General Motors is discussing the prospect of restarting paid Facebook advertising, following its controversial pull out from the social network’s ad schemes two months ago, according to a news report.
The move comes after the car maker’s high-profile abandonment of the social network’s paid marketing in May, which came as a blow to Facebook just ahead of its $100bn IPO fiasco.
The automaker maintained its free brand pages on the site but said its $10 million Facebook ad budget wasn’t delivering an adequate financial return.
The move created uncertainty among other advertisers who were trying to determine how to best use the site: continue to pay for advertising on Facebook or invest more in creating content like videos for branded pages.
However, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Detroit-based automaker is now considering Facebook advertising again.
Senior executives from both companie, including Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer for Facebook, and Daniel Akerson, the chief executive at General Motors, have been in discussions to mend their relationship, according to a person with knowledge of the talks.
GM is reportedly still asking to receive more information from Facebook regarding visitors to its pages and its ads. There is no expectation that a deal will be reached soon, said a GM executive familiar with the discussions.
Other automakers – like Ford, which trumpeted its faith in Facebook advertising after GM’s exodus – continued to advertise on the site.
GM has maintained an active presence on Facebook with dedicated pages for all of its brands and promotions like Chevrolet’s “Stay Clutch,” a Facebook contest offering millennials a chance to win stick-shift driving lessons at Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game.
“We certainly don’t want to walk way from 900 million consumers, and we haven’t walked away,” Perry said. “We’re a big proponent of Facebook.”
General Motors is one of the world’s largest advertisers, spending about $3 billion annually. It had advertised on Facebook since 2008 and was spending about $10 million for paid ads and an additional $30 million on managing and creating content for their brand pages.
GM, which spends about 25% to 30% of its advertising budget on social, digital and Web marketing, has about 8 million “likes” on its Facebook pages.
Since GM’s withdrawal, Facebook has been on a mission to prove to marketers that its ads are effective, including releasing a report in mid-June with the research firm comScore, which highlighted the successes of brands like Starbucks and Target on the site.
The effort at rapprochement comes as GM’s Chevy brand is using the Facebook name in print ads for a line of pickup trucks. In the ad, a man is sitting on the back of a pickup truck with his dog, with an accompanying headline that reads “Not every friend is on Facebook.”
