The findings have been published in its latest white paper, The Power of Like Europe: How Social Marketing Works for Retail Brands, which focuses on European brands such as ASOS, H&M, La Redoute, Topshop and Zara.

It illustrates how popular consumer brands are using Facebook to deliver media impressions at scale and ultimately influence behaviour in key customer segments. Facebook fans or friends of friends of European advertisers such as ASOS.com, Topshop and Zara were disproportionately more likely to visit websites of those brands – where purchases occur – compared to the average internet user.

The analysis, which uses data and insights from comScore Social Essentials and comScore AdEffx, suggests that advertisers need to move beyond measures such as click-throughs to evaluate social media ROI. Instead they should be analysing consumer behaviour in the weeks following exposure to a branded message on Facebook or paid advertising on the site. The European study follows the recent US Power of Like 2 study.

“The findings from this study offer several valuable insights to brand marketers and advertisers who want to better understand the marketing effectiveness of their paid and earned media campaigns on Facebook,” said Mike Shaw, director of marketing solutions at comScore.

“With a framework for measuring the value and impact of paid and earned media campaigns, brands will gain the insights needed to optimise their social marketing efforts. While every campaign is unique and may vary in its ultimate effectiveness, this research demonstrates how Facebook marketing can be effective in reaching consumers and influencing their actual purchase behaviour.”