The study examines how social media marketing activities influence consumer behavior outcomes such as brand awareness, brand image, purchase intention, and loyalty. It reports that **social media marketing significantly enhances brand awareness and brand image**, which in turn positively affect **purchase intention and loyalty**, indicating that social media often works through these intermediate attitudinal constructs rather than directly generating sales. The authors note that firms use social media platforms mainly to "build relationships and engagement" and to "shape consumer perceptions" as precursors to conversion.

Google states that most advertisers are used to measuring success on a "last click" basis, which "gives all the credit for a conversion to the last-clicked ad and corresponding keyword." It warns that this "ignores the other ad interactions customers may have had along the way" and promotes data-driven attribution to assign value to each interaction across the conversion path, helping "reach customers earlier in the purchase cycle" and understand the contribution of upper-funnel touchpoints that are not closing the deal themselves.

Salesforce defines social media marketing as "the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic." It explains that marketers "publish great content on your social media profiles, listen to and engage your followers, analyze your results, and run social media advertisements" as part of a broader marketing strategy. The guide emphasizes that social media marketing "helps you build lasting relationships with existing and potential customers" and is used across the full customer journey, from awareness to conversion and retention.

GWI says that 71% of decision makers find social media influential when researching or considering a new product for their company. The same page says social media is used heavily for discovery and price comparison, but it is much less used at the final stage: only 14% use social media to decide which product to buy.

Matomo defines last-click attribution as a model that "seeks to give all credit for a conversion to the final touchpoint in the buyer's journey" and notes that it "assumes the customer’s last interaction with your brand (before the sale) was the most influential marketing channel for the conversion decision." The article discusses limitations of this view because "customers often have multiple interactions with your brand before converting," meaning that earlier channels such as social media can assist conversions without being recorded as the source of the sale in last-click reports.

The article notes that "90% of brands use social media to drive awareness" and that "40% of digital consumers use social networks to research new brands or products" (citing Hootsuite). It frames social media as part of a sequence of strategies "proven to find the right potential consumers, appeal to them, engage them, help them research and understand your products, and drive their buying and influencing behaviors." It also describes how businesses can "drive consumers to landing pages and collect leads or convert to sales," for example by sending viewers of a product video directly to an e‑commerce site "for easy ordering."

Supermetrics describes a **social media marketing funnel** with stages for **awareness, consideration, conversion, and loyalty/advocacy**. At the awareness stage, "you’re not trying to sell directly" but instead "aim to get your brand in front of people and make a positive first impression." In the consideration stage, social media content focuses on "educating your audience" and "building trust" so that prospects "shortlist your brand when they’re ready to buy." Direct sales are associated mainly with lower-funnel tactics such as retargeting ads, product-focused offers, and links that send users to a website or store to complete the transaction.

Digital analytics expert Avinash Kaushik highlights Google Analytics’ Assisted Conversions report to show how many conversions a channel helps, even if it is not the last interaction: he recommends looking at the "Assisted/Last Click or Direct Conversions" ratio. He notes that channels like social media often have a high assisted-to-last-click ratio, indicating that they "play a role in the early and mid stages of the purchase journey" by assisting conversions, but "are rarely the closing channel that gets last-click credit."

Reporting on the 2025 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, the article states that "83 percent of marketers said that their social media marketing gave more exposure to their businesses, 73 percent found it increased traffic, 65 percent offered that it generated leads, 62 percent felt that it developed loyal fans and 52 percent said that it had improved sales." It highlights that social media is "a relatively low-cost way to increase brand awareness" and that sharing and reposting can "give you even more exposure to new potential customers." The piece also notes that platforms offer "shop sections in app, which can also elevate sales," and advises using analytics to tie social media engagement to conversions and purchases.

Oktopost explicitly frames social media within a **funnel of awareness, consideration, and conversion**. For the top-of-funnel awareness stage, it states: "At this point, your potential buyers aren’t ready for a pitch… The point isn’t to convert on the spot, which is unrealistic anyway. It’s to make the right first impression." The article emphasizes that social media should "build familiarity and establish trust" early, and then, as leads move down the funnel, content shifts toward differentiation and ultimately conversion-focused assets like case studies, demos, and product-specific messaging to support sales.

Shopify describes social media marketing as a way to "build brand awareness, grow your audience, and generate sales" across platforms. It notes that social media content often works at the top and middle of the funnel: helping brands "get in front of new audiences," "educate potential customers," and "nurture relationships" over time. At the same time, the guide explains that features like product tags, shoppable posts, and direct links mean "social media can also be a direct sales channel," particularly for e‑commerce merchants who connect their catalog and use social commerce tools.

Walker Sands outlines a five-stage **social media marketing funnel**: Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, Engagement, and Advocacy. It describes awareness as "making buyers aware of your product" and stresses that this stage "is not about pitching your product line" but about "establishing your brand in the buyer’s mind" to improve recall later. For consideration, social media is used to provide detailed information and build trust. The **conversion** stage is defined as when "a buyer initiates and ideally completes a purchase," where promotions, differentiation, and retargeting via social channels help push prospects to buy, indicating that social media can assist in closing but is largely framed as moving people through earlier stages of the journey.

This article explains that social media touchpoints frequently act as assists rather than last-click closers: "Social campaigns often influence a buyer’s journey long before the final conversion, driving awareness and consideration that later convert through search, direct, or email." It stresses the need for multi-touch attribution because "if you rely on last-click only, social media will appear to underperform" even though attribution modeling often reveals social as "a major assister of conversions rather than the final step."

HubSpot’s State of Marketing report discusses how marketers use social media along the funnel. It finds that **brand awareness and reach are the top objectives for social media marketing**, followed by engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments. Many respondents report that social media is effective at "driving traffic and generating leads," which then enter email or sales nurturing sequences. Fewer respondents cite "direct online sales" as the primary goal of organic social; instead, the report notes that social media often "supports other channels" that handle the final transaction.

Merkle defines the marketing funnel as a process that moves customers from **awareness through conversion to delight**. It describes the awareness stage as "educating your audience" about the product and ensuring people know what it does and why they should care. For B2C brands, Merkle notes that the digital marketing funnel "starts with awareness, continues through consideration, and ends with conversion," and that different channels, including social media, map to these stages. Social media is highlighted as particularly strong at the top and middle of the funnel, with conversion typically completed on owned properties like a website or app.

Sprout Social notes that social channels "tend to shine in the awareness and consideration stages of the funnel" and that last-click models can make them look ineffective at sales because purchases often occur via other channels later. It explains that multi-touch attribution and view-through tracking show how "social media interactions, even when they don’t immediately result in a click that converts, can play an assisting role" by warming audiences and priming them to buy when they later encounter a brand through search or direct visits.

This study examines the relationship between stages of the buying process and social media’s functional blocks in relation to different buying roles. It focuses on how social media affects the B2B buying process rather than treating it as the final closing channel for sales deals.

Forrester states that B2B buyers find social media meaningful or impactful throughout the buying journey, and that impact varies by journey stage, persona, age group, and geography. It also notes that B2B marketers invest in social media to engage buyers via organic and advertising-based programs.

Stape’s overview of attribution models states that many upper-funnel channels like social media and display "rarely receive last-click credit" but are crucial earlier in the customer journey. Under the discussion of multi-touch models, the article notes that these approaches help reveal "assisting channels that build awareness and consideration" so marketers don’t undervalue them just because they "don’t directly close the sale in your analytics reports."

Prescient AI explains that last-touch attribution gives "100% of the credit to the final interaction" and states that this can mislead marketers about channels like social: "Upper-funnel channels such as social or display might rarely be the last touch but still drive incremental conversions by introducing and nurturing prospects." It advocates combining last-touch with more advanced measurement to uncover how these channels "assist conversions rather than being directly responsible for the final sale."

This primer explains the classic **awareness–consideration–conversion** funnel and applies it directly to social media advertising. For awareness, potential customers "might not be actively looking to buy anything yet," and the goal is to "make them aware of your existence and pique their interest." In the consideration stage, social is used for more detailed information to help prospects compare options. The conversion stage is where they are "ready to make a purchase decision," and tactics like discount codes and frictionless checkout are used. A social media example shows a clothing retailer first running eye-catching awareness campaigns, then targeted consideration ads, and finally conversion offers, illustrating that social media usually **primes and nurtures** buyers before the actual purchase moment.

The article states that "social media marketing has become a crucial tool for businesses looking to expand their reach and increase sales" and that platforms allow companies to "connect with potential customers, build relationships, and drive conversions." It explains that social media "can act as the first point of contact, funneling potential customers to your website or e‑commerce store" by sharing links to landing pages and offers. It also notes that some platforms, such as Pinterest, are useful for both "brand awareness and driving direct conversions," and describes tactics like retargeting ads that reconnect with users who engaged on social but have not yet purchased.

This academic article concludes that there is a "strong correlation between social media marketing and online sales growth" in the studied e‑commerce context. It highlights that strategic engagement, quality content, and influencer partnerships "significantly contribute to increased online sales" by attracting and persuading customers. The study suggests that social media activities both "enhance brand visibility" and "positively influence purchase decisions," indicating that social media can support awareness and consideration while also being associated with higher sales outcomes.

LYFE Marketing argues that social media is a channel businesses can use "to reach their target audience and boost sales over time." It emphasizes benefits at the top of the funnel, such as increased brand awareness, improved brand loyalty, and higher inbound traffic, noting that social media helps potential customers learn about products and services. The article also states that through consistent posting and engagement, social media marketing can lead to "higher conversion rates" as followers become customers, particularly when posts drive them to websites or offers where transactions occur.

The article says social media is not where the majority of B2B sales occur; rather, it is where prospects are identified, products are positioned to appeal to prospects, relationships are developed, and leads are nurtured. It also says social media ads can lead users into the awareness stage and through to purchase decisions.

Across many published case studies and practitioner reports, social media channels tend to show a higher volume of assisted conversions than last-click conversions in tools like Google Analytics’ Multi-Channel Funnels. Analysts often interpret this pattern as evidence that social touchpoints more frequently introduce or nurture prospects (awareness and consideration) than close deals directly, which aligns with the characterization of social as an upper- and mid-funnel contributor rather than a primary last-click sales driver.

This article says social media helps businesses foster brand recognition, engage audiences, and nurture relationships and trust with potential buyers. It frames social media as an important touchpoint in the buyer’s journey rather than as the sole or primary channel where deals are closed.

INFUSE describes social media as a way to boost discoverability, influence decision-making, and drive conversions across the buying journey. The wording indicates that social media contributes upstream and across the funnel, not just at the deal-closing stage.

The page says organic and paid social media campaigns keep a brand in mind and nudge prospects toward a decision. It presents social media as a support mechanism within the funnel rather than a direct closing tool by itself.