Do a Social Media Audit (Yours and Your Competitors’)

Before you post anything new for a client, find out what’s already working, what’s broken, and what competitors do better.

3–6 hours

Verified by Hassan Rawther ·

Hassan Rawther is the Founder, Unlearn Academy. Written by the Unlearn Academy team.

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The short answer

To do a social media audit, list every account the business owns and record its profile basics, followers and monthly growth, posting frequency, average engagement and the type of content that performs best. Add website traffic and conversions from each platform in GA4. Then audit up to five competitors the same way and write what to keep, fix and try.

Before you start

By the end of this SOP

An audit sheet covering every account plus up to 5 competitors, ending in clear keep / fix / try actions.

Time
3–6 hours
You’ll need
Access to the business’s social accounts (or their insights), GA4 (SOP 009), and a Google Sheet.
Who does this
The social media manager or the agency taking over the account.
About this SOP: why it matters, where and when

Why it matters: It sets a baseline to measure your work against and stops you repeating what already failed.

Where: In each platform’s insights, Meta Business Suite, GA4 and a Google Sheet.

When: Before you plan a social media strategy or take over a new client, then every quarter.

Stage 1

List every account and check the basics

  1. 1

    Find every account: check the website footer, search the brand name on each platform, and ask the client for old or duplicate pages.

  2. 2

    For each account, record:

    • URL and handle. Is it consistent across platforms?
    • Bio or description. Clear about what the business does and where?
    • Website link. Correct, working, with UTM parameters?
    • Profile photo and cover. Current logo, sharp on mobile?
    • Who has admin access (see SOP 062 for Meta).

    Tip

    Duplicate or abandoned pages confuse customers. Note them for merging or deleting later.

Stage 2

Measure audience and engagement

Use each platform’s insights for the last 90 days. On Meta, use Meta Business Suite → Insights.

  1. 1

    Followers now, and growth per month over the last 3 months.

  2. 2

    Posting frequency and the date of the last post.

  3. 3

    Average engagement per post (likes, comments, shares, saves) and average views or reach.

    • Engagement rate = total engagements ÷ reach (or ÷ followers if reach isn’t available).
  4. 4

    Top 3 and bottom 3 posts. What format, topic and hook did the best ones use?

  5. 5

    Sentiment: are comments positive, or mostly complaints and unanswered questions?

Stage 3

Measure business results

  1. 1

    In GA4, open Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition and look at Organic Social and Paid Social, broken down by session source (instagram, facebook, linkedin…).

  2. 2

    Record sessions, key events (leads, sign-ups) and conversion rate per platform.

  3. 3

    Add enquiries that come by DM or WhatsApp. Ask the client how they track them.

    Note

    In Kerala many leads arrive on WhatsApp or Instagram DMs and never reach the website. If no one counts them, social looks less valuable than it is.

Stage 4

Compare with up to five competitors

  1. 1

    Pick up to 5 close competitors. Only audit the platforms they actually use (check their website footer).

  2. 2

    Record the same basics, followers, posting frequency, average engagement and their best-performing posts.

  3. 3

    Check their ads in the Meta Ad Library (see the competitor ads guide).

  4. 4

    Finish with three lists:

    • Keep: what works for this business.
    • Fix: broken links, inactive pages, slow replies.
    • Try: formats or topics that work for competitors.

Agency playbook

Doing this for a paying client

What a senior checks before calling the job done. Numbers are starting rules; compare them with the account’s own history.

What good looks like

  • Every number has the same date range and source, written at the top of the sheet. Mixed ranges make comparisons meaningless.
  • Engagement rate uses the same formula for the client and every competitor, so the comparison is fair.
  • Leads from DMs, WhatsApp and calls are counted or clearly marked as “not tracked”, never silently ignored.
  • Every fix and try item links to evidence: a post, a metric or a screenshot, not just an opinion.
  • The audit ends with no more than 5 priorities, ranked by effort and likely business impact.

Mistakes we see on real accounts

  • Comparing a client with 2,000 followers to a chain with 200,000. The client feels hopeless, and the targets you set are unreachable.
  • Treating views as results. A viral reel with zero enquiries gets copied, and the next month’s budget is wasted.
  • Auditing from your own phone without insights access. Your numbers are guesses, and the client spots it in the first meeting.
  • Ignoring unanswered comments and DMs. Slow replies often lose more leads than weak content does.

Agency checklist before you call it done

  • The client’s Business Portfolio owns every page and ad account. Agency access is partner access, not a personal admin login.
  • Ex-employee and old-agency admins are listed, and the client has approved removing them.
  • Raw insight exports and dated screenshots of each profile are saved in the client folder as the baseline.
  • Competitor list was agreed with the client before you audited, so nobody argues about it later.
  • Change log lists any fixes made during the audit, such as bio edits or broken links, with before and after.
  • Client signed off the keep, fix and try lists before you plan any new content.
  • Report leads with enquiries and cost per lead from social, then followers and engagement.

Handover message to the client

Hi [Client name], your social media audit is ready: [link]. The biggest win is [top keep], the main leak is [top fix], and we want to try [top try]. Please approve the priority list by [date] so we can start the content plan.

Senior tip

Ask the front desk where last month’s ten best customers first found you. Five minutes of that beats any insight report at deciding which platform deserves the budget.

Practice & check

Now do it for real

Reading is not doing. Open your own account and complete this task before you move on.

Practice task (5 min)

Audit one local business’s Instagram and one competitor. Finish with three keep, fix and try points each.

Prove it

1. Which GA4 report shows website traffic from social media?
2. A page has 20,000 followers but 30 likes per post. What does it suggest?

Two questions. Get both right and this SOP is done.

Common questions

How often should I do a social media audit?

A full audit when you start with a client, then a lighter one every quarter to track progress.

What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?

It varies a lot by niche and account size. Compare against similar competitors and your own past numbers rather than a single benchmark.

Done. That’s a real skill, not a certificate.

Next: SOP 044 — Create a Social Media Content Calendar →

Want to do this on real client budgets, with a mentor checking your work? That’s Level 2 at Unlearn. See the Digital Marketing track