The Wallabies showed their intention to play a running game from the opening whistle and Folau put his side on the scoreboard in the third minute after some neat lead-up work from Quade Cooper and Joe Tomane.
It silenced the raucous Estadio Gigante de Arroyito stadium crowd but they were on their feet soon after as the Pumas did their best to assert themselves at the scrum.
Over eight minutes the teams packed seven scrums five metres from the tryline as referee Wayne Barnes blew five penalties.
He also yellow-carded loosehead prop James Slipper for repeated infringements but the Australians somehow managed to escape without conceding any points.
After the teams exchanged penalties for a 10-3 scoreline, the Wallabies made the most of Argentina losing flanker Pablo Matera to the sin-bin for a shoulder charge on a rampaging Scott Fardy.
Christian Leali'ifano slotted another penalty and then Folau beat his man to off-load to Adam Ashley-Cooper, who raced 20 metres to dive across the line.
Two minutes later Folau showed his class when he slipped through the Pumas defence untouched with the Wallabies out to a 25-3 lead.
The Pumas kept in touch however, Folau proving only human as he missed the tackle on centre Marcelo Bosch as he raced to touch down.
Leali'ifano didn't return for the second half due to a knee injury, with Matt Toomua on at inside centre but the loss didn't unsettle the visitors.
With hooker Stephen Moore and Horwill in the thick of the action, the Wallabies worked the ball to Cooper and Folau was in again for his third thanks to a no-look pass from Cooper.
While the Pumas managed another try to halfback Martin Landajo, it was otherwise one-way traffic.
Tomane got some reward for his busy game with a try at at the end of a 50m run, while reserve prop Benn Robinson and debutant Bernard Foley also crossed to cap a well-deserved win.
-AP
