Top-of-funnel performance is usually hard to track and measure. That’s why we need to take advantage of unique QR codes to better categorize sources where followers come from to find the most loyal audience.
A QR code is essentially a unique URL link stored in a graphic, which can be scanned and read by smartphones. It’s a convenient and secure way to access information and services online, often used in payment, account following, targeted communications, etc.
*Most QR code actions happen in WeChat. Therefore we use WeChat as an example.
How to Find and Measure the Right Source？
Let’s say a beauty brand kicked off two campaigns: One is about free giveaways of sample products, and the other one is about a partnership with a KOL sharing beauty tips. After respective audiences scan the unique QR code of each campaign to gain access to the giveaway, marketers can monitor their unfollowing decisions: Do they just accept the value and leave or do they stay, and for how long? When the account pushes new content, are they still willing to be there and listen? It’ll help you gain insights into your followers’ behaviors.
With the once tightly-closed China social ecosystem continuing to open, it’s possible to direct traffic between different social channels. However, PIPL is strict and the stakes for violating personal information are high. In addition to social channels’ universal mentality of keeping traffic within the platform’s own territory, tracking and measuring are not easy, but not impossible. Generally, you have two weapons at your disposal: Link shorteners and link tagging.
URL links can be long and complex. Link shorteners can help create a unique and shorter link that redirects to the original link. It’s more presentable and easier to share.
During an online campaign, you could have 5 different social networks directing traffic to your website, or one of your social networks is receiving traffic from other networks and websites. In the most complicated scenario, traffic even comes from multiple places in one social channel …
Each traffic channel has its unique URL. Link Tagging can help differentiate them by adding tracking parameters to each link, which can be set manually by your team. You can gain insights into traffic and conversion and understand user behavior on each channel better.
It’s important to prioritize. Setting and tracking too many KPIs will overwhelm you with data and cause confusion.
It’s difficult to set an fixed number of how many KPIs a business, a team or one employee should have in any given industry. Company structure is unique, but according to general practice and professional advice, having between two to four KPIs per goal is recommended [S] .
How to Set up Your Social Media KPIs Correctly?
1. Make sure KPIs are connected to your goals
A sports brand that entered China three years ago wished to improve brand awareness, and it set “reads” on social as its core KPI at first.
“The potential problem is that we were trying to find local fans for our brand, not just reads per content. It’d be easy to hit the KPI, had we just chosen all topics to be what audiences are interested in but not tightly connected to our brand, while the latter is an equally important metric. As we were trying to find a balance, the KPI at the time lost its purpose.” —— manager of the brand’s social media team
Using different social metrics in combination can provide a comprehensive assessment of each stage of the customer journey, while each metric may reveal different insights.
The marketing teams of different brands focus on different social channels and implement different strategies, but in order to achieve business results, brands must understand how social metrics work across each platform, and understand the appropriate stage of the customer journey. Only then can the right message be delivered at the right time.
KAWO’s Guide to China Social Metrics will combine social metrics with customer journey, and categorize metrics in a systematic way to inspire marketers in their daily efforts.
WeChat is one of the most established social platforms in China. Even though the open rate for Official Accounts (“OA”) has been declining for years due to fierce competition for readers’ attention, high-quality content remains the most efficient tool for maintaining audience stickiness.
Note: You can find the specific definition of the labeled metrics egorization category in the appendix.
From first hearing about a brand to becoming a paying customer is always a journey.
A company should choose a range of KPIs that measure different stages of the marketing funnel to ensure it’s not losing customers somewhere along the way.
Awareness: Capture the attention of people who have never heard of your brand before and getting them to connect and follow one of your official channels – what do be aware of
Consideration: Build trust with existing followers through informing and educating them about your brand and products – what to be aware of
Purchase: Get customers to the point where they trust you enough to hand over their hard-earned money to your company – what to be aware of
Loyalty: Build a long-term connection with your customers which brings them back to buy again and requires much less effort than acquiring a new customer – what to be aware of
Advocacy: Customers trust you so much that they recommend you to their friends, family and colleagues – what to be aware of
Each marketer’s role, or the whole marketing team possibly just focus on one step of the funnel, so feel free to skip to the part that are most relevant to you.
