Maybe if you are a multinational corporation, like Samsung Mobile, you don’t have to care how you spend your money. Must be nice. For the rest of us, let Samsung’s recent Facebook (FB) advertising campaign be an example of what not to do in social advertising.

The advertising rate for the FB log out page is around $700,000 per day, which is even more ridiculous when you consider that the disengaged FB user is the worst demographic to target and the worst time to target them.  However, before I get too far off on a rant, let’s take a look at what Samsung has taught us.

1. Think hard about your Call-To-Action (CTA). Samsung’s CTA is to “like” their poorly made video. Even if I did like Samsung’s video, which I don’t, what good does my “like” do for Samsung? They might get a better Edgerank score, but is there a real conversion taking place? Not really. Your CTA should send visitors outside of FB, to a landing page, or an app, where a conversion will actually provide your brand value. For example, a CTA that sends visitors to a designated landing page and prompts them to enter their email address will build a contact database that a brand can then leverage with a targeted email campaign. Samsung may have gotten a big reach, but if you’re not converting that reach what’s the point?

2. Write copy that is inclusive and motivational. I get what Samsung means by the statement “If you caught our SMM Fan Santigold concert, ‘Like’ if you’re excited for what’s next,” but it isn’t clean copy and it excludes a huge demographic. I did not catch their fan concert, so I don’t feel like they are speaking to me and I’m not necessarily excited about what’s next. Better would have been to say, “Don’t miss the next Fan concert. Sign up to get exclusive access to all the hottest events.”

3. Make sure your graphic is awesome! I am not the target demographic for this ad, but as a photographer and a design junkie, Samsung really missed the ball with this graphic. Santigold is no doubt a striking model, but all you have to do is a quick Google image search to find at least 5 photographs of her that grab your attention better, are more visually appealing, and make better use of the canvas.

4. Spend your money wisely. I literally salivate at the prospect of having 700k to spend on FB advertising in one day. My team here at Bonfire could put together an amazing campaign for that amount of money. We could implement multiple ad campaigns over the course of a couple months, run them simultaneously, and be able to determine which copy and graphics resonated the most with our targeted demographics. This could actually sell more phones and increase customer loyalty.

So if you have 700k that is just burning a hole in your marketing budget, give it to charity or give it to Bonfire, but don’t follow in Samsung’s footsteps. As marketers we should be constantly pushing ourselves to attach a ROI to everything we do. The old days of traditional advertising with no accountability are over. The days of strategic advertising that drives real and quantifiable results are here. Rejoice!