Effects of social media marketing on rural tourism product sales: evidence from controlled experiments

Introduction Rural tourism enterprises face critical market access challenges, with 70% reporting inadequate sales channels as their primary growth barrier. Despite widespread adoption of digital platforms in rural China, rigorous causal evidence on social media marketing effectiveness remains scarce. Methods This randomized controlled trial ( N = 142) examined social media marketing interventions among rural tourism merchants in Southwest China over 16 weeks. Merchants were randomly assigned to treatment ( n = 71, receiving structured interventions across short-video, live-streaming, and social media platforms) or control ( n = 71) groups. Results Social media marketing generated an average treatment effect of 7,385 CNY monthly sales increase (23.1% gain, Cohen’s d = 0.82) with overall ROI of 2.87. Critical platform heterogeneity emerged: short-video platforms achieved highest ROI (3.42) but lowest conversion (2.3%), while live-streaming dominated conversion metrics (8.7%) despite higher costs. Treatment effects varied substantially by product type—experience-based offerings gained 9,234 CNY versus 5,467 CNY for food services—and exhibited pronounced distance decay, dropping from 8,967 CNY (<30 km) to 4,123 CNY (>60 km). Effects sustained at 78% of initial gains over 6 months, mediated primarily by platform engagement ( β = 0.52). Discussion Findings demonstrate that effective digital marketing in rural tourism requires strategic platform-product alignment rather than uniform adoption. Resource-constrained enterprises should prioritize short-video for awareness building and live-streaming for conversion, with platform selection contingent on product characteristics and geographic constraints.