Years ago, engaging with social media — Facebook, in particular — meant little more than gathering likes to a dealership’s business page and sharing content. In many cases, it was a either a pet project for the tech savvy marketing manager or a labor of love for the cutting edge automotive dealer. Sadly, this yielded little to no real results.

Over time, the automotive industry and Facebook changed. Engagement metrics used in the past are no longer relevant. It’s not that likes, views, and shares are without value; rather, it’s that Facebook has introduced amazing new capabilities to drive business directly from social media.

Facebook reaches more people in the US than the audience of the 2016 Super Bowl. Think about that. Major brands pay millions in hopes of capturing consumer attention with a 30 second tv spot, which may or may not be relevant. In contrast, inexpensive ad campaigns running on Facebook reach target audiences with precision and drive incredible return on investment (ROI).

The ways to apply Facebook’s advertising platform to an automotive dealer’s retail world are endless. That said, new strategies can be categorized into four major types of ads:

1. Predictive Inventory Social Ads – Leverage Facebook’s targeting and world-class data centers to uncover traits and profiles of prospects who are most likely to buy, including those that have the greatest revenue potential in a geographic area.
2. Equity Social Ads – Extract DMS data to generate equity customer segments for Facebook advertising. The process is fully-managed, requiring little input from the dealer, yet yields more sales at higher gross — all via social media.
3. Fixed Ops Social Ads – Complement other fixed ops marketing channels, such as email, direct mail, and search marketing. It’s a low cost, high reward program that drives real results in the service lane.
4. Dynamic Retargeting Social Ads – Even low funnel shoppers can get distracted and finish shopping elsewhere. VDP-specific ads are a cost-effective way to maintain brand and inventory familiarity while bringing shoppers back to a dealer’s website.

We’ll address these four advertising strategies in more detail with additional blog posts over the coming weeks. For now, understand the power behind this multi-faceted approach to Facebook advertising.

As with any form of advertising, compare these ad types against a customer’s life cycle:

1. In-Market Shoppers – Inventory offers and retargeting drive engagement necessary to build relationships with researching shoppers.
2. Early Ownership – Service ads build awareness, including oil change coupons, and drive revenue generation.
3. Mature Ownership – Fixed ops ads for batteries, tires, etc and ads targeting lost soul customers, maintain profitable relationships with this valuable customer segment.
4. 1-6 Months from Buying – Equity ads, predictive inventory ads and specials, coupled with retargeting, place your brand in front of shoppers online research begins.

Dealers have wondered if the time, money and human efforts in social media are worth it. As we’ll see in the coming weeks, the return on investment for these new social ad strategies proves their value time and again. Ready to take your social advertising to the next level? Our Specialists will show you how to get ahead of your competition in this critical area of advertising. Call 877.421.1040 today!