Google Plus – where is the value?

After casting my eye on the infographic below there was one particular statement that caught my attention…

Google+ pages appear in search results for 30% of brand terms searches for  brands with G+ pages (up 5% from Feb 2012)

In a bid to do some quick and dirty bit of research into this theory, I picked on ASOS (mainly because they use customer bit.ly links which can be tracked). In a small sample of the last 10 posts on ASOS’s G+ page, there were 414 clicks generated overall, but 40% came from a Google search engine (.co.uk, .ie etc.) rather than from Google+ itself.

If you compare the volume of click throughs on G+ to other social networks you can see that G+ is still a way behind. It would be lovely to get hold of the conversion stats behind these clicks to the website but…

                                              Last 10 post clicks

Facebook                                          26,279

Google +                                               414

Twitter                                                 6380

Facebook generated over 50x more referral traffic than G+ to the ASOS website, whilst Twitter generated over 15x the volume.  So if the value doesn’t really exist in click through traffic, perhaps it is in engagement?

The visual nature of G+ should lend itself to brand like ASOS. But with 1.4m followers on G+ the engagement was low. The average G+ post generated 64.3 engagements (+1s, reshares, comments) whilst Facebook generated 358.1 per post. Essentially, Facebook generated 5x more engagement per post than G+.

Conclusion – the hidden SEO value must be the key

If these numbers (of albeit very quick and dirty analysis) are anything to go by then the real value must come from search performance. The engagement rates and direct referral traffic just don’t add up…

An advanced digital retailer such as ASOS are going to have a firm grip on what works, what drives traffic and conversions. I am sure behind the scenes somewhere there are some great numbers which support the case for Google+.

When already investing in content for Facebook (which ASOS and many other brands do), then extending this to Google+ is not really a great amount of additional resource, particularly as there seems to be little in the way of customer service implications.

Enjoy the infographic below on how users interact with Google+ from Wishpond.

Infographic courtesy of Wishpond

Latest Posts

If you’re in financial services marketing and you’re still thinking Google is the only place your audience starts searching – you’re behind. Today, people are asking their questions on TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit, and to AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. They want answers fast, and in a way that feels…
Read More
If you’re a designer or marketer who’s tired of creating content that gets lost in the endless scroll, this one’s for you. Know Your Canvas (And Its Quirks) Each platform has its own personality, and your designs need to respect that. Instagram loves vertical formats that fill the screen, whilst…
Read More
TikTok has just made it even easier to enjoy the music you discover on the app by adding YouTube Music as a new music-saving option. Now, if you come across a song you like while scrolling, you can quickly save it straight to your YouTube Music playlist with just a…
Read More