Dealers ‘Like’ Facebook for Driving Sales

Auto dealers are driving traffic, sales, and brand awareness so successfully with Facebook that some have changed their advertising spend to put more into this channel. What do they know and how can you get into the action?

There are countless resources on how to best advertise on Facebook and it is easy to get lost in them. Below is a clear, concise outline for success that any dealer can follow to start winning Facebook.

Be Aware: Facebook Advertising Represents a Massive Change for the Automotive Industry

• According to Adweek Digital, Facebook Ads increase VDP views by an average of 46%
• The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) finds auto shoppers are 71% more likely to be influenced by digital advertising vs. other mediums.

These data points and others mean Facebook is putting more eyes on your inventory and those eyes are more likely to be affected by it than the dollars devoted to other marketing spends. Facebook Advertising is no longer something that just the manufacturers and the largest dealer groups do, it is becoming something every dealer from small independent to large franchise must start using.

Understand the Costs: Measurable Results from Small Investment

Modern Auto Sales in Tyngsboro, MA launched an inventory-specific, dynamic display ad program on Facebook, serving display ads for used inventory to Facebook’s in-market shoppers. Over the last 90 days, they have served 632,274 ads at a cost of less than half a cent per impression.

They drove 13,531 shoppers to the VDP’s on their website at a cost of 29 cents per click. This was the single largest traffic source for the store, outperforming Organic and Direct Visitors according to their Google Analytics Report. Their Facebook campaign provided almost four times the traffic as their Google CPC, Autotrader, Cars.com, and CarGurus efforts combined — at a fraction of the cost. Facebook gives you powerful results at a low cost.

Choose Your Targets: Stay Local and Stay Specific

Facebook lets you target people you really want to communicate with. A good start is to select a zipcode or a city and choose everyone local or in the areas where you sell best. From there you can get more specific such as specifying only new residents, those of a specific age, or other factors in their profiles that best fit your ideal customer.

You can select by their interests and behaviors such as what pages and posts they like, comments they make, or items they purchased. You end up talking to people in the area you do business, shoppers who actually live there, and who are interested in or have purchased the types of vehicles you sell. This isn’t shotgun marketing, this is an intelligent use of data that leads to results.

Re-target: Bring Them Back with Facebook

With the use of a “pixel” (a small script placed on the pages of a website), Facebook is able to identify website visitors who also have a Facebook account. More importantly, a pixel lets Facebook know what pages the visitor looked at on a dealer’s website.

When a shopper looks at a specific VDP, re-targeting means that later that day – and for several days after – that shopper can be served ads for the same or similar vehicle in their news feed. This is as targeted as it gets, as the advertising is now for someone who already knows of your brand and they’re being shown an ad for a vehicle they expressed interest in.

It is critical to bring that shopper back to your site while they are in the midst of their purchase decision and re-targeting campaigns do exactly that. In fact, automotive shoppers visit a staggering 18.2 sites prior to purchase, check out what Google suggests on the importance of building this type of traffic.

Extend Brand: Build Your Social Presence

While the primary purpose of Facebook Ads is lead or traffic generation it is equally important that you continue to develop new friends and followers on the platform. Delivering social content works best if you have people reading it. Every ad served offers multiple ways to interact including a click to website, a lead form to fill, and a button to like and follow your Facebook page.

Every click of that button means more people hearing your social messaging. Over the last 90 days, AutoSweet Facebook Campaigns have generated on average 150 new followers for each dealer to increase their ability to dominate social media. Dealers are using this method to organically build their social audience and are competitively setting themselves up for future success.