Several businesses see social media success as an opportunity to enhance their brand visibility and increase awareness among their target audience. They often misinterpret this success with rigorous posting.
If you are a social media agency that handles multiple clients and believe in more posting, then there are chances of you missing out on your ROI targets.
Blindly posting content without analyzing the insights into your audience’s behavior, preferences, and trends won`t be of much help. You need social media analytic tools to get a deeper understanding of your audience and help you with data-driven decision-making.
But what exactly are social media analytics tools?
Social media analytic tools are software designed to help you interpret the data gathered from social platforms to support your business goals. With these tools, you can monitor and track your engagement levels, spot trends, and see what’s the ROI on your social media efforts.
Additionally, if you are puzzled about whether studying the performance metrics of your social media profiles is worth the time and effort, these analytics tools can resolve all your doubts.
There is a wide range of tools ranging from social media schedulers and competitor analytics tools to social media tracking tools for diversified insights.
Use these social media analytics and reporting tools to better craft your social media strategy and stay ahead of your competitors.
Built-In Free Social Media Analytics Tools
Top social networks like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have their analytics dashboards built in. These analytics dashboards are designed to offer various analytics insights. Some examples of important metrics from social media analytics include conversion rate, click-through rates, engagement rate, impressions per mile, and leads.
If your social presence is limited to these avenues, these free social media analytics tools will measure ROI to provide an excellent starting point toward understanding your audience.
But they have limited scope, and users may find themselves with heaps of data from individual social media platforms without proper processing.
That’s why you must have robust social media analytics software to accurately measure the reach, impact, and potential of social media marketing. Here are our top picks for the best paid and free social media analytics tools worth exploring.
Agorapulse schedules posts, analyzes performance, and monitors hashtags and keywords. Though it doesn’t really qualify as a social media analytics tool per se, its analytics and reporting feature makes it an excellent tool for beginners to get a clear picture of overall social media performance. So, you cannot have a social media analytics tools comparison discussion without this tool.
Agorapulse also has an asset library, so you can reuse the same assets for multiple posts. It also has team collaboration features for regulating workflows.
Pros
- It provides great social media competitor analytics.
- It provides insightful community management reports such as response and conversation rates to show how well your customer/community interaction is.
- The topic-wise labeling feature allows you to track the analytics of your post and generate reports quickly.
Verified Agorapulse User
The inboxing feature is something our team enjoys the most.
Cons
- It does not give Pinterest publishing, analytics, and reporting features.
- Agorapulse provides basic reports making them less useful for agencies.
- For the features it offers, Agorapulse is priced quite high.
Alex F
Unfortunately, the reporting is pretty weak. We actually use another third-party app to pull .csv files for loading into Google Sheets and Google Data Studio. Agorapulse will allow you to export mostly PowerPoints (which aren’t that pretty) and some .csv files for very basic social metrics. I’m also not sure there are any real metrics for paid advertising as well.
Social Status is a dedicated social media analytics tool perfect for agencies and digital marketers who need multi-channel reporting and the ability to white label and customize their reports to suit different clients. The dashboard contains all the metrics you need in real-time.
Reports can be exported to CSV, PDF, PowerPoint, and Google Slides.
This social media audit tool also tracks Facebook Ad Accounts for reporting on paid campaigns. You can also benchmark performance against influencers and measure your influencer marketing campaigns too.
Pros
- There is a free plan.
- You get in-depth stats and metrics for all the main social media channels.
- It is simple to use and has an intuitive design.
Genesis B
I like that I have all of the tools I need to build a report in one place. It reduces the amount of time for me to build a report. It also highlights the most important facts about my report.
Cons
- It only focuses on analytics and reporting, with no publishing or management features.
- Higher plans can be expensive.
Glenn L
I have had occasions in the past where reports took quite a while to generate, particularly if you were doing one over a longer period of time. However, this seems to be less of an issue now.
Google Analytics is one of the best ways to track social media campaigns and even helps you measure social ROI.
But is Google Analytics actually a social media tool?
Google Analytics has an image of being an SEO analytics tool. However, it is also used as one of the most valuable social media reporting tools for analyzing the trend of social media traffic.
You can also find out the most effective network that’s yielding you the best results for your campaigns. There are also several custom filter options for diversified reporting.
Pros
- It’s completely free.
- It’s compatible with multiple digital environments like websites, mobile applications, etc., including Google Ads accounts.
- It collects data from multiple sources, creates goals, and tracks them thoroughly.
- It gives you customized reports for better decision-making capabilities.
Esra K.
Google Analytics provides us meaningful insights about our website to improve it accordingly, attract new visitors and increase our potential customers.
Cons
- There’s a lot of learning involved to understand the tool.
- It has multiple dashboards, which can be overwhelming if you are not sure what you are doing.
- If you want to upgrade your free plan, it will cost you a whopping $150K a year.
Christi A.
Financially not an option at times. Although I know it increases traffic, I feel Google has complete control and can redirect according to who pays. Google used to be good, but now they are only loyal to money and could care less about helping small businesses. I’m thinking Yahoo is better.
If hosting contests on social media platforms is your thing, then ShortStack is the best social media metrics tool for you. It lets you manage everything, starting with entry data to long-term campaign performance.
It allows visitors to fill in their details on the page and unlock special offers, including e-books, discount codes, or giveaways. It also has customizable features like landing page templates in various colors and eye-catching fonts, widgets for forms, polls, and galleries.
Pros
- It’s effortless to design, launch, and monitor, even for beginners.
- It has a drag and drop interface to customize colors, fonts, widgets, etc., to give your visitors an elevated experience.
- It gives you the ability to embed any analytics tag for tracking conversions or retargeting.
Shelley F
ShortStack is a very robust and easy-to-use tool. There is a bit of a learning curve on all the widgets, but once you figure them out, it makes developing your entry site a snap.
Cons
- ShortStack is a contest platform, so it might not be the best fit if you are looking to manage social media and get analytics.
- The tool offers comprehensive contest analytics but doesn’t consider entry-fee processing.
- ShortStack doesn’t necessarily increase your profile views or followers.
Magnus H
It’s a very complex piece of software to program, and the workflow isn’t always intuitive. It left me with a few customer grievances, unfortunately. Doors opening at the wrong time and people missing out on offers.
Keyhole can provide real-time performance analysis of the industry. It’s one of the best social media dashboard tools in the market that helps brands understand which hashtags are trending among followers.
Businesses can leverage Keyhole’s social listening and monitoring features and even track campaign-specific analytics on Twitter and Instagram. You can also use social media reporting tools like this to keep an eye on your competitors.
Pros
- Keyhole produces valuable reports to keep clients well-informed. You can even download them in PDF format.
- Historical data and influencer management features are available.
- Track conversations about your brand across blogs, forums, and news websites.
Fatima M
The metrics given on Keyhole are unmatched and help us in setting KPIs and measuring results accordingly. The layout is also very user-friendly, and everything is exportable, so that’s wonderful.
Cons
- Free and paid versions differ dramatically.
- You may have to set up trackers beforehand.
Ben K
I felt like it broke A LOT. Sometimes info would not be pulled, the reports would be screwed up, etc. When I requested help, I was made to feel like I was the one making mistakes when I was a pretty savvy user (imo).
Hootsuite is perhaps the first name that comes to mind for paid social media analytics. It lets you know which content performs the best or worst, so you make smarter decisions. Its price point varies on business needs.
It is the go-to platform for experienced marketers. While it has been in the market for a long time, this social media dashboard tool is a complex one to use. So we recommend using user-friendly Hootsuite alternatives.
Pros
- The platform supports multiple social media networks like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
- It has an all-in-one interface that allows you to add different networks for quick monitoring.
Matt R.
It makes things easier to view with everything on one dashboard. I can see messages, comments, and replies all in one place.
Cons
- Reviews suggest its auto-scheduling feature is buggy.
- The interface can be pretty overwhelming for beginners.
- Everything is an add-on, and you end up paying extra. For example, additional users and more detailed reports will cost more.
Bill R.
Slow to change. Unresponsive to the needs of social managers. Horrible analytics. It doesn’t allow for reporting on key engagements such as saves/shares.
As the name suggests, Rival IQ is a source for getting social media competitor analysis. The tool also analyzes your brand’s performance on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.
It has a robust competitor benchmarking that allows marketers to understand their clients’ social stats compared to their competitors. The analysis from the platform enables marketers to quickly gauge trending content and tweak their strategies for maximum impact.
Pros
- RivalIQ puts competitors and the company on the same platform and derives comparative information from various social media channels.
- It has a diverse reporting feature that consists of customizable slideshows and PDFs.
Brendan B.
The insights from Rival IQ inform a lot of how we plan and execute our social media strategy. To be able to see a snapshot of our competition across the league is invaluable as well.
Cons
- The platform’s subscription is tier-based, so you either have to pay more or swap with other plans if you want to add more rival companies.
- You cannot gather enough historical data using this social media data collection tool.
- It is not an all-in-one option. You might encounter issues with its social media management and listening capabilities.
Verified Rival IQ Reviewer
I found that the data that we wanted was sometimes not available through the software, and we either had to go into the platform directly, such as Facebook, to get it.
Sendible is one of the popular social media reporting tools primarily meant for larger agencies and teams. It has features like post publishing, analytics, and community management built in.
This social media audit tool focuses on collaboration and has easy approval protocols to ensure the swiftness of social media management. It also supports integrations with popular blogging platforms for easy content management.
Pros
- It lets you handle multiple social media accounts and allows you to manage workflows and delegate tasks efficiently.
- It helps you generate new leads and measure your ROIs.
Meredith K.
My organization really enjoys how organized Sendible is. By assigning each other particular tasks, we are able to increase our workload.
Cons
- Users report frequent glitches and reconnection issues.
- It is intimidating and confusing to navigate through the dashboard.
Caitlin L.
This software is so glitchy. I often have to log out and back in to make features work. Sometimes they disappear altogether, or when I click them, they don’t fire. The users and accounts in the administration settings only work about 20% of the time.
Mention is another social media analytics tool that monitors keywords, does competitive analysis, and finds relevant influencers in your niche. A popular feature of Mention is its ‘alerts’ system that notifies you in real-time whenever set keywords are mentioned.
It also mails you your analytics report every day. It gives you instant access to all your brand mentions and lets you filter analytics to focus on specific metrics.
Pros
- Its UI is clean and simple to use. Users can easily navigate through it.
- It lets you download your data in excel.
Elizabeth M.
I love that Mention goes beyond normal links in articles and blogs and even searches through comment sections. It’s a great way to hear customer feedback, not just from our customers but from your competitors as well. The interface is beautiful, intuitive, and easy to use for all tasks.
Cons
- The support team isn’t proactive in solving problems.
- The platform is slow and buggy at times.
Verified Mention User
I don’t know why my activity is reported sometimes and not others. I have no one at Mention who can guide me on how to get relevant/the best results with their platform. I get a lot of irrelevant Mentions concerning people with the same name as me. There should be a way to exclude their activity from being reported to me.
Brand24 is one of the popular social media data collection tools that helps you to improve your social media presence. It offers features like competitive analysis, tracking campaign analytics, overall social media performance, and more.
Its sentiment analysis feature is top grade. Brand24 segregates all of your brand mentions under positive and negative sentiments to understand your brand impact online.
You can even download reports in PDF and Excel formats and share them with your team and clients.
Pros
- The learning curve isn’t steep.
- Customer support is approachable and attentive to resolving tickets.
Roberto S.
The platform has a very good and widely renowned capability to optimize a marketing strategy building process, it can be integrated solidly and very quickly. The program has definitely coordinated a follow-up process to market needs.
Cons
- The tool is pricey for the features it offers.
- Results can be spammy and fake at times
Samara H
It would be ideal if Brand24 had faster results and a more specific opinion filter, it would also be good if the team considered supporting the development of analysis and audit reports. There are some things that can be improved. I also find that certain functions are not that intuitive to find.
Whether you run a marketing agency or work as an in-house marketer, Whatagraph is a social media audit tool that has everything you need to report your results. You can use it to create functional, professional looking reports in as little as a few minutes.
With more than 40 data sources available and 95+ templates, you’ll have all the tools you need to create a report for your client or manager. Social media, e-commerce platforms, SEO and SEM tools – Whatagraph covers it all.
Pros
- 40+ data sources
- 95+ report templates
- Fully customizable reports with white-labeling features
- Personalized 30-minute onboarding and setup session for each customer
Stephany
I love how easy this tool is to use, everyone on the team finds it much more user-friendly than other dashboards. Integration was easy, we sent some example reports to the team who duplicated these for us. We literally had to log in and send it to our clients!
Cons
- Might be expensive for smaller agencies
- Only annual pricing plans are available
Dimitry
The development cycle is aimed at pleasing the greatest number of people, which means very specific requests might never make it.
Talkwalker is another great reporting software that gives free unlimited searches for hashtags and keywords for all major social media platforms. Monitor conversations from more than 150 million data sources and analyze engagement, mentions, sentiments, reach, comments, top posts, and more.
This brand monitoring platform lets you compare your performance to your competitors across multiple channels.
Pros
- Monitor what people say about your brand, products, events, or campaigns.
- Track your brand mentions in real time.
- Shows demographic data like age, gender, and occupation of your audience.
Younes B.
I have been using Talkwalker for more than 3 years now. I like the depth the tool can go into bringing results. Even when a nano influencer or small media website mentions your brand, Talkwalker’s web crawlers don’t disappoint you and show you the results in almost real time.
Cons
- Tagging in Talkwalker is slow.
- Managing the account is complex.
Verified User in Aviation & Aerospace
Trapped. Easy to set up, impossible to get away from it. Ugh, you can’t delete your account without going through a 3rd party request, which still hasn’t worked. Users can’t delete accounts in settings, zero ability to control your account. Results include every job posting on the planet. In other words, if you want an alert for ICH Q9, instead of getting information on ICH Q9, you get every single job posting that lists ICHQ9 as part of the job, which =every quality professional on earth.
Final Words
Businesses need to manage multiple accounts and constantly have an eye on social analytics. A cross-platform social media analytics and reporting tool will make this task incredibly easy by aggregating high-volume data from various platforms and presenting them in downloadable reports.
From the social media analytics tools comparison above, we can say that investing in the right social media analytics and reporting tool like SocialPilot can help you benchmark your efforts. The best part is you can take a 14-day free trial before making a long-term commitment.
This one-stop solution for your social media marketing is guaranteed to save you time and ditch all manual labor for good. So wait no more and get started now!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is social media analytics important?
Social media analytics is important to measure the effectiveness of your social media efforts. It lets you know if your strategy is working or needs some tweaking. You can also find out which social media site is working best so you can take steps towards improving your presence there.
What is social media analytics used for?
Social Media Analytics is used for tracking and monitoring social media metrics such as reach, impression, clicks, website visits, likes, replies, tags, mentions, etc. You can even compare them against your competitors to find the engagement gaps and take strategic actions to fill in those.
What are social media analytics tools?
Social media analytics tools help you analyze your complete social media accounts from audience growth, post-performance, demographics, hashtag analysis, the most engaged people on your profiles to competitor profile analysis.
Which is the best social media analytics tool?
SocialPilot is one of the best social media analytics tools out there. The tool makes it quite simple to track metrics for social media campaigns for each of your profiles separately. You can track content engagement, audience growth, demographics, and influencers. Also, with this social media analytics software, users can plan, publish, promote, and create reports under social media banners.
How do you get social media analytics for free?
Thankfully, almost all social media platforms offer free social media analytics through their built-in social media and analytics dashboard. For Facebook and Instagram, you can consider using the insights section of the dashboard, whereas you can try out the Analytics section for Twitter and Pinterest.
Is there a free alternative to Hootsuite?
SocialPilot, a robust tool that offers powerful publishing and insightful analytics, is more beneficial to businesses and digital marketing agencies than Hootsuite. Apart from costing you less, you get additional features such as publishing carousel posts, audience targeting, and Canva integration when you opt for SocialPilot.
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SocialPilot has emerged as one of the most straightforward social media analytics tools to use. This tool lets you post on multiple social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Business, Pinterest, Tumblr, and YouTube. SocialPilot makes it quite simple to track metrics for social media campaigns for each of your profiles separately. You can track content engagement, audience growth, demographics, and influencers.
With this social media analytics software, users can plan, publish, promote, and create reports under social media banners. SocialPilot keeps your content, scheduling calendar, and social media analytics in one place so you can effectively consolidate your digital campaigns.
When you add an account to SocialPilot, it pulls in analytics data eliminating the need for a manual setup. The tool also constantly updates its features allowing users to get the best out of the platform. Or eg – the newest reels posting and analytics feature. All of this is a big plus if you’re a busy social media marketer.
Some other SocialPilot’s social media analytics and reporting features include:
From novices and intermediate experts to advanced users, SocialPilot fits a diverse range of users, making it a highly versatile tool for social media analytics and reporting besides scheduling and publishing. You can also analyze your Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Google Business Profile accounts with SocialPilot.
What do our users say?
Luis Ignacio C.
I am surprised by the kindness that it offers me. Anyone who works in digital marketing, looking for a reliable tool, is what I have received since I implemented SocialPilot as the main tool. They also offer you a complete section of analytics, which allows you to show the orderly evolution of your work.
Cindy C
SocialPilot is amazing! This social media analytics software frees up my time immensely, even providing me with analytics for each one of my social media accounts which is great.