| GM looks to resume paid Facebook advertising |
DETROIT General Motors is discussing the prospect of reauthorising paid Facebook advertising, the automaker confirmed late on Tuesday.
GM abruptly abandoned Facebook ads this spring in a highly public blow to the social network days before it went public in May. The automaker maintained its free brand pages on the site but said its $10 million Facebook ad budget wasn’t delivering an adequate financial return.
But now the Detroit-based automaker is considering Facebook advertising again, a GM spokesman confirmed in an email after several news reports, including the Wall Street Journal.
Chevrolet Vice President of Global Marketing Chris Perry, who was involved in the previous discussions over GM’s Facebook advertising, recently told the Detroit Free Press that GM had been seeking creative flexibility on the social network’s advertising platform.
“We talked to them about a couple of things, we offered up some ideas, we said bring us your ideas,” Perry said. “We said, ‘We’ll be your guinea pig. We have the dollars to invest in this program.’ “
But GM ultimately determined “the paid advertising just doesn’t seem to pencil for us,” Perry said.
Other automakers, like Ford, which trumpeted its faith in Facebook advertising after GM’s exodus, continued to advertise on the site.
GM has maintained an active presence on Facebook with dedicated pages for all of its brands and promotions like Chevrolet’s “Stay Clutch,” a Facebook contest offering millennials a chance to win stick-shift driving lessons at Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game.
GM, which spends about 25 per cent to 30 per cent of its advertising budget on social, digital and Web marketing, has about 8 million “likes” on its Facebook pages. “We certainly don’t want to walk way from 900 million consumers, and we haven’t walked away,” Perry said. “We’re a big proponent of Facebook.”
Agencies
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