You are wise to wonder whether your social media ads perform well from one quarter to the next.
If you’re trying to gauge your email and social media ROI, here are nine ways to gain knowledge about current best practices and trends. You can even compare benchmark data across industries.
1 — Facebook Click Through Rates (CTRs)
Did you know Facebook attracts more than 2 million advertisers?
High numbers like this sound impressive — and they are. But did you know Facebook is not the best platform to advertise jobs?
Social media experts at WordStream say the CTR for jobs and training on Facebook is a mere 0.47%.
Industries that see better CTRs on Facebook include retail (1.59%), apparel (1.24%), beauty (1.16%), and fitness (1.01%).
Some HR experts suggest LinkedIn as the better platform for job postings because it is comprised of an entire audience of professionals.
2 — Compare Email Campaigns by Industry
Wondering about email marketing campaign performance in the recruitment and staffing space? From open rates to click rates to bounce rates to unsubscribe rates, MailChimp crunched the numbers by industry.
The average open rate across all industries is 33%, according to their 2019 survey data. High open rates are a good indicator that you’re doing something right.
The industries with the highest email open rates were government, hobbies and religion. Vitamins and supplements came in with the lowest average open rates, at 15.06%. At 0.86%, construction took the highest hard bounce rate. According to Mailchimp, email averages $52 ROI for every dollar spent.
| Industry | Average Open Rate | Average Click Rate | Hard Bounce | Soft Bounce | Unsubscribe Rate |
| Government | 28.77% | 3.99% | 0.33% | 0.50% | 0.13% |
| Education & Training | 23.42% | 2.90% | 0.32% | 0.51% | 0.21% |
| Medical, Dental & Healthcare | 21.72% | 2.49% | 0.51% | 0.63% | 0.28% |
| Recruitment & Staffing | 21.14% | 2.53% | 0.45% | 0.53% | 0.30% |
Constant Contact survey data also showed how higher education email performed as a segment in 2019.
| Industry | Total Open Rate | Click Through Rate | Bounce Rate | Unsubscribe Rate |
| Higher Education | 16.99% | 7.66% | 8.86% | 0.01% |
4 — Know the Best Time to Send Email
Knowing when to send email for your segment can help improve open rates. Are you sending emails at the best time of day and the best day of the week?
Constant Contact analyzed the data so you don’t have to — and here’s what they have determined for various industry segments.
- Higher Education: 8 p.m. Tuesdays
- Hospitals: 8 p.m. Tuesdays
- Marketing and Advertising: 3 p.m. Wednesdays
- Training: 4 p.m. Mondays
5 — Not Happy With Email Response Rates?
If these times and days bring dismal results, experiment with another time or day by running what is called an A/B test.
How A/B testing works is simple. Send half the emails at one time and the other half at another time. Then compare results to see which email times bring better results.
Make sure to document all results so you can compare how your audience responds to different days and times.
6 — Ensure Your Emails Are Mobile Responsive
A good reminder when setting up email campaigns is to always remember your mobile device users, who benefit from a mobile responsive format.
Create two email formats — one for desktop users and the other for mobile device users.
This tip will ensure your emails display properly on mobile devices and makes the user experience far more enticing. Ignoring mobile responsive technology can destroy the results of any email campaign.
7 — Trend Watch: IP Traffic Shifts
By the year 2022, mobile device user traffic will represent 44% of total IP traffic, while PCs will account for only 19%, according to a Cisco forecast and trends whitepaper.
8 — Blend Private and Public Engagement
In the 2020 Hootsuite Trends Report, their team of social media experts suggest that marketing professionals leverage both public feeds and private for the best social media ROI. This strategy is designed to extend audience reach and increase user engagement.
In the Hootsuite report, experts suggested using social advertising, influence marketing and organic content to help broaden audience reach.
Fun fact: 52% of brands are discovered on public social media channels.
9 — Video Rules All Content
Heed this warning or risk looking like a late bloomer. Investing in video content is something to take seriously, and something early adopters have already figured out.
In a trend analysis report by Influencer Marketing Hub, they predict that 82% of all social media content will be video-based by 2022, a finding originally reported by Cisco.
You definitely don’t want to miss out on this trend to boost your social media ROI.