Who is to say that GM didn't pull ads from Facebook so they could short sell the Facebook stock and earn their $10 million back? Why not?
GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account
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Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account
#72Maybe nobody is interested in GM cars...
Perhaps Facebook is populated by more intelligent discerning users than I had imagined!
Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account
#73Facebook's root problem is intent. Users who are googling something and seeing AdWords ads are looking for something and often the thing they're looking for shows up as an ad so they - suprise! - click the ad and often become a conversion once on the site.
With Facebook there is zero helpful intent. The only intent when you're on Facebook is to use Facebook. And if you do click an ad, you're less likely to become a conversion because your intent is still to get back to Facebook as soon as possible and see the rest of Dave's party photos or whatever.
Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account
#74Maybe nobody is interested in GM cars...
That would be very odd considering the large number of brand new GM cars and trucks I keep seeing...
Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account
#75I've actually been interested in a handful of things I've seen as Facebook ads. They are generally things that I didn't know existed, wasn't actively shopping for, and sure as heck wasn't searching for. Example: http://www.mushroomnetworks.com
If anyone is going to get any sort of value out of the wealth of information I've given away about myself, it's going to be the person who opens my eyes to something new and awesome that speaks to my... unique tastes.
GM can't really be new or awesome anymore, and that's OK.
Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account
#76This is huge.
Why?
Because the auto industry was one of the earliest and remains one of the heaviest users on online advertising.
If any industry knows a thing or two about online advertising, and has been willing to experiment, it's the auto industry.
Facebook is in big trouble, as a "business".
Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account
#77Its obvious that Facebook ads don't work. How often you see a relevant Ad in Facebook? Almost never. So, advertisers show interesting images, but when you click on that image, it is some non-sense website. Facebook has some private information about the user, other than that FB has no clue what is my mood or what I am looking for. Its no wonder GM pulled out of Facebook.
This is really not my experience. My facebook ads are so relevant that they almost seem like a useful service at times. It knows a few of the things I'm interested in thanks to who I'm friends with or pages i've liked or whatever - so I see ads for RC planes, chess software, local restaurants... the ads seem both more relevant and less spammy than my google ads.
Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account
#78GM kindof has their work cut out for them on facebook. Most of facebook isn't looking for a new car (maybe a used one) and the facebook moms aren't exactly stoked for GM cars.
Why do you say that? Granted I don't hang out with starving students, but the people I know on Facebook are quite capable of buying new cars. I don't know why you think moms aren't interested in GM cars. Around here GM trucks and cars are selling pretty well.
In any case a lot of people here, as another poster said, are confusing direct advertising with branding. I'm not in the market for a new car, but if I'm on Facebook, it's more than likely because I'm bored. If a car ad that looks good is on the page I'm on, I'm likely to click on it and look at the car. A year or two from now when I might be in the market, that make of car I keep seeing on FB is likely to be on my mind as a possible candidate.
And now that I think of it, I keep seeing brand new GM Yukons on the road and I like the way they look and they look like they are good tow vehicles. If I saw a Yukon ad on facebook, odds are I will click through.
Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your impression of Facebook's user base is about five years out of date. Facebook is closing in on having ~1,000,000,000 members. I would suspect millions of those members are looking for a new car right this second . Facebook needs to find better a way, like Google did, of matching those members with advertisers.
But are they looking for a car while they're on Facebook?
Probably. I see people browsing/completing their tasks while having Facebook open in another tab pretty much all the time.
Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account
#80Facebook's root problem is intent. Users who are googling something and seeing AdWords ads are looking for something and often the thing they're looking for shows up as an ad so they - suprise! - click the ad and often become a conversion once on the site. With Facebook there is zero helpful intent. The only intent when you're on Facebook is to use Facebook. And if you do click an ad, you're less likely to become a c…
I wouldn't say Facebook has a huge problem here - users spend much more time on Facebook than on Google (by design) and even if they don't intend to do anything other than "use Facebook", the ads are effective as a result of their high exposure.
That said, however, a very large group of users are there to play social games. With social game companies competing for ad space (for these often highly-profitable users), they're driving up the price of ads and making it less economical for other industries to advertise on Facebook.