Category: Social Media

Simply put, if you aren’t advertising on Facebook you’re missing out.

 

Let’s start with some staggering numbers. There are approximately 1.71 billion monthly active users on Facebook¹. That’s almost one out of every four people on the planet. Americans, specifically, spend 22 percent of their mobile internet usage time on Facebook. The sheer number of mobile users who visit Facebook on a daily basis is reason enough to advertise on the world’s most popular website.

 

But adverting on Facebook is far more specific than simply taking advantage of its enormous user base. Because of the intelligence the social network has of its users – from necessary personal data needed to have an account to the information found in the interactions and experiences each person has with the site – Facebook advertising’s targeting capabilities are one of the most sophisticated of any digital ad platforms out there.

 

That’s why a Facebook advertising strategy combined with an existing diversified advertising plan is key to producing the greatest return on your digital marketing investments.

 

How Facebook Advertising Helps You Sell More Cars

For inventory or fixed ops promotions, you can use Facebook advertising for remarketing or to target the shoppers that have already showed interest in your inventory by reaching them with your most compelling marketing message.

 

Lookalike Audiences further expand your reach by using demographic and interest data to identify Facebook users who show significant similarities to your business’s existing shopper audience. Attracting Lookalike Audiences to your website also grows your retargeting audience over time.

 

While you can use Facebook holistically to promote inventory and fixed operations services, you can also use it to achieve specific goals. For example, you can:

 

– Showcase your entire inventory. Dynamic Product Ads are the best way for you to promote your inventory on Facebook. The carousel ad unit prominently displays your inventory in users’ News Feed, and links them directly to vehicle details pages on your website.

 

– Boost specific models. If you have a certain model you’re looking to move, consider using video ads and dynamic vehicle ads to boost visibility and generate demand for that particular vehicle.

 

– Increase competitive conquest efforts. If your market share within your brand and region is strong, consider using Lookalike Audience targeting capabilities to expand your reach and bring your marketing message to shoppers who have shown similarities to those who have visited your site already and may be shopping competing brands.

 

– Target fixed operations offers. Many dealerships have great service and parts offers that rival independent shops. To ensure your local community is aware of your most attractive fixed operations offers and incentives, you can promote them using carousel or image ads.

 

– Craft a custom Facebook strategy. From seasonal sales to custom events at your dealership, Facebook advertising boosts visibility and generates interest.

 

 

Proven Results

In early 2017, an automaker partnered with Dealer.com to run a pilot with their dealerships. Their goal was to focus on three core models within their lineup and boost engagement and leads for those vehicles.

 

In partnership with Dealer.com, the automaker used a Facebook advertising strategy that included remarketing, Lookalike Audiences, video, and dynamic vehicle ads. At the end of the four-month long pilot, dealers who participated reported 11.8 percent more leads, 32 percent more vehicle details page views, and 21 percent more visits than dealers in the same region who didn’t participate².

 

As you craft your year-end marketing plan, make sure you’ve allocated additional funds for Facebook advertising. Combined with paid search, retargeting, and other forms of demand-generating display advertising, Facebook advertising can be the added boost you need to reach and exceed your sales goals.

 

Are you seeing results from advertising on Facebook? Comments, thoughts, tips, and questions all welcome in the comments section below.

 

Doug Freeman is the Senior Product Manager of Dealer.com Advertising

 

 

Sources

1 Brandwatch, 2016, Marketing: 47 Facebook Statistics for 2016, https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/47-facebook-statistics-2016/

2 Dealer.com, 2017, Internal Data

 

There are 1.7 billion active monthly Facebook users and another nine hundred million using Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. To put it another way, about 37 percent of the world’s population are using at least one of these social media platforms. Of this 37 percent, a significant portion are actively shopping for goods and services – including cars. With such a concentrated and interconnected pool of potential consumers, easy to target and frequently engaging the platforms, it’s no wonder marketers continue to flock to social media in droves.

While it’s clear that social media, once considered by many as a promotional afterthought, has evolved to become a core element of most businesses’ marketing strategy, it isn’t clear why many auto dealerships continue to miss countless sales and customer relationship-building opportunities due either to an outdated and shaky social strategy, or none at all.

If you’re “on” social media, maybe your dealership isn’t seeing much ROI attributable to a social strategy. Perhaps social media seems intimidating or a nuisance, another digital distraction pulling you away from day-to-day operations. For whatever reason, social just doesn’t make sense for your dealership.

We’re here to help you understand that it does. And not only that it makes sense, but that with some simple steps and a little bit of marketing know-how, a sound social media strategy will greatly improve your bottom line. Here’s how to get back on track:

1. Ensure the accuracy of your brand is reflected across all social channels.

Check your contact information listed on all social media accounts. Is it correct? Are your dealership’s profile and cover photos up-to-date and optimized to reflect your dealership and brand? There’s room for lots of customization on social media platforms, giving you ample opportunity to present to the world the most polished, professional, and informative version of your business. Treat your social accounts like an extension of your store.

2. Stay active.

Once you’re in, you’ll need to stay in. Keep close tabs on your social accounts so that you can respond to comments, questions, and reviews. Lots of people will look to contact you through social media.

Just as important is your content flow. Going days without posting to your social sites can create a negative experience for followers and/or potential customers. But post too much and you compromise the value of the posting strategy as a whole.

Look to post fresh and relevant content once every other day. We’re not talking lengthy prose or dissertation quality here. For starters, take a new car off the lot once a week for a photo shoot and post the pics with some simple captions. (Don’t use stock inventory photos.) Feature staff or customers who’ve recently purchased a vehicle from you. Ask their permission, take their photos, write a quick blurb about them and their experience and Voila!, you’ve just created fresh content. Change it up a bit, too, by peppering in car reviews and other articles written by reputable publications featuring the inventory you’re selling. Actively share and retweet. Ensure that the content is engaging, timely, and relevant. Don’t rely on auto-feeds, which are not considered active posting. And don’t forget to leverage OEM marketing efforts to align with national campaigns at your local level.

3. Make social media management a key function of your internet sales team, or hire a dedicated social community manager.

Your dealership is a busy place. You’ve got your entire physical operation to run, customer walk-ins to handle, incoming inventory, a bustling service department, et cetera. And then there’s the matter of managing your digital operations as well, including social media. If you rely on staff untrained in current social media practices to handle this part of your digital marketing, you’re probably not going to see good, if any, results. Hire a dedicated social community professional – one who manages budgets for social advertising, has some design experience for graphics and illustrations, is a decent copywriter, and knows how to interact with your social community – or invest in training for existing staff to perform these skills. If this isn’t a possibility, the right digital provider can often manage social communities on your behalf, including gathering and coordinating inventory assets and optimizing across the major social platforms.

4. Include social media in your marketing strategy.

For all of the reasons to use social media mentioned above, add these stats:

– 92 percent lower cost per vehicle details page view.

– 66 percent lower cost-per-click.

– 45K+ vehicle detail page views.¹

Facebook continues to blur the lines between social media and research platform, as products like Facebook Dynamic Ads are bringing display advertising into the social sphere. If social media sites let businesses advertise products, then dealers need to place social in the same category as website and advertising when examining marketing strategy. It’s digital marketing, and it all matters.

5. Budget for social media spending.

You’re going to need to allocate funds specifically for social media, which means including this expenditure in monthly, quarterly, or annual budgeting meetings. While establishing an account for most social media sites is still free of cost, Facebook and Twitter organic posts (content you post to your newsfeed and don’t promote) are not nearly as effective as they once were. To serve your content to high quality shoppers in their news feeds, you’ll need to actively promote, or pay, for placement.

Using social media is more than worth it; it’s just as valuable as having an optimized website and advertising strategy. By using social media’s simple (and fun) brand-building power, and combining it with a regular cadence of organic and promoted posts, your dealership is going to start connecting with a specific audience of motivated shoppers in your target market that you previously may have had a hard time reaching. Keep at it, experiment, and make sure that social is known throughout the business as key component of marketing strategy.

Sean Slattery is the social community manager at Dealer.com and Dealertrack

¹Results reflect three-month performance of dealer group using Dealer.com Facebook Dynamic Ads.