Skip to main content
University of Oxford Saïd Business School 25

Top menu

  • Oxford Answers

Main navigation

Main menu
  • Research
    Research
    • Research overview
      Research overview
      • Research seminars
      • Research strategy
    • Research areas
      Research areas
      • Accounting
      • Finance
      • Health Care
      • Impact
      • Innovation
      • International Business
      • Management Science
      • Marketing
      • Major Programme Management
      • Organisation Studies
      • Professional Service Firms
      • Strategy
      • Technology and Operations Management
    • Centres and initiatives
      Centres and initiatives
      • Ownership Project 2.0: Private Capital Owners & Impact
      • Oxford Future of Finance and Technology Initiative
      • Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative
      • Oxford Future of Real Estate Initiative
      • Oxford-Hyundai Motor Group Foresight Centre
      • Oxford Initiative on Rethinking Performance
      • Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Centre
      • Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation
      • Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation
      • Private Equity Institute
      • Responsible Business
      • The Skoll Centre
    • Networks
      Networks
      • Oxford Institute of Retail Management
  • Oxford experience
    Oxford experience
    • Coming to Oxford
      Coming to Oxford
      • College experience
      • Living costs
      • Partners and families
      • Visas
    • Scholarships and funding
    • Life at Oxford
      Life at Oxford
      • Learning at Oxford
      • Exploring Oxford
      • Activities, clubs and groups
      • Oxford Union
    • Career development
      Career development
      • Your career journey
      • Our expertise
      • Employment reports
    • Blogs
  • Alumni
    Alumni
    • Alumni community
      Alumni community
      • Benefits
      • Careers support
      • Events
      • Get involved
      • Lifelong resources
    • Elumni community
      Elumni community
      • Benefits
      • Elumni - keep in touch
    • Support us
      Support us
      • Donate online
      • Fundraising priorities
      • How to give
      • Impact and recognition
  • Events
    Events
    • Events listing
    • Past events
    • Distinguished speakers
    • Engaging with the humanities
    • Future of business
    • Oxford smart space
  • About us
    About us
    • The School
      The School
      • Our history
      • Senior leadership
      • Our community
      • Diversity and inclusion
      • Sustainability
      • Global Leadership Centre
      • Rankings, achievements and accreditation
      • Financial literacy in emerging markets
      • Corporate partnerships
      • Art at Oxford Saïd
    • Our people
      Our people
      • Faculty
      • Associate Fellows
      • Academic visitors
      • Recruit our graduates
      • Work for us
    • News
      News
      • Media coverage
      • Media office contacts
    • Venue hire
      Venue hire
      • Park End Street
      • Egrove Park
      • B&B accommodation
      • Rates
    • Climate Change Challenge
  • Programmes
    Programmes
    • MBAs
      MBAs
      • MBA
      • 1+1 MBA
      • Executive MBA
    • Degrees
      Degrees
      • BA Economics and Management
      • DPhil Finance
      • DPhil Management
      • MSc Financial Economics
      • MSc Global Healthcare Leadership
      • MSc Law and Finance
      • MSc Major Programme Management
    • Executive Diplomas
      Executive Diplomas
      • Artificial Intelligence for Business
      • Financial Strategy
      • Global Business
      • Organisational Leadership
      • Strategy and Innovation
    • Executive Education
      Executive Education
      • Bespoke business solutions
      • In-person programmes
      • Online programmes
    • Youth programmes
      Youth programmes
      • AI and Machine Learning Pioneers Summer School
      • Future Climate Innovators Summer School
      • Future Entrepreneurs Summer School
      • Oxford Saïd Teen Summer Academy
    • Programme finder
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Facebook boycott has negative impact on marketing effectiveness for participating brands
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Facebook boycott has negative impact on marketing effectiveness for participating brands
Facebook on laptop

Facebook boycott has negative impact on marketing effectiveness for participating brands

Thu, 2 July 2020

Published


Related news

  • Research

Researchers at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford have estimated the impact of the Facebook advertising boycott on participating brands.

They found an immediate negative impact, which will be felt most strongly by retail – a sector already under pressure from the pandemic.

If retailers pull their advertising budget from Facebook and move it into other channels in their typical media mixes they can expect the overall ability of their ad campaigns to influence customers’ purchase intentions or motivations to drop by an average of 8% and likelihood to consider their brand to drop by a substantial 25%.

Auto manufacturers could expect their audience’s purchase motivations to drop by 13% and the perceived saliency of their brand to drop by 6%.

According to the researchers, the reasons for this impact lie in the way Facebook interacts with other media channels. Associate Professor Jason Bell explains: ‘By removing Facebook from their media mixes, brands hurt their overall advertising effectiveness in the remaining channels. This is because Facebook ads seem to indirectly help make advertising in many other channels more effective. Facebook is like salt in cooking – where salt improves the flavour of other ingredients, Facebook advertising can help make other channels in a campaign more effective. For example, you might see a TV or YouTube ad that has an impression on you, but you aren’t in a position to act on it. Later a Facebook or Instagram ad might reawaken your interest, but now in a context with lower barriers to responding.’

 

The study was conducted by Jason Bell, Associate Professor of Marketing, Andrew Stephen, Associate Dean of Research and L’Oréal Professor of Marketing and Felipe Thomaz, Associate Professor of Marketing, using a large dataset on advertising campaigns across industries provided by data and insights company Kantar.

 

We believe it is right that many advertisers around the world have taken actions to draw attention to the propagation of unsafe and unacceptable content, such as hate speech, on social media platforms.

Andrew Stephen

Associate Dean of Research and L’Oréal Professor of Marketing

To reach their conclusions, the researchers estimated the impacts on ad effectiveness of both the individual components of ad campaigns (channels like Facebook, TV, radio, magazines) and the complex interactions between them. Using their statistical models, they then estimated the impact on ad effectiveness of setting Facebook to zero while assuming that advertising spend is unchanged and with the zeroed-out Facebook spending reallocated proportionally across other media channels. They produced percentage figures by estimating the percent difference between campaigns with Facebook, and those same campaigns if they had reduced Facebook spending to zero and reallocated to other advertising media.

‘Regardless of the rationale behind the boycott,’ Associate Professor Felipe Thomaz adds, ‘It is important to recognize that, contrary to some initial claims, brands will in fact bear a significant cost in the process. And on average, It will be more difficult and more expensive to be noticed, considered, and purchased.’

Professor Andrew Stephen added: ‘We believe it is right that many advertisers around the world have taken actions to draw attention to the propagation of unsafe and unacceptable content, such as hate speech, on social media platforms. And we are pleased that companies such as Facebook and Twitter have taken and continue to take action to address these problems. From a purely commercial perspective, however, these findings suggest that pulling ads from Facebook will likely prove costly for brands. We feel this is something marketing executives should be aware of and factor in, especially during extremely difficult economic conditions.’

 


Related news

  • Research

Footer menu

  • Contact us
  • Find us
  • Media
  • Jobs
  • Website policies
  • Shop
  • Donate
  • Recruit graduates

Follow us

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • WeChat
  • Blogs
  • Advance HE Opens in new tab
  • EFMD Equis accreditations Opens in new tab
  • Global Network for Advanced Management Opens in new tab
  • Global Business School Network Opens in new tab
  • AACSB Opens in new tab

Website and privacy policies © Saïd Business School 2025 All rights reserved

Back to top