What Social Media Platforms Produce Best ROI?

During the Phoenix Fridays Leadership Power Hour, discussions on LinkedIn and its effectiveness often arise. Small business owners should focus on LinkedIn, but is that platform the best for generating a return on investment? Studies have found small business owners might get better responses from other platforms. Also, small business owners should scale down their content to three sites and do those regularly.

1. Facebook – According to studies, Facebook still leads for most small businesses. Globally, 28 percent of marketers rank it as their highest-ROI platform, ahead of Instagram at 22 percent and YouTube at 12 percent. It's especially strong for local targeting. Facebook ads continue to deliver strong ROI for local targeting even with modest budgets, and it's the top platform for reaching older Americans. More than half of people older than 30 are using it.
2. Instagram – If you sell physical products or lifestyle-oriented services, Instagram can work for you. More than 25 percent of users visit specifically to discover products or make purchasing decisions, and 60 percent interact with brands multiple times a week. About three-fourths of users have bought something after seeing it on Instagram.
3. YouTube/TikTok – For those marketing to younger audiences, short videos matter greatly. Restaurants, salons or retail profit from videos, but almost any industry can use videos to their advantage. There are a number of video types. Small business owners should pick the type of video to use.
4. Google Business Profile -- Google Business Profile stands out because it's free, yet the data suggest it may be one of the highest-ROI things a small business can do. Because Google Business Profile is free, "ROI" shows up in local search engine optimization overall, which GBP anchors. Local SEO delivers roughly $13 in return for every $1 invested, putting it well ahead of Google Ads ($8 per $1), and behind only email marketing ($42 per $1). Having a complete profile also helps with showing up in artificial intelligence. It matters because:

• Businesses with complete Google Business Profiles receive 70 percent more location visits than those with incomplete profiles.
• A fully completed profile performs seven times better than a basic profile.

• One analysis estimated that moving from an incomplete to a complete profile could take a business from roughly 100 monthly profile clicks to about 700, which — at a typical 15 percent action-to-customer conversion rate and $300 average transaction value — works out to roughly $90,000 in additional annual revenue, just from filling out a free tool completely.
• Businesses with more than 100 photos get 520 percent more calls.
• Listings with more than 10 photos get up to two times more customer actions.
• Only 17 percent of businesses use Google Posts, yet posting weekly drives 28 percent more clicks.
• Businesses that respond to reviews earn 35 percent more revenue.
• 76 percent of people who search for a local business visit within 24 hours, and 28 percent make a purchase as a direct result of that search, so GBP traffic tends to convert fast.
• Despite all this, about 41 percent of small local businesses still operate with incomplete profile information, and 56 percent of local businesses haven't even been verified yet. That's likely why one source calls completing GBP "the highest-ROI marketing action available to the majority of local businesses" that don't currently have a complete profile.

Why Not Use More than Three?

The data are consistent that spreading across four or five platforms with sporadic posting underperforms using two to three platforms consistently. Pick your favorites and the ones that would work best for your business.