X, formerly Twitter, analytics is a simple but powerful insights tool for small businesses and online marketers—learn how to access Twitter analytics and use it for your digital marketing efforts.
Like using X (formerly Twitter) itself, getting the most out of your analytics dashboard takes practice. But once you learn to make sense of this powerful social listening data source, you can use it to analyze your Twitter activity and the performance of your Twitter campaign's, improve your Twitter content, and amplify the presence of your blog, brand, or online business.
First, it’s important to understand the components of X Analytics. Then you can dive into effectively using this tool and its audience insights from the social network.
Navigating X analytics
Before you do anything else, turn on Analytics for your Twitter account. Go to the Twitter Analytics main page and sign in using your username and password.
If you’re already signed in to your account, you can access Analytics through the sidebar menu on the desktop version of Twitter. Click the ellipsis icon at the bottom of the menu and select Analytics.
On the Analytics dashboard, you’ll find a few different tabs where you can access the various features available.
Your account home page
From the Home tab, you get a summary of your account activity for the past 28 days. This includes your posts, impressions, profile visits, mentions, and follower count. Each of these key metrics includes a small activity graph along with increases or decreases since the last period.
Scroll down on your account home page to view highlights of your account activity over the past few months, such as top posts, top followers, and top mentions.
Tweet activity
Click on the Tweets tab at the top of the page to view your tweet activity. This page is broken up into its own series of tabs.
Tweets (AKA posts)
Under this default tab, you’ll see your posts over the past 28 days, with the latest on top. This is useful for scrolling down and glancing over data—impressions, engagements, and engagement rate—for individual tweets.
A graph at the top breaks down impressions by day. There’s also a series of graphs on the right side of the page that show the fluctuation of this data. Regardless of what tab you select, the graphs remain visible. You can use these graphs to track the performance of tweets, plus they’re useful when you’re planning future content as part of your social media planning.
Top posts
Click over to Top Posts to see your tweets ordered from most to fewest impressions. Here, you can see which of your tweets are getting the most exposure.
Posts and replies
This tab is almost exactly like the Posts tab—with your posts in chronological order—but it shows both your original tweets and your replies. Your replies behave just like regular posts in that they can engage your followers and lead potential followers to you, so it’s worth keeping an eye on them. (The Top Posts tab includes replies, too.)
Promoted
If you’ve already signed up for promoted tweets through Twitter Ads, you can watch those tweets here. Twitter Business offers several paid features like this that integrate with Analytics. But don’t worry, you can still do plenty with Analytics without paying anything.
Video activity
Select Videos under the More tab on the top bar to access your video activity. On this page, you can see how your videos and promoted videos are doing.
Conversion tracking
This tab is devoted to another option available through Twitter Business. Conversion tracking lets you track when users take a certain action, like visiting your website.
How to adjust the date range
When viewing any of the tabs above, change the visible date range by clicking the drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner of the screen. The menu button displays whatever range it’s currently set to—the default is the last 28 days.
You’ll see options to view the last 7 days and any of the last 5 months. Or, if you like, you can select a specific date range. After selecting the range you want, hit Update to view the new data.
How to export data
To download a CSV file for activity data within any date range, use the Export data option, which is to the right of the date range menu. These files open in Microsoft Excel and similar programs, allowing for easier social media management.
You can either export by tweet or by day. When you choose one, you’ll get a sheet that displays a comprehensive rundown of the data collected for the range and specifications you’ve selected.
The Twitter stats data downloaded includes the following and more:
- Impressions
- Engagements
- Engagement rate
- Retweets
- Replies
- Likes
- User profile clicks
- URL clicks
- Hashtag clicks
- Detail expands
- Permalink clicks
- App opens
- App installs
X Analytics data and how to use it
Now that you know your way around X Analytics, you can use it to get insight into your account and manage marketing assets. Here are some of the most important metrics the tool lets you track.
Impressions
Simply put, an impression is when a tweet appears on someone’s timeline. The impressions metric doesn’t tell you whether or not people engaged with a tweet. Actually, it doesn’t even tell you if they saw it, as they may have scrolled past it without looking at it.
So what’s the point of tracking impressions? Essentially, impressions give you a rough idea of how many people your posts are reaching. You can also compare impressions against other metrics to get a fuller picture of the impact your posts have—or could have.
Impressions versus reach
One of the metrics that’s useful to compare against impressions is reach. This is the number of users who could potentially see your posts. For example, if you have 500 followers, every time you tweet, you have a reach of at least 500. You may have noticed that reach isn’t displayed in Analytics, but it’s still a valuable concept to understand when using the tool.
Comparing your impressions to your reach helps you understand how well you’re engaging your followers, along with other users.
Unfortunately, reach isn’t so easy to determine. It can change based on what your followers do. For example, every time any of your 500 followers interacts with one of your tweets, this increases your reach, as the tweet has the potential to reach any of their followers.
There are several analytics tools that can help you better determine your Twitter reach, and promoted tweets are one easy way to increase it. However, the most straightforward way to improve your reach without spending money is by gaining new followers.
Engagements
An engagement is an interaction with a post. This includes likes and retweets, but it can also be as simple as a user clicking on a tweet or performing any other action on it.
Engagements are significant because if people are already engaging with your tweets, you can suggest they do other things you want them to do. For example, you can encourage users to visit your profile, website, or online store.
Engagements versus engagement rate
The engagement rate of a post is the number of engagements it gets divided by its number of impressions.
Let’s say you have a post with 600 impressions that’s earned 42 engagements.
To calculate that engagement rate:
42 ÷ 600 = 0.07
The engagement rate represents a percentage, so 0.07 would display in Analytics as 7%. In other words, 7% of the total impressions for this tweet resulted in an engagement.
While the total number of engagements on a tweet is meaningful in itself, the engagement rate gives you a better picture of performance.
But how does this actually help you? Well, imagine you have a relatively small following of 500. You may be lucky and have a tweet that goes viral, but chances are, most of your tweets won’t be seen by many people. Your impressions and engagements will probably reflect that smaller audience.
However, let’s say that you have an average engagement rate of 7% over a longer period of time. If you continue to gain followers—say, doubling them to 1,000—you might reasonably expect to engage twice as many people.
A tweet that gained 250 impressions when you had 500 followers could earn 500 with 1,000 followers. And if a 250-impression tweet earned 17 or 18 engagements under a 7.0% engagement rate, a future 500-impression tweet might earn around 35 engagements—all other things being equal.
Keep in mind, though, that all other things are rarely equal. There are always other factors to consider. Your future followers might not behave exactly like your current followers. Still, seeing the rough potential of your account to engage users lets you more effectively plan future content.
Activity
Post activity doesn’t refer to one thing in particular. Essentially, it’s all the stuff that happens to your tweets, combined, which can include:
- Impressions
- Engagements
- Retweets
- Link clicks
- Likes
To see activity for an individual tweet, while in Analytics, click on the View Tweet activity link on any tweet. If you’re using the mobile app, tap on the Analytics graph icon on a tweet, but note that the data shown here is not as robust as that on the desktop.
The stats from tweet activity overlap with the stats you get when you export data—from retweets to likes to clicks and beyond. But this option is more convenient for a quick glimpse, especially when you can just open up the window on your phone or other device.
So what should you consider when looking at tweet activity? Potentially anything and everything.
Individual post activity
Analyzing activity on individual posts is how you can see what’s working and what’s not. Think about how you want people to engage with your content. When they respond the way you want them to, examine what you’ve done.
If you’re trying to drive users to an online store, seeing which posts earn link clicks is useful for understanding what exactly gets clicks. Are there more clicks when the tweets have photos? Do people engage more when you use a certain call to action?
Say you’re an artist or photographer trying to expand your online presence and persuade people to support your work. Take a closer look at the types of engagement that get more eyes on your photographs. What are you doing that results in people liking or retweeting your art? How many characters are you using in the tweets that are shared the most?
Post activity over a period of time
Analyzing post activity over a certain period can be trickier. Trends in activity are only meaningful if you’re being consistent in what and how often you post. However, pinpointing trends can be useful if you’re willing to put in the work.
For example, you might notice you tend to get fewer impressions earlier in the week. But if you’re actually doing most of your tweeting later in the week and on weekends, this is probably more a reflection of your own behavior than how your target audience is interacting with your tweets.
On the other hand, if you tweet roughly the same amount every day but still notice a lag in your impressions on Mondays and Tuesdays, this might tell you that your followers are less active on these days. Once you’ve identified this problem, you can try to address it—for instance, by creating special content or promotions for these days to grab Twitter users’ attention.
Other data to consider
It’s easy to get lost in the finer points of post activity, but rest assured, there are simple ways to benefit from Analytics. You can gain a lot of insight just from keeping an eye on some of the general data on your home page. Here are a few key factors to watch.
Mentions
To view your number of mentions month by month, scroll down on the Analytics home page and check the stats on the right side of the page. Keeping track of how your mentions fluctuate will help you understand how often users are actively interacting with your account.
Seeing the number of mentions you’re getting can also help you find opportunities to interact with users. For example, if you’re earning dozens of mentions each month but rarely check your notifications or respond, you’re missing out on a huge chance to engage with an audience that's already interested in you.
Even liking posts that include mentions or responding with a simple “Thank you!” when someone tags your account can go a long way toward building and maintaining strong relationships on Twitter.
Profile visits
The number of times users visit your profile is another useful metric for gauging general interest in your account.
Profile visits are easy to watch. They appear in the summary at the top of the Analytics home page. Like mentions, you can view them in the monthly summaries as well.
Followers
The number of followers you have and continue to gain directly impacts the amount of influence and exposure you have.
In the Analytics home page summary, you can see at a glance how many followers you have. You’ll also see if your following has increased or decreased within the past 28 days and by how much. While follower count alone doesn’t necessarily guarantee success, it still represents your current reach and the long-range potential of your account.
The truth is, while engagement is crucial, engagement numbers on X are difficult to analyze. Predicting human behavior is always dicey—at best, your prediction will fall within the realm of educated guesses.
But your number of followers has concrete implications for potential engagement in the future. The majority of your posts from this month may not have done as well as you hoped, but if you retained your followers and gained some new ones, you’ll have other chances to engage them.
Aside from your overall follower count, you can also view the new followers you gain each month by looking at the monthly summaries. Just keep in mind that this number represents a net gain or loss—if you gain 20 new followers in July but lose 30, you’ve “gained” −10 followers.
Why X Analytics matters for marketers
X Analytics provides valuable Twitter data that's essential for making informed decisions about your social media presence. Knowing how your followers engage with your posts gives you powerful insights that can transform your entire approach to the platform.
With the right analysis of your X analytics, you can understand what types of posts resonate most with your followers, optimize your posting schedule, and ultimately drive more meaningful engagement. Let's take a look at what X Analytics can do for you:
Understand your audience’s preferences
X Analytics tells you exactly what type of content your audience responds to most enthusiastically. By examining post performance metrics like impressions and engagement rates, you can identify patterns in the topics, formats, and posting times that generate the strongest reactions from your followers.
Optimize content performance
Regularly viewing analytics allows you to refine your content strategy based on concrete evidence rather than assumptions. When you analyze which posts generate the most engagement, you can create content that deliberately incorporates those successful elements.
Creating, measuring, and adjusting your content strategy based on actionable insights helps you continuously improve your presence on the platform over time.
Align X data with your marketing goals
The metrics you prioritize should directly connect to the broader business objectives within your social media strategy. If you're focused on building awareness, track follower growth and impressions; if conversion is your goal, pay attention to link clicks and website traffic from X.
You can turn raw data into actionable insights that drive measurable results by aligning your analytics focus with specific marketing goals.
How to access X Analytics on mobile
While the desktop version of X Analytics offers the full analytics dashboard with comprehensive data, you can still access key metrics on the go through the mobile app. The mobile version of X Analytics provides a streamlined experience that lets you check basic performance stats without needing to be at your computer.
Step-by-step for the X app
Here's how to use X analytics on mobile:
- Open the X app and tap your photo to access your profile located in the top left corner of your screen
- When the side menu appears, look for and select the "Premium" option
- Within the Premium menu, you'll find "Analytics" listed as one of the available features
- Tap on "Analytics" to access your performance metrics and data
Once inside the Analytics section, you'll find a simplified version of the dashboard that shows your recent performance stats. You can view valuable insights like engagement metrics for individual posts and get a quick overview of how your content is performing without needing to switch to desktop.
Limitations of mobile analytics
The mobile version of X Analytics doesn't provide all the features available in the full desktop experience. While you can view basic metrics for individual posts and account performance, you won't be able to access more detailed data exports or custom date ranges that are available on desktop.
For comprehensive analytics work or creating detailed reports, you'll still need to use the desktop version to access the complete suite of analytics tools.
Considering the bigger picture
The greatest danger marketers and entrepreneurs face with any online data tool is getting bogged down in the details. This isn’t to say that you can’t benefit from geeking out over the advanced data Twitter Analytics gives you, but make sure you’re following your general account activity first and foremost. That’s how you’ll get the most accurate picture of what your Twitter presence looks like.
Once you’ve gotten used to how to effectively use broader metrics, dig in deeper. Master the summaries on the Analytics home page first, and then see what all of that extra tweet activity data can do for you.
Most importantly, trust your instincts. Using X for marketing is an art rather than a science. Think of Analytics as a guide for learning about your audience, but don’t let it hinder your creative impulses and personality.
X Analytics: FAQ
What can you learn from X Analytics?
Learning how to see Twitter analytics can help you measure several metrics that you can use to track your Twitter performance and create social media content. Some of the metrics you can track using Twitter analytics include:
- Impressions
- Engagements
- Tweet activity
- Mentions
- Profile visits
In addition to these metrics, you can also use Twitter analytics to look at your demographics, the like rate of your posts, your conversion rate, as well as your top mention. Learning how to see Twitter analytics helps you understand how your posts are performing and why that’s the case, so you can create better social media content.
What tools can I use to manage my X account?
In addition to using analytics for Twitter to track the performance of your tweets, you can also use automation tools to make social media management easier. Mailchimp offers Twitter integration that allows small business owners and marketers to schedule and manage tweets. You can even use a single marketing campaign across different social media platforms, that way you can integrate your marketing campaign into all of your social media accounts. With Mailchimp, you can save time and money by using one platform to manage all of your social media channels.
What’s a good engagement rate on X?
When it comes to finding the ideal engagement rate, every Twitter account is different. The ideal engagement rate for your small business Twitter account depends on the industry you’re in, as well as how many people follow your Twitter account. Your marketing goals can also have an effect on what your ideal engagement rate is.
While it varies for everyone, an engagement rate of at least 0.5% is typically considered to be good. This means that for every 200 people who view a Tweet of yours, at least one person will engage with that Tweet. While this number may sound small, when your tweets get hundreds of thousands of views, a 0.5% engagement rate can pay off.
How can I use X to market my business?
Learning how to see Twitter analytics is a good first step, but there’s more to using Twitter to boost your small business. Once you understand the basics of analytics for Twitter and you’ve got your profile set up, you can start focusing on your content.
Every business has a different way of engaging on social media. You can check out posts your followers have made and engage with them by replying or answering questions they may have, or you can ask for questions or feedback to create engagement. Scheduling tweets is an important part of making sure you’re providing consistent content.
Keep in mind that value is key above all else. If you tweet valuable content to your audience, they’re much more likely to like and share your post.
Key Takeaways
- X offers a powerful analytics platform that displays your post impressions, engagement rates, and audience growth all in one place.
- Understanding impressions, engagement rates, and follower statistics gives you crucial insights into how your audience interacts with your content.
- While more limited than the desktop version, the mobile app provides on-the-go access to essential metrics.
- Successful marketers use X Analytics to identify content patterns, optimize posting schedules, and align social efforts with broader business goals.