Lindsay Walker • May 1, 2019

Measuring Social Media ROI for Brick and Mortar

A stack of coins with plants growing out of them.

In this wonderfully small section of the world, we Rhode Island folk absolutely love our small business circle. Small businesses breath life into our community and bring us together with their warm services and great products. The only problem is that 8/10 businesses will fail within the first 18 months (Forbes, bseed.us/l/EHlQ2) of being open. Sure, the uniqueness and location matter heavily on small business success, but what a lot of people overlook is online marketing.

Whenever a new small business joins the BusySeed family, our social media manager organizes a strategy session to see how we can grow their online presence. A lot of the time we find that the best way for customers to increase online sales is to double down on measurable means of online marketing, and to consistently analyze how much of a return their marketing campaigns are getting.

There are tons of ways to measure ROI when marketing in RI; especially when you have amazing tools like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. More specifically there are metrics Facebook and other social media platforms provide that make this process easier.


#1 Facebook Check Ins

On Facebook, people can tag your business or check-in which means that they are currently, or were at your business. Not everybody will check-in or tag a business, but when they do you can almost be 100% sure they are spending money.


#2 Measuring Check Ins

In the image below we can see that 42 people this week have checked into our client’s restaurant. That means at least 42 people have entered the establishment and have made a purchase. Average ticket price for this business is about $12 so that means that:


42 people spent $12 each, which equals $504 for this week. Pretty cool right?


#3 How to Encourage More Check Ins

“How do I encourage more people to come in and check in?” you may ask. Simple, people want to feel loved and heard. The more you are actively posting on social media and responding to customers who have left feedback (reviews, comments, photos, etc.) the more they will feel compelled to come back and tell their friends.

Regardless of your marketing strategy, the goal is to make sure that all efforts are measurable. If your goal is to have consistent customer foot traffic, than check-ins are a great tool that will help your small Rhode Island business thrive, and not become another statistic.

A row of blue mountains on a white background.
By Michael Brooker March 28, 2026
Paid ads no longer win on bids alone. Generative engines evaluate authority, consistency, and real-world credibility before deciding what gets surfaced or suppressed. Visibility now comes from how well your paid media aligns with the broader signals AI trusts.
Robot hand holding money; headline
By Maria Nassour March 26, 2026
Budgets move based on performance signals that aren’t always visible in dashboards. AI reallocates spend toward perceived efficiency, not business outcomes.
Title card:
By Maria Nassour March 23, 2026
Platforms can detect patterns, sameness, and synthetic creative signals. Human-led messaging consistently outperforms when it introduces novelty, emotional contrast, and brand voice.
Laptop with Google on the screen, a person's hands typing. Text:
By Maria Nassour March 22, 2026
Discovery is fragmenting across generative interfaces. Businesses still need paid visibility, but the mechanics of demand capture are shifting away from keyword-only thinking.
Hand holding out, people icons above. Title: Model-Driven Targeting. Text on a blue background.
By Christine Makhoul March 20, 2026
LLMs are transforming audience targeting and behavioral targeting. Learn how model-driven audience segmentation and AI ads reshape the modern buyer journey.
A person uses a stylus on a tablet. Text:
By Christine Makhoul March 18, 2026
AI lead generation must adapt as AI-first buyers reshape the buyer journey. Learn trust-first strategies for AI ads, lead nurturing, and performance marketing.
Man typing on a laptop with text overlay:
By Maria Nassour March 16, 2026
AI can generate sequences quickly, but speed doesn’t equal persuasion. Effective nurture depends on timing, empathy, and context that generic generation often misses.
Laptop with graph, AI icon, and text
By Christine Makhoul March 14, 2026
Before scaling AI campaigns, fix fundamentals. This media buying audit checklist cleans signals, blocks waste, aligns creatives, and proves incrementality.
A robotic hand on a laptop keyboard. Text overlay:
By Maria Nassour March 12, 2026
Automation is only valuable when it removes friction without removing judgment. The most effective stacks combine AI execution with human oversight at key decision points.
Show More