You’re putting in the hours on X (formerly Twitter)—creating posts, engaging with followers, and pushing your brand’s message. But without the right tools, it’s hard to know if all that effort is moving the needle.
Twitter’s built-in analytics provide basic metrics such as follower counts and impressions. To truly understand what's working and how your strategy impacts business goals, a deeper dive into Twitter analytics is necessary. Third-party analytics tools give you deeper data—the kind that reveals what’s really working, where you can optimize, and, most importantly, how your Twitter strategy impacts your overall business goals.
In this article, we’ll explore why you need a Twitter analytics tool and list seven third-party X (Twitter) analytics tools designed to help you track and improve performance.
Why do you need an X (Twitter) analytics tool?
An X(Twitter) analytics tool optimizes your social media strategy by providing detailed insights into content performance, audience behavior and competitive positioning. It enables you to understand what's working and what's not, adapt your messaging and stay ahead of competitors.
Here’s exactly how it helps.
Identify top-performing content
Knowing which posts in your Twitter marketing strategy resonate most with your audience helps refine your strategy and allows you to continually build on what works. With an X (Twitter) analytics tool, you can easily pinpoint posts with high engagement metrics like reshares and build on those insights to replicate success.
Understand audience demographics
Insight into your audience's age, location and interests helps you tailor your messaging. This deeper understanding of who’s engaging with your content lets you create campaigns that directly address their interests and boost conversion rates. This could be through more targeted ads or curated content that speaks to their needs.
Track brand sentiment
Customer sentiment analysis helps you gauge how people feel about your brand in real time. Tracking brand sentiment allows you to amplify positive feedback or address complaints swiftly, preventing them from escalating and maintaining your brand’s reputation.
Measure campaign performance
Analytics tools help you analyze your own strategies—whether it's engagement rates, content themes or audience interaction patterns. These tools also give you a clear picture of social media ROI and the insights needed to optimize future campaigns.
Monitor competitors
Stay ahead of your top competitors by analyzing their strategies with X (Twitter) analytics tools. Competitive monitoring tracks competitor X (Twitter) post performance in terms of engagement rates, follower growth and hashtag use. And you understand your competitors’ overall share of voice, compared to your organization’s, on the topics that matter to your brand.
Ready to see how an X (Twitter) analytics tool can transform your social strategy?
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7 best X (Twitter) analytics tools
We’ve evaluated several tools based on features, usability and the depth of insights they provide. Here are some of the best X(Twitter) analytics tools.
1. Sprout Social
Sprout Social delivers in-depth insights into account performance, audience engagement and content effectiveness across multiple X(Twitter) profiles.
Analyze key metrics such as impressions, engagements and follower demographics to refine audience targeting and optimize your X (Twitter) content strategy alongside other networks. Plus, identify your best-performing posts and conduct a competitive analysis to see how you stack up against industry leaders. These X (Twitter) insights give you a detailed look at what your audience likes, how they engage and when they're most active—so you can tweak your strategy for maximum punch.
Sprout's Premium Analytics further enables you to select metrics that align with your X (Twitter) goals. Create presentation-ready reports to showcase the impact of your strategies and share insights easily with key stakeholders through shareable links. You can also compare performance across multiple profiles with Sprout's cross-channel capabilities to get a holistic view of your brand's X(Twitter) presence.
In addition to these X (Twitter)-specific functions, you get access to a full suite of social media management tools—from publishing and analytics to engagement—to streamline your X (Twitter) strategy.
Features:
An easy-to-use dashboard that offers a unified overview of your platform, including demographics and profile insightsHashtag tracking to learn what hashtags your audience is already using to reach and grow your audienceSummarize by AI that distills complex data into actionable insights, making it easier to understand your X (Twitter) performance at a glanceX (Twitter) Listening capabilities to understand audience sentiment and identify advocates and influencersDevice demographics to inform your content strategy based on how your audience accesses X (Twitter)Customizable reports on audience growth during your selected reporting periodAnalyze by AI Assist to track metrics, hashtags, keywords, Smart Categories and emojis to uncover major insightsSeveral report options to guide your X(Twitter) strategy, including:Post Performance Report to identify your best-performing content and analyze engagement metricsX (Twitter) Profiles Report for tracking changes in performance over time, including engagements, replies, likes, reposts and audience growthCompetitors Report to see how you compare to rivalsPaid Performance Report to track ROI from Twitter ads2. Twitter Analytics
Twitter Analytics is a built-in analytics tool only available to Twitter Premium users.
It’s a useful tool for getting started and providing a snapshot of what’s working on your account—helping you identify quick wins.
To access, head to analytics.twitter.com, or from your regular Twitter feed, click More in the left sidebar, then click Analytics. Here, you get basic insights into your best-performing X (Twitter) posts, how your last 28 days compared to the previous period and how much engagement your individual posts get.
Features:
Monthly highlights that show your top X (Twitter) post, mention, followers and other key updatesDetailed breakdowns of engagement metrics, showing likes, profile clicks, reposts, replies and detail expandsAverage monthly engagement rates, number of replies and reposts3. SocialPilot
SocialPilot offers social media scheduling, content curation, its own browser extension, help with ads as well as analytics.
Features:
Automated reporting that generates and delivers daily, weekly or monthly reportsCustom filters to perform tailored analysis, track performance over time, make historical comparisons and assess goal achievementTop Mentions Posts that highlight the number of times your brand gets mentionedMost Engaged Followers metric shows you who interacts with your posts, so you can reciprocate or give free products as a thank-you4. Keyhole
Keyhole is a social media monitoring and analytics tool that helps you track your online presence. In fact, it differs from some of the other tools we’ve already covered because their entire focus is on social listening.
Monitor hashtags, keywords and trends across various platforms in real time to get insights into engagement and sentiment analysis. It also offers cross-platform publishing so you can schedule all your upcoming posts for all your channels (including X, formerly known as Twitter) from one dashboard.
Features:
Automated, comprehensive reports that eliminate human error in spreadsheetsCampaign-specific reporting so you can see how individual social media promotions are performingHashtag reporting to track user-generated content and relevant hashtags your brand is promotingAnalysis of post types and times that will generate the highest levels of engagement, such as likes, clicks and shares5. Meltwater
Meltwater provides tools for social media monitoring, media analysis and audience segmentation that help you understand market trends and customer sentiments.
Meltwater is ideal for global brands who want to track multilingual conversations and stay culturally relevant while addressing market-specific trends.
Features:
Multi-brand search functionality for various research purposesData sources include social media platforms as well as traditional media like radio and TVAssisted search feature as an alternative to manual boolean searchesData storage covering a 15-month period6. Fedica & Followerwonk
Fedica and Followerwonk provide powerful tools for detailed social media analysis, especially on X (Twitter).
Fedica brings together publishing, analytics and engagement tools that help you improve your social media strategies across platforms. With the Follower Segmentation tool, you can group followers by different traits to target specific audience segments.
Now part of Fedica, Followerwonk adds features like bio search, user comparison and follower tracking, which helps with competitor analysis and audience insights. Together, these tools help you check the quality of your followers and track engagement.
Features:
X (Twitter) account analysis to find the accounts influencers follow—a way to pinpoint potential customers to interact withX (Twitter) user comparison to find gaps or overlaps in how your followers line up with your competitorsFollower growth analysis over a specified period to monitor how your account is expandingAudience interest and sentiment analysis to reveal trending topics, concerns or praise among your followersX (Twitter) engagement dashboard to keep an eye on how your followers are receiving your X posts7. Brand24
Brand24 helps you monitor and analyze brand mentions across various online platforms, including social media, blogs, news sites and forums.
It uses sentiment analysis to label mentions as positive, negative or neutral to help you understand public perception in real time. The platform’s Brand Reports pinpoint emerging trends and correlations, highlight key mentions and identify key events.
Features:
Automated sentiment analysis gives you a quick view of public opinion about your brand, helping you react faster to changes in sentimentMentions feed for easy tracking and response to all X (Twitter) brand mentionsMarketing analytics to monitor positive and negative mentions over timeGPT-powered recommendations to identify growth opportunities and fine-tune your strategyReal-world use case of Twitter analytics tool in action
Radio.com's 96.5 WTDY-FM Philadelphia aimed to leverage Twitter for an 'Artist of the Summer' poll. The core challenge involved accurately tracking massive tweet volumes, hashtags, and conversations. They needed a robust Twitter analytics tool to understand real-time audience sentiment and efficiently boost engagement on the platform.
WTDY-FM primarily used Sprout Social's social listening tools to monitor Twitter and Instagram for their campaign. Fans voted in the campaign by tweeting artist choices with specific hashtags. Sprout's analytics capabilities enabled precise tracking and analysis of these Twitter mentions, providing immediate vote counts and engagement metrics, demonstrating a practical application of our analytics tool.
The Twitter-focused campaign significantly boosted listener engagement and followers on the platform. The in-depth insights from 17 million engagements provided by the analytics tool helped understand audience preferences. Louis Tomlinson was crowned #ArtistOfTheSummer, showcasing how strategic use of Twitter analytics tools delivered measurable results and strengthened the station's social media presence.
Which is the best X (Twitter) analytics tool?
When seeking the 'best' Twitter analytics tool, the core lies in its ability to provide actionable data for strategic decision-making. Below are a few of the most crucial factors to consider when looking for a Twitter analytics tool:
Deep Analytical Insights: Empower yourself with comprehensive metrics beyond basic engagement. Look for strategic offerings like the tool's ability to understand follower demographics, conduct sentiment analysis, and perform competitive benchmarking.Actionable Reporting: The ideal tool should have the ability to simplify data. It should convert the most important data points into intuitive and actionable reports supporting faster decision-making.Seamless Integration: The best tools integrate effortlessly with your existing tech stack, such as CRM, BI, and e-commerce platforms, ensuring unified data visibility and improved cross-team collaboration.Proactive Social Listening: Ensure your tool has robust social listening capabilities for real-time social media monitoring, including brand mentions, sentiment tracking, and trend identification. This will give you the confidence to adapt your strategy and protect your brand reputation.AI-Powered Efficiency: The best Twitter analytics tools should leverage AI and automation for content generation, detect optimal posting times, and perform data analysis that can significantly boost productivity, allowing your team to focus on high-impact strategic initiatives.Scalability: Prioritize building a tool that scales effectively with your business, adapting to rising data volumes and evolving requirements. It must be robust enough to meet future needs and support growth.By prioritizing these factors, you can select the best tool to boost your social media strategy, driving measurable business growth and a strong return on investment.
Evaluate your current X (Twitter) marketing strategy and build from there
Ramp up your X (Twitter) marketing with the best Twitter analytics tools for auditing your performance. An audit uncovers gaps, optimizes underperforming posts, and aligns your content with audience expectations, ensuring your efforts on the platform actually pay off. Select the right platform for your brand and perform an X (Twitter) audit so your content connects with your audience and drives meaningful engagement.
Twitter analytics tools FAQs
What are the X(Twitter) analytics tools?
