GUIDE · SOCIAL MEDIA ROI
Likes tell you what people enjoyed; site visits and sign-ups tell you what worked. To see which social posts drive website traffic you need two things: a tag on every link that names the post, and Google Analytics 4 reading those tags. Here is the setup, the report to open, and how to turn it into a return on your time.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Give every link to your site UTM tags — utm_source=the network, utm_medium=social, utm_campaign=the theme, utm_content=one id per post. In GA4, open Reports › Acquisition › Traffic acquisition, filter to Organic Social and add “Session manual ad content” as a secondary dimension: each row is one post, with its sessions, engaged sessions and key events. Mark sign-ups or demo requests as key events, and ROI is the key events (or their value) against what the posts cost you.
| Number | Where in GA4 | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions | Traffic acquisition, by Session manual ad content | How many visits the post brought |
| Engaged sessions | Same report | Visits that stayed, scrolled or did something |
| Key events | Same report — mark sign-ups and demo requests as key events first | Visits that turned into a result |
| Key event value | If you give key events a value | Money, for an ROI figure |
Mark what counts as a result
In GA4 Admin › Events, mark the events that matter — a sign-up, a demo request, a purchase — as key events. Give them a value if you can.
Tag every link to your site
Add utm_source (linkedin, instagram…), utm_medium=social, utm_campaign (the theme) and utm_content (one id per post) to each link in a post or its first comment.
Keep one naming rule
Lower case, no spaces, the network in source, never in medium — utm_medium=linkedin drops the visit out of Organic Social.
Open the report
Reports › Acquisition › Traffic acquisition. Filter Session default channel group to Organic Social and add Session manual ad content as a secondary dimension.
Compare posts, then post types
Rank posts by key events, not sessions. Then group by campaign to see which kinds of post bring results.
Work out the return
Return = the value of the key events from social ÷ what the posts cost (your hours at your rate, or the tool's price). Check it monthly, not daily.
Google says traffic source information is lost when links lack UTM parameters, and that redirects and link shorteners can strip referral details. Social apps often open links in their own browser, so an untagged click can arrive with no source at all and land in Direct. Tags travel with the link, so the visit is credited to the right post.
WITH PAPERFLIGHT
Every link to your website in a post or its first comment is tagged as it goes out: the network as source, social as medium, the post type as campaign and the post's id as content. Connect Google Analytics and PaperFlight shows site visits, engaged visits and key events for each post, and what social brought to the site overall. Its Analyst reads them every week and moves the plan toward the posts that bring results.
PaperFlight is an AI CMO with its own team: it plans the week, writes and designs every post in your brand, publishes it to eight channels and learns from the results. 7 days free, no card.
Last checked 11 October 2026. Platforms change their limits and features often — check their help pages before you rely on a number.