Why Tracking ROI on Social Media Is Getting Harder

It starts with a scroll.

She (your perfect, ideal, target customer) is curled up on the couch, unwinding from a long day, phone in hand. TikTok is doing what TikTok does best - serving up an unhinged mix of chaotic memes, oddly satisfying cleaning hacks, poignant storytelling, and every now and then, a business that actually understands the platform.

A 30-second video flashes by. It’s someone raving about a life-changing travel bag. She watches it while thinking about the bestie trip that actually made it out of the group chat. She saves the video and scrolls on.

The next morning, she’s sipping coffee with her tablet open, flipping between emails and Instagram, and there it is again: an ad for the same brand, showing off the bag in dreamy European settings. This time, she taps through because now she’s curious. Not ready to buy, but curious. She checks out pricing and colour options, and goes back to IG before she finishes her coffee.

The bag pops up a couple more times over the next few weeks - she sees it mentioned in her favourite travel vlogger's YouTube video, and after using TikTok as a search engine for reviews. She does her due diligence and checks Reddit for people trash talking the product, but doesn't find much. (Good on you for making such an excellent product).

It takes three weeks and a few more touchpoints, but when she finally pulls the trigger, she’s on her laptop - because there are small screen purchases and big screen purchases, duh - and just like that, the sale is made.

Now, if you're the business owner, all you'll see is a Google search followed by a purchase. You think the customer journey is linear. To you, it's Point A to Point B. Done and dusted. You aren't seeing the heavy lifting your social media put in for you because Ideal Customer didn't click your link in bio or purchase when she clicked on your ad, so you assume there's no ROI.

Mythbusting the perfect data trail

In an ideal world, social media ROI would be clean and easy to track. A person sees your post, clicks your link, buys your product, and boom, you’ve got a clear line between marketing and money. The truth is, it rarely happens like that anymore.

Today’s customer journey is nonlinear, unpredictable, and scattered across platforms, devices, and time zones. Someone might:

• See your brand on TikTok but not engage

• Recognize you later on Instagram and click through

• Compare you to competitors on Google

• Add your product to cart from their desktop, days later

Attribution software wants to give you clarity. But in reality, it’s often only capturing the last click. And that final action might be the least important part of the entire process.

So are you SOL on tracking ROI?

Not exactly. But it does require a mindset shift. Rather than obsessing over direct attribution for every sale, think of your content as part of a much bigger conversation:

• Your Instagram Reels build trust.

• Your TikToks spark interest.

• Your reviews and blog posts create credibility.

• Your ads offer the final nudge.

You may not be able to see every step of that journey, but your presence at each one matters.

What you CAN measure, and why it still counts

Even if attribution isn’t perfect, here are some ways to gauge whether your social media is working:

• Increased branded search: Are more people Googling your business name?

• Website traffic from social: Are people clicking through from your posts (even if they don’t buy right away)?

• Engagement rates: Are people commenting, saving, and sharing your content?

• Customer feedback: Are new clients mentioning they found you on Instagram or TikTok?

And here’s the kicker: sometimes the sale happens offline or through a totally different channel, but social media was still the first domino.

The mess is actually a good thing

As frustrating as it can be not to see every click, every touchpoint, and every turn in the customer journey, the rise of limited attribution is actually a step in the right direction for all of us. Stronger consumer privacy laws, like GDPR (The EU general data protection regulation (GDPR) is the strongest privacy and security law in the world) and Canada’s PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection Act), mean platforms can no longer track people across every device and app with the same level of detail they once did. Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature and changes to third-party cookie use are making it harder to follow people around the internet - and that’s a good thing.

Consumers deserve control over their data. They deserve to browse, shop, and research without being aggressively stalked by retargeting ads. And as business owners and marketers, we have the opportunity to lead with value and connection, not surveillance. It forces us to create better content, more honest brands, and actual trust. Strong, ethical businesses don’t rely on sneaky tech to make the sale.

The Takeaway

The marketing funnel isn’t dead, it’s just messier than it used to be. We're living in a time of multitouch journeys and cross-platform habits, expecting a neat little receipt that says “this Instagram Reel = $387 in revenue” is setting yourself up for frustration.

Instead, shift your strategy to focus on long-term brand building, intentional content creation, and showing up consistently in the places your people are already hanging out, because someone, somewhere, is scrolling on the couch right now - and your content might just be the start of their next purchase.

Need help showing up in all the right places? At Sonder & Media, we help businesses create content that connects, builds trust, and moves the needle, even when the data doesn’t show it in a straight line. Let’s talk.