Does Facebook Generate Leads? Depends on How You Look at it.

Does Facebook Generate Leads? Depends on How You Look at it.:rom Business 2 Community by Nick Robinson
I’ve seen multiple instances where people immediately think that Facebook is not the channel for them when it comes to lead generation. Often to their surprise, I make them realize that Facebook does have a place within their online marketing mix. They just weren’t looking in the right places.
As flawed as Google Analytics is, it can still tell some pretty compelling stories about your marketing. Non-perfect measurement is better than no measurement.
You also have to consider what type of attribution you are looking at, especially if you post a lot of engaging, non-salesy content (think kitten and puppy pictures). You would want to know the impact of that…right? If you’re spending time during your busy day posting kitty pictures, you probably would want to know if you’re getting a return on your investment…right?
You’d also want to know that people are taking action immediately after clicking over from Facebook (and not being flakey about purchasing your product!)
I am going to pull data from an undisclosed source and compare the two instances where I can prove that being present and engaged on Facebook actually results in more leads than immediate click-thrus to leads.
First example from Google Analytics of direct sales leads (or last touch attribution for the analytics nerds out there):

Don’t worry, this was not a mistake, apparently there were no conversions in the month of September for this company. They must be doing a pretty terrible job, or maybe Facebook isn’t the right channel for them to market their products and services.
Second example using the multi-touch conversions area of Google Analytics.

You can see that 3 leads originated from Facebook, but they ultimately converted after typing in the web address in the browser or using Google search. Wow, Facebook does result in leads! (I actually took a portion of the total leads by the way. There were way more than this in September. And mobile is another story in itself).
In conclusion, don’t write Facebook off. It is a powerful way to generate purchasing intent if you have a good product or service that people can get behind. This is why data analysis is so key in online marketing. Like anything in business, if you’re not measuring, you’re walking blind on a freeway.
See you next week :)