How Can I do a Social Media Audit For Free? Yes You Can, But Should You?

How Can I Do a Social Media Audit for Free? Learn From The Experts!

How Can I do a Social Media Audit For Free? Here we discuss the challenges of DIY audits and the value of PPC Geeks’ free professional audit service. If you want a comprehensive and free social ads audit simply book your brand in today. If you want to learn more about DIY audits then please read on:

For brands and marketers like you aiming to maximise social media PPC marketing results, regular PPC audits are essential. But comprehensive social media audits can be complex undertakings requiring significant time and marketing analytics expertise to complete fully.

Many budget-constrained organisations wonder if they can audit their social media efforts for free. DIY social media audits can be frustrating and seldom provide actionable insights for optimising strategies.

Maximising Social Media Marketing Performance: Navigating DIY Audits and Professional Services

How Can I do a Social Media Audit For Free?

For brands and marketers aiming to excel in social media marketing, regular audits are crucial. They provide valuable insights, help identify areas for improvement, and optimise strategies. Conducting social media audits can be challenging for budget-constrained organisations without extensive marketing analytics expertise.

Why is PPC so expensive? Many wonder if they can do free social media audits themselves, but DIY audits often lack actionable insights.

In this guide, we’ll explore the data inputs required for thorough social media audits.

Challenges in DIY audits can be averted by partnering with a professional marketing firm like PPC Geeks for a free audit.

1. Data Inputs Required for Thorough Social Media Auditing

Effective social media audits rely on gathering and analysing various data inputs. Key data sources include:

a. Performance Metrics: Metrics such as engagement rates, reach, impressions, click-through rates, and conversions provide crucial insights into the success of social media campaigns.

b. Audience Insights: Understanding the demographics, preferences, and behaviours of your social media audience helps in tailoring content to their interests.

c. Competitor Analysis: Evaluating the strategies and performance of competitors helps identify gaps and opportunities in your social media approach.

d. Content Evaluation: Assessing the performance of individual posts and content types helps in determining the most effective content strategies.

2. Challenges of DIY Free Audits

While the idea of conducting a free social media audit may seem appealing, there are several challenges to consider:

a. Time-Consuming: Comprehensive social media audits require significant time and effort to collect and analyse data from various platforms.

b. Lack of Expertise: Without marketing analytics expertise, it can be challenging to interpret the data accurately and derive meaningful insights.

c. Incomplete Data: Free audit tools often have limitations and may not provide access to all the necessary data points required for a comprehensive analysis.

d. Limited Analysis: Basic free audits may offer generic feedback without delving into the specific nuances of your brand and industry.

3. Shortcomings and Limitations of Basic Free Audits

Free social media audit tools may offer general insights, but they often have limitations and may not provide the tailored analysis needed for your brand. They might lack advanced features, real-time data updates, and personalised recommendations, essential for optimising social media strategies effectively.

4. The Expertise and Tools Needed for Effective Auditing

Performing a comprehensive social media audit requires a combination of marketing expertise and advanced analytics tools. Trained professionals can delve deeper into the data, identify patterns, and recommend actionable strategies for improvement. Advanced tools allow for in-depth analysis and reporting, which is challenging to achieve with free tools.

5. Partnering with a Professional Marketing Firm for Audits

Collaborating with a professional PPC marketing agency, like PPC Geeks, for a social media audit offers several advantages:

a. Expertise: Working with experienced professionals ensures that the audit is conducted efficiently and accurately.

b. Advanced Tools: Marketing firms often have access to cutting-edge analytics tools, providing a more in-depth analysis of social media performance.

c. Tailored Insights: Professionals can interpret data in the context of your brand’s goals and industry, providing personalised recommendations for improvement.

6. Why Free Audits from the Right Partner Provide Immense Value

Marketing firms, like PPC Geeks, provide free audit services so brands can try their expertise before committing to a paid partnership. This approach showcases the advantages of a lasting relationship. Assuring brands (just like yours) that investing in professional services leads to tangible returns.

DIY social media audits may seem cost-effective, but they often lack the depth and precision needed to maximise marketing performance. Partnering with professional marketers like PPC Geeks, even via a free audit, provides valuable insights, expert analysis, and tailored recommendations. In the end, this collaboration results in powerful improvements and enhanced social media strategies, benefiting the brand’s overall marketing performance.

Data Inputs Required for Social Media Auditing

To conduct a complete social media audit, brands and marketers must analyse diverse data inputs from different platforms. These data sources offer valuable insights into the performance of social media efforts and help identify areas for improvement.

The key data inputs to consider during a social media audit include:

1. Social Media Management Platforms: Social media PPC management platforms like Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social, and others provide essential organic content performance metrics. These metrics include data like impressions, clicks, shares, likes, comments, and overall engagement for each post or content piece. This data allows auditors to assess the reach and impact of the brand’s organic social media activities.
2. Social Media Advertising Platforms: For brands utilising social media advertising, data from advertising platforms like Facebook Ads Manager, Twitter Ads, and LinkedIn Ads is vital. These platforms provide insights into paid ad performance, including ad spend, reach, frequency, conversions, and more. This data aids auditors in understanding the effectiveness of paid social media strategies and their return on investment.
3. Website Analytics: Incorporating data from website analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, is crucial for understanding the impact of social media on website traffic and conversions. The data shows the volume of referral traffic from social platforms, visitor behaviour from social media, and conversion rates from social channels. This information helps auditors gauge the overall effectiveness of social media in driving website traffic and conversions.

Identify Areas for Improvement

1. Social Listening Tools: Social Mention, Brandwatch, and Sprout Social enable brands to monitor mentions, track sentiment, and analyze conversations about their products or services. Additionally, these tools allow the monitoring of competitor activities, identifying trends in consumer sentiments, and uncovering potential crisis situations. The data from social listening tools provides valuable qualitative insights that complement quantitative metrics from other sources.
2. Keyword Research Tools: Keyword research tools, such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Moz, play a role in social media auditing by providing insights into search volume and optimisation opportunities. Knowing trendy and highly searched keywords/topics helps brands align social media content, boosting visibility and engagement.
3. Competitor Analysis: Analysing competitor data is essential for benchmarking a brand’s social media performance against industry peers. Competitor data, including follower counts, engagement rates, content strategies, and growth patterns, offers valuable insights. Evaluating your brands efforts and identifying areas for improvement will help improve your ROI.

Challenges in Consolidating Data for Analysis

Performing a comprehensive social media audit involves consolidating data from various sources. This process can be time-consuming and requires accessing APIs, exporting data, generating reports, and managing dashboards across multiple tools. Data aggregation can be time-consuming for auditors, but it lays the groundwork for valuable insights. Using these insights to make informed decisions to optimise social media strategies effectively will boost ROI.

Challenges with DIY Free Social Media Auditing

Conducting a social media audit without the support of professional tools and expertise can lead to various challenges.

Social media platforms offer basic analytics, but collecting and analysing all the necessary data for a thorough audit can be challenging:

1. Data Fragmentation: Social media data is spread across various platforms and tools, such as Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, Instagram Insights, LinkedIn Analytics, and more. As a result, consolidating data from these sources becomes a time-consuming and cumbersome task. Manually gathering information from different tools can lead to inefficiencies and potential data discrepancies.
2. Lack of Integration: Platform-specific analytics tools often lack seamless integration, making it difficult to connect interactions and engagements across multiple touchpoints. Fragmented view hinders understanding of the customer journey and obtaining a holistic overview of social media performance.
3. Absence of Competitive Benchmarking: While social platforms provide data on a brand’s performance, they often lack the context of competitive benchmarking. Understanding how a brand’s metrics compare to industry peers or competitors is crucial for identifying strengths, weaknesses, and growth opportunities. Without this benchmarking data, auditors may struggle to assess the brand’s standing within the competitive landscape.

Actionable Strategies for Improvement

1. Limited Granular Performance Tracking: Basic platform analytics may offer an overview of overall performance, but they often lack the granular insights needed to assess the success of individual assets, campaigns, or audience segments. Lacking detailed data makes it difficult to pinpoint the content or campaigns that yield the best outcomes.
2. Attribution Challenges: Accurately attributing social media efforts to website actions and return on investment (ROI) can be challenging with self-serve analytics alone. To comprehend the influence of social media on website conversions and revenue, in-depth analytics are necessary. These analytics connect social media interactions to specific website actions like form submissions, purchases, and lead generation.
3. Lack of Actionable Recommendations: Developing actionable recommendations based on social media data requires experience and expertise that many marketers may lack. Data analysis is the initial stage. Professionals develop the skill of interpreting it accurately and converting it into actionable improvement strategies.

In Summary:

DIY free social media audits that rely solely on basic platform tools often yield incomplete and inconclusive data. Auditors lack insights due to the absence of integrated, contextual competitive benchmarking. This results in gaps in understanding of the actual social media ads performance. Moreover, the absence of granular performance tracking and attribution hampers the ability to identify specific areas for optimisation. Ultimately, the limitations of DIY free audits leave many essential questions unanswered and hinder the formulation of a clear path towards enhancing social media strategies for better results.

Shortcomings of Limited Self-Serve Free Audits

Attempting a self-serve free social media audit without access to robust analytics tools and specialised skills can result in several shortcomings that hinder the effectiveness of the audit.

Some of the key limitations include:

1. Inability to Map Cross-Channel Customer Journeys and Touchpoint Attribution: Limited self-serve free audits often lack the ability to map the entire customer journey across different social media channels and touchpoints. Understanding customer interactions at different stages of the buying process is crucial for optimising social media strategies. Without comprehensive cross-channel insights and touchpoint attribution, auditors miss valuable opportunities to enhance the overall customer experience.
2. Lack of Clear Benchmarking Data for Competitive Analysis: Effective social media audits require benchmarking data to compare a brand’s performance with that of its competitors or industry peers. Self-serve free audits may lack industry benchmarks or competitor data, making it difficult for to evaluate their brand’s market position effectively.
3. Only High-Level Generalisations Rather Than Tactical, Platform-Specific Recommendations: Basic free audits may provide high-level generalisations about overall performance without offering actionable, platform-specific recommendations. Tailoring strategies for each platform is essential because of their distinct audiences, content formats, and engagement patterns. Without platform-specific insights, optimising content and campaigns becomes challenging.

Continuous Refinement to Stay Relevant

1. Metrics Focused on Vanity Metrics Like Followers Rather Than Business Impact Analysis: Limited self-serve free audits may prioritise vanity metrics such as the number of followers or likes, which do not necessarily reflect the business impact of social media efforts. Don’t get caught up on superficial metrics when measuring success. Focus on the meaningful ones like conversions, leads, and revenue generated through social media.
2. Gaps in Diagnosing the “Why” Behind Performance Changes Over Time: Identifying the reasons behind fluctuations in social media performance is crucial for making informed decisions. Free self-serve audits may lack the depth to understand underlying reasons for performance fluctuations. Understanding the underlying causes of performance shifts is vital for effective optimisation.
3. No Mechanism for Ongoing Optimisation and Follow-Up After Initial Audit Is Completed: Social media strategies require continuous refinement to stay relevant and effective. Self-serve free audits often lack a mechanism for ongoing optimisation and follow-up support. Stay adaptable in social media; continuous monitoring and optimisation are crucial to avoid stagnation.

In Summary:

Limited self-serve free social media audits suffer from various shortcomings that restrict their ability to provide clear, strategic insights needed to optimise social media efforts effectively. Lack of cross-channel Customer Journey Mapping and platform-specific recommendations impede auditors’ ability to make data-driven decisions. Without proper diagnosis and ongoing optimisation, social media strategies lose effectiveness and sustainability. Self-serve free audits often lack the depth and actionable insights needed to maximise social media marketing performance.

Expertise and Tools Needed to Audit Social Media Effectively

A powerful social media audit requires advanced tools and expert knowledge to reveal actionable optimisation opportunities.

The following elements play a crucial role in performing an effective social media audit:

1. Sophisticated Social Analytics Tools: Comprehensive social media audits require advanced analytics tools capable of gathering and analysing data from multiple social media platforms. These tools should offer cross-channel data integration to provide a holistic view of the brand’s social media performance. Robust analytics tools can help auditors identify patterns, trends, and correlations that may not be apparent with basic, self-serve tools.
2. Digital Marketing Strategy Experience: Interpreting social media metrics and setting relevant benchmarks requires a deep understanding of digital marketing strategy. Professionals with experience in social media marketing can contextualise the data within the broader marketing objectives and goals of the brand. They can also align social media performance with the overall marketing strategy to ensure consistent messaging and brand positioning.
3. Platform-Specific Expertise: Each social media platform has its unique characteristics, audience demographics, and best practices. Effective auditors possess platform-specific expertise to diagnose strengths and weaknesses on individual channels. This expertise allows them to tailor recommendations for each platform and leverage its strengths to optimise performance.

Strategies Are Not Static

1. Best Practices Knowledge: Social media best practices evolve rapidly due to platform algorithm changes, user behaviour shifts, and industry trends. Auditors with up-to-date best practices knowledge can identify improvement areas and recommend strategies that align with current industry standards. Staying informed about the latest developments ensures that the social media audit remains relevant and effective.
2. Full-Funnel Perspective Tying Efforts to ROI Impact: Effective social media audits go beyond analysing vanity metrics and focus on understanding the entire customer journey. This full-funnel perspective enables auditors to tie social media efforts to specific actions, such as lead generation, conversions, or sales. Tracking social media’s influence in the customer journey allows auditors to demonstrate the ROI of social media marketing.
3. Ongoing Optimisation Focus Versus Just a One-Off Report: Social media strategies are not static; they require continuous monitoring, adjustments, and optimisations to stay effective. An effective social media audit should not be a one-time, standalone report. Ongoing optimisation is key for aligning social media efforts with brand goals & objectives.

Conclusion:

A social media audit requires expertise in social analytics, digital marketing strategy, platform knowledge, best practices, and understanding the sales funnel. Partnering with social media auditing experts is the best way for non-specialists to efficiently assemble these elements. Professionals with the right tools, skills, and experience can provide powerful social media audits to boost brand marketing performance.

Partnering With Marketing Firms for Social Media Auditing

For brands seeking comprehensive and impactful social media audits, collaborating with digital marketing agencies and consultants can provide significant advantages.

The benefits of working with audit specialists include:

1. Time Savings by Avoiding Manual Data Consolidation Across Platforms: Data consolidation from various social media platforms is a time-consuming process, especially when attempting a comprehensive audit. Partnering with marketing firms equipped with sophisticated analytics tools streamlines this process, saving valuable time and resources. Automated data aggregation allows auditors to focus on analysis and generating insights rather than spending excessive time on data gathering.
2. Expert Analysis Benchmarked Against Industry Standards: Marketing firms specialising in social media audits possess a wealth of experience and expertise in interpreting social media data. Benchmarking brand performance against industry standards and best practices helps assess the effectiveness of current social media strategies.
3. Omnichannel Perspective Connecting Data Across Touchpoints: Effective social media audits require a holistic view of the customer journey across various touchpoints. Marketing offers an omnichannel viewpoint, linking platform data to assess how interactions affect marketing and customer experiences.

Tactical Platform-Specific Recommendations

1. Tactical Recommendations Tailored to Achieve Business Goals: Audit specialists can provide tactical and platform-specific recommendations tailored to align with the brand’s specific business goals. Tailored recommendations address unique brand challenges and opportunities, ensuring relevant and effective strategies.
2. Ongoing Optimisation Focus Versus Just a One-Time Audit: Unlike one-time DIY audits, marketing firms emphasise ongoing optimisation. Continuous support and guidance for brands, using data-driven insights and adapting to digital changes.
3. Ability to Audit Cost-Effectively at Regular Intervals: Partnering with marketing firms allows brands to conduct social media audits cost-effectively and at regular intervals. Brands can optimise social media efforts by accessing professional audit services, avoiding expensive analytics tools and in-house specialists. Efficient and cost-effective!

The ROI from Recommended Optimisations:

The return on investment (ROI) generated from implementing recommended optimisations by audit specialists can be substantial. Collaborating with social media specialists can greatly enhance performance, resulting in increased conversions, leads, and revenue that outweigh the associated expenses. Positive ROI validates collaboration with marketing firms for social media audits, highlighting the value of investing in professional expertise.

Conclusion:

Partnering with marketing firms for social media auditing provides brands with a comprehensive, data-driven approach that delivers actionable insights and optimisations. Working with audit specialists is a strategic choice for brands looking to maximise their social media marketing. With time savings, expert analysis, omnichannel perspective, tailored recommendations, ongoing optimisation focus, and cost-effectiveness, it’s a smart decision. The positive ROI resulting from the implementation of recommended optimisations further solidifies the benefits of this collaboration.

Why Free Audits From the Right Partners Provide Value

Free mini audits or assessments from trusted digital marketing firms can provide value to budget-conscious brands. Choosing the right committed partner for genuine insights is crucial to maximise this opportunity. Free mini audits from reputable firms provide valuable insights that can greatly enhance social media performance. Here are some benefits brands can expect from such free audits:

1. Identifying Quick Wins to Improve Performance: Even a basic audit from a knowledgeable partner can uncover quick wins and low-hanging fruit for performance improvement. These insights could include identifying underperforming content, optimising posting schedules, or suggesting adjustments to ad targeting for better results. Implementing these quick wins can lead to immediate enhancements in social media outcomes.
2. Benchmarking Efforts Against Industry Standards: Free mini audits often include benchmarking data that allows brands to compare their social media performance against industry standards. Assessing brand performance against competitors and industry benchmarks offers valuable insights, highlighting areas for attention and improvement.
3. Prioritising Initiatives to Improve ROI: Audits from experienced partners can help brands prioritise their efforts based on data-driven insights. Brands can maximise their social media ROI by prioritising impactful improvement opportunities and optimising resource allocation.

Unbiased Evaluation

1. Providing an Outsider Perspective on Performance: An outside perspective from audit specialists brings fresh insights and new ideas to the table. Get unbiased evaluations of your brand’s social media efforts from professionals who can spot blind spots and opportunities that in-house teams might miss. This external perspective enhances the depth of the audit and increases the chances of identifying innovative solutions.
2. Building a Relationship with Experts for Ongoing Optimisation: Engaging in a free audit service with the right partner initiates a relationship that can lead to ongoing optimisation. Brands can discover the advantages of working with audit specialists through a free initial audit. If satisfied, they can continue collaborating for comprehensive audits in the future.

In summary, brands seeking to optimise their social media efforts should carefully consider the limitations of DIY free auditing compared to the benefits that come from partnering with the right audit specialists that would be able Audit Your Social Media Ads. The insights gained from a well-executed free mini audit can drive measurable improvements in social media performance and ROI. By choosing reputable and experienced partners, brands can make the most of this opportunity to enhance their social media marketing strategies and achieve their marketing objectives more effectively.

How Can I do a Social Media Audit For Free? Your Next Steps!

A social media audit is essential for brands and marketers looking to improve their social media marketing performance. While free social media audits might seem enticing, the limitations of DIY approaches often lead to incomplete insights and missed opportunities. However, partnering with the right experts can unlock the true potential of a social media audit without breaking the bank.

At PPC Geeks, our team of PPC experts understands the challenges faced by budget-constrained organisations and is committed to delivering genuine value through our free social media PPC audit service. When you book a free social media PPC audit with us, you can expect expert-level insights and actionable recommendations that can transform your social media strategies.

Our sophisticated social analytics tools enable us to assemble and analyse cross-channel data effectively. With extensive experience in digital marketing strategy, we interpret metrics and set relevant benchmarks to evaluate your brand’s performance accurately.

Furthermore, our platform-specific expertise allows us to diagnose opportunities specific to each social media channel. By staying informed about the latest best practices, we provide tactical recommendations tailored to achieve your unique business goals.

Social Media Rfforts on ROI

Through our omnichannel perspective, we connect data across various touchpoints to gain a holistic view of your customer journey. Understanding this allows us to connect your social media efforts to ROI impact, showcasing the true value of your social media marketing.

We prioritise continuous optimisation to keep your social media strategies agile and responsive to evolving trends and consumer behaviours.

Booking a free social media PPC audit with PPC Geeks is an investment that can pay significant dividends. Our audit will identify quick wins, benchmark your efforts against industry standards, and prioritise initiatives to improve your ROI. Moreover, our outsider perspective will provide fresh insights, guiding your social media strategies towards innovative and impactful solutions.

So, if you are looking to optimise your social media efforts, take the first step towards success by booking a free social media PPC audit with PPC Geeks today.

Our experts can maximise your social media marketing, boosting your brand’s online presence and performance.

Let us unlock its full potential.

Contact us now to embark on a journey towards social media success.