For years, 'return-on-engagement' has been the nice way of saying 'Facebook marketing works, we just have no way of proving it', but as social media marketing has become more refined, marketers are becoming increasingly confident in Facebook's ability to drive real, tangible, measurable sales leads â€" or, in other words â€" being able to prove 'return-on-investment.'

Here's the latest about the current state of measuring your Facebook marketing success: 

Driving Inbound Leads 

When crafting a social media plan for your organization, remember that the ultimate goal is to get Facebook fans to your website by providing helpful, interesting content such as blog articles, videos, and eBooks. Once someone is on your site, it's up to you to drive visitors to dedicated landing pages where you can gather their information through a form, generating what's called an inbound lead. 

As any salesperson will tell you, learning the name, phone number, email, and role of someone interested in your company (or at least its website) is more valuable than any like, comment or share.

Facebook Changes Definition of CPC

In July 2015, Facebook announced that it would be changing the definition of cost-per-click. Formerly, those advertising on Facebook would pay a set amount for a click â€" even if that click was just a like, comment or share. Going forward, only (what Facebook calls) "link clicks" will be factored into the cost of a CPC campaign.

This includes: 

• Clicks to visit another website
• Call-to-action clicks (Shop Now)
• Clicks to install an app
• Clicks to Facebook canvas apps
• Clicks to view a video on another website.

This marks a recognition by Facebook that its advertisers are now looking at inbound leads â€" not just engagement â€" as the true indication of a marketing win. 

Likes Still Matter

Just because likes, comments and shares are no longer part of the Facebook CPC equation doesn't mean they have lost their value as meaningful metrics. When users take one of these three actions, they are increasing the odds that your post will show up on the News Feed of their friends, earning you a broader reach and more opportunity to drive web traffic and â€" in turn â€" inbound leads.

Not only that, but the fact that people are endorsing your Facebook post through one of these actions is a sign that the content you're providing is of value to your audience.

So continue producing and sharing content that is well-received by your Facebook audience, but remember that inbound leads are the ultimate goal.

The era of "return-on-engagement" is not over, but the shift to more concrete metrics is upon us.

About the Author

Brian Overson is the Marketing Associate at StoryTeller Media + Communications. StoryTeller is an inbound marketing agency based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Brian blogs about content marketing, social media and digital strategy. Find him on Twitter @brianoverson.

www.storytellermn.com