Template 01 - Reporting
Free Social Media Analytics Template
RecurPost’s social media analytics template is a Google Sheet that turns one month of platform numbers into a defensible engagement rate, a variance against target, and a decision about what to post next. It carries three tabs, seventeen columns and two formulas, and the formulas ship in the file. This page shows the whole structure, one completed month for a skincare brand, and the eight steps that run it.
1. THE ARTIFACT
What Is in the Workbook
RecurPost’s social media analytics template opens on three tabs. The settings tab holds the reporting period and the targets, the data tab holds one row per post or per account for that period, and the findings tab holds what you learned and what you are going to do about it.
The rest of RecurPost’s social media templates cover the documents either side of this one.
THE PERIOD LIVES ON SETTINGS
The reporting period sits on the settings tab rather than in every row, which is what makes month-on-month comparison work. You duplicate the whole file for May instead of appending May underneath April, and last month’s numbers stay exactly as they were when you reported them.
BUILT FOR
You report on a fixed period and have to say what changed.
SKIP IF
You only want to glance at last week’s numbers once, because a platform dashboard already answers that without a copy step.
TAB
WHAT IT HOLDS
WHO TOUCHES IT
01 Settings
The reporting period, the accounts in scope and the target for each metric
Set once, at the start of the period
02 Data
One row per post or per account, with the raw metrics and the calculated rates
Filled during and after the period
03 Findings
The insight and the next action for each thing worth changing
Filled at the end, before the client conversation
2. THE COLUMNS
The Seventeen Columns on the Data Tab
The data tab carries seventeen columns, and four of them are calculated rather than typed. Knowing which is which is the difference between a workbook you can hand to someone else and one only you can operate.
The four calculated columns are engagement rate, actual, variance and the variance percentage.
REACH IS NOT IMPRESSIONS
Reach and impressions get separate columns because they are separate numbers. A workbook that stores only one of them cannot calculate an engagement rate you would be willing to defend in a client meeting, and swapping between them halfway through a year quietly breaks every comparison in it.
COLUMN
WHAT IT HOLDS
TYPED OR CALCULATED
01 Reporting period
The period this row belongs to
Pulled from the settings tab
02 Platform
Which network the row is from
Typed
03 Account
Which account on that network
Typed
04 Campaign or objective
What the post was for
Typed
05 Post or content ID
Which post the row describes
Typed or pasted
06 Reach
How many people saw it
Pasted from the platform
07 Impressions
How many times it was shown
Pasted from the platform
08 Engagements
Reactions, comments, shares and saves
Pasted from the platform
09 Engagement rate
Engagements as a share of impressions
Calculated
10 Clicks
Link clicks the post produced
Pasted from the platform
11 Conversions
Whatever counts as a result for this client
Typed from your own source
12 Target
What you said this metric would reach
Pulled from the settings tab
13 Actual
What it did reach
Calculated from the rows in the period
14 Variance
Actual against target
Calculated
15 Owner
Who is answerable for this row
Typed
16 Insight
What the row tells you
Typed at the end of the period
17 Next action
What you will do about it
Typed at the end of the period
3. THE ARITHMETIC
The Two Formulas, and the Missing-Metric Rule
The workbook calculates two things, and both are written into the sheet so anyone can check them. Engagement rate is engagements divided by impressions, shown as a percentage.
Variance is actual minus target, with the percentage as that difference divided by target, so a positive number beat the target and a negative one missed it.
ONE DENOMINATOR
Some teams divide engagements by reach instead. Both are defensible and the workbook picks one, because an engagement rate calculated on impressions in April and on reach in May produces a trend line that means nothing. Use the same denominator for every row in the period.
EMPTY, NOT ZERO
When a platform does not report a metric, leave the cell empty rather than entering a zero, and leave the rate that depends on it empty too. A zero drags an average down and turns a reporting gap into what looks like a performance drop, which is the single most common way a client report loses an argument it should have won.
METRIC
APRIL
Impressions
96,000
Engagements
3,100
Clicks target
1,200
Clicks actual
1,455
Engagement rate
3.2%
ACTUAL − TARGET
→
VARIANCE
+21%
plus 255 clicks against target
Engagement rate is 3,100 engagements divided by 96,000 impressions, which is 3.2%. Variance is 1,455 clicks minus a 1,200 target, which is plus 255, or plus 21%.
4. WORKED EXAMPLE
One Completed Month
One completed month for an e-commerce skincare brand runs from pasted metrics to a change in next month’s schedule. The period is April, the accounts are one Instagram and one Facebook, and the campaign is a spring restock.
THE BEST POST
The best post did not win because it reached more people. It reached 14,000 against the account’s 96,000 for the month, and it still produced 900 engagements, which is a 6.4% rate against the account’s 3.2%. That gap is the finding, and the rate column is what makes it visible.
THE EMPTY WEEK
The Facebook week with no impressions data stays in the example on purpose. Nothing was entered, no rate was calculated for that week, and the April total says so. A zero there would have pulled the Facebook rate down and produced a finding about Facebook performance that never happened.
NO TARGET, NO VARIANCE
A month with no target produces no variance. The workbook still records the metrics, and the findings tab stays empty until someone sets a number worth measuring against.
WHAT THE WORKBOOK HOLDS
APRIL
Instagram impressions
96,000
Instagram engagements
3,100
Instagram engagement rate
3.2%, being 3,100 divided by 96,000
Best post
A five-slide carousel on layering two products: 14,000 impressions, 900 engagements, 6.4%
Clicks target
1,200
Clicks actual
1,455
Variance
Plus 255, which is plus 21%
Conversions
62
Facebook impressions, week 3
Not reported. Cell left empty, and that week carries no engagement rate.
Insight
Carousels that teach a routine roughly double the account’s engagement rate against single product images
Next action
Move Instagram from one carousel a week to three, which adds eight posts to May
5. THE LOOP
The Eight Steps, in Order
You run the workbook in eight steps, and the last one is the only one that creates work.
The loop works when the next action column names a post count and a channel.
STEP 4 IS THE ONE PEOPLE SKIP
Networks report the same idea under different names, so the data tab uses one vocabulary and the paste step maps into it. Skip it twice and the two months stop comparing, which you discover in the meeting rather than in the sheet.
STEP
WHAT YOU DO
WHAT IT PRODUCES
01 Duplicate
Duplicate the sheet for the new period
A clean file that leaves last period’s numbers untouched
02 Set targets
Set the period and the targets on the settings tab
The numbers every variance will be measured against
03 Import
Import the metrics from each platform
Raw reach, impressions, engagements, clicks
04 Normalise
Normalise the platform values
One vocabulary across networks that name the same metric differently
05 Calculate
Calculate the rates
Engagement rate per row, on one denominator
06 Compare
Compare against target
Variance, in absolute numbers and as a percentage
07 Record
Record the findings
An insight and a next action for each thing worth changing
08 Schedule
Schedule the approved actions
Dated posts, and a batch to upload
6. THE FILE
File Format, Access and What Happens When You Submit the Form
RecurPost gives the social media analytics template away free, with the formulas already in it. The file is a Google Sheet, and you take your own copy and edit that copy, so nothing you paste reaches anyone else.
The form below asks for six details and requires one. Business email address is the only required field, and full name, organization, employee count, country and company URL are optional.
RecurPost sends the workbook to the business email address you supply, and the confirmation on this page tells you it is on the way.
FORMAT
One Google Sheet, three tabs, seventeen columns, one completed month inside it.
ACCESS
You take your own copy, so nothing you paste reaches anyone else.
PRICE
Free, one required field, no card.
FREE TEMPLATE
Get Your Free Template
Business email address is the only required field.
7. THE HANDOFF
Moving the Next Action Into RecurPost
Step 8 is where the workbook stops being a record. The skincare brand’s next action names a channel and a count, so you date eight extra carousels in RecurPost’s social media calendar and add them to May’s upload. RecurPost then schedules the month in one pass with bulk scheduling, which accepts CSV and Excel files.
WRITE THE COUNT
A next action that reads “improve engagement” produces nothing to schedule and nothing to check next month, so write the count.
BATCH SIZE
~100
RecurPost sets no hard cap on how many posts one upload can carry and works best at around 100 posts a batch.
WHAT IT FITS
8 / 100
The skincare brand’s next action adds eight posts to May, so the month the workbook produced reaches the accounts in a single pass.
Write the next action as a count and a channel, date the posts it names, and set the batch live from one screen.
8. FIT
What the Workbook Does Not Do, and Which Template to Use Instead
The workbook calculates. It does not connect to a platform, pull a number for you, or write the document a client reads.
THE LIBRARY
All three sit in RecurPost’s social media templates library alongside the calendar, campaign and proposal documents.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO
USE
WHY
Calculate rates and variance for a reporting period
This social media analytics template
It holds the formulas and the data tab
Present those numbers to a client
The social media reporting template
It is the client-facing document this workbook feeds
Diagnose an account set you have just inherited
The social media audit template
The audit is a one-off baseline rather than a monthly loop
RecurPost’s Agency plan covers 20 social accounts and includes 3 team members. RecurPost prices an extra teammate at a flat $20 per month on any plan instead of multiplying the plan price by every seat. The next actions a month of measurement produces get dated and scheduled across every connected account from one calendar, which is the step that closes the loop.
RecurPost is the social media management software agencies run their client publishing on.
No credit card required
Frequently Asked Questions
What the workbook holds, how engagement rate is calculated, and what to do when a platform reports nothing.
What is in a social media analytics template?
A social media analytics template holds three tabs and seventeen columns, four of which are calculated rather than typed. The settings tab carries the reporting period and the targets, the data tab carries one row per post with the raw metrics and the rates, and the findings tab carries the insight and the next action. The calculated columns are engagement rate, actual, variance and the variance percentage.
How is engagement rate calculated in the template?
The workbook divides engagements by impressions and shows the result as a percentage. A post with 900 engagements against 14,000 impressions has a 6.4% engagement rate. Some teams divide by reach instead, which is equally defensible, but the workbook uses one denominator for every row in a period so the month-on-month line stays comparable.
What do I do when a platform does not report a metric?
Leave the cell empty rather than entering a zero, and leave the rate that depends on it empty too. A zero enters the average as a real result and turns a reporting gap into an apparent performance drop. An empty cell tells the reader the number is missing, which is the honest answer and the one that survives a client asking about it.
How do I get the template, and what do I receive?
RecurPost sends the social media analytics template to the business email address you supply on this page. The file is a Google Sheet with the formulas already in it, it is free, and you take your own copy and edit that. Business email address is the only required field on the form.
Discover your must-have Social Media Templates
The workbook calculates the month. These are the documents that sit either side of it.
01
PLANNING
Social Media Strategy
Map a client’s goals, audience, and posting plan.
02
PLANNING
Strategy Presentation
Pitch the strategy to a client in slides.
03
PLANNING
Marketing Plan
Lay out channels, cadence, and owners for the quarter.
04
PLANNING
Social Media Audit
Assess a client’s current accounts before you start.
01
CALENDAR
Social Media Content Calendar
Plan a month of posts across networks.
02
CALENDAR
Instagram Content Calendar
Plan an Instagram grid and feed in advance.
03
CALENDAR
Google Posts Calendar
Plan Google Business Profile posts ahead.
01
CAMPAIGN
Social Media Campaign
Build out a time-boxed campaign’s posts.
02
CAMPAIGN
Campaign Proposal
Pitch a campaign to a client for sign-off.
03
CAMPAIGN
Paid Social Media Ads
Plan paid ad sets, audiences, and budgets.
02
REPORTING
Social Media Reporting
Package monthly results for a client.