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Wondering how to analyze your Snapchat efforts?
It’s important to understand where to find Snapchat performance metrics and how to use that data to make smart choices for your Snapchat marketing.
In this article, you’ll discover five metrics you should focus on to get more out of Snapchat.
#1: Watch Total Opens
The total number, or aggregate, of views across all of your Snapchat stories is called total opens. This metric helps you gauge the success of a two-part strategy: content and growth. If you aren’t receiving as many views of your content as you’d like, it’s time to take a deeper look at these two facets of your Snapchat marketing plan.
Tip: To track your opens and views, you can use a tool like Snaplytics.io.
Content
If users don’t find any value in your snap, they’re unlikely to view the other snaps in your story. Are your snaps interesting, funny, and/or useful? Be honest with yourself and get feedback from others. Every snap you post should deliver value or fulfill a need, whether it’s eliciting a human emotion or delivering information.
One way to boost views is to harness the power of anticipation. Snaps are short forms of content, but they should reflect the basic pillars of storytelling. Each video needs a beginning, middle, and end, and your audience needs a reason to follow through to the end.
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Similar principles apply to images, which should take viewers on a journey that encourages them to keep watching and ask, “What’s next?” Unless you work somewhere inherently fun (like Disneyland), snapping about your daily work life may not entice those who are viewing.
Businesses with successful view rates tend to keep their snaps brief and their stories 1-2 minutes long. Any longer than that can reduce viewer engagement. If you’re not sure what your audiences’ preference is, ask them.
Growth
Also look at your growth strategy. You want to find out if you’re reaching your target market and connecting with your audience on Snapchat.
Is someone on your team a whiz at growing social networks? Are you allowing this person time dedicated to focusing on growth? You can’t afford to slack on this. No one wants to spend hours creating fabulous, witty content that will never find an audience.
#2: Monitor Average Open Rates
Your Snapchat open rate is the percentage of total estimated followers who have engaged with your story. It’s comparable to engagement rates on other social networks.
This metric is closely tied to the number of opens. Hence, your growth strategy takes a front seat when it comes to your success.
There are several ways to build a following on Snapchat. One is to share your snapcode with other relevant audiences. Share your snapcode on all of your collateral, social networks, and at your events.
Also repurpose your stories for other social channels. Create short trailer-like content pieces from your stories and share them on your other networks. Encourage viewers to follow you on Snapchat, where they can get the rest of the story.
For example, if you created a Snapchat story about an upcoming event you’ll be sponsoring, download a clip to show your audience what they can expect from the event. Then promote that clip on all of your other social networks.
Of course, if you don’t have a viable audience on your other channels, this tactic won’t help you much. This brings us back to your growth strategy: Who is the main social growth strategist on your marketing team? If you don’t have one, get one. If you can’t afford one, become one. If your goal is to see success with these metrics, don’t underestimate the importance of this role.
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Screenshots is the total number of screenshots for all of the snaps in a story. This metric tells you how many times people have saved your snap. When users take a screenshot of a snap, you can assume it had value to them.
If you want to generate more screenshots, it’s important to plan your content ahead of time. Create an editorial calendar with narratives you can use throughout the year. The goal is to purposefully create valuable content that is screenshot-worthy.
A few examples are checklists, inspirational quotes, audience spotlights, and discount coupons. If you’re B2B, provide snackable content and event updates that encourage your audience to screenshot the details.
Overall, the screenshots metric shows you how engaged your audience is. If people are simply viewing your snaps without taking screenshots, there’s room to grow engagement.
#4: Observe Completion Rate
Completion rate is the percentage of followers who viewed an entire story, from the first snap to the last. It’s comparable to retention rate on other social networks.
This metric measures the loyalty of your audience. Do they want to see the content you’re posting? Or are they watching the first snap and then opting out? You can increase the completion rate by providing content that’s series-driven. When you keep your story brief and provide cause for interaction, your audience is more likely to watch it all the way through.
It’s essential to add text to your snaps to get your audience to engage. It should support the image or video. You can even add calls to action on your snaps to tell your audience what to do next. If you don’t tell them, chances are they may not be willing to engage with your other stories.
One common mistake for businesses is creating stories that don’t connect. The snaps are from random moments without context. If you plan to take a bunch of one-off snaps, use a longer frequency between each snap. One-off Snapchat campaigns are usually a day apart. But this tactic isn’t recommended, as frequency is another metric that affects overall performance.
To increase your completion rate, send a snap to your audience with the same snap included in the story. This way they’ll know you’ve added a story. Most users have story notifications turned off, so pinging your audience with an update can help increase the completion rate.
#5: Analyze Follower Growth
Follower growth by source is the key metric to determine where your Snapchat followers are coming from. From there, you can adjust your strategy.
Most Snapchat users are acquired by username. Once you find out how your followers are adding you, you can optimize the source to make it easier for users to connect with you. For example, if most of your audience adds you through a snapcode, focus more on promoting your snapcode than your phone number or username.
When you add friends, make sure they’re following you back. One way to check is through the snap score. To view a user’s snap score, tap on their username. Their snapcode will pop up with an avatar image, username, and score (the number of snaps they’ve sent).
If you don’t see their score, they haven’t added you back. In that case, contact them to follow up so you know they’re receiving your stories.
Conclusion
These five metrics will help you determine how successful you’re growing and engaging your Snapchat following.
What do you think? How do you gauge the success of your Snapchat marketing efforts? Which metrics do you focus on? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
