A report from Ifbyphone said that businesses are using social media marketing and SEO frequently, but struggle to measure their effectiveness.

While 47 percent of businesses using email marketing say they do not struggle to measure the results of their campaigns, just 24 percent and 26 percent of the same companies report the ability to gauge the value of SEO and social media marketing campaigns, respectively, according to a report released by Ifbyphone.

The three channels are among the most popular for web marketers, but it can be difficult to tell when a campaign is successful. Some metrics, such as improved traffic and lower bounce rates, do not impress decision makers. However, if these figures are improving as web leads and conversions grow, the correlation between web sales and search and social campaigns is worth exploring.

“We need to determine the root cause behind this sentiment, and whether it’s a lack of education in best practices, or rather a gap in leadership and mentoring,” Irv Shapiro, CEO of Ifbyphone, said in a release from the company. “Businesses can only get better at marketing if they are held accountable for improving upon what didn’t work in the past.”

For companies in this position, using web analytics tools can help provide insight and inform strategic decisions regarding these campaigns.

While Google’s web analytics tools include detailed information on site activity and key search and social traffic sources, the company recently announced that it is working to develop a social media marketing service to measure off-site interactions, Brafton reported. Google+ and Digg are just some of the platforms already integrated, but major social marketing platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, were not included in the release.

Joe Meloni is Brafton's former Executive News and Content Writer. He studied journalism at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has written for a number of print and web-based publications.