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You can turn your online presence around with the right social media analytics tools.

Remember, a marketer’s job doesn’t end at coming up with a social strategy and executing it.

There’s a wealth of information hiding behind your social media efforts.

And the right social media analytics tools can help you unearth this data.

How does that help, you may ask?

Well, for starters, social data can help you understand your audience better. It also helps point out well-performing strategies and weed out the not-so-good ones.

As such, social media analytics tools will help you maximize your ROI, giving you more bang for the buck!

Lucky for you, there are a number of social media analytics tools that can help you make sense of your social media efforts.

In this article, we’ll take a quick look at 15 of the best social media analytics tools.

Let’s make sure you find the right match!

Disclaimer: This content contains some affiliate links for which we will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you). This is to ensure that we can keep creating free content for you.

Which are the Best Social Media Analytics Tools?

First things first, what exactly is social media analysis?

In simple words, it is the process of gathering data that will help you track social media KPIs, and inform your future marketing strategy.

Social media analytics is also important for determining marketing budgets.

And that makes sense.

Why invest in something that isn’t yielding results?

However, according to Statista, 65% of marketers are either uncertain or don’t believe that they can measure the ROI of their social media campaigns.

And so, we want to tell you about 15 of the best social analytics tools, their features, pros, cons, and more…

Read on to improve your social media strategy by investing in the social media analytics tools.

1. Sprout Social

Image via Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform that is trusted by 25,000+ organizations of all sizes globally.

It’s one of the sophisticated yet simple social media analytics tools that empower marketers with detailed social media analytics data to help them make well-informed decisions.

Features

• Sprout Social makes analytics for multiple social platforms possible, viz. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Users can either look into results on a single channel or compare performance across several channels.
• Templated as well as custom reporting options giving you the best of both worlds.
• It makes data concerning internal teams as well as competitor performance available.
• Premium Analytics that make advanced filtering based on tags, content, and message type possible.

Pros

• As one of the well-rounded social media analytics tools, Sprout Social lets marketers look into publishing and scheduling content, engagement, analytics, as well as listening in one place.
• Powerful and interactive charts and graphs that make it easy to illuminate social insights in reports.
• A highly optimized API that collects data in real-time.

Cons

• Sprout Social charges an additional fee each time you integrate a new employee.
• Its dashboard can be a bit clunky and difficult to navigate.

Tool Level

• Beginner/Intermediate/Expert

Usability

• The interface is super intuitive, so even if you’re just getting started with social analytics, it’s easy to use.

Price

Like most social media analytics tools, Sprout Social offers a free 30-day trial. Check out the tool’s paid plans:

• Standard: $89 per month
• Professional: $149 per month
• Advanced: $249 per month

Case Study

• NBA franchise Chicago Bulls wanted to devise a social media plan that helps them nurture an inclusive connection with fans across the globe.
• Sprout’s Analytics enabled the Bulls to better understand what content resonates most with its global audience.
• In the words of Chicago Bulls’ Digital Director Dan Moriarty, “we really want to create that lifelong connection. Whether it’s a Facebook video or an Instagram Story, we’re able to use Sprout to understand how people are engaging with that content and inform our strategy.”

Pro Tip: Make the most of Sprout’s Tagging feature by developing a standard tagging protocol. This will help you take a deep dive into the granular details during campaign analysis.

2. Tailwind

Image via Tailwind

If you’re a social media marketer with limited requirements and budgets, Sprout Social might not be among the best social media analytics tools. Instead, Tailwind is a fun platform that is perfect for small enterprises that use Instagram and Pinterest.

Whether you want to automate your social media designs or pull out key social media insights, Tailwind has you covered.

And that’s not it.

Compared to most social media analytics tools, Tailwind offers some of the most competitive prices.

Features

• Tailwind’s Pinterest analytics enables users to measure engagement trends and virality by pin, board, or category.
• Daily, weekly, or monthly social media reports of Instagram and/or Pinterest metrics that matter to you.
• Interest heatmaps that help marketers gauge whether they’re focusing on the right content for their audience.
• A Post Inspector that highlights top-performing posts.

Pros

• One of the very few social media analytics tools that is truly tailored for small businesses.
• Tailwind’s customer support team does its best to reach out and educate users about the tool’s features.

Cons

• The tool’s UI can do with some enhancements.
• If you’re looking for an analytics tool for various social media channels, Tailwind ranks pretty low.

Tool Level

• Beginner

Usability

• Tailwind embraces a utility-first approach, making it one of the social media analytics tools that is extremely easy to use.

Price

A free trial is available for 14 days. Here are the details of its pricing plans:

• Free
• Pro: $9.99 per month
• Advanced: $19.99 per month
• Max: $39.99 per month

Pro Tip: Take a look at Tailwind’s tutorial videos whenever you feel lost. They’ll make sure you don’t miss a thing.

3. Keyhole

Image via Keyhole

Keyhole is a widely-trusted social media management tool, and for good reason.

It arms marketers with insightful data equipped to improve their digital marketing strategies. Furthermore, its reporting tools have something for everyone, and for various social media platforms.

Now, let’s take a quick look at Keyhole’s top features that contribute to making it one of the top social media analytics tools.

Features

• Keyhole’s Quick Trends feature helps users get a glimpse into their competitors’ online presence.
• Elaborate analytics dashboards that help you understand which campaigns and posts performed well.
• Keyhole uses machine learning to predict new social media trends, helping you stay ahead of your competition.
• Real-time tracking for any keyword or hashtag.

Pros

• An extremely friendly UI makes it one of the easy to navigate social media analytics tools.
• Extremely rich analytic reports that make impressing your clients a breeze.

Cons

• Keyhole is rather pricey compared to its competitors.
• Customer support isn’t easy to catch hold of.

Tool Level

• Intermediate/Expert

Usability

• It can be a little difficult to grasp the depth of the tool.

Price

• Like most social media analytics tools, Keyhole comes with a 7-day free trial. Although the tool used to have three paid plans, there is no pricing information available on the website currently. Interested users must contact the vendor for more details.

Pro Tip: Keyhole isn’t just one of the best social media analytics tools. It also offers other interesting marketing tools for extracting historical data, creating an influencer marketing strategy, etc. Be sure to explore all of them to make up for the tool’s high cost.

4. Buffer

Image via Buffer

Buffer is one of the best social media analytics tools for those who want to level up their social media strategy without feeling overwhelmed.

No matter what your needs, Buffer has been built from the ground up to give you actionable insights into your social media performance.

Features

• Buffer lets users track key engagement metrics for each social account.
• In-depth information on your accounts’ audience demographics.
• The option to create white-label reports.
• Buffer gives users a quick rundown on the best times to post and the best posting frequency.

Pros

• Works for five different social media channels.
• Comes with a free plan for marketers with basic requirements.

Cons

• The mobile app does not have all the features that the web version does.
• It’s pretty expensive for the features it offers.

Tool Level

• Beginner/Intermediate

Usability

• Buffer has an extremely easy-to-use interface, a feature that it shares with top social media analytics tools.

Price

There is a free version on offer in addition to these paid plans:

• Free: Up to 3 channels per month and basic features
• Essentials: $5 per social channel per month
• Team: $10 per social channel per month
• Agency: $100 for 10 social channels per month

Pro Tip: Buffer connects with 45 different services, some of which can greatly enhance your social strategies. Two of the most popular ones are Pocket and Feedly. Check them out!

5. Emplifi

Image via Emplifi

Emplfi (formerly Socialbakers) is an AI-powered social media marketing solution. Trusted by big names such as National Geographic, McDonald’s, Samsung, and Nestlé, this is one of the social media analytics tools that will cover all your analytics needs.

From research and planning to influencer marketing to measuring and reporting, is there anything this solution can’t do?

Perhaps not.

Now, let’s take a quick look at its analytics-related features.

Features

• Unique features such as sentiment analysis for marketers to understand their audience better.
• Social listening that enables users to uncover their competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
• Easily track which social channels are contributing to your web traffic.

Pros

• Detailed sentiment analysis for every post and comment.
• Possibility to automate a lot of tasks and save time.

Cons

• Compared to other social media analytics tools, prices are exceptionally high for the basic suite.
• Its customer support can be improved.

Tool Level

• Intermediate/Expert

Usability

• Socialbakers can be a bit hard to use at the start.

Price

A free trial is available for 14 days.

• Essential: $200 per month or $400 per month for 10 and 20 profiles respectively.
• The Complete Socialbakers Solution: Interested users must request a consultation.

Pro Tip: Emplifi offers a number of free social media tools that are worth checking out. You can find it under the ‘Resources’ tab on its website.

6. Mention

Image via Mention

Whether you want to study your competitors’ strategy across social media channels or want insights on a specific social media channel, you can rely on Mention.

As one of the leading social media analytics tools, Mention makes it easy to listen to social conversations, monitor trends, and gain valuable insights.

Here, we are focusing on its analytics-related capabilities.

Features

• Social media monitoring tools to stay updated on conversations and mentions.
• Identify trending topics, audience insights, and social media influencers.
• Sentiment analysis, share of voice, and content insights.
• Detailed dashboards and visual representation of data.

Pros

• Ability to create reports based on conversation trends, brands, industry topic, or competitors.
• Daily recaps on important trends and spike emails when mentions peak.

Cons

• Other than Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter analytics, Mention does not offer analytics for other channels.
• Mention’s social listening is not as accurate as what competing social media analytics tools offer.

Tool Level

• Beginner/Intermediate

Usability

• Easy to use

Price

• Free: For 3 social media accounts and 1 user
• Solo: $24 per month
• Pro: $83 per month
• ProPlus: $166 per month
• Company: Custom pricing

Pro Tip: You can use the ‘Saved Filters’ option to organize key posts and conversations.

7. BuzzSumo

Image via BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a popular content marketing tool that allows you to discover trending topics and influencers.

But is it also one of the viable social media analytics tools?

Yes.

It helps you monitor brand mentions, track competitors, and see what’s happening across social media channels.

Let’s see if it has all the features you would expect from top social media analytics tools.

Features

• Sentiment analysis helps you understand how people are reacting to your content.
• Social monitoring to track industry updates and brand mentions.
• Facebook Page Analyzer offers detailed competitor analysis.

Pros

• Detailed metrics on your competitors’ content strategy.
• Sentiment analysis to better understand your audience.

Cons

• Compared to most social media analytics tools, BuzzSumo’s plans are expensive.

Tool Level

• Beginner

Usability

• Easy to use

Price

• Free: For up to 10 searches monthly
• Pro: $99 per month, billed annually
• Plus: $179 per month, billed annually
• Large: $299 per month, billed annually

Pro Tip: You can create alerts to get notified of specific keywords, new links, and topics on social media.

8. Hootsuite

Image via Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the social media analytics tools to offer advanced features.

In addition to social listening and analytics, you can use this tool to discover trending topics, calculate the ROI of your social campaigns, and much more.

Here are the features that highlight its analytics capabilities.

Features

• Hootsuite Insights offer real-time insights on social media conversations.
• Integrates with social listening tools to monitor brand mentions.
• Analyze social media performance with customizable reports.
• Hootsuite Impact allows you to calculate the ROI on social media investment with graphs, KPIs, and charts.

Pros

• Customized analytics.
• Actionable insights to improve your social media strategy
• Social listening tools

Cons

• Prices are exceptionally high for the basic suite.
• Its customer support can be improved.

Tool Level

• Beginner/Intermediate

Usability

• While there is a learning curve involved, tutorials are available to guide users.

Price

In addition to a free forever plan that allows you to manage two social media accounts, Hootsuite offers a 30-day free trial of these paid plans:

• Professional: $49 per month
• Team: $129 per month
• Business: $739 per month
• Enterprise: Contact the company for pricing details

Pro Tip: You can publish Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram ads from within Hootsuite.

9. Mentionlytics

Image via Mentionlytics

Most social media analytics tools we have talked about so far offer social listening, competitor analytics, and audience sentiment analysis.

Mentionlytics is no exception.

Find out how Mentionlytics compares with the best social media analytics tools.

Features

• Discover the top mentions by reach, engagement, and sentiment.
• Analyzes the comments and the sentiment behind them.
• Share of Voice report compares your brand with your competitors based on online presence, keywords, sentiments, and source of mentions.
• Customizable social media report builder.

Pros

• Easy to download and share reports in PDF format.
• Integrates with Google Data Studio and Hootsuite.

Cons

• The user interface needs improvement.
• Costlier compared to most social media analytics tools.

Tool Level

• Beginner/Intermediate

Usability

• Like most social media analytics tools listed here, Mentionlytics is easy to use.

Price

• Basic: $43 per month
• Essential: $83 per month
• Advanced: $166 per month
• Pro: $249 per month

Pro Tip: Mentionlytics automatically categorizes sentiments into neutral, positive, and negative. This makes it easy to track your audience’s brand perception.

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10. Brandwatch

Image via Brandwatch

Brandwatch is one of the popular social media analytics tools that lets you monitor brand mentions, industry trends, and your competitors.

The AI-based tool offers data-driven insights by analyzing consumer opinions and sentiments.

The best part?

You can view the data in 50 different ways thanks to the data visualization tools Brandwatch offers.

This is something very few social media analytics tools offer.

Features

• In-depth traffic analytics including spikes and source of social media traffic.
• Sentiment analysis and customers’ brand perceptions
• Track views, shares, and clicks by device type.
• Historical data including 7 years of competitor analytics and one year of consumer data
• 200+ channel level and post-level metrics

Pros

• Customizable dashboards offer real-time insights into social media performance.
• Extensive knowledge base including tutorials, blogs, and industry insights.

Cons

• No free version
• Currently does not support integration with external data sources.

Tool Level

• Intermediate/Expert

Usability

• Moderately easy

Price 

• Essentials: $108 per month
• Full Product Suite: Contact sales for pricing information

Pro Tip: You can export and share analytics reports in multiple document forms instantly.

11. BazaarVoice

Image via BazaarVoice

Essentially a social media management tool focused on social commerce, BazaarVoice finds a place in this list of social media analytics tools.

Why?

Apart from helping you gather and manage customer reviews and user-generated content, it gives you actionable social media insights.

Want to know more about its analytics capabilities?

Read on.

Features

• Machine learning and AI-powered insights on which content to post, the best time to post, and why it is doing so well.
• Instagram Story analytics helps you understand who your loyal fans are and what type of content they get excited about.
• Revenue reporting to learn who the best-sellers are across social media channels.
• Premium Network Insights offers sentiment analysis, customer feedback trends, and UGC performance tracking.

Pros

• Single dashboard to view and manage social media analytics.
• Granular insights on customer reviews, UGC, and social media content.

Cons

• Insights dashboard can be more user-friendly.
• Not one of the affordable social media analytics tools.

Tool Level

• Intermediate/Expert

Usability

• Navigating the platform can be difficult when managing multiple content platforms.

Price

• Contact sales for pricing information.

Pro Tip: Leverage BazaarVoice insights on the keywords and phrases customers are using to talk about your brand to ace your SEO strategy.

12. Sendible

Image via Sendible

Sendible is one of the social media analytics tools you need to create, manage, and measure the performance of your social campaigns.

From content publishing and collaboration, to Google Analytics integration, this tool has it all.

Go through the features, pros, and cons to know if it qualifies to be in the list of top social media analytics tools.

Features

• Reports Hub offers eight social media reports for channels including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Identify the most engaged followers, the best posting times, the top performing social media posts, and media.
• Drag-and-drop feature to build presentation-ready analytics reports.
• Social listening and brand monitoring.

Pros

• The ability to email the analytics reports directly from Sendible.
• Integration with Google Analytics for in-depth social media analytics.

Cons

• Compared to top social media analytics tools, Sendible’s analytics are not robust enough.
• The mobile app is not as intuitive as their desktop version.

Tool Level

• Beginner/Intermediate

Usability

• Easy to use.

Price

As you would expect from the best social media analytics tools, Sendible offers a 14-day free trial of any of these paid plans:

• Creator: $25 per month
• Traction: $76 per month
• Scale: $170 per month
• Expansion: $340 per month

Pro Tip: You can receive alerts whenever specific keywords are mentioned on social channels on Sendible, Slack, or email.

13. Rival IQ

Image via Rival IQ

Next-level social audits? Check. Instant social post analytics? Check. Hashtag analysis? Check.

As one of the social media analytics tools dedicated to, well, social analytics, RivalIQ ticks the right boxes.

Whatever it is that you want to analyze on social media, Rival IQ can help.

Check it out yourself.

Features

• Social post analytics including popular topics, media types, post times,  keyword search, etc.
• Machine learning powered URL and boosted social media posts detection.
• Competitive benchmarking and analytics including Twitter mentions, boosted posts, company bios, and positioning.
• Track paid and organic social media performance with metrics such as follower count, reach, demographics, and engagement.

Pros

• Granular insights with the ability to break down insights by every media type and channel.
• Pre-built reports and custom dashboards make it a smart social media reporting tool.

Cons

• Prices are on the higher side compared to most social media analytics tools.
• Does not offer sentiment analysis and social listening.

Tool Level

• Beginner/Intermediate

Usability

• An easy to use social analytics tool.

Price

• Drive: $199 per month
• Engage: $279 per month
• Engage Pro: $439 per month

Pro Tip: Rival IQ offers free social media analytics tools specifically for Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook. You can try them out to get your post performance, engagement, and target audience metrics.

14. SocialPilot

Image via SocialPilot

Next on this list of social media analytics tools is SocialPilot.

Designed to help you create, schedule, and publish social media posts with ease, SocialPilot is also a powerful analytics tool.

With detailed insights into your audience’s demographics, behavior, and posts’ performance, it's easy to make data-driven decisions.

Take a closer look at the features that make it one of the best social media analytics tools.

Features

• Understand the top content and hashtag performance across social media channels.
• Deep insights into your audience, including demographics, and who likes, comments, shares, and engages with your posts the most.
• Specific analytics tools for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Pros

• In-depth analytics for each of the popular social media platforms.
• Easy-to-read graphs and charts of key social media metrics.

Cons

• Does not track positive and negative sentiments.
• Customer support needs improvement.

Tool Level

• SocialPilot is one of the beginner-friendly social media analytics tools.

Usability

• Easy to use

Price

Like most social media analytics tools, SocialPilot offers a 14-day free trial.

• Professional: $25.50 per month
• Small Team: $42.50 per month
• Studio: $85 per month
• Agency: $106.25 per month

Pro Tip: Manage all your social conversations from a central place with ‘Social Inbox.’

15. Agorapulse

Image via Agorapulse

When it comes to social media analytics tools, you might be looking for those that help you calculate the ROI of your social media marketing campaigns.

With in-depth metrics, Agorapulse helps you measure the real impact of your social campaigns.

It provides a platform for businesses to track their social media activity, publish content, and engage with their customers.

But, does it have all the features you expect from the best social media analytics tools?

Let’s find out.

Features

• Social listening to track brand mentions, industry trends, and your competitors.
• Discover social media trends and track metrics such as clicks, engaged users, and paid and organic reach.
• Customize reports based on date ranges, metrics, and social profiles.

Pros

• Helps you detect major trends including followers gained or lost and social interactions.
• Ability to track your team’s performance metrics including response times on social media.

Cons

• Does not offer analytics for YouTube or TikTok.
• You will need to pay extra to access advanced reporting features (Power Reports).

Tool Level

• Beginner

Usability

• Easy to use

Price

Agorapulse offers a 30-day free trial in addition to a free plan.

• Free: with limited features
• Pro: $79 per month
• Premium: $199 per month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Pro Tip: You can import data from Google Analytics automatically to calculate the ROI of your campaigns.

FAQs

Q1. What are the best social media analytics tools in 2023?

A. The best social media analytics tools in 2023 are:

• Sprout Social
• Tailwind
• Keyhole
• Buffer
• Emplifi
• Hootsuite
• …and others

Q2. What is the best free social media analytics tool?

A. While there are many free social media analytics tools, the best one is undoubtedly Tailwind. Its free plan is extremely generous, allowing marketers to use the tool for one Instagram and Pinterest account each. What’s more, it doesn’t just give access to basic analytics, but also to social media automation and scheduling tools.

Q3. What are social media analytical tools?

A. In simple words, social media analytics tools are pieces of software used to monitor and evaluate social media performance. Over time, these tools can help you enhance your social media strategy, and maximize ROI.

Q4. How do you use social media analytics?

A. You can use social media analytics for the following purposes:

• To improve your social media campaigns.
• To gain an edge over your competitors.
• To gain valuable customer feedback.
• To improve strategic decision-making.

Q5. What are the types of social media analytics?

A. There are four types of social analytics. They are:

• Descriptive Analytics: This deals with the question of “what is happening”? or “what happened”?
• Diagnostic Analytics: This tackles the question of “why is it happening”? or “why did it happen”?
• Predictive Analytics: This looks into questions such as “what will happen”? or “why will it happen”?
• Prescriptive Analytics: This involves analyzing data in order to come up with the best possible way to proceed in any given situation.

Q6. Why is social media analytics important?

A. Analytics can empower you to understand your audience and competitors, optimize your resources, maximize your social media ROI, and take your business to greater heights.

Q7. How much does a social media analytics tool cost?

A. Most social media analytics tools come with several pricing plans for users to choose from. While paid plans start at anywhere around $5/month, there is no upper limit for the same. The cost of these social media analytics tools will largely depend on your requirements.

The good news is that some tools also offer free plans that are often good enough for small businesses.

Q8. Which is the best social media scheduler?

A. The best social media scheduler has to be Buffer. This is because it is extremely affordable, and is available for five different social media platforms, viz. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Q9. What tools should social media managers use for posting?

A. Some of the best social media tools for posting are:

• Sprout Social
• Buffer
• Tailwind
• CoSchedule
• Zoho Social

Are You Ready to Improve Your Social Media Marketing ROI?

A data-driven strategy is the secret sauce for squeezing the best value out of your social media marketing campaigns.

But with so many social channels and so much data to monitor, it is only natural to feel lost.

And this is where social media analytics tools come in.

These are tools equipped to scrape your social accounts for valuable data, so that you can improve your marketing game.

The best part?

You don’t have to burn a hole in your pocket to use such a tool.

Some of them are absolutely free to use!

Now, we want to hear from you. On what basis would you choose a social media analytics tool? Is our list missing any tools you’ve used? Let us know in the comments below!

Disclaimer: This content contains some affiliate links for which we will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you). This is to ensure that we can keep creating free content for you.