The Social Sales Funnel Data Update

That’s according to Convertro, the attribution-modeling platform that AOL acquired earlier this year for about $100 million.

“As Facebook, LinkedIn and others tinker with their algorithms for displaying user content, we believe this ratio -- sales generated by organic versus paid -- will continue to skew further towards paid social advertising,” Convertro predicts in a new report.

Promoted tweets, for example, lead to three times higher conversion rates than non-paid efforts, Convertro found.

Also of note, while Pinterest is commonly thought to command the bottom of the purchase funnel, other social networks appear to do a better job at converting shoppers into sales.

Based on both paid and organic social exposures that occurred during the first quarter of the year across Convertro’s client base, Pinterest was the last touch point in the customer path 8% of the time, and was solely responsible for a purchase just 2% of the time.

By contrast, YouTube was the last touch point in the customer path 14% of the time and was solely responsible for a purchase another 14% of the time. “This is a good indication that video is an important format for advertising to potential customers,” Convertro said in its report.

During the same period, Facebook was the last touch point in the customer path 10% of the time, and was solely responsible for a purchase another 10% of the time.

Google+, meanwhile was the last touch point in the customer path 10% of the time, and was solely responsible for a purchase 7% of the time.

On the other end of the spectrum, Twitter was the last touch point in the customer path just 4% of the time, and was solely responsible for a purchase a mere 1% of the time, while Tumblr was the last touch point in the customer path 5% of the time, and was solely responsible for a purchase just 1% of the time.

Separately, competing with the broad reach of TV, YouTube and Facebook also have the power to introduce consumers to new products and services.

According to Convertro, YouTube was the first touch point in the customer path an impressive 18% of the time, while Facebook was the first touch point 11% of the time.

In comparison, Twitter and Tumblr very rarely introduce audiences to new products and services, as they were the first touch point in the customer path just 1% and 5% of the time, respectively.

Overall, social networks most often serve as the touch point in the middle of the customer path, which, as Convertro notes, rarely gets credited with conversions.

In its analysis of conversions, social media — paid and organic in aggregate — was ranked at or just below middle-of-the-road in terms of introducing new products or driving conversions, compared to its digital peers.