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Comment by greyswan | Hacker News Reader

I would bet that marketing departments for companies like Unilever have a hard time showing ROI on Facebook advertising. Why not get some marketing attention for cutting your spend?

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Facebook ad that wasn’t trying to get me to do something, to go to some page or to click through to a store full of tracking garbage and buy something. Surely for all of those you can very easily measure RoI?

I’d understand this argument for something like YouTube where most ads seem to be TV style and not trying to get me to click away to buy something immediately, but Facebook ads seem to always want me to go do something they can trivially track.

Advertising isn't necessarily about buying something right now. There is some focus on building familiarity so the next time someone buys something they buy [brand X].

The ROI of that effect is typically real, noticeable and impossible to directly attribute.

That doesn't mean that works for them. I hope the vast majority of purchases of Dove, Breyers, Klondike, Lipton, Vaseline, etc. can't be connected to social media impressions.

Yeah, not just ROI, even within Unilever, no more unicorn colored toothpaste for kids or Daniel Craig co-branded deodrant for getting laid quickly, since the movie has been postponed. Recession brings a lot of conservatism in the big corporations, and when the new products aren't being launched, not much to advertise!

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