Paid media and measurement · Field experiment
What Are Likes Worth? A Facebook Page Field Experiment
Mochon, D., Johnson, K., Schwartz, J., & Ariely, D. (2017). Journal of Marketing Research, 54(2), 306–317.
Plain-English take
Acquired likes had a positive causal effect on offline behavior when the firm used the page for paid promoted posts. For your marketing: This is a reminder to measure paid social against business outcomes and distinguish paid exposure from organic engagement.
How much weight to give this
3.5/5 Useful evidence with meaningful caveats
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
An experiment is useful for causal evidence, but the accessible profile does not establish random assignment.
A usable sample size is not stated in the profile's accessible source.
Experimental comparison is described; randomization or control details need checking in the paper.
This profile could be checked against an abstract or metadata, not the full paper.
Double-blind? Blinding is not reported in the source reviewed; that does not establish whether blinding was or was not used.
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.
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.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
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.
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.
Evidence access
Publisher abstract; full text may require access
SAGE publisher abstract retrieved with Firecrawl; article-specific methods beyond the abstract were not inspected.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.