How do I know if my social media marketing is actually working, or just getting likes?

Likes and follower counts are vanity metrics — they feel good but don’t pay bills. The metrics that matter are: click-through rate to your website, cost per lead from social ads, conversion rate of social-sourced traffic, and ultimately, revenue attributed to social channels. If your agency or in-house team can’t show you a number that connects social activity to leads or sales, that’s a red flag. We set every client up with proper UTM tracking and a monthly dashboard so social performance is measured the same way as any other marketing channel — by results, not impressions.