Are Facebook Ads Failing?
Lately there are a lot of mixed results being published about corporate use of Facebook advertising!
This comes as Facebook is in early stage IPO and highly susceptible to negative public perception of their revenue potential.
Recently, General Motors announced that they were pulling out of using Facebook advertising as they had found it ineffective. (original article bloomberg.com)
However, Ford (and Subaru) see reported success with paid social campaigns and increases spending & awareness.
It’s worth noting that Ford has worked very hard in the last couple years to make their cars more tech savvy, more technologically current, more smart phone enabled, and have worked closely with influencers to both learn and influence in the social space. Ford is not simply doing FB ads but is “in” the social tech space.
Could this be a case of Ford having learned how to use social right and GM simply not getting it?
Facebook advertising is enticingly simple to get started with yet has many subtle nuances that add complexity that big brands often underestimate (including the fact that it’s a social platform and hardcore ads just don’t always work).
It will be interesting to see if the timing of this indicates a grudge GM has against Facebook or if this is the start of some market honesty.
Are you using Facebook advertising (PPC) in your marketing?
Why or why not?
Let’s discuss in the comments below!