We're seeing strong performance from our social content across the board - reach climbing, engagement solid, comments positive, follower growth consistent. The conversion from that attention to actual sales, however, remains nearly invisible. traffic from social appears in the analytics, but the conversion rate lags far behind other channels.
I understand social isn't a traditional direct-response channel, yet brands in the UAE are clearly closing the loop between content and commerce in ways we aren't. So what does that actually look like on the ground?
From several conversations with industry peers, the conversion gap almost always comes down to friction. Something between the content and the purchase decision creates resistance - the content itself overcomes it, but the path to purchase doesn't. In the UAE market specifically, the WhatsApp bridge proves critical. Content that drives people into a WhatsApp conversation, where a human closes the sale, converts significantly better than content pushing straight to a product page.
The trust-building sequence also matters. UAE consumers often require more touchpoints before buying than standard attribution models show, because earlier interactions happen on social but the final attribution goes to a later channel. Our social content may be doing more conversion work than the analytics suggest - it just isn't the last touch.
