Russian Facebook Ads Reached 70 Million Americans: Report
New report explains why Russia’s Facebook ad buy is such a big deal.
This week we got confirmation that Russian cyber agents, as part of their attack on the 2016 election, purchased ads on Facebook targeting Americans in key voter districts.
And while it had been fairly well reported that Facebook advertising was a tactic of the Russian agents, this is the first time we have received confirmation from Facebook itself.
Thus far, Facebook had routinely denied that it had sold ads to Russia as part of their election attack.
And now we are learning just how many Americans were reached by these Facebook ads.
According to a new report by The Daily Beast, Russian purchased Facebook ads reached up to 70 million Americans – that’s 28 percent of the nation’s population.
“On the surface, $100,000 is small change in contemporary national politics, and 3,000 ads sounds like a drop in the pond when Facebook boasts 2 billion monthly users. But it turns out $100,000 on Facebook can go a surprisingly long way, if it’s used right. On average, Facebook ads run about $6 for 1,000 impressions. By that number, the Kremlin’s $100,000 buy would get its ads seen nearly 17 million times,” The Daily Beast notes.
But those numbers don’t tell the full story when it comes to buying Facebook ads. Because Facebook is a social network and its algorithm helps boost content that is getting strong engagement, multiplying the reach of a standard ad buy. “Ads that get more shares, likes, and comments are far cheaper than boring ads that nobody likes, and ads that send users to Facebook posts instead of third-party websites enjoy an additional price break. Finally, there are network effects, which can vastly multiply the number of users who see a promoted Facebook post,” the report notes.
Read the full report by The Daily Beast here.
