But even Praill and his Agorapulse colleagues realize those concerns aren’t enough to make marketers track social media and tie it to revenue. A “shitty economy” where banks are collapsing and chief financial officers are getting stingier has created some interest in social media tracking, Praill said. With Google Analytics 4 launching and placing added pressure on marketers to track social media’s direct effect on sales, Praill said that marketers no longer consider tying social media to revenue novel or ideal. At this point, CMOs will see it as essential.

“This conversation is in its very, very early stages and CMOs are only now waking up and realizing that they need to do this because of this convergence of events shaping their world,” he said. “They’re very interested in knowing how they can use social media as a channel because they recognize that it is the gasoline in their engine for everything they do.”