10 Best Social Media Analytics Tools for 2024

Social media was once an online place where people made virtual friends. Now it has become a vital 21st-century marketing channel for businesses. 

With more than 4.6 billion users worldwide, social media not only offers marketers a chance to expand their reach but also helps them to engage more potential customers without spending a fortune.

But, social media marketing strategy is so much more than simply being on social media and uploading content one after another. A solid social media strategy will also pay attention to the analytics to see how well their campaigns perform.

Many social media platforms come with in-built analytics features, Instagram with Instagram Insights, YouTube with YouTube Analytics, and Twitter with Twitter Analytics. But, these in-built analytics only offer basic social media insights.

From blockchain game companies to eCommerce stores, businesses need more advanced social media analytics tools to help them measure their social media performance, track their competitors, and make data-driven decisions.

In this article, we will share with you the top social media analytics tools that every marketer should use.

Social Media Analytics: Why You Should Care

Let's take a quick look at social media analytics and what it entails. It will help you understand why you should care about it in the first place.

Before starting your social media marketing campaigns, you should know what metrics to track and measure. This way, you can determine your social media goals and objectives.

Some of the most important social media metrics are engagement rate, reach, click-through rate (CTR), shares, and mentions. The key metrics to track the performance of your paid social media campaigns are impressions, conversion rate, cost per acquisition (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), and cost per click (CPC). 

All that data gives you insights into how well your social media campaigns perform, how your target audience receives it, what kind of content they like, and more. 

In other words, social media analytics allow you to monitor your campaigns, measure performance to see if you achieve your desired results, identify areas for improvement, and optimize your ad spend.

Why Do You Need Social Media Analytics Tools?

Now that you know what social media analytics is and why it's important, let's take a look at some of the benefits of using social media analytics tools.

As we've mentioned before, most social media platforms come with in-built analytics features. But, they're not enough if you want to get the most out of your social media marketing campaigns.

This is where social media analytics tools come into play. They offer more detailed and actionable insights that can help you take your social media marketing strategy to the next level. 

Some of the benefits of using social media analytics tools are:

Get Detailed Insights

One of the main benefits of social media analytics tools is that they offer detailed insights into your social media campaigns. 

This way, you can track your progress and identify areas that need improvement. For example, if you see a sudden drop in your engagement rate, you can take steps to fix it.

One of the ways to get better insights on time is to use real-time dashboards. Social media marketing requires you to keep an eye on tens of metrics across multiple channels, so it might be hard to track everything manually. Our social media marketing dashboard template can help you track essential metrics across all social channels. Click on the image below to get your tempate copy.

Track Competitors

Another benefit of social media analytics tools is that they allow you to track your competitor's performance. From their reach to engagement rate, you can track everything. 

You can see what areas they're lacking in and what strategies they're using that are working well for them. With all their data, you can fine-tune your social media marketing strategy to stay ahead of the competition.

Understand Your Audience Better

Social media analytics tools make it much easier to understand your target audience. From their demographics to interests and even the time they're most active, you can understand the attitudes and behavior of your audience. 

With this data, you can create content that appeals to them and post it at the right time for maximum engagement. This allows you to reach the full potential of your business.

Make Data-Driven Decisions

Social media analytics tools also help you to make data-driven decisions. This means that you can base your decisions on facts and not just guesses. This can lead to a more effective overall social media marketing strategy.

Let's say you see that most tutorials or training video content often perform well. Then you know that your audiences love something that is informative. Next, you can create more of that content to attract more engagement.

Save Time

With social media analytics tools, you don't have to waste time manually gathering data from different sources. 

These tools make it easy for you to track all your social media metrics in one place. This way, you can save time and use it to create more high-quality content.

10 Top Social Media Analytics Tools

There are tons of social media analytics tools in the market. It can be way too easy for you to fall into the trap of analysis paralysis. 

So, we've compiled a list of the best social media analytics tools to help you out:

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the most popular social media management tools. And their Insights feature is one of the main reasons why. 

It offers detailed insights into your social media campaigns. For example, you can see your most popular posts, the reach of your posts, and more.

This tool also provides you with their Insights feature, where you can find out how people are talking about specific topics and even let you track conversations on your brand. This is a helpful feature when you aim to also focus on social listening strategy.

Buffer

Buffer is another popular social media management tool. It's actually well-known for its ability to help you schedule and publish your social media content, but its analytics feature is just as good as Hootsuite's, and other alternatives.

With Buffer Analytics, you can track your progress, engagement rate, and more. You can also use it to track your competitor's performance. Another key feature is that you can see the best time to post your content for maximum engagement.

Sprout Social

If you're looking for a social media analytics tool that does it all, Sprout Social is a great option. It offers detailed insights, competitor analysis, audience understanding, and more. 

One of the best features of Sprout Social is its ability to help you track your ROI. With their data, you can see how much money you're making for each social media campaign. This is a valuable metric that not all social media analytics tools offer.

HubSpot

HubSpot can be a great option for large enterprises with a deep pocket as it offers a lot of features, not just social media analytics. However, their social media tools are still very powerful. 

HubSpot's social media tool allows you to track your progress, see which content performs the best, and more. You can also use it to compare your performance to your competitors. Plus, their reporting feature makes it easy to see your progress over time.

Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a powerful and worth-considering social media analytics tool if you are managing multiple social media accounts for your business. 

It's an all-in-one platform that lets you do everything from publishing content to tracking your analytics. 

A key feature of Agorapulse is its ability to help you find and track influencers. This is a valuable tool if you're looking to expand your reach and grow your audience.

Zoho Social

Just like any other social media analytics tool, Zoho Social provides you with detailed insights into your social media campaigns. But what sets it apart is its ability to help you track your sales pipeline. 

This is a valuable tool if you're looking to close more deals and increase your revenue. With Zoho Social, you can see which leads are ready to be closed and take action accordingly.

This tool also offers a collaboration feature where you and your team can work together on social media campaigns in real-time. This is a great way to increase efficiency and productivity.

Keyhole

Keyhole is a social media analytics tool that's specifically designed for Twitter and Instagram. It offers detailed insights into your posts, hashtags, and even Stories. 

One of the best features of Keyhole is its ability to track hashtag performance. With its real-time analysis, you can see how popular a hashtag is and adjust your strategy from time to time. 

KISSmetrics

One of the key features of KISSmetrics is its ability to help you track your conversions. With this tool, you can see which of your social media campaigns are resulting in sales and take action accordingly. 

KISSmetrics also offers detailed insights into your social media campaigns, such as engagement rate and reach. This is a valuable tool if you're looking to increase your conversion rate and ROI.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is probably a go-to analytics tool for most businesses. It's a powerful tool that offers detailed insights into your website traffic. 

But did you know that it can also be used for social media analytics? With Google Analytics, you can track your social media traffic and see which platforms are sending you the most traffic. 

You can also use it to track your conversions and see which social media campaigns are resulting in sales. 

Socialbakers

Socialbakers is what you need when you are looking for an all-in-one social media management and analytics tool. Not only does it offer detailed insights, but it also has a suite of tools to help you with tasks such as content creation and social media listening. 

Socialbakers tool also provides you with the ability to create custom reports. This is a valuable tool if you're looking to track specific metrics or data points. 

With its machine learning and artificial intelligence, Socialbakers helps you to grow your audience base by personalizing content based on data collected from the audience.

Improvado

Improvado is a tried and true option for enterprise and mid-market companies managing multiple social media channels. It is a marketing data platform that extracts performance data from 500+ marketing and sales platforms to help companies build a 360-degree picture of their revenue efforts. 

Improvado integrates with all social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and many others, to gather performance data of your paid and organic activities. Marketers can analyze their efforts broken down into campaign and ad group levels. Improvado Data Dictionary shows all 33,00 metrics the platform can get from marketing channels.

Then, Improvado merges all data in a centralized data warehouse (such as BigQuery, Amazon S3, or even Spreadsheets) to grant quick and easy access to data. 

Eventually, the pipeline transfers all the data to 15+ visualization tools, helping marketers build a real-time social media marketing dashboard and make data-driven decisions.

How to Choose the Right One?

There's no such thing as one-size-fits-all social media analytics tools. Some tools are best for small businesses, while others are more suited for enterprise companies. 

At this point, the burning question is, "how do you choose the right one?"

To help you out, we've put together a quick guide on how to choose the right social media analytics tool for your business:

Identify Your Needs

The best way to find the right tool is to first assess your needs. Think about what you want to track and what features are most important to you. 

Do you need help with scheduling? Are you looking for detailed insights? Do you want a tool that also offers social media management? Once you know what you need, it'll be much easier for you to find the right tool.

Understand Your Business Preferences

Not all businesses are the same. And this also means that not all businesses will have the same social media analytics needs. For example, if you're a small business, you might not need as many features as an enterprise company. 

On the other hand, if you're managing multiple social media accounts for different brands, you might need a tool that offers social media management. It's important to understand your business preferences before choosing a social media analytics tool.

Set a Budget

There are both free and paid social media analytics tools available. And while the free options might be tempting, they usually don't offer as many features as the paid options. 

Social media analytics tools can range in price from $0 to $500/month. So, it's important that you set a budget before starting your search. This will help narrow down your options and make the decision-making process much easier.

Get a Free Trial

Once you've identified a few tools that fit your needs, the next step is to get a free trial. This will give you a chance to test out the features and see if it's a good fit for your business. 

With the free trial, you can see the interface, how all the features work, and if it's something you can see yourself using long-term. 

Don't forget to also check out the customer support before making your final decision. You want to make sure that you're choosing a tool that offers excellent customer service in case you run into any problems down the road.

Wrap Up

Social media analytics tools are essential for any business-- regardless of size or industry. If you're not tracking your social media traffic, you're missing out on valuable insights that could help you grow your business. Remember that all the data that social media analytics tools provide means nothing if you don't know how to use it. 

Data is only valuable if you can interpret it and use it to make informed decisions. So, don't forget to also brush up on your data interpretation skills before diving into the world of social media analytics tools.