Do you want to learn how to use Facebook hashtag analytics to boost engagement and conversions? If so, you’re in the right place!
By now, you probably know Facebook is one of the biggest and oldest social media sites around, but did you know that it currently has over 2.93 billion users?
What this statistic tells us is that Facebook is still an excellent place to connect with your audience and grow your brand despite countless other platforms growing in popularity over the years.
For the best chance to grow on Facebook, you’ll need a diverse strategy that includes using hashtags in your posts and listening when other people are using hashtags around your brand or industry.
However, creating hashtags and social listening is only one piece of the puzzle. If you want to get the most from Facebook, you need to keep an eye on the analytics around these words and phrases.
When used correctly, this data can help you figure out which marketing strategies are working, where you can improve, help you build your reputation, and much more.
So today, we are going to share some actionable tips and strategies you can use to leverage Facebook hashtag analytics for better engagement.
Let’s dive in!
Understanding Facebook hashtags
What are hashtags?
Hashtags are words or phrases used on Facebook that feature a # symbol at the beginning. For example, #marketing is a popular hashtag on Facebook and across social sites like YouTube, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).
From a technical standpoint, they are essentially digital labels that categorize content based on what’s inside the tag.
For the average social media user, hashtags are engaging, relevant words and phrases that make it easy for people who are interested in your industry or product to find your content.
How do hashtags work on Facebook?
On Facebook, hashtags become links that redirect people to a feed that shows other public posts using the same tag. The way we see it, it’s basically a shortcut to conversations about a particular topic.
Following our previous example, if you wanted to know what was going on in the world of marketing, you could click #marketing and see all of the most recent and popular posts featuring that hashtag.
But here’s the thing: Facebook recommends using hashtags sparingly. So, with this in mind, you may want to stick to one or two relevant hashtags per post. If you use too many, you’ll look like you’re trying too hard, which can actually drive people away from your posts.
Why hashtags matter for businesses and marketers
Now, let’s quickly review a few reasons why hashtags matter to business owners and marketers across all industries. These insights will help you understand how your brand can benefit from these subtle but powerful tools:
- Increased visibility: Hashtags can help you reach people who would otherwise never see your content. This means it’s one of the best ways to get new followers.
- Brand awareness: Creating and consistently using branded hashtags will boost recognition among existing customers and encourage them to create user-generated content, which is great for building your reputation.
- Trend participation: Jumping on trending hashtags (when relevant) shows that you’re paying attention to the industry and are happy to voice your opinion.
- Community building: Hashtags make it easy to connect with people interested in topics around your industry, which is a great way to build a community.
- Campaign tracking: Using unique hashtags for different campaigns makes it easier to track their performance and engage with participants. It also makes for a great A/B testing metric.
Importance of Facebook hashtag analytics
Now that you know a little more about hashtags, let’s really dive into it and show you why they are important for your marketing strategy and long-term growth.
Definition of hashtag analytics
Simply put, hashtag analytics is the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data about how hashtags perform on social media platforms like Facebook.
They consist of all of the different ways people engage with your content, such as how often a hashtag is used, who’s using it, what kind of engagement it’s getting, and how it’s impacting your overall social media performance.
When you combine and analyze all of these metrics, it will be easier to analyze your brand’s performance and figure out what you can do to drive more engagement.
Tracking your analytics with a tool like Keyhole will allow you to make informed decisions that will ultimately help you propel your business to the next level.
Key metrics you should track
When it comes to your Facebook hashtag analytics, here are the metrics you’ll want to keep an eye on and why they are important for your business:
| Metric | Why it Matters |
| Engagement rate | Measures how many people interact with your hashtagged posts through likes, comments, and shares. |
| Reach and impressions | Reach shows unique users who saw your hashtagged post; impressions indicate how many times it was displayed. Crucial for assessing post visibility. |
| Hashtag growth | Measures the increase in usage of a particular hashtag over time. Helps decide whether to continue using a hashtag or switch to more engaging alternatives. |
| Sentiment analysis | Indicates whether people are using your hashtag in a positive, negative, or neutral context. Aim for a positive sentiment score. |
| User-generated content | Tracks the number of posts your audience creates using your hashtag. Organic use of your hashtags serves as powerful social proof. |
| Conversion rate | For hashtags used in specific campaigns, this tracks how many people take action after seeing a branded post. |
Benefits of an effective hashtag strategy
Create better content: Tracking hashtags through social listening helps you understand what type of content matters most to your audience. You can use this information to improve your future content, which means more engagement.
Optimize posting times: By combining hashtag analytics with the time you post, you can determine the best times to post and the most clickable content formats, which means your post will reach your subscribers at times when they’re most likely to engage.
Enhance audience targeting: Hashtag engagement provides insights into your audience’s preferences and behaviors. This helps you effectively target your target audience. For example, you could come up with a niche hashtag for your new product launch that will help you reach a smaller group of existing subscribers.
Increase post visibility and reach: Identifying and using hashtags that drive the most visibility can significantly expand your reach. Leveraging popular and trending hashtags can attract new followers and increase the chances of your posts being discovered by a wider audience. Good analytics tools will also help you find the best keywords for your business.
Understand trending topics better: Monitoring trending hashtags keeps you updated with the latest conversations in your industry. Aligning your content with these trending discussions makes your posts more relevant and engaging to your audience. It’s worth noting that 80% of people are more likely to engage with a post if it’s relevant to their needs and interests!
Gain a competitive advantage: Observing your competitors’ hashtags will help you understand their approach and identify gaps you can exploit. You can also use this data to establish your brand identity and set yourself apart from everyone else in the industry.
Tools for tracking Facebook hashtag analytics
Now that you know what social media metrics to track, let’s look at some of the different options you have when choosing a tool for your Facebook hashtag analytics.
Tracking hashtags on Facebook
Facebook has what we would call a minimal option that you can use to track your hashtag performance.
Basically, you can come up with your own hashtag and follow it. Similarly, you can find and follow other popular industry hashtags.
Then, Facebook encourages you to make a list where you keep track of all the hashtags you use, including those you use together. This is so you can figure out which combinations work best for your audience.
The last step is to click ‘View Insights’ on your post and look at the Impressions from hashtag metric. This figure will let you know how many people found and engaged with your post via the homepage around the tag.
The tool provides a broad overview, but it lacks the depth and specificity that serious marketers need. You might see that a hashtag is performing well, but you won’t have access to all of the details, which makes it hard to replicate that success.
Plus, if you’re managing multiple campaigns or want to track competitors’ hashtags, you’ll quickly find that manual data collection is time-consuming, tedious, and holding you back from other, more fruitful projects.
Now, here’s where premium analytics tools come in to save the day.
The best premium Facebook hashtag analytics tool
Now, let’s talk about why it’s better to use a premium Facebook hashtag analytics tool like Keyhole.
Keyhole is an all-in-one social media analytics and listening tool that can help you quickly and easily monitor multiple pages and keywords, all from one dashboard.
You’ll also have access to real-time data, historical analytics, sentiment analysis, and predictive insights, which means you’ll be able to make informed, value-driven decisions.
For instance, you might find that half of your keywords result in 90% of your traffic, which could help you make your existing strategy a little more manageable while maintaining the same results.
You can even use Keyhole to track how your competitors are doing and which hashtags are working for them and which are not. This data will help you figure out which words to pursue and which you should avoid.
But what really sets Keyhole apart is its user-friendly interface. In just a few clicks, you can see your data in easy-to-digest visualizations and reports, which means you’ll spend less time crunching numbers and more time growing your business.
7 Actionable ways to use Facebook hashtag analytics
Now, let’s explore 7 actionable ways you can start using your Facebook hashtag analytics to grow your business today.
1. Identify and use trending hashtags in your niche
Finding and using popular hashtags in your industry is one of the best ways to improve your visibility. It’s a simple way to join conversations that matter to your audience and show your expertise.
If you manage to impress these people who may have never heard of you, there’s a good chance they’ll become subscribers and engage with you in the future.
We suggest regularly checking what hashtags are trending in your field. Tools like Keyhole can help you spot these trends easily. Once you’ve identified popular hashtags, take a moment to understand why they’re gaining traction. Ideally, you only want to chase hashtags if there’s a positive sentiment around it and it relates to your content or brand.
By using relevant, trending hashtags, you can increase your chances of reaching more people who are interested in what you have to say.
2. Analyze top-performing hashtags and replicate success
It’s a good idea to regularly check your analytics and figure out which of your hashtags have worked well in the past. These successful hashtags can teach you a lot about what your audience responds to and wants to see in the future.
Pay attention to what these successful hashtags and the content in the post have in common. Are they short and catchy? Do they ask questions? Are they specific to your industry? These factors can all affect your results.
Once you understand what makes these hashtags work, use this knowledge to replicate your success in future posts. You’ll want to find new angles and information to share with your audience while using the same hashtags. This strategy will help you consistently boost engagement among existing subscribers and help boost your reach.
3. Create and promote branded hashtags
Branded hashtags, as the name implies, are unique to your business and can help you build awareness in new and exciting ways. One way to look at it is they are an extension of your brand name.
For instance, #ShareaCoke became synonymous with Coca-Cola. If you come up with a catchy hashtag, you could get that same kind of recognition in your community.
Ideally, your hashtag should represent your brand and be designed for a specific campaign. For example, if a garden supply company decides to host a Facebook giveaway, they could essentially ‘capture’ the phrase #GrowWithUs by asking participants to share photos of their garden.
Regardless of what branded hashtag you use, remember to keep it short, memorable, and easy to spell.
If you want to create your own branded hashtag, think about what matters to your target audience and how you can come up with a catchy hashtag that will convince them to take action.
4. Optimize hashtag usage based on engagement data
The truth is that not all hashtags perform equally. Some will get more likes, comments, and shares than others. That’s why it’s important to regularly check how your hashtags are doing.
Keyhole allows you to look at your hashtags and figure out how people are engaging with them. You’ll want to keep a careful eye on these metrics so you can figure out which words and phrases spark your audiences’ attention and encourage them to share, comment, and like your posts.
Don’t be afraid to adjust your strategy based on what the data tells you. If a hashtag isn’t performing well, it might be time to retire it. On the other hand, if a hashtag is getting a lot of engagement, consider using it more often or creating similar ones. By focusing on what works, you can improve your overall engagement rates.
5. Use hashtag analytics to plan future content
Your hashtag performance can be a great guide for planning your next blog post or video. It tells you what your audience is interested in and when they’re most likely to click.
Broadly speaking, this means you should check your analytics and see which hashtags have the most clicks. It’s also important to check your on-site analytics so you can see how many people made it to your website through social media. This metric could speak to the success of your hashtag strategy.
Here’s a quick example: if a marketing SaaS notices that their posts on email marketing are getting 75% of all clicks and social media is getting 25%, they can use this information to plan blog content that teaches readers more about email marketing.
It’s worth mentioning that this doesn’t mean you should only post when a hashtag is trending within your audience, but rather that you should consider the context around it. By aligning your content with high-performing hashtags, you can increase your chances of reaching and engaging your audience.
6. Use Facebook hashtags to grow on other platforms
It makes sense that what works well on Facebook can often work on other social media platforms, too. If you have a handle on your Facebook hashtag data, you’re in a much better position to increase engagement on other marketing platforms.
The first thing you’ll need to do is find out which hashtags perform well on Facebook. Then, you should start thinking about how you can use them on other big social sites like Instagram, X (Twitter), YouTube, and LinkedIn.
For instance, if #SmallBusinessTips gets a lot of engagement on Facebook, it might work well on LinkedIn, too.
If you want to start creating YouTube Shorts, and you should, since the short-form video is one of the most popular formats, you can include your best hashtags in the description of your videos. This seemingly small adjustment can drastically improve discoverability and clicks.
You’ll want to run plenty of experiments and track all of the data so you can figure out how well each hashtag translates between social media sites, which will help you fine-tune your strategy.
7. Conduct regular hashtag performance audits
Finally, you’ll want to set aside time each month or quarter to review your hashtag performance. Use this information to figure out what’s working and where you can improve. We’ve found these reports incredibly helpful for planning our social media strategy for the following quarter.
Take a broad look at which hashtags are getting the most engagement, which ones aren’t performing well, and any new trends you should be aware of. You’ll want to be mindful of all of this data because it will ultimately help you get consistent engagement and traffic.
Based on what you find in your audit, don’t be afraid to make changes. Maybe some hashtags that worked well before aren’t as effective now. Perhaps you’ve discovered new hashtags that are gaining traction. There are a lot of things that could happen that you would never know unless the numbers were in front of you.
Social media is always changing, and your strategy needs to evolve with it if you want to stay relevant with your audience. Regular audits help ensure you’re always using the most effective hashtags and types of content for your brand.
Final Words
There you have it! We hope you know now that tracking and using Facebook hashtag analytics is an extremely effective way to take your social media marketing strategy to the next level.
With a powerful tool like Keyhole, you can easily track and analyze your hashtag analytics, which means you’ll know exactly what you need to do to boost engagement. With a few clicks, you can track and analyze your hashtag performance, research your competitors, and even get suggestions for engaging industry hashtags. This will give you the data you need to make informed decisions about your Facebook marketing strategy now and in the future.
Author Bio
Syed Balkhi is the founder of WPBeginner, the largest free WordPress resource site. With over 10 years of experience, he’s the leading WordPress expert in the industry. You can learn more about Syed and his portfolio of companies by following him on his social media networks.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. How can I identify the most effective hashtags for my niche?
Use a tool like Keyhole to research trending hashtags in your industry. Also, analyze your top-performing posts to see which hashtags generated the most engagement.
2. What is the ideal number of hashtags to use in a Facebook post?
Facebook recommends using 1-2 relevant hashtags per post. Using too many can make your post look spammy and may actually decrease engagement.
3. How frequently should I audit my hashtag performance?
Aim to conduct a thorough hashtag performance audit monthly or quarterly. However, keep an eye on your analytics weekly to spot any immediate trends or issues.
4. Can Facebook hashtags help improve my local business visibility?
Yes, using location-based hashtags (like #NYCRestaurants or #LondonFashion) can help improve your visibility to local audiences. Combine these with industry-specific hashtags for best results.
5. What are the best tools for tracking Facebook hashtag analytics?
While Facebook Insights provides basic data, specialized tools like Keyhole offer more comprehensive hashtag analytics. These tools can provide deeper insights into hashtag performance, audience engagement, and trends.
