Beyond the hype: Analyzing social media's true influence on leading global brands' website visits Book in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • This chapter investigates the effect of social media on website traffic among the top 100 companies from the 2022 Interbrand global brand list. Using a documental, descriptive, and cross-sectional research approach, we analyzed traffic and attribution data from SimilarWeb (www.similarweb.com) for these companies in the second half of 2023. Contrary to popular marketing beliefs that position social media as a leading source of web traffic, our study reveals a more intricate reality. We found that, on average, social media contributes a mere 6.86% to the total website traffic of the top 100 companies. Remarkably, only 10 of these companies saw over 10% of their traffic coming from social media, and in just one instance, social media emerged as the primary traffic source. This pattern led to identifying the "social media traffic bias," highlighting marketers' tendency to overrate social media's efficacy in driving website traffic. Although our study provides critical insights, it has limitations such as its reliance on a cross-sectional design and its focus solely on globally prominent brands with substantial marketing budgets. Further research is needed to assess whether the "social media traffic bias" holds for various brands, particularly smaller businesses (SMEs). The value of this research lies in shedding light on the varied effectiveness of different traffic sources and revealing the misconception of social media as a primary traffic source. We encourage academics and practitioners to view our findings as a prompt for a more discerning assessment of social media's real influence on digital marketing strategies and its actual contribution to overall website traffic. © 2024 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

publication date

  • September 4, 2024