What if you could show your boss, your client, your spouse, or even yourself that all that hard work you’re doing over on social media is actually working? What if you could easily check one source to see how all your social posts, comments, and more are performing?

Sure, you could use Google Analytics. (Side note: you SHOULD be using GA and you still need to.) And to get real tracking and details, you’d have to create spreadsheets to track data and trends, transferring data from GA over to other databases.

And, really, are you a GA expert? I’m sure as hell not! lol Seriously, trying to track performance metrics and link conversions… I go cross-eyed and get overwhelmed pretty quickly. So, you know what? I just don’t bother using UTM links and don’t worry about the tracking.

Sound familiar?

When was the last time you checked your Google Analytics and actually interpreted the data to see how your campaign, or even your every day posts are performing on social media? [I’m hanging my head in shame realizing I’m literally describing myself right now]

But, dang, have I got some good, exciting news!

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while or are a member of my Facebook group, you know I’m pretty much a die-hard Agorapulse fan. I’ve been using this platform for years to manage all my social media content, including a lot of my Instagram content. And, yes, I became an ambassador for them – because I genuinely love the tool.

And. It. Just. Got. Better.

Like, epically, amazingly, strategically, measurably BETTER.

Agorapulse has just launched a new ROI tool and it is going to drastically change how you measure social media performance.

Here’s what Agorapulse said in their press release regarding this new feature:

Agorapulse’s new feature gives digital marketers and agencies the ability to prove the business impact of social media including sales, leads, and visitor behavior. This information is critically important for marketers, their clients, and brands because it allows them to know exactly which content, platforms, and strategies have the best ROI so they can make data-driven decisions. Until now, gathering this data has involved wrestling with Google Analytics, managing multiple spreadsheets, and keeping track of hundreds of UTMs.

And, legit, I 100% agree. I’ve had the chance to check out this new tool and here’s why *I* love it.

Custom Links

If you’ve been working in social media and talked about analytics, you’ve probably heard about UTM links. These are super long, complicated, impossible to remember links that track directly what happened on that link. It connects to your Google Analytics for tracking allowing you to track traffic, conversions, and other behaviors.

Now, with the new Agorapulse ROI tool, you can quickly, easily create custom short links that work as UTM links and add them to your content with one click.

The quick and dirty on this is that you create your social posts within Agorapulse using the Publisher tool like you normally would. Then you click on the “Edit Tracker” button to add a tracking your campaign tracking. You assign a name for the link purpose (like “Spring Campaign Post Link”) and all the UTM parameters pre-populate for you based on the type of post you’re creating in the AP Publisher. Apply the tracker, and your link is now a shortened link – something with pulse.ly as the automated Agorapulse link shortener. Finish publishing your post, and Agorapulse starts tracking everything for you.

Like, I said. EASY. Even for one-button-Jenn 

Oh, and that’s not all! [I feel like an infomercial! lol]

To help you better track your audience activity, you can create one link for the original post captions/campaigns. Then you can create another link for when you reply to comments on a post. Or for when you share a link in a direct message.

Know what you don’t have to do? You don’t have to create a separate link for each platform! If you create your posts within Agorapulse, the same tracking link knows which platform (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) it was generated on, even when you use the same link on all of them. BOOM! Life made easier.

Track All the Things

By checking your ROI dashboard in Agorapulse, you can check for all varieties of goals. It’s not just going to track how many sales you generated. Nope! You can track downloads, signups, page views… whatever your metric is to determine success.

And, the advantage to creating those different links for different interactions (posts, comments, etc.) is that you can then see where your conversions are coming from and determine which method is the highest converting method for your brand.

Do It All In One Place

Ultimately, this tool is awesome. Even for One-Button-Jenn. But a tool is only as awesome as it is accessible.

And that’s why this ROI tool is so great! Because it’s built INTO the Agorapulse dashboard – the dashboard where you can create all your posts (yes, even Instagram posts), where you can manage all your post comments and inboxes, where you can view your content calendar, and where you can assign roles to team members for action.

What About Instagram?

Of course, this ROI tool is pretty cool, yes. It’s wonderful for all those “other” social media platforms. But what about Instagram where we can’t share links in posts? Is this still worth it?

In my opinion… yes!

While you won’t use it on feed posts or Stories, you CAN use it in replies to direct messages. One of my favorite calls-to-action on Instagram is to say “If you want to sign up for my newsletter, send me a DM.” Then I reply to those DM requests with a link to subscribe to my newsletter. This works incredibly well. But now…. dang, I could manage this all through my Agorapulse inbox, reply with the tracking link and be able to measure performance beyond just the sign ups. And that’s just for a newsletter – a simple option. If you’re sending people to a product link or larger conversion process, this tracking would provide so much more detail as to the overall results of those Instagram leads and conversations.

Here’s the thing, Agorapulse is a robust tool. You’re not likely to sign up and utilize it “just” for Instagram. If you have it, you’re going to use it for your other social media platforms where this ROI tool is super helpful. So, combine those link tracking options with the ability to prove real ROI from Instagram too? Um, yes freaking please!

Is It Too Good to Be True?

In the long run, not at all! It’s really that amazing and valuable.

But there are a few things to be aware of:

1. You have to have an Agorapulse account. Not signed up yet? Go to agorapulse.com/jenn to get the coupon code for TWO FREE months to try it out.
2. You need to currently apply for a demo from the sales team and join the waitlist for the feature
3. You WILL need to have Google Analytics set up for your organization and connect the ROI tool to your GA account during the set up stage.

If you’re ready to learn more about the Agorapulse ROI tool and better understand how you could implement it, click this big ol’ button right here: