Running an ad campaign is required to get your business in front of those who would be interested in your wares. This is especially true for automotive dealerships who want to sell the latest cars to customers interested in their brand. Due to the massive growth over technology in the preceding decade, advertisement has become much more accessible and cheaper to do. Facebook, for example, has become one of the largest social media platforms on the planet, with massive amounts of people spending their days socializing and looking up the latest news.
Due to the massive growth Facebook has undergone over the years, businesses began taking advantage of this by making their own profiles and running ad campaigns to those who would be interested in their products. Automotive dealerships were just one of the many types of businesses to have jumped in on this action, and plenty of them have seen lots of success. Facebook has managed to make its Facebook ad something truly successful by providing its customers with the tools they need to reach out to their target audience. The best part about Facebook ad is how flexible and cheap running a campaign can be, so if you are on a budget, you can adjust the campaign in ways that will suit your needs.
With all that said and done, you’ll want to get in on that piece of action yourself. For this article, we’ll be offering tips on how you can run the best Facebook automotive ad campaign out there.
The Funnel
Any campaign you decide to launch should be specific to either the top, middle, or bottom of the funnel. Before you even begin to formulate a Facebook ad, determine which section of your funnel will be used to reach out. This ensures you have a clear objective, leading to your campaign ad being more successful once launched. According to a study conducted by Hubspot about the buyer’s journey, over 80% of them were shown to do their shopping through mobile devices and computers.
Known Demographics
As someone who runs an automotive dealership, you’ll already be aware of every single piece of information about the cars you’re selling, so why don’t you spend some of your time learning about the people who purchase them?
Facebook has managed to provide its users with targeting tools suitable for reaching out to the proper audience at the correct time. Show pictures and information about the vehicles you have to the appropriate people at the right time, and you’ll experience a massive boost in your scores, click-through rates (CTR), and cost per click (CPC). It all comes down to what type of cars you are selling at your dealership after all. If your dealership deals with classic cars, sports cars, or trucks, you’ll want to make sure you are reaching out to the appropriate people who would be interested in your inventory. For example, if you are a dealership that sells luxury cars, target options with job titles, or individuals whose income is more then $100,000 each year.
Exclude uninterested age groups
While not surprising, most people who are on Facebook will be on the younger demographic, usually between the ages of 18 to 22, but they’ll make up a small percentage of customers who are interested in your dealership. The tools provided by Facebook does allow you to take advantage of this and eliminate them from your targeting efforts. As a dealership owner, you’ll probably hesitate about excluding certain types of people from your advertisement campaign. This is understandable since you’ll want to make as many sales as possible, it won’t seem like the smartest idea to cut off a large percentage of people.
Although deciding on a more specific group of people will allow you to come up with a better decision when it comes to developing your content for your ads. Furthermore, studies have revealed that this increase in relevance will lead to a decrease in CPC. The main objective behind your ad campaign is to sell more cars, and you’ll need more quality leads to pulling this off.
There are also plenty of other groups you’ll want to avoid targeting during your campaign. For example, younger generations won’t be too interested in purchasing a car until they’ve become financially stable or old enough to afford one. To ensure you are targeting the right people suited for your dealership, consider testing various age groups to see how they react to your attempts of reaching out to them.
Video ads
Videos have become an essential part of Facebook over the years, and they’ve managed to overtake the newsfeed of a regular Facebook user. More than four billion video views take place on Facebook each day, making video content one of the central driving forces behind the highest engagement rate of the platform. Chances are, your automotive dealership doesn’t possess any type of video posted on its page. Facebook also allows people to make slideshow ads, which means you can turn any of the images you have of your cars into a flawless video. All you need to do is decide on seven pictures, attach some audio and text overlays, and you’ll be done. Showing off your dealership’s location, interior, service department, inventory, and anything else can now be done in s easy, cheap, and seamless fashion.
You should also keep in mind that most people these days search for their news feed through their mobile phones. This means you’ll want to make sure any videos you post are also mobile-friendly for your target audience. Fortunately, Facebook has provided some tips of their own on how to post an optimal video that will fit for mobile users. Here is a summary of the information they’ve provided.
Facebook has stated that over 94% of their mobile users consume content vertically, meaning you should keep this in mind when you are producing your ads for mobile. The content you make should also be captivating to watch even with the sound off and entice viewers if they do have the sound on. Gain their attention and make sure your message manages to come off quickly by animating your creation. Also, provide a capture for users who keep the sound off so they can still be aware of the message you’re providing them with. Don’t be afraid to switch around your creativity by also including some stickers, emojis, or GIFs to relate with your target audience, and don’t hesitate to mess around with the visual effects tools to engage with those on mobile.
Retargeting Facebook ads
If not sure what retargeting ads are, it’s quite simple, the idea here is to send a reminder message to any customer who has visited your website and never completed their submission form, checkout or other conversion action. You shouldn’t miss out on customers who are clicking or converting during the first time around. Facebook will allow you to use their targeting tools, such as Pixel, to help your dealership remain on top of mind and ensure you can generate more conversions.
To ensure you have a successful retargeting campaign on Facebook, you should consider adding some of these to your ad. Callouts for anyone who has recently browsed through your inventory. Include a sense of urgency, reminding your target audience to check out the latest offerings before they expire. And lastly, mention any exclusive deals your dealership may be having for first-time customers.
Avoid unnecessary clicks
You’ll need to make sure to exclude your dealership’s competitors and employees utilizing Job employer and job title targeting options. This is to prevent having to pay for any unnecessary clicks and enables you to concentrate your resources where it truly counts. Make sure to also exclude specific audiences that decrease your CPC and allows you to reach out to those who will benefit from receiving your ads instead. Facebook themselves has come up with some fantastic tips for developing for your target audience by excluding certain criteria.
Be aware of your placement
When it comes to Facebook, targeting doesn’t all come down to the quality of the people being targeted, it also about the specific platform they are on when they see your ads. Ad placements on Facebook are the platforms and networks where your advertisement will be shown. When you’ve launched your ad campaign on Facebook, your ad placement will have a massive effect on cost. The ad default setting on Facebook will have your ads run through its Audience Network, which are the Facebook news feeds (mobile and desktop), Instagram, and Facebook Messenger.
Facebook themselves have recommended that running your ads everywhere within its ecosystem is the best way to pull this off the CPC can vary by quite a lot, so you’ll need to walk carefully. Every one of these platforms shall offer you a unique benefit, and it’s recommended that you design each ad to a specific platform where it will be seen by your target audience.
Dynamic ads
With the assistance of Facebook Pixel, you’ll be able to use Facebook dynamic ads to automatically develop ads based on your customer base’s activity on your dealership’s site. Prospective customers will see these ads that direct them to a suitable relevant inventory page, lead forms, or any other page that has gained interest previously. Most of all, your prospective customer will be shown the automobiles that are most suitable for their matter. Meaning this will lead to your engagement to increase even further.
The only thing you’ll need to do to get this working is to provide an inventory catalog filled with knowledge on each vehicle, such as price, location, and availability. Facebook will make use of this list to integrate the information into the ads. Once you’ve gone through the process of setting it all up, your work will be concluded. Facebook will dish out the appropriate ads to the correct customers so you can concentrate on making those sales.
Special Ad Audiences
When it comes to automotive ad campaigns for Facebook, targeting should be prioritized, yet there will be moments when it can be challenging to reply to the information given to you about the interest and demographics of certain groups. You need to make sure you don’t wear out your foremost target audience by utilizing the same targeting every single month. Fortunately, Facebook Ads Manager does provide a Special Ads Audience (SAAs) to assist dealerships, such as yours, to reach out to more people who are interested in interacting with your ads. The SAA can also be based on the website traffic or lists that you upload into Ads manager as well.
Lead Generation
When running a lead generation ad for your automotive dealership, you not only will be informing your target audience about the vehicles you are offering them but most importantly, you’ll be gathering leads through a highly targeted campaign. This approach will mean that you’ll expand your reach to the appropriate sales prospects during the first time around. Furthermore, Facebook fills out the parts of the contact forms for users, so even more people will most likely submit their forms to your dealership, leading towards a higher number of conversions. Facebook has also managed to partner with several CRMs to automate those leads into the CRM.
Conclusion
Facebook has made it convenient for businesses to get their brands out there, and now’s your time to make sure you take advantage of the tools provided to get your dealership in front of potential customers. These tips should be capable of setting you on the right path to making one of the best Facebook automotive ad campaigns out there. Just make sure to apply each of these tips we’ve provided you with, and don’t be afraid to test out which of them works best for your campaign. Hopefully, these tips have managed to help you out with your Facebook ad campaign.
