Facebook and General Motors trying to rekindle business relationship

After a public breakup in May, Facebook and Detroit, Michigan car manufacturing giant General Motors are reportedly in talks to mend their advertising relationship.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that senior executives from the social network and the car maker have been in discussions about restarting their business ties.

A GM spokesman confirmed that the companies are in talks, but provided no further details.

Two months ago, GM's global marketing chief, Joel Ewanick, pulled GM's ads from Facebook, saying that paid advertising on the website had "little impact on consumers' car purchases," the Journal reported.

Facebook's global sales head, Carolyn Everson, said during a June meeting with Ewanick that the social network giant was willing to provide GM with better ad data, a promise Facebook has made to other advertisers, the Journal said.

Facebook declined to comment on the issue.

The benefits of General Motors cozying up to Facebook again are unclear.

A 2012 Greenlight search and social media survey found that 44 per cent of respondents said they "never" click on an advertisement or sponsored listing. Meanwhile, WordStream published an infographic in May that showed Facebook trailing behind sites like Google in terms of online advertising space.

ComScore, however, reported early last month that Facebook ads really do have an effect on social network users.

The automaker has not been wooed just yet. The Journal reported that GM will return only if Facebook can indeed provide better data about its effectiveness. General Motors representatives have allegedly also been meeting with digital advertising shops looking for ideas to build the company's Facebook presence again.

According to the Journal, GM's Facebook advertising efforts last year amounted to over £6 million,, or $10 million, out of the company's total £1.15 billion ($1.8 billion) spent on Stateside advertising in 2011. It also accounted for just a fraction of Facebook's total revenue of £2.36 billion ($3.7 billion), most of which was advertising revenue.

Facebook has been prepping new advertising platforms, including location-based mobile ads and real-time ad exchange, which would specifically target ads to consumers.