
Ad Buyers Should Rethink Facebook Spending, Says Media Matters for America - aspenmayer
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/ad-buyers-should-rethink-facebook-spending-says-media-watchdog
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mikece
Personally, I think the assertion that $100K in ads (paid for by Russians or
not) swayed the last general election is simultaneously the best and worst
thing for Facebook. It's the best PR in the sense that the story is out there
that ad spends on FB are SO massively effective that otherwise smart people
can be convinced to elect an orange-skinned baffoon as President -- imagine
what it could do for your brand/company? And it's the worst possible story to
have out there because it invites investigation which, under scrutiny, will
show that ads on Facebook are like ads anywhere else online: almost completely
useless. And Facebook is caught in a position of not being able to deny the
"$100k in Russian ads" story because that would crater whatever confidence
there is in the effectiveness of marketing on FB.

No wonder Zuckerberg looks like he's permanently in a cold sweat when he's in
DC.

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aspenmayer
Thank you for this comment. It really summed up a lot of my disparate musings
on this topic in an nicely structured succinct complete thought.

The word _almost_ in your sentence about ads being “ _almost_ completely
useless” is maybe deserving of a bit more exploration. Ads work, but I think
it’s in the same way that placebos work. Brand exposure is the big thing that
good ads do well and bad ads do less well. If you write off all ads, you’ll
still be surrounded by ads and brands, just with even less awareness about the
context of either. Maybe that is better for the buyer but it seems perhaps
even better for the seller. They lose on targeting info but gain leverage in
the transaction due to buyer ignorance about the market for that good and the
seller’s relative brand proposition.

Then again, most ads aren’t that informative for purchasing decisions. They
are an emotional appeal for most ads. Perhaps that is why people care to see
Facebook change. Facebook knows which ads you linger on or interact with. This
data and it’s value to Facebook and its advertising partners is the real that
reason Zuckerberg is trying not to end the party yet. The data is probably
worth more than the money at this point.

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aspenmayer
For those who have trouble with the link:

[https://archive.is/E3cu3](https://archive.is/E3cu3)

Original title lacked context. It was:

Ad Buyers Should Rethink Facebook Spending, Says Media Watchdog

