Do More Likes Lead to More Clicks? Evidence from a Social Advertising Field Experiment

Social media has transformed how brands interact with consumers, making platforms like Instagram and Facebook critical for advertising success. As businesses invest billions into social ads, understanding how users engage with these ads is more important than ever. But how do social signals such as likes influence user behavior?

A new Journal of Marketing study finds that the first like on a social ad has a profound impact, significantly boosting both clicks and likes. However, as the number of likes increases, their influence on clicks diminishes. The research reveals two key forms of social influence at play: normative and informational. Normative influence encourages users to conform to social norms, leading them to like an ad simply because others have done so. Informational influence, on the other hand, drives meaningful actions like clicking on an ad when users perceive it as credible or relevant.

This dual effect of likes provides critical insights for marketers and platforms aiming to optimize ad performance and user engagement.

Key Findings: How Likes Shape User Behavior

• Initial Likes Are Critical: The first like on an ad acts as a powerful social cue, boosting both clicks and likes. It serves as a signal of credibility, encouraging users to engage with the content.
• Normative vs. Informational Influence: While the first like generates both normative and informational influence, additional likes primarily encourage conformity rather than meaningful engagement. This results in more users liking the ad but fewer clicking through to learn more.
• Plateau in Engagement: As the number of likes grows, their ability to drive clicks diminishes. This suggests that showing too many likes can dilute their informational value, leading to a plateau in meaningful engagement.

The first like is a critical moment for engagement. It signals to users that the content is worth their attention, encouraging both likes and clicks. However, as likes accumulate, their role shifts. Instead of driving deeper interactions, they primarily serve to reinforce conformity, leading users to simply like the ad without taking further action.

Practical Insights for Marketers

For marketers, these findings offer actionable strategies to enhance the effectiveness of social media ad campaigns:

• Optimize for Click-Through Campaigns: Campaigns designed to drive clicks should display only a few likes to preserve the informational value of the first like. This strategy helps maintain the ad’s perceived credibility, encouraging users to take action.
• Boost Brand Awareness: For campaigns focused on building brand awareness, showing higher like counts can leverage normative influence to make the ad appear more popular and widely accepted. This approach enhances brand perception and visibility.
• Tailor Social Cues to Campaign Goals: Marketers should carefully consider the type of engagement they aim to achieve. Balancing normative and informational influences can help design campaigns that maximize both likes and clicks.

By aligning the visibility of likes with campaign objectives, brands can optimize their return on investment.

Implications for Social Media Platforms

The study also has significant implications for social media platforms. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook continuously experiment with the visibility of likes, as seen in Instagram’s recent tests on hiding like counts. These decisions impact user behavior and advertiser outcomes, making it critical for platforms to strike the right balance.

Platforms can use these insights to refine how they display likes in ads. For click-through campaigns, limiting the visibility of likes can preserve the informational value of the first like, driving deeper engagement. For awareness campaigns, showing higher like counts can enhance normative influence, boosting surface-level engagement and brand visibility.

Platforms must consider how their design choices influence both user behavior and advertiser performance.

Challenges and Considerations

While likes are a powerful tool for driving engagement, their effects are not universal. Campaigns that rely too heavily on normative influence may fail to drive meaningful actions like clicks or purchases. Similarly, campaigns that prioritize clicks without considering the role of social cues risk missing opportunities to build brand awareness.

Another challenge lies in balancing authenticity with strategy. Overemphasizing likes as a metric of success can lead to inauthentic interactions, where users engage with content superficially rather than meaningfully. Platforms and marketers must work together to ensure that social cues are used in ways that enhance user experience and drive real value.

A Vision for the Future of Social Advertising

This study offers a framework for leveraging likes as a tool for both engagement and action. By recognizing the dual role of likes, marketers and platforms can design campaigns that deliver better results for advertisers while maintaining user trust.

In a world where attention is increasingly scarce, the ability to understand and harness the dynamics of social influence offers a competitive edge. Whether the goal is to drive clicks, increase likes, or boost brand awareness, leveraging the power of social cues is key to creating impactful campaigns.

Source: Song Lin and Shan Huang, “Do More ‘Likes’ Lead to More Clicks? Evidence from a Field Experiment on Social Advertising,” Journal of Marketing, 89 (5), 88–110.

Go to the Journal of Marketing