Twitter is a great platform for users to catch up with what is happening in other parts of the world. It is also effective for brands to drive engagement and build trust among their followers. However, to effectively use Twitter to grow your business, it's important to understand how to use Twitter analytics.

This built-in tool allows you to easily track the performance of your paid and organic posts. However, if you are a beginner using the tools, you might find it hard to get the most out of it. Fortunately, this article will guide you through everything you need to know about it.

What is Twitter Analytics?

Launched in 2014, Twitter Analytics is the default analytics dashboard allowing users to track the performance of their tweets and to get insights into their audience. It consists of a set of data that provides insights into the performance of your Twitter account and tweets. Also, it shows you the growth of your Twitter profile in terms of follows, mentions, visits, and more. In addition, it will show the performance of your tweets and your audience’s response.  

By looking at this data, you will clearly understand how your audience responds to your content and the best format. You will know what is working and what is not. You can then use the insights and data to optimize your profile and posts to improve results. 

Benefits of Using Twitter Analytics

There are several reasons why you need to use Twitter Analytics. These include:

Understanding Your Audience

Twitter analytics for business will show you the kind of content, products, or services that resonate with your audience. You can get this information by looking at your engagement rates, social shares, mentions, and more. By looking at the top content, you can see what makes a Tweet stand out among the thousands of others you share. 

Therefore, you can better understand the content that resonates with your audience. For instance, you may find out that your audience resonates well with tweets with videos or images; therefore, you can focus more on creating such content.

Understand the Best Tweeting Time

One factor affecting a Tweet's engagement level is the tweeting time. By tweeting when your audience is online, you can increase the engagement level of a post. This is especially important as most tweets have a short attention time. Therefore, you can understand the best tweeting time by looking at Twitter analytics.

Track Your Results

Twitter Analytics enables you to track the results of your tweets and overall account performance. If your Twitter account has existed for some time, you can see data over time and easily determine when your strategy was most effective. You can then use the information to implement the same strategy you used during those periods, such as hashtag campaigns, influencer marketing, and more.

How to Access Twitter Analytics

Twitter Analytics usually organizes your metrics into four sections: Home, Videos, Tweets, and Conversion tracking. You can access the first section by going to the Account home. This will show you an overview of your account's monthly performance. You will also be provided with details on your account's performance, progress, and how you can improve your strategy. It will show you the top influencers and top-performing tweets.

However, if you want to dig deeper into your tweet, you can see this under the Tweets tab at the top. It will show you data on the performance of your past tweets, such as their engagements, impressions, retweets, replies, etc. It will also provide details of your mentions, Top Tweets, and followers for the month.

To see your videos' performance, click on the Videos tab. It will show you different metrics, such as the video completion rates, video retention rates, and total minutes viewed. Finally, you can track website and app events using the conversion tracking dashboard.

Top Twitter Metrics to Track

Twitter Analytics will show you a wide range of metrics to show the performance of your account. Some of the top metrics to track are:

• Tweets. This metric under the Home tab shows the number of your tweets. It's a good way to see if you hit your tweet target.
• Profile visits. Twitter will also show how often people have visited your profile after interacting with one of your tweets. This is a good metric to determine whether people want to learn more about you.
• Tweet impressions. This refers to the number of times your tweets are put before an audience through the timelines, visits to your profile, or the search bar.
• Mentions. It shows the number of times your profile has been mentioned through @handle. If you are searching for an influencer, this can be a good metric to help you know those already interacting with your brand. It also provides insights into the type of content generating the highest buzz.
• Tweet linking to you. This shows the number of times you or other users tweet your Twitter card.
• New followers. The number of followers you have gained over a particular period. This can be important data for growing your brand on Twitter.

Twitter Analytics will also provide insights into the performance of your Tweets, such as:

• Top Tweets. It refers to the tweet receiving the highest number of impressions. This metric will show you what tweets are resonating with your audience. Therefore, you can decide to boost it and create more of such tweets.
• Top media tweet. This is a great metric for measuring the performance of tweets with visuals, as it shows the tweet with visuals that has received the highest impressions. 
• Top card tweet. Again, if you want to find the best-performing tweet with a Twitter card, this is the best metric, as it shows the tweet with the highest impressions, including those done by others.

Key Twitter Accounts Metrics to Track

You can track different metrics depending on what you want to achieve. Here are some of the most popular metrics to track for your account.

Engagement

This tracks how many users like, reply, or retweet your tweets. The metrics show whether users want to know more about your account or engage with you. A high engagement rate indicates that your call to action is effective.

Engagement Rate

To get the engagement rate, you should divide the engagement with the impressions. For instance, if your post was seen by 100 people, out of whom 80 engaged, the engagement rate is 0.8. That is better than another post seen by 1000 people, but only 600 engaged with it, as the engagement rate was 0.6.

Follower Growth

This metric will show you the number of new followers you gain over 30 days. If this number is high, it can indicate that your content resonates well with your audience. Combining this with the engagement metrics lets you determine if you are getting quality followers.

Key Ad Metrics

If you are running ads, you want to determine whether they are giving you value for money. Here are some key metrics to help you track that:

Cost per engagement result

This is a good metric that tracks the cost per action (CPA) that a Twitter user takes after seeing your ad. Since you will only be charged when the Twitter user takes a desired action, tracking the cost per engagement will help you manage your budget and get the highest returns on budget.

Key conversion

This metric will help you track the conversion from your Twitter ad. It shows the user's actions after coming across your ad, such as visiting your site and even completing a transaction. It is a good choice for tracking an ad's ROI as it will also track other key metrics such as total sales, conversions, post engagements, and transaction values.

Result on investment

The only reason you are running an ad is to generate results such as video views, clicks, engagements, conversions, etc. The result on investment is the best metric to help you determine if your ad is achieving the desired results. You should divide the results by the ad impressions to get this figure.

How to Effectively Use Twitter Analytics

You must understand how to use Twitter Analytics correctly for the best results. Here are ways to do that:

Understand Your Followers

The first step towards any Twitter marketing campaign, whether organic or paid, is understanding your target audience. You should, therefore, leverage Twitter analytics to understand your audience's demographic information, such as age, location, income, unique interest, and language. You can also segment your audience depending on the type of device they use and their interests and behavior. You can find this data on the Twitter dashboard. This is on top of the data on similar accounts that can turn into your followers.

The Most Effective Tweets

You can use Twitter Analytics to determine the topics that bring the highest engagement, such as retweets, replies, favorites, media views, mention clicks, and clicks on your hashtags. By closely observing the tweets driving the highest engagement, you can understand the content resonating with your audience. Creating more of such content can improve your bond with your target audience. You can also understand the best post to pin that tweet.

Understand the Best Tweeting Time

As noted earlier, certain times and days generate higher engagement than others. You must experiment with different posting times to see the days driving the highest engagement. The best posting time for Twitter will depend on various factors, such as geographical data. You can determine the optimal times and weeks to tweet by looking at Twitter analytics. It can also provide insights into the right tweeting frequency, even though you must keep posting at least once daily.

Leverage TweetDeck

You can leverage TweetDeck to make your work easier if you are a big brand with multiple Twitter accounts. With an easy interface, you can view multiple timelines in a simple interface. The interface features a customizable column showing lots of information in one place, such as timelines, scheduled tweets, notifications, direct messages, and more.

The tool is also a great option for social media managers who manage multiple accounts simultaneously. It can help them receive breaking news, schedule tweets, monitor brand voice, and find content fast and in real-time. With the feature, you can keep track of key interactions in one place. You can, therefore, stay on top of trends and be available to respond to customers' messages.

Track Ad Performance

If you are running a paid campaign on Twitter, you want to ensure that you get good returns on your investment. You also want to see if the ad campaign is bringing better results than your organic posts. By looking at the Tweet tabs, you can see the performance of your organic and paid posts. You can see your promoted posts' engagement and impression rate by zooming in on Promoted.

Improve Your Campaigns

Regularly monitoring your Twitter Analytics lets you easily tell which strategies are working and which should be abandoned. For instance, you might notice that tweets with visuals generate more interactions. You might also realize that you get better interactions when you use a certain language or tone of voice. Also, consider if there are different days and times of the week when the call to action receives more interactions. 

Find New users to Target

Twitter analytics will show you who your followers are, the people they are following, and their number of followers. This information can help you find new and other relevant Twitter users you can follow.

Best Third-Party Twitter Analytics Tools

We have already seen how to use Twitter Analytics Feature. To take your campaign to the next level, you can use third-party tools to get this metric. Here are some of the top tools to consider.

HootSuite

HootSuite is among the top social media scheduling and monitoring tools. It provides a wide range of Twitter data, such as:

• Twitter spend
• Return on your Twitter Spend
• Custom goal setting
• Leads, traffic, and revenue from Twitter
• Performance of your Twitter campaign

Hootsuite will also enable you to monitor hundreds of metrics and mentions. A key addition is your ability to determine the best-performing posts and the best posting time for generating the highest engagement and followers.

SocialPilot

One of the reasons why we love SocialPilot is because it will categorize your tweets into different key segments, such as:

• Most retweeted
• Most favorited
• Most popular

This tweet segmentation lets you see your best-performing tweets, which can help you increase engagement and followers. You can easily see the type of content your followers love. You can use the data to identify your trending hashtags and get analysis reports simultaneously.

KeyHole

While this tool has a free version, the most useful features are in the paid version. While it doesn't come cheap, the tool allows you to track up to three social profiles. It will also enable you to do a competitive analysis of your competitors to track your growth rate compared to competitors. 

Keyhole will also provide real-time insights into your followers, providing information on the location of the followers, their age, location, and language. You can track the account growth rate and benchmark other important information. Some of the key features of KeyHole are:

• Identifying the top hashtags to use in your campaigns.
• Competitor analysis and campaign insights.
• Brand mentions monitoring and  topic/keyword tracking.
• Comprehensive and automated reports for tracking the effectiveness of your campaign.

SproutSocial

SproutSocial is a comprehensive social media management tool providing key insights into Twitter campaigns. This is on top of its engagement and scheduling features. With the tool, you can track different metrics, perform competitor analysis, and gain deeper insights into your audience. Some of the key features of the tool are:

• Conversation and brand mentions tracking.
• Comparing your performance with that of the competitors.
• Getting general client reports.
• Managing the different aspects of your social media presence in a single platform.

The good thing about SproutSocial is its 30-day free trial period. After that, you can choose from different plans with different functionalities.

RivalIQ

RivalIQ provides a wide range of data, allowing you to do competitor analysis, social listening, and social post analysis. The tool will show you key information on your posts, such as the popular hashtags, popular topics, and the best posting time. You can also analyze the performance of different hashtags, track brand mentions, view insights to track, and engage your audience's growth.

With its competitor analysis feature, the tool provides a side-by-side comparison report, allowing you to compare two different Twitter profiles. The only limitation of the tool is that it is a bit expensive, costing up to $239 per month.

Brand 24

This tool combines Twitter analysis with social media monitoring, enabling you to analyze and track the different aspects of your campaigns. It is a great tool to help you monitor and analyze your media mentions. Not only do you get an opportunity to understand what is happening, but you can also stay on top of different conversations. You can use the tool to analyze sentiments, find influencers, and measure the performance of your social media campaign.

Some of the key features of Brand 24 are:

• Brand and conversation monitoring around relevant hashtags.
• Identify tweet sentiments, whether positive, neutral, or negative.
• Find influencers and track the number of mentions your brand gets.
• Get a mention feed to provide all the mentions in one place.
• Create detailed reports with some actionable insights.

Twitonomy

The tools mentioned above are generally meant for all social media sites. If you want a tool specifically for Twitter, consider Twitonomy. The tool will help you determine your follower demographic, understand which content performs best, and schedule your tweets at the right time to receive the highest engagement. Some of the key features of the tool are:

• Individual tweet analysis on metrics such as reach, top keywords, and engagements.
• Understand your audience's interests, locations, and demographics and tailor your content strategy.
• Schedule your tweet to receive optimal engagement depending on your historical data.
• Side-by-side competitor analysis to track your performance and identify key areas.
• Comprehensive reports, including detailed data visualizations.

While the tool has a free plan, this comes with limited features. If you need advanced features, you can pay from $19 per month.

How to Choose the Right Twitter Analytics Tools

We have already reviewed the top tools to use for your Twitter analysis. However, if you  want to select another one outside our list, here are the key factors to consider:

• Goals. The first key consideration is what you want to achieve with the Twitter analysis tool. Do you want to analyze competitors, increase engagement, or track brand mentions? Once you have determined your goal, you must choose a tool with features that align with your needs and goals.
• Pricing. Twitter tools have a range of pricing, from free to hundreds of dollars. While the free tools will enable you to save money, they also come with basic functionalities. On the other hand, paid plans come with many advanced features, such as in-depth reporting, social listening, and competitor analysis.
• Budget and target audience. If you are an individual creator, a free tool might be enough. But if you are an agency managing several Twitter accounts, it's advisable to go with the comprehensive paid plan.
• Workflow and team size. Are you managing several social media accounts? If yes,consider a platform that offers Twitter analytics in combination with comprehensive social media management.

Final Thoughts

By leveraging Twitter analytics, you can optimize your tweeting strategy, determine improvement areas, and grow your business on Twitter. However, to get these results, you need to do more than just check the dashboard. Instead, you need to understand the impact of each analytics on your Twitter account growth. By using our guide, you can understand the key Twitter metrics and grow your Twitter following.

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