Debating the Effectiveness of Political Campaign Ads on Facebook
By Karla Robinson
October 25, 2012
October 25, 2012
- Although relatively inexpensive and increasingly popular, Facebook advertisements are “quite unlikely to play a meaningful role in determining the fate of a political campaign or retailer,” a new report concludes.
- After being exposed to political Facebook ads, voters were no more likely to vote for the candidate; while they did recognize the candidate’s name, Facebook users didn’t have any more of a favorable impression of the candidate, according to the study.
- Conducted by Donald Green, a Columbia political science professor, and David Brookman, a graduate student at UC Berkeley, the study observed the effects of a week’s worth of Facebook ads for a state legislative candidate. Following the campaign, the researchers surveyed 2,984 district voters and found that many who were exposed to the ads didn’t even remember seeing them.
- “Indeed, the results allow us to confidently rule out the proposition that this veritable bombardment of online ads increased the candidate’s name recognition in his district by more than 1.8 percentage points,” the authors state.
- But Keegan Goudiss at Revolution Messaging says the study didn’t look at the right online tools. Instead, it should have focused on larger races — congressional or statewide — and Facebook’s “premium” ads.
- Brookman rebuts, saying increasing “likes” does not equate to influencing the outcome of elections; he also notes the restrictive auction system the observed candidate had to use to acquire the ad space.
- “This still could be the most cost-effective campaign tactic out there. We can’t rule that out,” he says, adding that you do pay for what you get. “There’s a reason TV ads are so expensive.”
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