What Are the Six Key Areas of a Social Media Audit? The Social Media Audit: We Explain & Examine The 6 Critical Angles

What Are the Six Key Areas of a Social Media Audit? The 6 Essential Elements of a Social Media Audit

What Are the Six Key Areas of a Social Media Audit? A social media ads audit evaluates a brand’s social PPC media presence, performance, and Facebook Ad Strategy. It provides a 360-degree view of what’s working well and what needs improvement across your social platforms and accounts.

While audits can vary in depth, most examine six core areas:

• • 1. Social Media Profiles
    2. Content Strategy
    3. Engagement & Community
    4. Advertising & Paid Social
    5. Analytics & Reporting
    6. Competitor Benchmarking

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll break down what’s involved in auditing each of these crucial components of your social media program. If you want help from the experts you can book in for a complimentary social ads audit with us.

1. Audit Social Media Profiles

The first step in any social media audit is conducting an inventory of your brand’s profiles across different platforms. This allows you to analyse the consistency and optimisation of profiles.

Key Profile Audit Areas:

• • 1. Account Verification – Is the blue verified badge activated where available?
    2. Contact Info – Are profiles fully filled out with website, contact info and location?
    3. Metadata – Do profile name, bio, categories and keywords align with brand identity and SEO best practices?
    4. Imagery – Do profile and cover photos align with brand style and look professional? Are they consistent across platforms?
    5. Links – Do links in bios and elsewhere connect to important owned properties like website, ecommerce store and lead generation landing pages?
    6. Formats – Have all available post formats been activated (IG Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok video features, Twitter Polls, etc)?
    7. Tags – Are relevant hashtags, @mentions and location tags used properly in profiles?

The goal is cohesive, optimised profiles that accurately reflect your brand identity and help users easily connect with you.

2. Evaluate Content Strategy

Content is king on social media. Auditing your actual posts or utilising a PPC management company to do the heavy lifting for you to audit your videos allows you to analyse engagement levels, alignment to goals, use of formats and types of content.

Key Content Audit Areas:

• • 1. Posting Cadence – What is the average posting frequency? Is it consistent? Are best times identified?
    2. Performance – Which content types and topics perform best? Are underperforming posts identified for improvement?
    3. Sentiment & Tone – Does content align with desired brand voice and persona? Is sentiment analysis conducted?
    4. Formats – Is there a good mix of content types – video, images, carousels, Stories, live video, etc.?
    5. Calls-to-Action – Do posts drive desired conversions and goals via clicks/taps?
    6. Keywords & SEO – Are titles, captions and hashtags optimised for discoverability and search rankings?
    7. Competitor Content – How does your content compare to competitors? Where are there opportunities to differentiate?

Regular content audits ensure you’re maximising reach and engagement at all stages of the customer journey.

3. Measure Engagement & Community

Understanding your social media audience like a PPC expert and how your audience engages with your brand is crucial. An audit examines followers, interactions, engagement rate, sentiment and conversations.

Key Engagement Audit Areas:

• • 1. Follower Growth – Are followings increasing at a healthy rate? Which platforms are gaining/declining?
    2. Follower Demographics – What are the psychographics, locations, gender and age range of followers? How well are target personas represented?
    3. Engagement Metrics – What are likes, comments, click rate, video completion rate, and other key interactions? How do they trend?
    4. Engagement Rate – What is the average engagement rate? How does it benchmark to competitors?
    5. Sentiment – What is the ratio of positive, negative and neutral mentions? How is it trending?
    6. Community Management – What portion of comments/questions get responded to? How quickly?
    7. Influencers & Advocates – Are brand advocates, affiliates and influencers identified and engaged?

Analysing engagement and community helps strengthen connections with existing followers while revealing opportunities to reach new audiences.

4. Review Paid Social Advertising

For brands investing in social ads, auditing your ongoing campaigns is critical to optimise performance. Key aspects to examine include:

Paid Social Audit Areas:

• • 1. Campaign Goals – Are campaign objectives aligned to business KPIs? Are optimal campaign types being used per goal?
  • 1. Ad Types – Is there a healthy mix of different ad formats – video, image, carousel, Stories, etc.?
    2. Creative – Do ads demonstrate best practices for visuals, copy, calls-to-action and targeting?
    3. Landing Pages – Are custom landing pages optimised for conversions on each network?
    4. Audiences – Are ideal buyer personas, lookalike audiences, interests and behaviours targeted?
    5. Budgets & Spend – How do costs align to goals and performance? Is budget allocated to best performing placements and audiences?
    6. Results – Are clear benchmarks and KPIs set per campaign? How do results trend over time?

Regular Paid Social Media Ads Audits maximise your ROI and catch any issues before they become costly.

5. Collect Crucial Social Media Analytics

Every social media audit should follow these examples for a perfect social media audit.

A comprehensive social media audit requires a meticulous analysis and evaluation of analytics and reporting. This essential step guarantees an insightful assessment of your social media performance.

Social Media Analytics to Audit:

• • 1. Followers – Follower count, growth rate, demographics and location data for all major platforms including Facebook.
    2. Engagement – Likes, comments, shares, click rate, video completion rate, overall engagement rate.
    3. Reach – Impressions, Reach, website traffic referrals.
    4. Conversations – Mentions volume, sentiment trends, share of voice versus competitors.
    5. Content – Post/video views, watch time, clicks, engagement by type and topic.
    6. Advertising – Impressions, CTR, CPC, CPM, reach, frequency, conversions, ROI.
    7. Community – Response rate to comments and messages, follower retention rate.

Benchmarking analytics provides objective data to measure efforts and guide your social strategy.

6. Benchmark Against Competitors

An audit isn’t complete without examining how your social media stacks up against competitors. Key benchmarking areas include:

Competitor Benchmarking Metrics:

• • 1. Followers and follower growth rate
    2. Overall engagement and engagement rate
    3. Website visits and leads generated
    4. Social content strategy and posting cadence
    5. Paid advertising spend
    6. Audience demographics and messaging
    7. Social team size and resources invested

Understanding your social media competitive performance strengths and weaknesses reveals areas you can further differentiate your social presence and win more market share.

Regularly benchmarking competitors provides motivation to keep pushing your social media program forward.

Maximise the Value of Your Social Media Audit

As you can see answering the question What Are the Six Key Areas of a Social Media Audit, results in a comprehensive list. Ordering your social media audit in this manner leaves no stone unturned in evaluating your social presence. While it represents a significant investment, the insights gained are invaluable to inform your future strategy.

But how do you maximise value once the audit is complete? Here are best practices:

• • • Share findings across your entire marketing and product team so all groups understand social opportunities and priorities.
    • Create an audit presentation summarising the highlights for leadership to secure buy-in on resources needed.
    • Build a prioritised roadmap to address audit recommendations in order of impact and ease of implementation.
    • Establish processes like regular reporting cadences, competitive benchmarking, and audience research to maintain optimisation.
    • Leverage the audit in your strategic planning to set goals for the year ahead.
    • Invest in regular audits to track progress and stay on the cutting edge.

Following these steps ensures your social media audit delivers value long after it’s completed.

Make Social Media Audits Part of Your Regular Routine

In today’s social media advertising landscape, staying competitive requires constant optimisation of your social presence. Conducting quarterly or annual audits provides the insights needed to keep improving.

Work with an experienced social media auditor that can dive deep across all the key areas covered above. And don’t let the price tag scare you away. A quality audit will pay for itself many times over through stronger audience engagement, increased conversions and bigger competitive differentiation.

Now that you understand the scope of a complete social media audit, it’s time to evaluate partners who can check all the boxes for your brand. Most importantly, choose an auditor who will deliver strategic recommendations to help you improve.

With regular audits to guide your social efforts, you’ll be amazed at the growth in followers, leads and revenue you can achieve. In social media, standing still means falling behind. Commit to ongoing optimisation through comprehensive audits. The returns for your brand will be game changing.

Want to know how much a Social Ads Audit should cost you?

The price for a professional social media audit typically ranges from £1,000 to £2,500 for a standard multi-platform analysis, but can reach £5,000+ for an in-depth long project.

The costlier tiers of social media audits offer a deeper dive into data analytics, providing insights that facilitate evidence-based decision-making. This approach allows you to adapt your strategy in real time, harnessing the power of analytics to stay ahead of trends.

See How Much is a Social Media Audit for more details.

Focusing on these six key areas becomes vital when a brand aims to enhance its online presence.

In conclusion, conducting a thorough social media audit across the six key areas is essential for any brand looking to strengthen its online presence and optimise its social media strategy. By evaluating your social media profiles, content strategy, audience engagement, competitor performance, analytics, and paid advertising efforts, you can gain valuable insights into your strengths and weaknesses. Armed with this knowledge, you can make informed decisions, refine your social media approach, and align your efforts with your business objectives. A well-executed social media audit sets the foundation for continuous improvement and success in the dynamic world of social media marketing.

To ensure your brand receives top-notch expertise in conducting a comprehensive social media audit, don’t miss the opportunity to order a free social media PPC audit with the experts at PPC Geeks. With their wealth of experience and data-driven approach, PPC Geeks can provide you with actionable insights that will significantly enhance your social media performance and deliver better results. Take the first step towards improving your social media strategy by booking your free audit today and unlock the full potential of your brand’s social media presence. Embrace the power of a partnership with PPC Geeks the PPC agency to propel your brand towards greater reach, engagement, and overall success in the ever-evolving digital landscape.