GM Giving Up Facebook Ads

Today GM announced they were discontinuing Facebook Ads. This is not too big a deal to me, where as the press seems to make it seems that GM is leaving Facebook all together. VentureBeat is reporting that GM currently spends $40 million on on Facebook. One-fourth of this is ads the rest is content and page expenses. So, they are not abandoning Facebook, only the ad portion.

This to me is not a big deal and here’s why:

  • The buying decision for a car is much longer and involved, and most Facebook ads are for liking a page or a low involvement purchase.
  • A page would be more beneficial to GM’s marketing needs, with the ability to give more information
  • Not all marketing/advertising tools return the same reward to all clients
  • Brands need a diverse marketing mix to accomplish goals

GM is leaving the ads but that doesn’t mean they are not working for everyone. It’s always important to measure and judge and see what is effective.

Tim is the founder of Element33. A social media agency specializing in education, management and strategy for small businesses. He comes from a traditional marketing agency but has embraced all things digital. He considers himself a marketing nerd and believes that all marketing is tied together. This means no matter what silo you are in, social, email, seach, etc, changes in one will affect the other!

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