General Motors to Spend $1.5 Billion on Online Advertising

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 by Janet Meiners

General Motors to Spend $1.5 Billion on Online Advertising

I’ve been blogging about how traditional companies are putting more of their advertising budgets online and more local businesses are going online for the first time. Here’s more evidence.

General Motors is leading the auto industry in shifting their traditional advertising campaigns to online marketing. The third-largest advertiser will spend half of their $3 billion advertising budget online. They give it 3 years to get there. Last year GM spent $197 million online.

How will they spend it?
The auto industry spends a lot on advertising – spending $9.42 billion on advertising last year. I’m sure they’ll do plenty of searh marketing but GM also mentioned advertising in games, on widgets, and other online advertising.

Less Traditional Advertising More Online Marketing
It’s astounding to see the drop in TV ads, billboards, magazines, radio, and newspaper advertising. That’s just the auto industry and I imagine other industries could tell a similar story. This graphic by from TNS Media Intelligence is the illustration of my point.

People Research Cars Online
The reality is that people may get branding from TV and print ads, but the long-term approach and focus is online. People go online first to research big purchases (and just about everything else).

Here’s the reality – “…automakers and many of their dealers accept that the purchase process increasingly begins, and sometimes even effectively ends, on the internet.”

“Online is getting to the point where it may be more important than the 30-second TV spot.”
-Hyundai Motor America VP of Marketing Joel Ewanick

In a recession or whatever is happening to our country right now, advertising spend is and will continue to shift online. It costs less, is trackable, and it’s where the growth of our economy and future lies.

Want more marketing news & views? Follow Marketing Pilgrim's Andy Beal on Twitter!

Share this post

22 comments on “General Motors to Spend $1.5 Billion on Online Advertising”

Wei Yang Says:

March 19th, 2008 at 3:33 pm

Shoppers are definitely relying more and more on the web for car research and inventory search. It’s about time the car manufacturers are taking action and allocating the spend accordingly.
Mallory Says:

March 19th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

Cool article, good to know about that stuff. Check out this month’s Brandweek, there is an article about companies who choose to stay offline and why they make that decision.

http://www.brandweek.com/bw/magazine/current/article_display.jsp?vnu_c ontent_id=1003722195
PS3 Says:

March 19th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

$1.5 Billion is a heck of a lot of adwords clicks !

I certainly research my cars online and try to find out if there are any common faults. The ultimate sale does depend on a test drive and the deal offered by the saleman offling though.
Buget online de $1,5B | Vlad Stan Says:

March 20th, 2008 at 7:03 am

[...] Motors va cheltui $1,5 miliarde in publicitate online. Detalii aici.Graficul alocarii de bugete pe celelalte medii pentru industria auto. Tendinta: [...]
Prosperity Writer Says:

March 24th, 2008 at 1:20 am

i agree with PS3, the sale is closed with a test drive and the deal offered by the sales rep. but online ads are still extremely effective. for example the potential buyer can review the different models online, and then find the nearest dealers in their area using the websites directory.

so like TV or radio ads, the online ads’ goal is to get the customers to the store. and its up to the sales rep to close the deal.
Talk Rabio » Blog Archive » An ebb tide lowers all boats Says:

April 17th, 2008 at 12:19 am

[...] in the pile. Either by anecdote, like the decision by General Motors to spend half its $3 billion ad budget online, or by research, like that predicting a near 25 percent increase in online ad spending this year to [...]
Which Companies Should Be Interested In Social Media? « Unique-Frequency Says:

April 21st, 2008 at 10:08 am

[...] we’re seeing with HP and Starbucks and Microsoft and GM (who will spend 1.5 billion on online advertising, a different [...]
GM Brands Pool PPC Resources for Automotive Segment Keywords | Search Marketing Sage Says:

April 22nd, 2008 at 11:24 pm

[...] But probably not a decision I would have made. It was recently announced that GM was going to be spending more on online advertising than the Gross Domestic Product of half the worlds countries (my exaggeration but it’s in the [...]
Coaches Hot Seat Blog » The TV Upfronts and Billions of Ad Dollars Says:

May 15th, 2008 at 5:30 am

[...] do billions of dollars of advertising, is that television is killing itself with stupidity. General Motors is moving half of its $3.0 billion dollar advertising budget online over the next co…, and the current chaos and fragmentation of television provides a terrific opening for Internet [...]
Internet Advertising Services India Says:

July 16th, 2008 at 6:13 am

This is like so true…customers are getting smarter and want to know all about the product before they actually buy it and what can be a better option than going online…a very well written article.
GM to spend 1.5 billion with online marketing Says:

July 18th, 2008 at 11:09 am

[...] budget online. They give it 3 years to get there. Last year GM spent $197 million online. Full Story and [...]
Internet Marketing is Booming in a Down Economy Says:

August 29th, 2008 at 2:57 pm

[...] ad spending is up nearly 20% this year. General Motors alone is spending 50% of its $3 Billion budget on internet advertising. This is no fluke. Advertising on the internet is cheapter *and* more effective than offline [...]
Ad spend declines for first half of year, digital growth slows » VentureBeat Says:

September 25th, 2008 at 7:28 pm

[...] digital. Auto giant General Motors pledged to shift half of its advertising budget online — a reported $1.5 billion in new money. But the ailing auto manufacturer, which lost $15 billion already this year, has seemed to pull up [...]
L’alambic, semaine du lundi 29 septembre 2008. — Michael Carpentier.com Says:

October 3rd, 2008 at 1:10 pm

[...] General Motors to Spend $1.5 Billion on Online Advertising: La bourse plante, les investissements publicitaires risquent de s’effondrer. Mais il semble que le Web sera non seulement épargné, mais favorisé. [...]
Conclusiones de WeMedia Buenos Aires 2008 | PsicoGeek Says:

October 19th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

[...] Esto le debe estar sucediendo a Clarín ya que la realidad del mundo es otra, como por ejemplo que para el 2009 General Motors va a invertir el 50% de su presupuesto en online [...]
Online Advertising Will Continue Growing despite Weakening Economy : Bisnisku Says:

November 1st, 2008 at 1:07 pm

[...] lately reported, many companies consider to increasing the online advertising, one of them is General Motor. General Motors is leading the auto industry in shifting their traditional advertising campaigns to [...]
Google’s “Insights” into an Automotive Brand Search Recession | Search Marketing Sage Says:

November 18th, 2008 at 4:00 pm

[...] OEM manufacturers are some of the biggest spenders in Pay Per Click Advertising. All automotive OEMs advertise on their own brand names – even [...]
Marketing During A Recession: Social Media Tipping Point? | OnlineMarketerBlog.com Says:

December 5th, 2008 at 8:08 am

[...] channel is cheaper and easier to measure than traditional PR and print advertising. Television and the automotive industry – not usually bastions of innovation – are two examples of industries putting a bigger percentage [...]
Good News In Bad Times For Digital Marketing | Centre d'information de POD Média Says:

December 5th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

[...] General Motors made the announcement earlier in the year that they would be shifting half of their three billion dollar advertising budget online, many advertising pundits felt it was an act of trying to get “more bang for the buck.” [...]
Intelligent Office of King of Prussia » Marketing During A Recession: Social Media Tipping Point? Says:

December 8th, 2008 at 10:29 am

[...] channel is cheaper and easier to measure than traditional PR and print advertising. Television and the automotive industry – not usually bastions of innovation – are two examples of industries putting a bigger percentage [...]
shj22673 Says:

December 22nd, 2008 at 11:47 am

This is the prove that online marketing will grow exponentially.
Reviewing a Perilous Transition - The News of March 2008 » Search Engine Optimization Blog Says:

December 23rd, 2008 at 6:59 pm

[...] General Motors to Spend $1.5 Billion on Online Advertising General Motors is leading the auto industry in shifting their traditional advertising campaigns to online marketing. [...]

Marketing Pilgrim