Follower count.
Vanity metrics are a trap when you're running paid search. Every budget review, someone asks "what's our social growth?" while ignoring that we're bleeding CPA on brand terms. The agency side always wants to report on follower spikes like it matters for the P&L.
Search intent trumps audience size every time. Someone searching "best HVAC replacement" with 500 followers who clicks at 4% CTR is worth more than a brand account with 200K followers and a .8% engagement rate. The follower count doesn't put revenue in the bank account.
Stopped tracking it entirely when I realized optimizing for follows meant diluting the high-intent ad spend that actually converts. Audience growth campaigns burn budget on bottom-funnel ads to people who'd never buy.
Care about CPA, ROAS, and search impression share. Those tell you if the account is actually healthy. The followers do nothing but inflate the reporting deck. A colleague in the thread mentioned the same thing about impressions, that's the same family of metrics that feels productive but means nothing.
Some brands genuinely need the social presence for the brand search terms. But for direct response, follower count is just clutter. Everyone in this sub loves reporting on it, and the numbers look great in the board meeting. Still doesn't change the fact that we're paying for clicks and the only metric that matters is the ROAS.
Let the competitor accounts chase the audience size. Got a $50K ad budget that returns $180K in revenue. That's the number that matters.
