Facebook makes it almost too easy to boost your organic posts. All you need to do is log in to your dealership’s Facebook business page and press the “Boost Post” button on one of your recent organic news feed posts.
But, like many easy things in life, boosting posts likely won’t help your dealership’s bottom line.
Yes, these posts will get you extra exposure and reach to your boosted Facebook post. But mostly, they’ll just get you vanity metrics. Expect to get more impressions, likes, and comments on your boosted posts. But, don’t expect boosting posts to get you more car sales.
In fact, here’s exactly what Facebook says about boosted posts vs Facebooks ads:
“Where a boosted post may initially optimize for Page likes, comments, and shares or overall brand awareness, Facebook ads can optimize for app installs, website conversions, video views, shop orders, and more.”
Here are a few more reasons why dealerships should likely avoid boosting Facebook posts:
- You’re limited to promoting only organic post types which are not nearly as engaging as other Facebook ad types like carousel or lead form ads
- Audience targeting is not as robust. With traditional Facebook ads, you can easily target in-market shoppers in your local area
- The ability to optimize for specific marketing goals is limited
- You’re only promoting one post at a time, as opposed to traditional Facebook ads which will dynamically show ad creative that’s most likely to convert to a lead
In short, Facebook’s boosted posts are going to get you exposure, but they won’t help you meet your specific marketing and sales goals.
How Should You Advertise on Facebook Instead?
When it comes to dealerships, car shoppers primarily care about one thing: your inventory.
For this reason, AutoSweet recommends dealerships run ads that focus on inventory if your goal is to get more leads and sales. Specifically, with our clients, we run something called a “dual campaign” strategy.
Here’s how AutoSweet’s Dual Campaign strategy works:
The first campaign works to cast a wide net of in-market shoppers in your area that might be interested in your inventory. We work with your dealership to automatically create ads that will dynamically show all your in-stock inventory (and automatically remove sold inventory).
See an example below.
Imagine you’re in the market for a car and you see this ad. Wouldn’t you be tempted to scroll through and see what else this dealer has in stock?
This first campaign will drive tons of high-quality traffic to your dealership website, and more specifically, to your VDPs.
The second campaign in the dual-campaign strategy aims to stay in front of those who are ready to buy. How? Through the power of VIN-specific retargeting.
With the second campaign, we will retarget shoppers who have clicked and viewed your VDPs by showing them that same vehicle in a Facebook Ad.
In addition to this, we run lead form ads that will help turn more prospects into leads. This is because they don’t even need to leave the Facebook app to inquire about your advertised vehicle. And, these forms tie directly into your CRM with real customer information, directly from their Facebook profile.
As you can see, through the above example of a dual-campaign strategy, with Facebook ads dealers have many more options to be strategic with marketing compared to boosted posts.
Interested in learning more about Facebook Ads?
If you’d like to learn more about AutoSweet’s dual-campaign strategy, or just Facebook ads in general, fill out the form below. One of our digital marketing consultants will reach out to you to set up a FREE strategy session!
