Reviews · Field experiment
What Are Likes Worth? A Facebook Page Field Experiment
Journal of Marketing Research · 2017
Summary
Acquired likes had a positive causal effect on offline behavior when the firm used the page for paid promoted posts.
For your marketing
Possible founder application
A reminder to measure paid social against business outcomes and distinguish paid exposure from organic engagement. Do not treat follower or like counts as a standalone growth metric.
Reported result
What the study found
Acquired likes had a positive causal effect on offline behavior when the firm used the page for paid promoted posts. The study found no effect when customers interacted organically with the page.
Research question
What the authors investigated
Do acquiring Facebook page likes affect customer behavior outside Facebook, and under what use of the page?
Design
Field experiment measuring acquired page likes and offline customer behavior under different firm communication conditions.
Sample and setting
Customers of a firm with a Facebook page; the publisher abstract does not state the sample size or business category.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
One firm and the Facebook environment of the study period. The abstract omits sample details, and platform features and organic distribution have changed since publication.
Research sources
SAGE publisher abstract retrieved with Firecrawl; article-specific methods beyond the abstract were not inspected.