Social media marketing is worth it for a local business when customers browse or check you out before they buy and you count leads and calls. For urgent services where customers search Google the moment they need you, I would put Google first. The audience is large, but reaching it takes work.
By Donnie Strompf. Updated October 2026.
I’m Donnie Strompf. I have done SEO since 2008 and run Good At Marketing in Boynton Beach, Florida. We sell social media management, so weigh this page with that in mind. For some businesses I recommend starting with Google, and nothing here promises a result.
Key takeaways
- Pew Research Center found that 71% of U.S. adults use Facebook and 50% use Instagram. Use is not the same as shopping for a local provider there.
- In January 2018 Meta said Pages may see their reach decrease. Check your own last 90 days, because a post does not reach your customers just because you published it.
- Social suits restaurants, salons and other businesses that customers browse or research before calling. Urgent, search-driven jobs usually start with Google.
- Judge social by booked work and the calls and forms that lead to it. Follower and like counts are signals to watch, and they are a poor thing to pay for.
- Tag your links and ask new customers how they found you, or you will not know what social produced.
Do enough people use social media to matter for a local business?
Pew Research Center found that 71% of U.S. adults use Facebook and 50% use Instagram. It surveyed 5,022 U.S. adults from February 5 to June 18, 2025 for its social media report, published November 20, 2025.
| Platform | U.S. adults who say they ever use it |
|---|---|
| YouTube | 84% |
| 71% | |
| 50% | |
| TikTok | 37% |
| 32% | |
| 26% | |
| Snapchat | 25% |
| X | 21% |
Source: Pew Research Center, social media fact sheet, dated November 20, 2025.
Age changes the picture. Pew reports that YouTube and Facebook are the only sites it asked about that a majority of every age group uses, and that 80% of adults ages 30 to 49 use Facebook. About eight in ten adults ages 18 to 29 use Instagram, compared with 19% of adults 65 and older (Pew Research Center, November 20, 2025).
Pew measures who uses a platform. It does not measure whether those people look for a plumber, a dentist or a gym there. Those figures alone do not tell you whether to spend money on social.
Does a free business post reach my customers?
Not reliably. Meta’s newsroom said in January 2018 that showing more posts from friends and family meant showing less public content from publishers or businesses, and that Pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease. Meta added that Page posts would still appear, though there may be fewer of them (Meta newsroom, Adam Mosseri, January 11, 2018).
That announcement is old, so treat it as Meta’s stated direction and measure your own page. Instagram’s Help Center says you can view insights for any time period within the past 90 days, and that a public personal or professional account is required (page read October 16, 2026, Instagram Help Center). Look at your last 90 days before you spend anything.
Benchmarks point the same way. Socialinsider, a social analytics vendor, analyzed 25 million posts from 130,683 Facebook Pages published from January 2024 through December 2025 and reported an average engagement rate of 0.15% of fans per post. At that average, a Page with 2,000 fans would collect about 3 interactions on a typical post. That is arithmetic on a vendor average and not a forecast for your page (Socialinsider, Facebook benchmarks, published March 23, 2026).
When is social media marketing worth it for a local business?
It is worth it when it reaches or reassures people that search does not. The table sorts common situations.
| Your situation | Social worth it? | Start with |
|---|---|---|
| Customers browse (food, fitness, salons, events) | Yes, early | Instagram and Facebook posts, plus a small ad budget |
| Customers search in a hurry (plumbing, locksmith, towing) | Not first | Google Ads or your Google Business Profile |
| High-ticket service people vet before calling | As a trust check | Facebook and YouTube kept current |
| You run offers, seasons or events | Yes, paid | Facebook and Instagram ads with a landing page |
| Nobody can answer messages | Not yet | Assign an owner for replies first |
| No call or form tracking | Not yet | Fix tracking, then test |
One survey speaks to the trust-check row. SOCi, a local marketing software vendor, surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. consumers and found that 59% say a social post or video has turned them into a customer of a local business. Search Engine Land published the result in a sponsored article dated October 5, 2026 (Search Engine Land).
The answer is self-reported and the sponsor sells local marketing software, so use it as a prompt to ask your own customers.
If you are unsure whether social or search should come first, the same break-even math applies to both. SEO vs Google Ads shows how to work out what a lead is worth to you.
What does paid social do that free posting does not?
Paid social puts your offer in front of people who do not follow you. Meta’s ad objectives page says its auction looks for people across Facebook and Instagram, plus Messenger, who are more likely to take the action tied to the objective you pick (Meta for Business, ad objectives). You choose a goal such as more sales or more website traffic.
Pick the objective that matches the lead you want. A campaign built for engagement will collect engagement. Meta Business Suite, Meta’s management tool for Facebook and Instagram, lets you schedule posts and stories, reply to messages and comments in one inbox, and boost a post or create an ad (Meta Business Suite overview).
Paid social costs money in two places: the time or fee for whoever manages it, and the ad spend paid to the platform. Our fee for social media management is $550 to $1,000 a month on the pricing page, and ad spend is separate. The cost side has its own guide: How much digital marketing costs for a small business. For a head-to-head with paid search, read Google Ads vs Meta Ads for lead generation.
Which social media numbers count and which are vanity metrics?
Count what a customer does, such as a phone call or a booked job. Follower and like counts describe attention, and attention matters only when it leads to those actions. The table matches goals to the number that counts.
| Goal | Platform | Organic or paid | Metric that counts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reach people who don’t know you | Facebook, Instagram | Paid | Cost per lead |
| Stay in front of past customers | Facebook, Instagram | Organic | Repeat bookings |
| Show proof before a call | Facebook, YouTube | Organic | Calls that mention it |
| Fill an event or offer | Facebook, Instagram | Paid | Booked appointments |
| Answer questions at scale | Messenger, Instagram | Organic | Messages that book |
Ignore follower count when you decide whether to renew. Followers can be bought, and the FTC has addressed it. Its consumer reviews rule took effect on October 21, 2024. It covers buying fake indicators of social media influence when the buyer knew or should have known they were fake (FTC rule questions and answers).
How do I measure leads and calls from social media?
Here is how to track the leads that social produces.
- Tag every link you control. Google Analytics Help says every tagged link should carry the three core UTM parameters, and that missing ones show up as “(not set)” in reports (Google Analytics Help).
- Read the right channel in GA4. Google Analytics defines Organic Social as visits from non-ad links on social sites, and Paid Social as visits from ads on social sites (Google Analytics Help). When the source is a social site, a medium that starts with “paid” or contains “cpc” sorts the visit into Paid Social.
- Ask every new customer. Add “How did you hear about us?” to your form and your phone script. Many customers see a post and then search your name, so GA4 may credit Google.
- Save a monthly snapshot. Instagram keeps 90 days of insights, so export reach, profile visits and messages each month and put them next to your lead count.
Ask your agency or employee to walk you through these four steps before you approve another month. Our guide to account ownership covers keeping admin access to your own pages.
What should I ask before paying for social media management?
These questions work for an agency, a freelancer or an employee:
- What counts as a lead, and who confirms it?
- Which platform comes first for my customers, and why?
- Do I approve posts and ads before they run?
- How will I see ad spend and results without asking for them?
- Who is admin on the page, the ad account and the Instagram login?
Any provider who guarantees followers, likes or sales is promising something the platform controls. The broader vetting questions are in how to choose an SEO company, and the same logic applies here. If you also need to judge how search should fit into the plan, read what to expect from SEO.
FAQ
How much should a small business spend on social media?
Spend an amount you can lose without hurting payroll, and set the pass mark before you start, such as a maximum cost per lead. Management fees and ad spend are separate lines, and the pricing page lists ours. Run one platform for a set test period, then compare leads and calls against that mark.
Do I need to post every day?
No platform source I read, including Pew’s survey and Meta’s tools, sets a daily quota. A schedule you can keep matters more. Meta Business Suite lets you schedule Facebook and Instagram posts and stories ahead of time, so a weekly batch is possible. Quality, replies to messages and a clear offer count for more than volume.
Is a Facebook Page enough, or do I also need Instagram and TikTok?
Start with one platform where your customers already are and add a second only when the first produces leads. Pew’s 2025 figures show Facebook at 71%, Instagram at 50% and TikTok at 37% of U.S. adults, and age matters. Ask recent customers which one they check, then follow their answer.
Will posting on social media get my business cited by AI tools?
Nothing I found shows that posting on your own accounts leads AI tools to cite you. Peec’s March 2026 study of 30 million U.S. citations put Reddit and YouTube at the top, which says nothing about your account. The guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT covers what to do.
Should I buy followers or likes to look established?
No. Bought followers do not call you, and the FTC’s rule on fake indicators of social media influence took effect on October 21, 2024. Courts can impose civil penalties for knowing violations, according to the FTC. A smaller audience that includes your customers is worth more than a large audience of bots.
Can a social media profile replace my website or Business Profile?
No. A social profile lives on a platform that sets its own rules for who sees your posts, and you do not control how Meta distributes them. Your website and domain are assets you can own and control. Keep a site and a Business Profile current, and treat social as one more way to reach people.
Related reading
- 10 effective marketing tips improve online sales
- Google Ads vs Meta ads for lead generation: which should a local business run?
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