"Chevrolet is testing a number of mobile-advertising solutions,
including Facebook, as part of its 'Find New Roads' campaign," said
Chris Perry, VP-U.S. Chevrolet marketing. "Today, Chevrolet is
launching an industry-first, 'mobile-only' pilot campaign for the
Chevrolet Sonic that utilizes newly available targeting and
measurement capabilities on Facebook."
The automaker didn't explain why it's returning to Facebook ads
now, why it waited so long after the July dismissal of former CMO Joel Ewanick,
who was instrumental in the decision to stop advertising on the
social network, or how much it plans to spend on Facebook ads. (GM
reportedly spent around $10 million on
Facebook ads in 2011 -- pocket change out of the $3.1 billion it
spent domestically that year, according to the Ad Age DataCenter.)
What's clear is that GM is returning to Facebook ads despite not
getting its way. Ad Age reported last May that GM's decision
to withdraw came after a meeting between Mr. Ewanick, other top GM
marketing brass and Facebook sales executives in which the
automaker asked if could run bigger, higher-impact ads than what
had been available.
Facebook has since introduced its ad exchange, FBX, and has
shifted its focus from social ads to more
traditional web-advertising models, such as re-targeting. It still,
however, offers nothing like a home-page takeover (apart from the
log-out ad).
"We've had an ongoing dialogue with GM over the last 12 months and
are pleased to have them back as an advertiser on Facebook. We look
forward to working even more closely with GM in the coming weeks
and months," Facebook said in a statement.
~ ~ ~
CORRECTION: An earlier
version of this story said GM advertising accounted for the lion's
share of Facebook revenue. Paid advertising in general
does.