Coca-Cola 'Likes' Facebook ads - latimes.com Coca-Cola's marketing chief gave praise to Facebook ads Tuesday, saying they probably help drive sales, according to a report. Joe Tripodi, at an annual advertising-industry conference in Cannes, France, said there is value to people clicking "Like" and sharing content on Facebook. "If we can get 40-million-plus fans, or even some subset of them talking positively about the things we're doing, ultimately that's a good thing for us," Tripodi said. I think it's probably a leading indicator of potential sales. As far as defining the value that comes from Facebook, Tripodi said that could be a year or two away. If we can't precisely measure it down to the [cost factor], or using traditional methods of measurement, then at this point, so be it. Sometimes you have to take a little leap of faith," he said, according to the Wall Street Journal. Tripodi said Coke spends between 20% and 25% of its advertising budget on digital and mobile in some markets, which include Japan, South Korea and Scandinavia. "Our mix is evolving and will continue to evolve," he said. The news that Coca-Cola believes in Facebook advertisements will come as great help to the social network, which has been dealing with serious questions regarding the effectiveness of its ads since just before the company went public. Leading up to Facebook's IPO, General Motors announced it was cutting all its paid ads from the social network. That was followed by a Reuters poll that showed four out of five people believed Facebook ads had never engaged them. More recently, however, another study, done in association with Facebook, showed that ad campaigns on the social network can improve sales.