Facebook Ads are not working for GM (General Motors). So what. Those advertisements must be working for someone, somewhere or the internet juggernaut would not be on track for the much talked about Facebook IPO. Here’s the reality: Internet advertising, or any advertising, is a numbers game just like playing in a casino. If you play long enough, or at certain games, you’ll get a return on investment that keeps you coming back.
Your company may not get a huge return on its advertising spend, but just enough to justify the continued effort. That’s where Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft’s Bing, and a host of other large media companies make their money. And that’s okay. For those too lazy to engage, to build word of mouth and true relationship-based marketing efforts, advertising is the panacea. It can be justified to the board of directors and the management team.
I spent some time searching different terms within Facebook – terms like 3D Printer, Make Magazine, MakerBot, MakerGear, RepRap, Lasersaur, Sugru (the post image shows how they are doing it right with a healthy Facebook page; ads are on the right), Laser Cutting, Adafruit, DIY Electronics, and a host of other terms. Very few maker companies popped up as advertisers, but the groups, events, pages and other engaging uses of the Facebook platform appeared in the search results. In this completely unscientific search process, I found that the nimble, small company was using the platform as you’d expect – aggressively and on the cheap. Kudos. They were using it to build friendships and conversations; the heart of social media as a sales and marketing tool.
Most of the ads, by the way, were for marketing on Pinterest or leveraging your Facebook page – from marketing and advertising consulting type companies. That may be the irony. (See post image above.)
There’s a place for advertising. It works. That’s not a sarcastic statement. There’s value in it. But it doesn’t matter if Facebook loses GM or 20 other big name brands, there’s a line of companies willing to try traditional techniques to drive new business.
“The $10 million account was a lucrative advertiser for the social network, and the ad revenue will be missed. But, the loss of GM as an advertiser won’t exactly break Facebook. Facebook generated $3.7 billion in revenue in 2011 from advertising, making GM a mere fraction of a percent of the overall pool.” –PC World (article linked below)
Makers and hackers and inventors and entrepreneurs don’t know better, they just have smaller pockets and rely on novel and out-of-the-box methods. They can operate at a lower cost scale, for a while. Eventually, small companies become bigger companies and sometimes decide to do the same thing.
The main point is: Advertising still works. Like any marketing or sales method, it needs to be massaged, tweaked, adapted, to work for each company. GM simply hasn’t found the sweet spot yet. I won’t be surprised to see GM back in the Facebook Ad pool in a 3-12 months.
Here are three articles that explain a bit more, if you are still game to try it: Facebook Ads: What Works, What Doesn’t, Why Facebook Marketing Doesn’t Work for GM (at PC World and why their leaving doesn’t matter), and how Facebook Ads Work Better Than Google Ads (study). Oh, and here’s the Wall Street Journal post: GM Says Facebook Ads Don’t Pay Off.
