Glossary of Key Social Marketing Terms
Concise glossary of key social marketing terms we reference in our audits and strategies:
Core Concepts
- Social Marketing: The application of commercial marketing principles to influence behaviors that benefit individuals and society. It’s distinct from commercial marketing, which focuses on sales and profits. Social marketing focuses on behavior change, rather than just awareness or knowledge.
- Behavior Change: The primary goal of social marketing, focusing on actions rather than just attitudes. It involves moving individuals through stages of change, such as pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance.
- Social Good: The positive impact the social marketing effort aims to create, which can encompass various aspects such as improved public health, environmental sustainability, social justice, and community well-being.
- Exchange Theory: A core concept emphasizing that people adopt behaviors when the perceived benefits outweigh the costs. Social marketing often involves increasing benefits and reducing costs.
- Audience Segmentation: Dividing the target audience into distinct groups based on shared characteristics such as demographics, psychographics (values, attitudes, lifestyle), and behaviors. Segmentation allows for tailored messaging and interventions for different groups.
- Consumer Orientation: Placing the needs and preferences of the target audience at the center of the social marketing process. This requires extensive consumer research and feedback.
The Marketing Mix (4 P’s + More)
- Product: This is not just a tangible item, but can be the desired behavior itself, an associated tangible object, or a service that supports behavior change.
- Price: The perceived costs (financial, social, emotional, psychological) associated with adopting the desired behavior.
- Place: The channels or locations where the target audience will encounter the campaign, have access to resources, and be able to adopt the desired behavior.
- Promotion: The integrated communication strategies used to reach the target audience and persuade them to adopt the new behavior. This includes advertising, public relations, social media, and other channels.
- Policy: Creating or changing policies to support the desired behavior and make it easier for the target audience to adopt.
- Partnerships: Collaborating with other organizations (government, non-profit, community groups, businesses) to broaden reach, leverage expertise, and enhance resources.
- Publics: Acknowledging the different groups of people (stakeholders) affected by or involved in the social marketing effort, including the target audience, policymakers, community leaders, etc.
Social Media Marketing Terms
- Brand Awareness: The extent to which a target audience is familiar with a brand.
- Impressions: The total number of times your content has been displayed—regardless of clicks or unique viewers.
- Reach: The number of unique users who have seen a piece of content.
- Engagement: The level of interaction (likes, comments, shares, etc.) a social media post receives from its audience.
- Engagement Rate: The percentage of users who engaged with your content relative to reach or impressions.
(See formula in next section below.) - Content Marketing: Creating and sharing valuable content (articles, videos, infographics, etc.) to attract and engage the target audience.
- Call to Action (CTA): A prompt encouraging a specific action, such as “Learn More,” “Sign Up,” or “Share.”
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): percentage of impressions that resulted in a click.
(See formula in next section below.) - Conversion Rate: The percentage of clicks that led to a predefined action (e.g., signup, purchase).
(See formula in next section below.) - Cost Per Click (CPC): The average cost you pay for each click in a paid social campaign.
- Cost Per Mille (CPM): The cost to reach one thousand impressions in a paid social campaign.
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising.
(See formula in next section below.) - Key Performance Indicator (KPI): A metric used to evaluate the success of a campaign against objectives (e.g., CTR, engagement rate, conversions).
- Social Share of Voice (SSoV): Your brand’s share of total industry social conversations, compared to competitors.
(See formula in next section below.) - Algorithm: The rules social media platforms use to determine which content is shown to users.
- Hashtag: A word or phrase preceded by “#” to categorize and make content searchable.
- Social Listening: Monitoring social media conversations to understand brand mentions, customer feedback, and industry trends.
- Owned Media: Channels you fully control (e.g., your website, blog, social profiles).
- Earned Media: Coverage gained through word-of-mouth, shares, mentions, press coverage—not paid.
- Organic Content: Posts shared without paid promotion—relies on natural audience reach.
- Paid Content: Posts or ads that you boost or advertise for greater reach/audience targeting.
- Social Listening: Monitoring social channels for mentions of your brand, competitors, or keywords to inform strategy.
- Sentiment Analysis: Automated or manual assessment of the tone (positive, negative, neutral) in user-generated content about your brand.
- User-Generated Content (UGC): Content created by fans or customers (reviews, photos, videos) that you can share or repurpose.
- Influencer Marketing: Partnering with individuals who have established credibility or large audiences to promote your brand.
- Hashtag Campaign: Creating or leveraging a specific hashtag to aggregate user posts and drive visibility around a topic or promotion.
- Brand Advocacy: When satisfied customers voluntarily promote and defend your brand on social channels.
- Viral Content: Highly shareable content that rapidly spreads across social networks.
- Community Management: Ongoing engagement and moderation of your brand’s audience to foster relationships and address feedback.
- Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with social media influencers to promote social marketing messages.
Behavior Change Theories and Models
- Transtheoretical Model (Stages of Change): This model proposes that individuals move through distinct stages of change (precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance) when adopting a new behavior.
- Health Belief Model: A model suggesting that health behaviors are influenced by perceived susceptibility to a health problem, perceived severity of the problem, perceived benefits of taking action, and perceived barriers to taking action.
- Theory of Planned Behavior: A theory suggesting that behaviors are determined by intentions, which are influenced by attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms (perceived social pressure), and perceived behavioral control (self-efficacy).
- Social Cognitive Theory: A theory that emphasizes the role of observational learning, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancies in behavior change.
Planning and Evaluation
- Formative Research: Research conducted at the beginning of a social marketing campaign to understand the target audience, barriers and benefits to adopting the desired behavior, and other key factors.
- Pretesting: Testing elements of the campaign (messages, materials, channels) with the target audience before launch.
- Evaluation: Measuring the effectiveness of the campaign in terms of reach, awareness, attitude change, behavior change, and social impact.
Additional Terms
- Social Norms: The perceived behaviors and attitudes that are common and acceptable within a group or society. Social marketing can leverage social norms to encourage desired behaviors.
- Framing: Presenting information or messages in a specific way to influence how they are perceived and interpreted.
- Pilot Testing: Testing a campaign or intervention on a smaller scale before wider implementation.
- Sustainability: Ensuring that the positive behavior changes are maintained over the long term.
Benchmark ranges for some of the key social marketing metrics:
This section outlines key social marketing metrics with definitions, real-world examples, and current benchmark data (as of Q1–Q2 2025) to help assess and optimize digital marketing performance.
Engagement Rate
Measures the percentage of users who interacted with your content out of total followers or reach.
Formula: Engagement Rate = (Total Engagements / Total Followers or Reach) × 100
Example: Example: 350 engagements on 10,000 followers = 3.5% engagement rate.
Benchmarks:
– Instagram: 3.5% (overall), 3.1% (hospitality)
– Facebook: 1.3%
– X (Twitter): 1.8% overall, 2.0% (hospitality)
– LinkedIn: 3.4%
– TikTok: 1.5%
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click.
Formula: CTR = (Clicks / Impressions) × 100
Example: 12 clicks on 1,000 impressions = 1.2% CTR.
Benchmarks:
– Facebook Ads: 0.90% – 1.60%
– Instagram Feed Ads: 0.22% – 0.88%
– Instagram Stories Ads: 0.33% – 0.54%
Cost Per Click (CPC)
The average cost paid per click in a paid social campaign.
Benchmarks:
– Facebook Ads: $1.72 (average)
– Instagram Ads: $0.00 – $0.25
Cost Per Mille (CPM)
Cost to reach one thousand impressions.
Formula: CPM = (Total Ad Spend / Impressions) × 1,000
Benchmarks:
– Facebook: ~$9 per 1,000 impressions
– Instagram: $2.50 – $3.50
– Instagram Feed Ads: $7.68
– Instagram Stories Ads: $6.25
Conversion Rate
Percentage of clicks that resulted in a predefined action (like a sign-up or sale).
Formula: Conversion Rate = (Conversions / Clicks) × 100
Benchmarks:
– Facebook Ads: 9.21% (overall)
– Lead Gen Campaigns: 8.78%
Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)
Revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising.
Formula: ROAS = Revenue from Ads / Ad Spend
Benchmarks:
– Good ROAS: 4:1 (ideal), 2:1 (minimum viable)
– Fashion Industry Median: 2.67:1 (Facebook Ads, April 2025)
How to Use These Benchmarks:
Compare your own campaign metrics against these ranges to diagnose performance gaps. For instance, if your Instagram engagement rate is 1.5%, you’re below the overall 3.5% average and might need stronger creative or more targeted posting times. Similarly, if your Facebook Ads CPC is $2.50 (vs. $1.72 average), experiment with different audiences or ad formats to drive costs down.
