Money Lab Does Social Media Marketing Work? (With Real Numbers)
Oct 30, 2025
Delving into the efficacy of social media marketing, the host reveals that direct sales from social are rare. He discusses brand awareness difficulty in tracking and the challenges faced on platforms like TikTok. Hard numbers illustrate modest organic revenue from Facebook and Instagram, while paid ads show questionable ROI. Surprisingly, YouTube shines as a top performer in driving direct sales. The conversation shifts towards innovative strategies for turning social into a sales tool, including viral testing and community engagement.
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Organic Social Rarely Shows Direct Sales
- Matt Giovanisci finds direct, organic social posts rarely produce measurable sales for his business.
- He stresses many sales are untraceable brand-awareness effects that analytics miss.
TikTok URL Violation Hurt Shop Attribution
- Matt recounts getting banned from tagging product links on TikTok after using a universal URL in scheduled posts.
- That violation blocked product-tag features and reduced direct-shop attribution on TikTok.
Owned Channels Outperform Social Platforms
- In May–July 2025 organic Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok sales were about $500, $300, and $500 respectively.
- YouTube and owned channels (email, website) drove far more revenue, with YouTube at ~$25,000.