ROI, above all else, is to understand your audience. It affects everything you do on social media, from the format of the content you share to the time of day you post that content.
When you know what your target audience likes and what they don’t like, you know the type of content they’re more likely to enjoy. Audiences who see content aligned with their interests are more likely to be inspired to take your desired action.
Understanding your audience is especially important if you’re running paid ads. If you’re spending money, you likely want to target the right audience with ads more likely to drive results.
Dan Stillgoe, Marketing Manager at Blend, agrees with the importance of audience targeting. He told me: “Proper audience targeting is also crucial. Poor audience setup often leads to wasted ad spend by showing ads to people outside your target market who won’t convert.”
His top tip for success? “Implement tight exclusions, continuously monitor audience insights to see who your ads are reaching, and refine your targeting and exclusions accordingly to ensure ads reach the right people.”
2. Be consistent.
Being consistent on your social channels makes a meaningful impact on your ROI. One to two posts per month likely won’t help your campaigns succeed and probably won’t help you stand out with your audience.
I can give you a cheat sheet to get you started here. Most marketers who responded to our 2024 State of Marketing & Trends survey told us they post content multiple times per week. I’d recommend leveraging their advice and testing your publishing frequency to see what brings the most engagement (I’ll talk more about testing below).
Unfortunately, consistency can be undermined if you’re not strategic with when you post content. For example, a standout Instagram Reel won’t do a lot to improve your ROI if you share it when most of your audience is asleep
When it comes to when you should post, the best times to post for social media marketers’ most used platforms are:
12 PM – 3 PM on Facebook
12 PM – 3 PM on YouTube
12 PM – 3 PM and 6 PM – 9 PM on Instagram
3. Foster meaningful engagement.
For Adriane Grunenberg, HubSpot Automation & Analytics Expert at Pinetco, prioritizing engagement is the best way to improve social media ROI. She said: “Focus on creating content that sparks conversations, encourages interaction, and builds genuine connections with your audience. By fostering meaningful engagement, you not only drive higher ROI but also cultivate a loyal community that advocates for your brand.”
4. Always include clear CTAs.
CTAs look different on social media than on, say, your email footers, but they’re a just as effective way to improve your ROI.
Svitlana Kviatkivska, Senior CX Consultant at Huble Digital, champions this tip, calling the clear use of CTAs on social media a highly actionable, low-lift, and low-cost strategy that is sometimes overlooked.
Kviatkivska says, “CTAs serve as crucial signposts for your audience, directing them toward actions such as visiting a website, signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or following your page. Their strategic placement can significantly influence conversion rates and, by extension, improve your ROI.”
Two of her guidelines for making the best use of CTAs on social media are clarity, simplicity, and personalization.
About clarity, she says “Direct and simple CTAs like “Shop Now,” or “Learn More,” are ‘old but gold’ and perform well.” Simple text like this is straightforward and tells your audience exactly what action you want them to take.
Personalizing CTAs is even more proof of the importance of having a well-rounded understanding of your audience. Kviatkivska told me that “Tailoring your call to action to align with the user’s interests or their stage in the customer journey can significantly increase the conversion rate.”
5. Always test, iterate, and optimize.
Testing your social media strategies is a must for high ROI. When you know what produces results, you know what you need to continue doing to meet your goals.
For example, you can run A/B tests on Facebook to see which posts audiences prefer most. You can also vary the type of content you post to see what gets the most engagement. If you assume your X audience likes long-form posts, but they actually prefer you use less characters, you’re losing out on essential engagement opportunities.
Even though I shared a brief breakdown of the best times to post on social, you can also test the top times on your channels to see what works with your unique audience.
When you run tests, the most important advice I can give is to actually take action and optimize your social media campaigns by implementing what you’ve learned — it’s the only way to bring the positive ROI changes you’re looking for.
How Much Should You Spend on Ads?
Assuming you’ve run the numbers and now know what you can expect in terms of profit and ROI, it’s time to launch a campaign. To do this you’ll have to make two budget decisions, regardless of where you are advertising:
Total campaign budget or duration: How much do you plan to spend in total? How long will the ads run for? Be aware that if you don’t set a limit there will be no maximum or end date.
Daily budget: How much do you want to spend a day?
There are two ways most marketers use ads, short-term and long-term. Let’s take a look at both.
Short-term ads. Budget = at least a few hundred dollars over a month.
When marketers use ads for a short-term goal, it’s usually to jump-start a campaign or boost content that needs a bump. These ad spends are generally smaller and shorter, but can be large.
If you have a few hundred dollars to spend, spend it this way. Create a social post that promotes a piece of content and then use your ads to boost the post. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have good solutions for this. Make sure you use the social network that gives you the best targeting for your persona and returns the most valuable leads. Measure this by assessing the quality of the leads generated after the campaign.
Long-term ads. Budget = at least a few thousand dollars over a quarter.
Ads can be a great solution in a pinch but if you really want to use ads strategically build them into your overall marketing strategy. This means more consistent, quarterly ad spends.
Consider how potential customers make purchase decisions and use ads to influence them. This may mean always relying on search ads or retargeting to make sure prospects find you when they are ready to buy. You’re more likely to accumulate better data taking this approach, which will allow you to get more sophisticated in how you optimize your ad spend.
Given the quickly changing nature of social media platforms and posts, it’s worth considering social media ROI tools to help stay on top of spend and revenue measurements. Here’s a look at eight great options.
1. HubSpot
Price: Free to use, no account required
The HubSpot Advertising ROI Calculator makes it easy to narrow down when and where it’s worth spending on social ads.
Why I Like This Tool
I like this tool because it’s easy to use and gets right to the point.
You start by inputting your projected monthly budget, then your expected cost-per-click (CPC), target conversion rate, average sale price, and lead-to-customer rate to get a general idea of your ROI on advertising spend.
You don’t even have to click ‘calculate’ to get your result; it updates automatically in the results column on the right-hand side of your page.
I recommend using the calculator regularly to reevaluate your campaigns to make sure they’re delivering on key metrics.
2. Hootsuite
Price:Free to use, no account required
Hootsuite also offers a free Social ROI Calculator that lets you input ad spend data to determine potential ROI.
Why I Like This Tool
While it uses slightly different metrics and has a different setup than the HubSpot calculator, the general function of this tool is the same: Input your data to see where it makes sense to spend on ads and where the return may not justify the investment.
You have seven different metrics to input into the tool, and your ROI is displayed as a percentage and dollar amount.
The calculator is primarily for analyzing ROI for paid or organic campaigns on Facebook, which is the main drawback of the tool. If you want to measure the performance of other channels, you’d have to use its paid analytics tool.
3. Sprout Social
Price: 30-day free trial; Standard plan starts at $249/mo per seat
Sprout Social’s ROI calculator helps you learn what resonates with your customers and drives ROI.
Why I Like This Tool
I like Sprout Social’s ROI tool because you can view your overall social media ROI, get more granular, and look at the performance of your campaigns, profiles, and even individual posts. It accommodates all major social media platforms, so you won’t need a separate tool for each channel.
My favorite feature is that you can benchmark yourself against competitors to see how you measure up. This knowledge lets you know if your efforts resonate with your audience as much as it does for your competitors. If your performance is lower, you can conduct further competitor analysis, uncover what’s working, and update your strategies.
Sprout Social has a higher price tag, so I recommend it for those at larger organizations with a budget for more expensive tools.
However, depending on your current ad campaign and ROI goals, the cost may be worth it. Sprout’s tool offers message-level insights to see which posts are proving their worth, along with follower, engagement, and keyword analytics that cover the entire publishing process from draft to queue to posting.
4. Cyfe
Price: 14-day free trial; Starter plan is $19/mo for two dashboards and one user
Cyfe provides a set of all-in-one business dashboards that provide insights across key social platforms.
Why I Like This Tool
Cyfe can help you monitor ROI for your social media channels, tracking performance per channel or on a campaign-by-campaign basis. You can easily monitor ads, their performance, and how users interact with your campaign efforts.
It’s a standout tool for me because you can customize your dashboard to focus on your key metric (ROI) across your platforms.
I have to note that it isn’t as feature-rich as some of the other tools on this list, but it perfectly aligns with the needs of a smaller team or individual social marketers with less in-depth analytics.
5. Google Analytics
Price: Free
Google Analytics is familiar, free, and functional.
Why I Like This Tool
While Google Analytics doesn’t have the same laser focus on social media as some of the other tools on the list, I still like it for measuring social media ROI. It comes with the advantage of massive data sets and helps inform social advertising SEO, which is critical to any effective campaign.
Most attributions to any activity originating from your social accounts start by batting UTM parameters to the links you share on socials. From there, you can view conversion and conversion path reports to see what originated from your social campaigns, and conversion reports let you know how your social media efforts have impacted your overall conversion rate.
If you’re already using Google Analytics, it’s easy to see how your social ads are performing at a high level. Log into your dashboard, select ‘Acquisition,’ then ‘Traffic,’ then Channels. You’ll get a list of your traffic sources, including those from social sites, helping you get a general sense of how social ads are working to drive revenue.
Featured Resource: The Ultimate Google Ads PPC Kit
6. Buffer
Price: Free plan and 14-day free trial; Essentials plan starts at $6/mo per channel
Buffer is an all-in-one social media marketing and ROI tool that simplifies measuring and managing ads.
Why I Like This Tool
Buffer streamlines the creation of social ad content and lets you measure impact in just a few clicks to see what’s working, what isn’t, and what needs to improve.
You can track performance and engagement metrics for your Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), and LinkedIn Pages (not individual profiles) in an overview dashboard and dive into deeper insights for each channel for more specific understanding.
I do have to call out that Buffer’s analytics offerings aren’t as comprehensive as other tools on this list and you can only leverage it to analyze the four channels I mentioned above. Also, you can measure organic, paid, and promoted performance on all supported channels except for LinkedIn.
However, that also makes this tool a valuable option for individual social media managers or smaller marketing teams that don’t need the advanced analytics functions that come with a higher-priced tool.
7. Keyhole
Price: Free trial available; Individual plan starts at $89/mo with analytics for three profiles
Keyhole’s analytics tool helps you dive deep into the ROI of your marketing efforts.
Why I Like This Tool
Keyhole made it onto my list because of its influencer marketing platform.
It helps you view performance metrics for your influencer content and the ROI of your partnerships. Since you’re spending money on these campaigns, staying on top of performance is crucial. You can also keep tabs on influencer partners who exist outside your business ecosystem but offer potential benefits for your brand.
It also offers the analytics features you’d expect for any other kind of social media marketing, including channel-by-channel metric visualizations for the profiles you probably already have on Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), TikTok, LinkedIn Pages (no individual profiles), and YouTube.
8. Calculator Soup
Price: Free, no account required
Calculator Soup offers a basic, no-frills ROI calculator to use for your social media marketing analysis.
Why I Like This Tool
Remember how I mentioned that I’m bad at math? Well, Calculator Soup is my saving grace. In fact, I used it to run the sample equation when I went over the social media ROI formula.
The calculator isn’t specifically for social media marketing but works just as well. You simply input your initial investment and total income and get your result. If you want to understand the ROI of your campaigns for a specific duration, you can also input monthly and yearly timelines.
Getting the Biggest Social Impact for Your Spend
Bottom line? There’s no single way to spend your social marketing budget. Some companies may prefer to keep spending low and handle most of their ads through free platforms and word of mouth, while others are willing to spend top dollar for on-demand results.
Whatever budget you choose and whichever approach you take, however, here’s my rule of thumb: ask lots of questions about your ad spend, and make sure ads are performing as intended.
Why? Because even targeting the right market with the right approach, it’s easy to burn through money fast. Safeguard yourself by knowing what to expect, having clear expectations, and using the right tools to measure social ad ROI.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.