Likes show that people saw it, not that they changed

Tana (a fictional character) manages communication for a public agency. She brings the monthly report to the meeting: reach is climbing, likes and shares have hit new records. The director nods, then asks a single question: "So are more people signing up?" Tana leafs through every page and cannot find the answer.

That is not because she did poor work. Every number she collected answers "how many people saw it". None of them answers "how many people did something next".

Money keeps flowing online

Nielsen and Media Agency Association of Thailand data show that internet advertising spend in Thailand rose from 2.78 billion baht in 2012 to 36.82 billion baht in 2025 [1], about 13 times as much. Growth has slowed lately: 2025 was up less than 3% on the year before. For all that money, the question is no longer whether to go online, but what comes back once you are there.

But people do not open social media to see brands

A GWI survey in the second quarter of 2025 asked Thai internet users aged 16 to 64 why they use social media. Keeping in touch with friends and family came first at 58%, followed by reading the news (41.5%) and filling spare time (39.7%). Seeing content from favourite brands came last of 15 reasons, at 26.6% [2].

Thais spend an average of 7 hours 54 minutes online a day, 2 hours 32 minutes of it on social media [3]. The attention is real, but friends, family, news and entertainment get it first. A like from someone scrolling past tells you only that you held a small slice of that attention for a moment.

What likes measure, and what they do not

Reach and likes are useful. They show that a message reached people and that people reacted. But the goal of most communication lies further on: that people understand, believe and act. Research on PR evaluation by Pavel Slutskiy and colleagues (published in 2017, before the centre was founded) adds that the same results do not mean the same performance; you also have to ask how easy the story was to begin with.

Three steps to measure deeper than likes

1. 1

   Start from the behaviour you want

   Before choosing metrics, write in one sentence who you want to do what next, such as register, come for a check-up or call for advice. Then work back to what you need to measure.

2. 2

   Measure all three layers

   Layer one is seeing (reach). Layer two is understanding and believing (a few short questions to your audience). Layer three is acting (registrations, incoming calls, or people who actually use the service).

3. 3

   Plan the measurement on day one

   Most layer-three data already sits in the organisation's own systems. Agree before the campaign starts which numbers you will pull, from which system, and against which period, rather than looking for them after it ends.

Reading this data with care

Ad spend figures are media-industry estimates from Nielsen and the Media Agency Association of Thailand, not every organisation's actual spending. The Digital Advertising Association of Thailand (DAAT) measures differently and reports different figures. The data on reasons for using social media comes from an online survey of internet users aged 16 to 64, with multiple answers allowed, so it does not cover older people or those offline. Nor does it say that brand content does not work; it says only that it is not why people open the app.

Count what matters, not what is easy to count

Likes are easy to count because the platform counts them for you. What the director asks in the meeting is something the organisation has to count for itself. Communication that plans its measurement from day one can answer that question without searching through every page of the report.

If your organisation is building a way to measure communication beyond likes, the Center of Excellence in Communication Innovation at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Communication Arts would be glad to talk and share what we have learned.