70 million people may have seen Russian Facebook ads, seven times the social media giant’s estimate
(Worthy News) – Facebook estimates 10 million Americans saw the advertisements that Russian groups purchased to try to influence the presidential election last year, but analysts said that undersells the reach of the ads, which may have been seen by as many as 70 million.
That kind of reach is stunning given the relatively modest budget of $100,000 spent by Russian trolls linked to the ads. The Russian-linked groups spent less than $3 on about half of the ads and never spent more than $1,000 on a single ad, Facebook said.
“The impact is vasty disproportionate to the amount spent,” said Benjamin G. Edelman, who teaches the economics of online markets at Harvard Business School. “That is what makes this such a brilliant, if not terrible, tactic.” [ Source (Read More…) ]