What's included in the Competitor Performance Report?
New to Sprout Social? Learn more about how our Competitor Performance Report fits into our social media analytics suite here.
Track metrics for competitors' profiles and compare them against your profiles with Sprout's Competitor Performance Report. Benchmark your efforts and analyze your performance across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Note: You must have the Manage Competitor Profiles Reports feature permission to add competitor profiles to this report.
This article contains the following sections:
Getting started
To configure your report:
- Select the date range using the date picker at the top of the report.
- Click Filters to customize the data you want to see in the report.
- Click Sources to select the profiles that you want to compare against your competitors.
- Select Hide Your Profiles to review competitors only.
- Click Sources to select the profiles that you want to compare against your competitors.
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- Select Competitor Sources to choose which competitor profiles to compare.
- Select Competitor Sources to choose which competitor profiles to compare.
- Share to download a CSV or PDF, send a PDF or schedule regular delivery of a PDF version of the report.
Overview tab
The Overview tab provides a high-level look at performance metrics and averages between you and your competitors.
Summary
This section lets you compare your profile performance with your competitors at a glance.
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Followers Average: the number of users who followed the account as of the last day of your selected time period, per selected profiles
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Public Engagements Average: the number of times that users engaged with posts published to the page during your selected time period (=lifetime)
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Public Engagements per Post: the number of engagements for posts published to the page during your selected time period (=lifetime)
Audience Growth
See how your audience grew compared to your competitors. Competitor Average metrics display the average values for all the profiles you select.
This section also shows your averages against your competitors, including:
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Followers: the number of Twitter or Instagram followers the profile had on the last day of the reporting period
- Net Follower Growth: the net number of new Twitter or Instagram followers you acquired during the reporting period
- % Follower Growth: the percent change in Twitter or Instagram followers from the beginning to the end of the selected time period. This is equal to net follower growth divided by the followers on the first day of the selected time period
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Fans: the number of Facebook fans the profile had on the last day of the reporting period
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Net Page Likes: the number of new users who liked the profile, minus the users who unliked the profile during the selected time period. This metric includes organic and paid data.
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% Fan Growth: the percent change in Facebook fans from the beginning to the end of the selected time period. This is equal to net fan growth divided by the fans on the first day of the selected time period.
Publishing Behavior
View different types of posts you and your competitors published during your selected time period. You can choose to view posts in aggregate or by profile.
Top Posts
In this section, you can view the top posts based on public engagements. The posts that appear in this section are based on lifetime public engagements. If you’re a Premium Analytics user, you can view reactions, comments and shares for the selected time period.
- Public Engagements: the total number of times that users reacted to, commented on or shared the post during the post’s lifetime
- Reactions: the number of users who liked or reacted to your post during its lifetime
- Comments: the number of comments on your post or messages received on your post during its lifetime
- Shares: the number of times that users shared or retweeted your post during its lifetime
Engagement
Evaluate how people are engaging with your content and your competitors’ posts during your selected time period. The chart provides a breakdown of public engagements by engagement type against your competitors by network.
You can choose to view engagement in aggregate or by profile.
Profiles tab
The Profiles tab provides aggregate activity for profiles and the posts published during the time period you select. The table provides an overall average of your profiles and compares it against your competitors' average. You can view data on followers, engagements, published content types, shares and reactions.
If you’re a Premium Analytics user, click the chart icon to customize the chart and organize the most important types of data.
FAQs
Are ads counted in the report metrics?
Ads don’t count, but boosted posts are counted.
Why can’t I find the competitor page I want to add through the competitor search box?
Some profiles can’t be discovered through public search if they have high privacy settings.
Why can’t I add a competitor to the report?
You must have the Manage Competitor Profiles permission.
Why am I getting a "Gathering Data" message?
This message means that Sprout has started gathering data for a new competitor for you and doesn’t have any data at this time. Sprout monitors activity and displays data within a few hours to a few days, depending on the metric.
Why am I getting a "Data Unavailable" message?
This message means Sprout doesn't have any data for the competitor for the selected date range. As a result, Sprout can’t compare this profile to others.
