[FAQ]

Hi,

My leadership team is asking me to provide a clear ROI for the time we spend on our organic LinkedIn strategy. It’s easy to show them follower growth and engagement metrics, but they want to see how it translates to actual business results like leads and revenue.

I know attribution for organic social is notoriously difficult. How are you all tackling this? Are you using UTM parameters for all your links? Do you have a system for tracking leads that come from DMs?

I’m looking for a practical, defensible way to connect our LinkedIn activity to real financial outcomes. Any proven methods or frameworks would be a huge help.

Thanks!

[Jeff Bullas]

That’s the question that separates social media activity from social media strategy.

Short Answer: You measure ROI by tracking website conversions from LinkedIn using UTM parameters and by directly attributing leads who say they found you on the platform. Everything else is a vanity metric.

The goal is to draw a straight line from the content formats you post to the revenue they generate.

The most common mistake is to present follower growth or likes as a return on investment; they are not. First, the most reliable method is to attach UTM parameters to every single link you share in your text posts or video descriptions. This allows your website analytics to show you precisely how many people came from a specific post and, more importantly, how many of them converted into a tangible lead. Second, you must implement direct attribution, because not every lead will click a link. Add a mandatory ‘How did you hear about us?’ field to your website’s contact form to capture the people who see your image or video content, remember your brand, and then search for you directly. Third, you can then assign a lead value to every one of those conversions to calculate a real, defensible ROI that you can present to your leadership team.

Cheers,

Jeff

[Author]

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