Navigating Facebook’s marketing and advertising opportunities can get overwhelming quickly.
After hundreds of conversations with dealerships, AutoSweet has learned many dealers who think they’re using Facebook properly, are actually missing out on a huge portion of what the platform has to offer.
This article breaks down the three main areas dealerships need to focus on to take full advantage of Facebook’s marketing opportunities:
- Your Facebook Business Page
- Facebook Marketplace
- Facebook (and Instagram) Ads
Let’s start with the bare minimum your dealership needs to get started with Facebook as a business.
Your dealership’s Facebook Business page…
Your Facebook Business Page (Free)
Before you can start advertising or uploading vehicles to Facebook Marketplace, you need to have a Facebook page associated with your dealership.
This is where you can post updates to your current followers and people looking to learn more about your dealership.
Most dealerships aren’t generating many new leads from this page. But, it should still be updated and professional for any potential buyers checking out your business online. This helps shoppers know your dealership is active and responsive.
Plus, your dealership also now has the ability to post current inventory to the “Vehicles” tab of the page for free. Shoppers can then sort through your vehicles and contact you directly if they find one they like.
Facebook Marketplace (Freemium)
Facebook Marketplace is essentially Facebook’s version of Craigslist. A classified website where individuals and businesses can post items for sale to their local area.
Currently, Facebook Marketplace allows dealers to work with partners to automatically update their inventory with a catalog feed.
This is a great way to generate low-funnel leads for dealerships. It’s also currently free, but this is changing very soon…
Effective September 2021, dealerships will need to manually post vehicles to Facebook Marketplace or invest in ads.
If your dealership has more than 20 or so cars in your inventory, switching to manual posting is going to be a pretty big challenge. You’ll need to constantly make sure you’re adding new vehicles and removing sold vehicles.
For this reason, AutoSweet recommends that dealerships begin investing in On-Facebook Destination for Automotive Inventory Ads on Facebook Marketplace to take advantage of the change as quickly as possible.
Very few dealerships are currently doing this. That’s why it’s a great way for you to get ahead of the competition before the switchover happens in September!
Here is how On-Facebook Desitionations for Automotive Inventory Ads Work with Marketplace:
- Your Marketplace Listing is boosted to the top of the page
- Your ads show up on the competition’s vehicle listings
- Show retargeted ads to those who have viewed your Marketplace VDPs
- Ads can appear in a user’s Facebook newsfeed
Facebook Ads (Paid)
Standard Facebook (and Instagram) ads are the number one opportunity most dealerships are missing out on.
These ads mostly show up within a user’s normal Facebook and Instagram newsfeed. This is where users also see organic updates from friends and brands they follow.
Dealerships can use Facebook and Instagram Ads to generate new interest from shoppers in your area. with conquest, branding, and retargeting campaigns (just to name a few).
Facebook Advertising is the number one advertising strategy we recommend to dealerships. It’s also one that is being ignored by too many dealers.
With Facebook Ads for car dealerships, dealers can create custom messaging to tell shoppers why they should buy from you by running interactive ads in multiple formats.
These ads also help build brand awareness and cast a wide net with a controlled frequency to help sell more vehicles in your area. Even more importantly, once interested buyers click through to your website, you’re able to track them with a pixel on your website.
This allows you to continue to advertise to them with Facebook and Instagram ads. These ads show up in their feeds so your vehicles are always top-of-mind. The result is a continuous flow of advertising about your dealership to interested buyers. Meanwhile, less interested shoppers in your area aren’t re-shown ads as often.
AutoSweet’s Facebook Ads strategy has helped dealerships generate leads for as little as $5/per lead and sales for as low as $60/sale.
Interested in a free Facebook strategy session for your dealership? Call (614) 908-2818 or email [email protected].
