Brands are looking for engagement but do they get conversion ?

L9teta
L9teta
Jul 27, 2017 · 4 min read

Digital strategist usually measure the success of their campaigns on social media with engagement toward them. How many likes, shares or comment they generated.

My main question is should engagement be the main focus instead of conversion, by that I mean is there any real ROI ?

After all the true story behind creating content and being on social media IS to drive customers toward a brand, the visibility is a plus, might be a first for newcomers but the goal is still the same: Drive costumers to stores or push customers to buy a product.

Lately Facebook shared a statistic that left me a bit confused.

«91% of people who see your ads don’t click on them.»

Which can basically means two things:
1- Your targeting is wrong
2- Your message is not adapted or does not «talk» to you audience.

Well, there might be a third reason: Your target is NOT on the social platform you are using.

First of all, can we tag ads as content?
Obviously, yes. Content is everything you create for you brand, either it’s on social media, or on more classic marketing means.

Then, let’s talk about ads & our behavior toward them.

We do see them. It’s just that we don’t care anymore, there is so much content shoved into our faces on daily basis that we are now wired to ignore it unless WE ARE looking for something, and there go inbound, content and smart advertising. We do see them. It’s just that we don’t care anymore, there is so much content shoved into our faces on daily basis that we are now wired to ignore it unless WE ARE looking for something, and there go inbound, content and smart advertising. Or we don’t see it and we added plugins like ad-blacks. But then it only work on intrusive ads not on sponsored content we encounter on Facebook and Instagram.

Can we tag sponsored content as ads?

Technically, yes. We push brand content to a selected audience, a budget is used and we are looking for engagement.

Do ads drive tragic to stores?

In theory, it does drive consumers into your virtual store, or you website, and in this case you can measure it and the conversion is totally clear. You know which add is working and which is not.
The parallel doesn’t work for physical stores. You can’t truly measure if you ads did bring new customers, since you won’t be able to really track you fans and that’s a breach on privacy.

Facebook got some measure that let you know how you ads are doing with the «local » feature in statics but it’s not there yet.

The closest thy was Snap-to-store. The metrics let you know how is your conversion, and it can be helpful for knowing which content drove more to your store and who is actually your real target but then we go back to the privacy and tracking people and that’s a downfall.

Facebook got some measure that let you know how you ads are doing with the «local» feature in statics but it’s not there yet.
Should social media be a platform to push content and brand shove ads in any mean possible to make their brand known?

I manage some brand’s pages, I create content for them and I see engagement but I would like to know if there is a parallel between the engagement and the conversion, I would like to know if the content I created made people by that product or visit the store or use the service I promoted.

As said before, conversion is measured when its on Internet, when the aim is to drive traffic to a store but all markets are not the same and consumers behavior is not the same in every country.

Should we think more about creating content that drive to store either virtual or physicals instead of spending millions on ads that no one sees?

If you are a brand, a clothing brand on social media, you can share codes on your digital platforms that can be only used on physical stores. From that you can make a parallel between how many interacted with you content and how many went and used that code.

Nothing clever, nothing fancy just adapting the idea that already exist on online stores in real life.

Conversion will let you know who is your consumers and form there your content can be more reliable and more accurate.

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