Facebook Ads Don’t Work? That’s A Big Myth, Global Marketing VP Reportedly Says

Despite being a public company with billions in revenue, there’s still a lot of doubt about Facebook advertising. The company’s Global Marketing Solutions VP Carolyn Everson is trying to dispel that doubt, reportedly sharing at a conference this week that Samsung — though “sophisticated” targeting and other techniques — brought in $129 million in sales […]

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Carolyn Everson

Everson’s profile photo on Facebook

Despite being a public company with billions in revenue, there’s still a lot of doubt about Facebook advertising. The company’s Global Marketing Solutions VP Carolyn Everson is trying to dispel that doubt, reportedly sharing at a conference this week that Samsung — though “sophisticated” targeting and other techniques — brought in $129 million in sales of its Galaxy S III solely by spending $10 million over three weeks on Facebook.

That’s a considerable return on ad spend in any medium. Everson spoke at The Business Insider’s IGNITION conference, held in New York this week, and reports were published in The Business Insider and CNET’s News.com.

Factors that contributed to the success of the campaign included timing, in that the three weeks when the ads ran were when Apple was launching its iPhone 5, meaning that Samsung piggybacked on marketing done by its chief competitor.

Additionally, Samsung built up the foundation for the campaign over a greater time period, by cultivating a fan base. Samsung Mobile USA has more than 21 million “likes” on its Facebook page.

“It wasn’t just about the three-week launch,” Everson said, according to The Business Insider. “They thought about it, they built up a fan base … they targeted very sophisticatedly.”

Everson told the audience that the biggest myth about Facebook was that ads on the social networking platform don’t work, saying, “I’ve never felt more confident about our data that Facebook works.”


About the author

Pamela Parker
Staff
Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media's Content Studio, where she produces MarTech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land and MarTech. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

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