It’s never a good thing when your steering rack or your steering gear box bites the dust, but try having the country’s third largest advertiser pull out two days prior to your company going public. That is exactly what happened to Facebook, when General Motors decided to decrease its Facebook advertising budget from $10 million to $0. Now, I am not that good at math, but I believe $0 means nothing.
GM still plans on being active on Facebook. They will update their Facebook page, communicate with fans, and upload videos and photos. However they will not pay for pay per click advertising. Which are those little advertisements on the right side of Facebook that no one ever clicks on. GM says that the return on investment has been insufficient. They also feel that a car is not a type of purchase someone will make with just one click of a mouse. GM feels the Facebook adverts are more for spontaneous shopping.
GM communicated with their Facebook Fans by posting this message on their Facebook wall yesterday.
“Just wanted to let our millions of Facebook fans know, we're still here, and we 'like' you back! We may not be advertising on Facebook at the moment but we'll still be talking with you all daily. If anything, we will be providing more content across our many GM Facebook pages - including Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac - to keep the dialogue going.”
Some investors are now waiting to see what other big companies will also leave Facebook. Though GM’s competitor, Ford Motor Company says it is going to invest even more in its Facebook advertising.
