Revenue Driving Content: What Actually Works on Social

Social marketers understand the importance of great content for generating revenue through social media, and now, executives and leaders at many brands do, too. In this hyper-digital, visual-first age, striking visual content can make or break performance on social. It’s crucial to know what type of content is the best for driving revenue.

Without a robust content strategy, brands risk losing opportunities to increase sales, build brand awareness and acquire new customers. While savvy marketers know this, breaking it down into numbers and translating this to your bottom line can be a challenge.  

Social media plays a measurable role in driving revenue long before a customer clicks “buy.” While social commerce is now embedded in everyday social behavior, social channels influence ROI at every stage of the customer journey. In fact, e-commerce now accounts for over 23% of global retail sales (Statista, 2025), underscoring the growing impact of digital-first experiences.

• Awareness: Social media is where brands establish identity, build trust, and attract new audiences to their profiles and websites. This is often the first touchpoint in the customer journey.

• Consideration: As users move through the social media marketing funnel, they begin evaluating the product or service behind the brand. This is the moment to educate your audience, answering common questions, showcasing value, and using social analytics to understand the content your audience actively seeks.

• Conversion: Today’s customer journey increasingly ends on social. Seamless purchasing and conversion experiences are now built directly into social platforms, reducing friction and accelerating decision-making.

With hundreds of millions of people using social media, brands that aren’t investing in social risk missing opportunities to attract new customers, retain existing ones, and drive meaningful ROI.

As mentioned previously, quantifying creative content is difficult but not impossible. The efficacy of your creative content can largely be determined by the goals you set, how your content supports the customer during each unique stage of their purchasing journey, industry benchmarks, and of course, your overall brand objectives.

If your latest social media post has led to an increase in your follower count, it may be effective in the 'awareness phase' of your marketing strategy. This phase aims to create a base of engaged followers familiar with your brand before attempting to sell to them. Over time, brands can use this data to calculate the monetary value of their social media interactions. However, this process may take time. 

From there, brands can implement UTM parameters on links to determine when these unique visitors return and take specific conversion actions. Think cart creation and additions, checkouts and more. 

Then, you can even start to track the ACV (average customer value) from acquisition all the way to conversion. While their initial action or visit is difficult to quantify, this is an important stage of the customer journey. When you can dive deeper into ACV, your team can put an estimated value on this stage of the journey.

But when it comes to specific mediums, which content are marketers investing most in, and what drives the most revenue?

Blogs: Evergreen Content With Long-Term ROI

Blogs are a great way to repurpose content on a variety of platforms. From directly sharing links on Twitter, to sourcing tips and quotes for social assets. You can even re-optimizing blogs to support on-site and social media SEO. Blogs are also great for driving organic search traffic and linking to other essential pages of your website. While social posts often have a short shelf-life, blogs can rank for months and even years. It’s worth noting that algorithm changes and stale content can impact rankings and should be monitored over time.

Like other types of content on this list, brands can create blogs for nearly any stage of their customer’s awareness or purchasing journey. Is there a pain point your product or brand helps solve? Do people often ask a popular query online that relates to your brand? I.e., best makeup ideas for Spring.  

Events: High-Intent Engagement That Drives Revenue

Events continue to be a key revenue driver for brands. Whether in-person, digital, or hybrid, events generate high-intent leads through formats like trade shows, conferences, and summits, while also building brand authority through thought leadership. By capturing leads, introducing brands to new audiences, and enabling more personalized outreach and engagement, events play a powerful role in driving measurable ROI.

Case Studies: Proof Points That Convert Prospects

Case studies help turn interest into action. By showcasing real-world results, they build credibility, demonstrate value, and give prospects the confidence they need to move forward. For buyers in the consideration and conversion stages, case studies provide tangible proof that your product or service delivers measurable impact.

Beyond influencing purchase decisions, case studies support ROI by driving qualified traffic, introducing high-intent leads into the funnel, and reinforcing trust across channels. They’re also highly versatile. Insights from a single case study can be repurposed into social posts, sales enablement assets, videos, blog content, and more. When used strategically, case studies become powerful conversion tools that support both marketing and sales teams.

Podcasts: Expanding Reach and Building Brand Authority

Podcasts offer brands a powerful way to connect with audiences beyond the scroll. By delivering long-form, value-driven conversations, podcasts help build credibility, deepen trust, and position brands as thought leaders within their industry. They also unlock access to new audiences, including listeners who may be less active on traditional social platforms.

From a revenue perspective, podcasts support ROI by driving consistent traffic, nurturing consideration-stage prospects, and creating content that can be repurposed across channels. Short audio or video clips perform especially well on social platforms, extending reach and reinforcing brand authority. When paired with clear calls-to-action, podcasts become an effective tool for guiding listeners from awareness to action.

YouTube Videos: Discoverable Video Content That Scales 

YouTube is where your long-form video content can shine, but don’t discount YouTube Shorts. While Shorts offers a natural home for the same bite-sized content shared on Reels or TikTok, YouTube is a perfect place to upload filmed podcasts (or even the audio), interviews with people related to your industry, or other series your brand produces. 

With built-in search intent, YouTube SEO enables brands to identify high-value keywords and create content that’s more likely to surface in search and recommendations. These insights can also inform recurring video series that align with your brand identity, audience interests, and broader social goals.

Short-Form Content: High-Impact Social That Drives Reach and ROI 

Short-form content is one of the most effective ways to capture attention and drive performance on social. Designed to be native, entertaining, and easy to consume, short-form video consistently delivers strong reach, engagement, and discovery across platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

From an ROI perspective, short-form content offers a low barrier to entry with high upside. It’s cost-effective to produce, easy to test and iterate, and ideal for supporting cross-channel strategies. By pairing strong creative with clear calls-to-action, brands can use short-form content to build awareness, influence consideration, and drive measurable business impact. Proving that entertainment-led content can deliver real results.

Content marketing plays a measurable role in driving revenue and ROI, but success depends on how well marketers adapt their strategies in fast-moving, highly competitive digital spaces. To improve KPIs like reach, engagement, and conversions, brands need to understand what’s working, where to pivot, and how to align content with clear business goals.

Create Custom Measurement Reports

Knowing how to measure marketing ROI can be complex, which is why custom reporting is essential. By clearly defining your campaign objectives and identifying the KPIs that support them, you can better understand how social contributes to broader business outcomes.

For example, if your strategy is focused on awareness, relevant KPIs may include follower growth, reach, and engagement rate. If conversions are the priority, reporting should center on traffic to key landing pages, clicks, and social commerce actions. Custom reports let you pull in the most relevant data for your KPIs, so you can report on how social contributes to your larger goals without metrics that don’t tell a meaningful story.

Don’t Be Afraid To Pivot

Instagram and TikTok trends come and go. While it’s important to give new tactics time to perform, it’s equally critical to recognize when content isn’t resonating. Brands should regularly review performance data, refine underperforming content, and test new formats or platform features. A/B testing can help identify what truly resonates with your audience, allowing teams to optimize content for stronger results over time.

Develop Influencer and Brand Ambassador Relationships 

Influencer marketing remains a powerful driver of social performance and revenue. In 2026, the global influencer marketing industry is valued at over $30 billion (Forbes, 2026), reflecting its growing importance.

Nano and micro-influencers, in particular, present a strong opportunity for brands. Nano-influencers (1–10K followers) often deliver significantly higher engagement rates while requiring lower investment, making them an effective way to increase ROI while building authentic connections with niche audiences.

Increase Content Marketing Budget Strategically

As competition intensifies, many brands are increasing their content marketing investment. Without strategic reallocation during quarterly and annual planning, content strategies can quickly become stagnant. Investing in new formats, platforms, and creative experimentation helps ensure your strategy stays relevant and performance-driven.

Implement SEO Across Social and Your Website

Great content only drives results if it’s discoverable. Social media SEO plays an increasingly important role in expanding reach, especially as search behavior shifts. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram now function as discovery engines, particularly for younger audiences. With almost half of Gen Z reportedly using TikTok over traditional search engines, optimizing content for social search is critical for brands looking to reach new audiences and diversify their following.

Luckily, measuring the impact of visual content and your influencer and creator ROI has never been easier than with Dash Social. Quickly identify the ROI of influencers your community engages with, discover visual trends, and learn what UGC resonates with your audience. 

Supporting creative efforts can be difficult, so Dash Social features like Dash Social's Predictive Vision AI predicts which content your audience will best respond to. Meanwhile,  link-in-bio solutions like LikeShop drive conversions from your feed to your website. A seamless customer journey and user experience are indispensable for brands hoping to grow their ROI from social media. With Dash Social, you can create a straightforward, effortless customer journey, glean content opportunities for your strategy, and pull in ROI reports all at the same time. 

What tools show which content drives revenue?

There’s no single tool that tells the full story, but combining social analytics, attribution, and conversion data helps marketers understand which content drives revenue. Tools like Google Analytics 4 and UTM parameters track how content contributes to traffic, conversions, and sales over time.

Social media analytics platforms like Dash Social connect creative performance to business outcomes, helping teams identify which formats, posts, and creators support revenue goals. Native platform analytics, ad managers, and e-commerce tools then fill in the picture by showing how audiences move from engagement to conversion.

Which social channels drive the most revenue?

The social channels that drive the most revenue depend on your audience and business model, but Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube consistently lead the way. Instagram supports revenue through shopping features, creator partnerships, and strong mid-funnel influence. TikTok excels at discovery and demand generation, often driving revenue through high-engagement, entertainment-led content. YouTube drives long-term value through discoverable, long-form content that supports consideration and conversion. For most brands, revenue impact is highest when these platforms work together. With social driving discovery and intent across the entire customer journey.

What type of content is best for driving revenue?

The content that drives the most revenue is content that aligns with the customer journey and encourages action. Short-form video, creator and influencer content, and authentic UGC are especially effective because they feel native, build trust, and influence purchase decisions.

Educational and proof-based content, like product demos, case studies, and testimonials, play a key role during consideration and conversion, while long-form content such as blogs, YouTube videos, and podcasts support long-term discovery and brand authority. The strongest revenue results come from combining entertaining, social-first content with clear calls-to-action across multiple formats.