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.”

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Marketing | Top News

About The Author: Pamela Parker is executive features editor of Marketing Land and a contributing editor for Search Engine Land. She’s a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since 1998, including a stint as managing editor of ClickZ. She’s also worked to help monetize independent publishers’ sites at Federated Media Publishing. She blogs about media and marketing at The River and about cooking, gardening and parenthood at Free Range. See more articles by Pamela Parker

Connect with the author via: Email | Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn