The Top 7 Social Media Reporting Tools for Brands & Agencies

So, you’ve figured out social media analytics and how it informs your strategy. You’ve got the right analytics tool to evaluate your performance. 

The next step? Reporting on these metrics.

It can be tricky to figure out what to include in a social media report, especially if you do everything manually.

Luckily, the right social media reporting tools make evaluating and reporting your most important metrics easy. Here are the most popular tools on the market today, and the one we recommend the most. 

The Benefits Of Using Social Media Reporting Software

Let’s start with some key terms.

Social media analytics is the practice of collecting and evaluating the data for a specific campaign or ongoing effort on social. 

Reporting is putting that data into a format that can be used for stakeholder understanding and future decision-making.

Investing in an analytics tool and reporting software is always worth it for in-house social media marketers and agencies.

Key benefits include:

• Easy formatting: No more copy-pasting social media data into spreadsheets; your data will be available in an easy-to-read format.

• Automated data collection: You’ll never miss an important detail that you might when you manually input information.

• Full-funnel advanced analytics: The right tool can help you make connections between high-level social media metrics and key company performance. 

Proving your campaigns’ value is one of the most important parts of social media marketing. A reporting tool makes strategizing simple, so you can get back to the fun stuff (like content creation).

Here are the top tools that social media managers love to streamline their reporting and analysis.

#1: Later Social

Later Social is a comprehensive social media management tool. Draft your content calendar, schedule posts across 7 social platforms, and analyze and report on performance in one platform.

We might be biased, but we love how Later makes it easy for brands, marketing agencies, freelancers, and small businesses to report on performance to key stakeholders.

Core features:

• Comprehensive reporting and analytics for Instagram (including Stories & Reels), TikTok, Pinterest, Facebook, and X (Twitter). 

• Advanced features like hashtag analytics and best time to post features. 

• Cross-platform analytics that save you time and provide a complete picture of your overall social media campaign performance.

• Sharing features that make it easy to generate reports and share with stakeholders.

Pricing: Paid plans begin at $16.67 USD/month.

#2: SparkToro

SparkToro is an audience research tool that helps brands understand the ROI of all of their channels, including SEO, social media, PR, and performance marketing.

While SparkToro doesn’t have social media management capabilities, it can provide essential reports on platforms your audience loves, who they follow, and what kinds of content they love.

Core features:

• User behavioral and sentiment analysis. Gain insights into what your audience reads, listens to, and follows.

• Affinity analysis to show what other websites your audience visits.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $50 USD/month.

#3: Buffer

Buffer is a social management platform that targets smaller brands that want to grow organically online.

Buffer is a cost-effective solution for those who need a social media management platform, with a “freemium” plan available. 

However, if you want social media reporting capabilities, you need to pay – which adds up if you report on multiple channels.

Core features:

• Comprehensive dashboard for post scheduling and analytics across different channels and social media campaigns.

• Comparison tools to help you measure ROI of paid versus organic posts.

Pricing: Paid plans begin at $6 USD/month per social media channel

#4: Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media marketing and reporting tool that helps larger enterprises better understand their reach, impressions, and following.

Core features:

• Analytics that help brands identify best-performing content so you can inform future plans. 

• Social listening tools to monitor specific keywords or hashtags.  

Pricing: Starts at $99 USD/month 

Looking for the same features as Hootsuite, but at a better price? 

Later Social does everything Hootsuite can do and more, with an easy-to-navigate interface, customizable Link in Bio page, and Visual Planner to help you visualize your feed.

#5: Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a reporting and social media management platform that helps brands connect the dots between social media performance into their broader marketing strategy. 

Sprout is a big name in the social game, and that name comes at a price – their plans start at $199 USD/month.

Core features:

• Analytics across multiple social platforms with compilation and share functionality

• Influencer marketing feature to collaborate with influencers on specific campaigns. 

Pricing: Begins at $199 USD/month

#6: Zoho Social 

Zoho Social is a social media management platform that does have reporting capabilities. 

This tool is part of the larger Zoho ecosystem of software, so this tool might work best if you’re already a Zoho user.

Core features:

• Track social media data across multiple social channels so you can view performance in real time.

• Analytics include referral sources that populate either pre-built reports or custom segmented reports.

Pricing: Plans start at $15 USD/month

#7: Keyhole

Keyhole is a social media insights and reporting platform that helps brands understand data to generate future campaigns. 

Core features:

• Social listening features for your brand and competitors.

• Analytics dashboard to help you track growth rates, engagements, and total following cross platforms. 

Pricing: Social media analytics starts at $49 USD /month.

Get The Right Tool For The Job

When you’re ready to go beyond simply collecting social media metrics and into full-scale reporting, you need an automated tool that gives you full-funnel analytics across every platform you use.

It’s no secret – Later Social is the favored social media reporting tool for brands big and small for a reason. 

If you’re ready to level up your tooling to save time, improve reporting outcomes, and leverage data in your decision-making, start a free trial with Later.