Provided He Could Advertise On Facebook, What Would Wanamaker Do?

Just last week, we looked at Google’s elaborate courtship of advertisers. Now, it’s Facebook’s turn to woo.

According to The Wall Street Journal, New York-based Carolyn Everson, 40, is Facebook’s “liaison” with Madison Avenue, and she’s busy providing big brands the kind of data they need to justify their ad buys on the social platform of choice.

Ms. Everson is sending measurement wonks across the country, like missionaries to preach the Facebook gospel. She is partnering with third-party firms to track how Facebook ads lead directly to purchases. And she is offering new types of information about Facebook ads to data-hungry marketers who are struggling to figure out how to parse the social media field.

Most of world’s biggest brands have an entire department dedicated to measuring how ads work on various formats, like TV, radio, print and online. Facebook is sending its lieutenants to work hand-in-hand with these internal teams to learn the methods they use and then customize a way to measure Facebook ads using that brand’s own methodology.

At times like this, it would be good to call on an industry historian. Because I’d like to know if this is how early newspaper, magazine, outdoor, direct, radio and TV execs “held hands” with their advertising and brand partners.

What ad man countered John Wanamaker, when he uttered this now famous line?: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.”