General Motors (GM) has officially removed itself from
Facebook advertising after claiming that the ads had “little impact on
consumers’ car purchases.” This is a big deal for Facebook since the company is
headed into public offerings on target to become a $100 billion company. A huge
corporation such as GM leaving the Facebook advertising world has created some
buzz about the effectiveness of the ads. The news of GM discontinuing
advertising with Facebook did come as a shock to most, but mainly because of
the timing is this drawing in media attention. Also, “According to an AP-CNBC
poll this week, 57 percent of Facebook users never click ads or other paid
content.” This stat is not helping Facebook at all either. Personally, I never
look at Facebook ads and find them annoying. Ads on the site never influence my
purchasing decisions and I actually just flat out ignore them. However, I am a
PR person and understand that I am being targeted etc., so I wonder if others
are influenced by the ads and just not me? It would be interesting for Facebook
to conduct eye tracking studies on consumers to locate where Facebook users are
looking on a screen. Eye tracking could offer insight into whether or not
consumers are in fact looking at ads on Facebook, and if so, what ads they find
more appealing. So what do you think? Do the ads really impact your purchasing
behavior? Do you even notice them?
It's not that Facebook has a poor platform for advertising General Motors-- It's that people don't want to "like" junky vehicles. Sorry to anyone who owns a Chevy Truck--those are okay.
ReplyDeleteBut cmon... The only GM I'd consider owning is a Corvette or Escalade.
Next up to unfriend Facebook-- Chrysler -- "Imported from poor customer service and quality".
I don't usually pay attention to Facebook Ads, but I did check out their pages when I was car shopping. I actually found it helpful in my search.
Thats interesting Oscar because all of the articles I read today on this said that automotive companies were going to be using FB as a major advertising source. I never thought to look there once when I was car shopping a few months ago!
ReplyDeleteI looked at several facebook pages when car hunting. I could see what other people wrote about their products and see what promotions they were offering. I ended up going German on my car choice. So long Detroit. But, I think GM is pulling out of Facebook because they have a poor social media marketing department and a "meh" product.
ReplyDelete