Is Social Media Marketing Still Worth It?

The state of social media marketing

According to Statista, 83 percent of marketers said that their social media marketing gave more exposure to their businesses, 71 percent found it increased traffic, 62 percent offered that it generated leads, 57 percent felt that it developed loyal fans and 46 percent said that it had improved sales. So, social media marketing is still producing positive results as a whole. But as with anything technology-related, things have shifted and it is important to keep up to date.

Which social media platforms produce the best results?

When you are choosing which social media platforms to spend time and money on, you want to select the ones that will give your company the best results. Every business has its own target market and goals, so you will need to do some experimentation to see what works well for you. [Read related: Why your business should use multiple social media platforms]

Below is a table showing what percentage of marketers said they are getting positive results for each platform, by marketing goal, according to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report. These broad results might influence your social media decisions.

This efficacy is reflected in the number of marketers using Facebook (83 percent) and Instagram (78 percent) compared to the other social networks: LinkedIn (69 percent), YouTube (53 percent), X (26 percent), TikTok (27 percent) and Threads (12 percent).

B2B vs. B2C

Your social media strategy will also be impacted by whether you are selling to consumers or to other businesses. Here are the usage numbers for each social network on this criteria.

As you might expect, LinkedIn is the social network of choice for B2B marketing while Facebook is nearly universally used for B2C marketing. Facebook and Instagram have become more important for B2B marketing in recent years, and LinkedIn continues to expand its lead as the go-to platform for reaching professional audiences and decision-makers.

Trends

Keeping up with platform trends is essential so you can shift your social strategy before the landscape shifts beneath you. Overall, marketer confidence in Facebook has softened over time. According to Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Marketing Industry Report, when asked what they consider to be the most important social media platform, responses favoring Facebook shrank from 44 percent in 2024 to around 37 percent in recent years. Meanwhile, LinkedIn’s prominence has grown to 29 percent from 21 percent, with Instagram in third with 24 percent. 

Social ads

Facebook reigns supreme when it comes to the value marketers place on paid advertising, with 41 percent saying it is the top social ad choice. Instagram came in second with 14 percent, followed by LinkedIn with 13 percent. An interesting note is that 27 percent said they don’t use paid social media ads.

“Businesses are also using retargeting ads, which show specific content to people who have already taken action in some way,” said Sarah Remesch, digital and social media marketing expert and founder of 270M. “Natural content in ads is currently very effective. This means ads that resemble organic content and influencer partnerships tend to perform better because they blend into a user’s feed, making the experience feel less intrusive.”

Why social media marketing is still beneficial today

Now that you know that social media marketing still works, let’s dive deeper into what it can do for your brand.

Expands awareness

Social media is a relatively low-cost way to increase brand awareness in the market because of the interconnectedness of its users. In addition to the exposure your products will get from any paid advertising, you also benefit from your followers’ sharing and reposting and can even profit from non-following customers who post about your company on social media. Social media contests and sweepstakes with highly shareable content can give you even more exposure to new potential customers.

“Social media is the only media platform left [where brands can] build mass awareness,” said Quynh Mai, founder and CEO of Qulture. “Outdoor, print and even TV are now easily ignored or skipped. By being in the feed and integrated into the user’s scroll, brand integration is most seamless on social media.”

Builds an online community

Many social media marketers believe that online brand community building is essential to success. Consumers can get a feel of a company’s mission and attitude on social media. A growing number of people now turn to social platforms rather than traditional search engines when researching brands and products, making a strong social presence important.

Grows website traffic

When customers need more information about your company and your products, your website is the best resource. It is also the place where you have everything in place to capture leads and make online sales. While you are probably investing in paid search or SEO to increase website traffic, social media is another great way to send people to your website.

“Social media can drive significant website traffic through a variety of link placements including bios, stories and captions,” Remesch said. “These placements give your audience direct pathways to your website and have already established a relationship with the consumer before visiting which increases the likelihood they will convert on [the] web.”

The traffic you get from social also tends to be more qualified since social followers are already familiar with your brand and are more likely to buy.

Generates leads

Since there are so many different forms of content that you can post on social media, it is a great way to inform and educate potential customers about product features and benefits. Social media marketing tactics can even generate leads. For instance, it is easy to prompt them to take immediate action by filling out a web form to receive more information.

“Meta lead forms and Stories or LinkedIn’s lead gen ads make it seamless for consumers to sign up without ever leaving the app,” Remesch said. “Because these tools are designed to help capture leads, they should be widely implemented as part of your strategy.”

Prospects can feel comfortable reaching out to you because they have had the opportunity to view the social proof provided by other users and learn about their (hopefully positive) experiences with your brand. “Social media platforms are filled with user-generated content from influencers and real people, leading to solid recommendations that lead to sales,” Mai said. “People trust people, so [they] are more ready to purchase from an endorsement or demonstration online than any ad.”

Increases sales

Social media is the evolution of ecommerce. Social media allows you to show products being used in real life, supports user-generated content and allows you to leverage influencers. Marketers found that the more years of experience they have, the larger sales they have. About half of marketers who’ve used social media for two or more years said it helps them increase sales, according to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report. Of those who have used social media for five years, 53 percent of marketers agreed it increased sales. 

Remesch said that several social media platforms offer shop sections in app, which can also elevate sales. This means companies who sell their products on each platform, in addition to their website, can increase purchases. “Social commerce is growing with in-app shopping experiences from Instagram and TikTok,” she said. “The entire shopping experience can take place in a single location now from discovery to purchase and therefore shortens the customer journey to end conversion.”

>> Learn More: Reasons to Use Instagram for Your Business

Provides faster customer service

Social media provides an additional, and often faster, way to handle customer questions and problems. According to the Sprout Social Index, consumers said businesses should make personalized customer service their first social media priority. “Customers expect quick replies and social media has become the first place they turn [to] for support,” Remesch said. “Direct messages and comments allow businesses to offer quick remedies and publicly in a way that shows transparency to other users.”

The report also found that 73 percent of social media users will buy from a competitor if a brand doesn’t respond on social media.

Empowers marketers with AI

With AI taking over users’ social feeds, marketers are now faced with the choice of whether to incorporate it or not. According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report, two in three marketers, 69 percent, use AI tools in their work, with 45 percent relying on it daily.

This shift isn’t just about adopting a new tool, as it’s reshaping how marketers plan, produce and distribute content at every level. “The AI-powered algorithms are rewarding businesses who connect with current events or trends by putting them into the feed or ‘For You Page’ and giving them organic reach,” Mai said.

How to know if social media marketing is working for you

Knowing whether your efforts are paying off starts with measuring your ROI. You need a clear picture of where your time and money are going — and analytics tools make that possible. Here are a few things you should do:

Set up Google Analytics.

One of the simplest ways to see the correlation between your social engagement and sales is to use Google Analytics. The popular web analytics tool can show you which social networks are driving the most website traffic, which content on your site attracts the most social media traffic and what kinds of posts at what time of day lead to the most conversions.

“For businesses aiming to drive website traffic, using Google Analytics and Shopify can show you web data segmented by social marketing efforts,” Remesch said. “Some metrics to review include conversion rates, time on site, bounce rate, and the number of actions such as filling out a form or making a purchase.”

Start by configuring audience segments in Google Analytics 4. This allows you to set up filters for tracking data from the social networks you choose, such as Facebook, X and LinkedIn. Once configured, you can view all of your referral traffic from social sources in one place and break the data down however you like — tracking individual platforms or grouping them by content type. For example, you might combine Instagram and Pinterest to evaluate how your visual content strategy is performing overall.

Use Google Analytics UTM parameters.

You can also track how individual links you share on social networks are performing by using Google Analytics UTM parameters. This method is especially helpful if you’re running ads on Facebook, for example, and want to see how many clicks you get — and how many of those clicks convert. UTM parameters are tags that are added to the end of a specific URL to enable tracking and source attribution. You can build them using the Google Campaign URL Builder.

“Certain KPIs [key performance indicators] are meant to measure brand awareness such as reach and impressions while [totals] are for engagement such as likes, comments, shares, saves and clicks,” Remesch said. “Engagement metrics are stronger indicators of performance because they include a secondary action and signal your social marketing is resonating with your audience.”

Review your data to see what is and isn’t working.

Once you have the results of your social media marketing, you will know what you are doing well and where you need to improve. Reallocate your effort and money to areas that are giving you good results and, over time, your ROI will improve.

“Ultimately, the best way to know if your social media marketing is working is consistently reviewing your data and reporting both in platform and on your website, aligning your goals and optimizing based on your findings,” Remesch said.

Amanda Hoffman and Jayson DeMers contributed to the reporting and writing in this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.