What Should a Small Business Measure for Social Media ROI?

I’d rather get one enquiry than 2,000 likes

Likes are good. But personally, I’d rather get one enquiry than 2,000 likes. Someone asking about your work is taking a step that a like on its own doesn’t give you.

That doesn’t mean every enquiry is a good one. I want to know whether the person is asking about work we actually do, in an area we serve, and whether we’re a sensible fit. But that’s the conversation I’d rather be having than celebrating a number with nothing behind it.

If the likes are coming in and the enquiries aren’t, the first thing I’d check is the direction of the post. Am I actually guiding someone to enquire, or have I only made something they’ll enjoy and scroll past?

That direction might be an invitation to send a DM, a line in the caption saying who the service is for, or a particular comment that starts your enquiry process. Choose the route your business can actually follow up. Once someone responds, use what they asked about as the starting point; the next step depends on your service and workflow, not one script for every business.

Our guide to turning social media views into enquiries breaks down that route. Here, the job is to check whether it’s leading to useful conversations and what happens afterwards.

I also notice when someone says they’ve seen my work on Instagram, or that somebody recommended me. Those moments matter. They tell me the business is being remembered, even when I can’t draw a neat line from one post to one booking.

But an enquiry isn’t profit, and recognition isn’t a financial return by itself. If you want to understand ROI—return on investment—you need to follow those conversations through and compare the outcome with what the content cost you.

Keep a small monthly scorecard

You don’t need a report full of numbers you never use. Start with these six things and keep the definitions the same each month.

What to record	What it tells you	How to collect it
Relevant enquiries	Whether prospective customers are asking about suitable work	Count genuine conversations, excluding spam and repeated messages from the same person
Calls, proposals and bookings	How far those enquiries get	Update each enquiry’s status in your CRM or a simple spreadsheet
Where people heard about you	What customers remember about finding the business	Ask during the enquiry and keep their answer
Return from completed work	Whether bookings contribute enough after delivery costs	Use your actual job figures, keeping estimates separate from confirmed amounts
Content costs and time	What it takes to maintain the activity	Record production, advertising, tools and staff or owner time
Recognition and useful responses	Whether the intended audience is noticing	Note relevant questions, comments and mentions alongside platform reach figures

Keep the enquiry date with the eventual booking. A project discussed in October might not be agreed until December. Don’t compare this month’s content bill with only this month’s sales and assume that tells the whole story.

For a Newcastle business serving the North East, record location where it matters to whether you can take the job. Interest from outside your service area can be encouraging, but it isn’t the same as an enquiry you can fulfil.

Ask where they found you, without deciding for them

My advice is to ask every new enquiry how they heard about you. A normal question is enough: “How did you come across us?”

Let the person answer before suggesting Instagram, Google or a referral. They might explain that a friend recommended you, then they watched your videos before getting in touch. Keep both parts rather than forcing them into one box.

It helps to separate three kinds of evidence:

• Customer-reported: the person says a particular post or channel led them to contact you.
• Tracked: a tagged website visit or measured form submission gives you a recorded touchpoint.
• Unknown or mixed: several things contributed, or you simply don’t know.

Don’t count one booking as a separate sale for Instagram, LinkedIn and Google just because all three played a part. And don’t turn “I remember seeing your videos” into a claim that one video caused the purchase.

Support from friends and family is welcome, too. But I wouldn’t use their likes alone as evidence that the audience the business wants is responding.

Use website tracking to support the enquiry record

If you already use Google Analytics, tagged links can help connect a campaign to website visits. Google explains that UTM parameters—labels added to a link for its source, medium and campaign—appear in the Traffic acquisition report. Use consistent names; different capitalisation can split the figures. See Google’s guide to collecting campaign data.

That gives you evidence about tracked visits. It doesn’t capture every conversation, recommendation or person who remembers you and comes back another way.

You can also measure a relevant lead-form submission as a GA4 key event: an action important to the business. It needs the appropriate event setup and testing, not just an assumption that installing Analytics makes every form report correctly. Google’s key-event guide explains the process.

A form submission still isn’t a confirmed booking. Check whether the enquiry is genuine, whether it suits the business and what happens next. Keep personal customer information in your enquiry system, not in campaign-link labels.

Count the work that goes into making content

Doing it yourself avoids a production invoice, but it still takes time. Note the hours spent planning, filming, editing, publishing and replying. If those hours are regularly taking you away from delivering the service, that’s worth knowing.

Include any professional production fees, paid promotion and tools used for the work. If you put a money value on your own time, make clear that it’s an estimate and apply the same method each period. Don’t count the same staff cost twice.

For a simple campaign-level estimate, compare the contribution from work you can reasonably connect to the campaign with the campaign’s costs. Contribution means the income left after the costs of delivering that work, before subtracting the marketing cost being assessed.

Estimated ROI = (contribution from connected work − campaign costs) ÷ campaign costs × 100.

This is a planning estimate, not a way to prove that content caused every sale. Keep uncertain influence separate, and don’t include unsigned proposals as money earned. If all you currently have is views and enquiries, report those honestly: you don’t yet have a measured financial return.

Use the report to make one useful change

If people enquire but don’t book, check the offer first

My first reaction wouldn’t be to say the content is failing. If it brought someone into a genuine conversation, it has done its first job. I’d look at the price and the value of the offer, then the profile of the people enquiring. Being interested and being willing to buy aren’t the same thing.

That isn’t a reason to ignore audience fit. A post attracting lots of people who were never suitable buyers may still need changing. But if suitable people are asking, I’d want to understand what’s stopping them at the next step.

I would compare similar offers across the market and look at our own booking history. Where does our price sit? Have people paid it before? Who were they, and what pattern is there? One person deciding it’s too expensive isn’t enough for me to conclude the price is wrong. Make sure you’re comparing what’s included, not just the number.

If you charge more, show what makes it worth more

My view is that a higher-priced offer can need more points of contact: more opportunities for somebody to understand the business, see its expertise and feel comfortable with the service. I don’t mean a fixed number of posts, or chasing someone who isn’t interested.

And the difference doesn’t have to be the product alone. Two businesses might sell the same product, but one provides a much better service around it. If that’s your reason for charging more, show it. Depending on what you genuinely offer, that could mean a clearer consultation, specialist knowledge, careful preparation or better support afterwards.

Don’t just call yourself a specialist or say the experience is luxurious. Help people see what you do differently. Then use the enquiry record to check whether those are the things prospective customers understand and care about.

Find the step that needs attention

At the end of the month, look for the point that needs attention:

• Attention, but no relevant enquiries: check who the content speaks to and whether the next step is clear.
• Relevant enquiries, but few bookings: I’d check pricing and value first, then buyer fit, availability and follow-up before blaming the videos.
• Bookings, but little left after costs: review the jobs you are attracting and the effort needed to win and deliver them.
• People recognise you, but the sales cycle is long: keep recording that evidence and follow the enquiries over time. Don’t invent a cash value for recognition.

When you only have a handful of enquiries, a percentage can look impressive or alarming because one person changed their mind. Keep the actual counts visible and look over several periods before declaring a trend.

I wouldn’t respond to every quiet month by posting more. First check whether the content fits the people you want, whether they understand the business and whether you’re making it easy to talk to you. Then adjust the plan.

For North East owners reaching other businesses through LinkedIn, our Founder on Camera monthly video service includes a one-page report built from analytics screenshots you provide and enquiries you tell us about. You publish the videos and handle replies yourself. It offers a planned filming routine, not a promise of leads or a complete picture of every customer’s journey.

Start with a small record you will actually keep. Useful conversations, honest costs and what happens next will tell you more than celebrating a number you can’t connect to the business.