A customer sees your product in an Instagram Reel.
They keep scrolling.
A few days later, they remember the brand name, search for it on Amazon, compare a few options, and place an order.
Which channel gets credit for the sale?
That question is one of the reasons measuring social media performance can be complicated. Both channels serve a different purpose on the customer journey, but work towards the same goal of driving to purchase.
Social Media is built for connectivity and sharing messages. Social succeeds when more users engage and share content with more people. For this reason, social is often where customers first hear or learn about products in a digital landscape.
Whether it’s through a reel, influencer post, paid ad, educational post, or info shared from a friend, new products are being discovered on social channels by potential customers every day. The barrier to purchase often occurs because user is engaging with a social platform for entertainment and may not be actively in the market to buy anything, let alone your product. However, this discovery process is so important for your brand’s upper-funnel awareness. Even though this user isn’t in a position to buy, they now know the product, understand the value, and have been introduced to the brand for when future needs arise.
In one recent conversation with a pet brand, we reviewed Amazon branded search volume and noticed it had increased over the course of the year. The client pointed out that the growth lined up with a strong social media campaign.
Was social responsible for every additional Amazon search? We can’t say that definitively. But it gave us an important signal. That’s what we mean when we talk about looking for the dotted line between social activity and marketplace performance.
When a user enters Amazon, the channel’s job changes from awareness to driving sales. We’ve made careers out of studying and optimizing this Amazon journey to ensure the best possible chance at capturing the sale. Tactics like AEO optimization, content creation, search optimization, and ad campaigns drive in-market users to purchase your product.
Long story short, social gets someone interested while Amazon closes the sale. Both channels are important to a cohesive marketing funnel.
One important thing to note is that not every social post is expected to generate an immediate Amazon sale. It may look unsuccessful at first glance, which is often where social efforts get undervalued. The KPIs should reflect the job of the channel. For social, that may include reach, engagement, video views, audience growth, branded search activity, and traffic. For Amazon, it may include conversion rate, ROAS, TACOS, new-to-brand sales, and overall revenue.
Understanding how each of these touchpoints work together instead of forcing each one to prove its standalone value is the real opportunity for success. The goal isn’t to win on one specific channel, or which one is ‘better’, it’s to use both to win the customer.