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GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

forbes.com

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Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#141

Post by BrandonBT »

untog wrote: post #121
cletus wrote: post #114

I've said this repeatedly: Facebook is a high-risk proposition, particularly as an investment (disclaimer: I work for Google). "Intent" as other commenters have noted is a big part of the story but it's not the only story. Search can broadly be broken up into at least two categories: 1. Navigational eg typing "b and h" into the browser; and 2. Informational eg "cheap flights to jamaica". I don't know what the make up…

"There is nothing preventing Facebook from being the next Myspace when something newer, cooler and hipper comes along and the users move on." I would argue that things like the massive photo collections people have made provide a large level of lock-in. I also suspect that Timeline is the first play in a "all your history, here" move that would make moving to another service very difficult.

If something new comes along that is worthy of competing with Facebook, I would imagine that it would be fairly trivial for them to have an "Import Your Photos from Facebook!" button that you'd click to simply move all of that data over.

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#142

Post by look_lookatme »

ThomPete wrote: post #118
gcb wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You never worked with advertising. Advertising agency doesn't sell you a great campaign, idea or pretty pictures. they sell you media. with a HUGE markup. 10mil media can cost way more than 30mil if bought from an agency creating the 'creatives' (in the case of car ads, a picture of the car, or a movie of it cruising on a road where the art director likes to take vacations) 30mil for 10mil of media, GM had a good dea…

No that is what the media buyers do which may or may not be affiliated with an agency. The agencies don't get the markup the media buying companies do. They are to the advertising industry what realtors are to the housing market. Most of the houses have no idea what they are doing, which only works because their clients are even more clueless. It will change within the next 5 years and the media buying houses will be…

Agreed.

I'm curious what your thoughts are from there? Who does the purchasing?

Don't tell me it's all going RTB or something like that; premium advertising is still how the publishers are going to make money and you really can't automate that.

You are going to need high touch sales presence, bespoke custom executions, etc.

I'm definitely not going to miss the buyers.

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#143

Post by nextparadigms »

cletus wrote: post #114

I've said this repeatedly: Facebook is a high-risk proposition, particularly as an investment (disclaimer: I work for Google). "Intent" as other commenters have noted is a big part of the story but it's not the only story. Search can broadly be broken up into at least two categories: 1. Navigational eg typing "b and h" into the browser; and 2. Informational eg "cheap flights to jamaica". I don't know what the make up…

I agree with that you've said, which is why I think Google should stop listening to "expert bloggers" that Facebook and social will kill their business, and have a more thoughtful approach about social in their search engine - if they even have to use it at all.

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#144

Post by girlvinyl »

davvid wrote: post #131
vm wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has ads that people like your mother will think are from friends. If users can't tell the different between Google Ads and search terms (or between CBS and a random site), they're unlikely to distinguish between newsfeed updates from friends and paid ads. You're right that that's totally different from intent. But it's valuable for brands which spend billions [1] per year on exposure-focused ads, like produc…

If users can't tell the different between Google Ads and search terms (or between CBS and a random site), they're unlikely to distinguish between newsfeed updates from friends and paid ads That's a big assumption to make. The bar is low for search results because they have no personality. For friends -- we know our friends. They have a distinct personality. Ads disguised as messages from friends could have a negative…

Typically when someone "likes" a product or service, that shows up as the ad. For example, my father "liked" Carnival cruises, this makes sense as he's been searching for a cruise lately. The ad showed his picture next to a Carnival ad. It looks very authentic if you're not paying close attention.

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#145

Post by alain94040 »

MartinCron wrote: post #125
jrockway wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, because with traditional media, that was the best they could possibly hope for. In today's world of online comparison shopping, though, brands can easily close the deal for you with one click. (The fact that you can't buy a car with one click shows how hopelessly behind the industry is.) It is not necessary to have an image of a brand planted in your mind before a purchase. It only matters that you're guided to…

(The fact that you can't buy a car with one click shows how hopelessly behind the industry is.) Cars are, for most people anyway, the kind of really large purchase that requires a lot more effort and deliberation, not to mention financing, than makes sense to do in one click.

Until someone gamifies car purchasing, so that when I get 10,000 facebook points, I can redeem for a discount at my local GM dealership. Now that would be a great source of leads for car manufacturers.

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#146

Post by pork »

jusben1369 wrote: post #134
cletus wrote: post #114

I've said this repeatedly: Facebook is a high-risk proposition, particularly as an investment (disclaimer: I work for Google). "Intent" as other commenters have noted is a big part of the story but it's not the only story. Search can broadly be broken up into at least two categories: 1. Navigational eg typing "b and h" into the browser; and 2. Informational eg "cheap flights to jamaica". I don't know what the make up…

Is the problem with GM's ads or FB's platform? Ie - What's Ford, Toyota or Hyundai doing with their ad spend on FB? We might be jumping to conclusions a little too quickly here.

Forbes just reported that Ford and Chrysler are keeping their ad spend on facebook and are very happy with the ads.

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#147

Post by slipperyp »

untog wrote: post #121
cletus wrote: post #114

I've said this repeatedly: Facebook is a high-risk proposition, particularly as an investment (disclaimer: I work for Google). "Intent" as other commenters have noted is a big part of the story but it's not the only story. Search can broadly be broken up into at least two categories: 1. Navigational eg typing "b and h" into the browser; and 2. Informational eg "cheap flights to jamaica". I don't know what the make up…

"There is nothing preventing Facebook from being the next Myspace when something newer, cooler and hipper comes along and the users move on." I would argue that things like the massive photo collections people have made provide a large level of lock-in. I also suspect that Timeline is the first play in a "all your history, here" move that would make moving to another service very difficult.

Facebook also has tremendously greater adoption, especially among the non-tech savvy, than MySpace ever had. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is unalterable inertia here, but at its peak MySpace was constantly broken, had far less adoption, and had far less interesting and integrated ways to collaborate than Facebook has established today. Anyone could have looked at MySpace and said "a smart, driven undergrad could build a system that could beat this on one power-weekend with a bunch of redbull"

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#148

Post by savories »

Either they're doing it wrong. (likely)

Or their customer is difficult to target on FB.

We (a quickly growing clothing company) see an amazing ROI from FB ads. We also have around 350k Likes. We advertise to friends of friends, and target similar companies, fashion companies etc.

I am betting they simply haven't found the best tactic.

Re: GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

#150

Post by Drbble »

malandrew wrote: post #88
mmaunder wrote: post #73

Facebook'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…

Intent is huge. I've never been one to click on Google Ads except in real rare instances. Only once I observed my mom using Google did I realize the full value of intent and google ads while searching. She wanted to watch an episode of The Good Wife that she had missed so she searched in the Safari omnibar for "watch The Good Wife" and the first div under the search bar is an ad to some site that was not CBS that had…

That's a contributory infringement lawsuit begging to get filed. Google is clearly profiting by driving users to illegal content.
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