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There was a time when having only a Facebook profile for your auto dealership proved effective. Put some cars on your profile, get some likes, and a few people stumble onto your lot looking for the car they saw. This organic traffic had the best return on investment. It was free and brought sales! When everyone jumped on the bandwagon, many organic ads or posts got lost in the crowd. This is when dealerships found the need for paid social ads and we began to target car shoppers on social media.

Local Dealer specializes in social media paid ads and helps hundreds of clients nationwide sell more cars. You can schedule a demo at 770-758-6929.

While we have seen the ups and downs of social media for business advertising over the years, two truths exist. One, social media advertising is here to stay. Two, it is an evolving beast that if used properly will generate revenue. Here are some advanced tips and tricks to help target car shoppers on social media.

Use imagery effectively on Social Media to target car shoppers on social media

Imagery is always more effective. Ensure your dimensions are set up correctly for the type of ad you want to run. A 1080×1080 (aspect ratio of 1:1) will cover a lot of basic ads and can be edited later for other uses. The dimensions are 1080×1920 (aspect ratio of 9:16) for Facebook and Instagram Stories ads. Being prepared with compelling, quality imagery in different aspect ratios will open up doors to the various ads you can run and bring you better results. Using a 1:1 aspect ratio on a 9:16 ad ratio will either be rejected or will not appear how you may intend. Using the right ratio

To upgrade the user experience use of collection and catalog ads are great ways to showcase our inventory.
The image below on the left is a collection ad that showcases inventory and has a video. The image below on the right is a catalog ad that displays inventory and allows you to scroll through a preselection of vehicles.

Create an Audience

Have a list of sold customers? Missed Customers? Facebook allows you to create ad sets that target these user accounts. If you want to attract an audience that isn’t exactly these users but fits the demographics of your buyer? You can create a look-alike audience. To create a custom audience, use the tab Audience in your Ads Manager account.

Define your Audience to target car shoppers on social media

When creating your Ad Set, under Detailed targeting, you have the option of honing in on your users’ interests on Facebook. This tool allows you to really dial into the user’s interests rather than broadcasting your ad to all users. With this tool, you can use a combination of user interests to find an audience. For example, you can select “People who match” Car dealerships and People who match “Credit” if you are looking to find someone that has shown interest in car dealerships and credit. While your audience and reach are smaller, you will have a better return on investment becasue you can focus on people that have shown interest.

Organize your Campaigns, ad sets, and ads

Effective use of Ads Manager will maximize the budget and see the effectiveness of your efforts. Creating one ad set alone puts your advertising budget into a fail or pass category. Not only will this put your marketing strategy into a gamble, it will be difficult to tell which ad set performs the best. Instead, create multiple campaigns like cold prospecting, website retargeting, and CRM leads. Under these campaigns, create different ad sets to see the effectiveness of the ad. Break up your budget across these campaigns. Tracking the effectiveness of these campaigns lets you know where to put most of your budget.

Most of our clients have recognized they needed help because they had difficulties getting ads approved, found little results, or had a hard time tracking their return on investment. We hope these articles are helpful in your marketing strategy, if you feel your dealership needs help, schedule a demo today. There is no obligation to the demo, we will be happy to discuss your needs and customize a strategy for you.