Using social media for automotive advertising is essential in today’s ever-growing competitive landscape. There is one thing you can be certain of, if your dealership doesn’t maximize on your social media execution, other dealerships in your area will. Facebook lead ads in the automotive industry have been proven to increase website traffic, increase email leads, and bring unique visitors to the dealership. Let’s go over some quick data points to further solidify this claim.
- Only 10% of auto dealers are currently using Facebook ads. (Netsertive)
- Automotive ads have one of the highest average click-through rates of ads on Facebook at 0.80%. (Wordstream)
- 2018 new car buyers spent an average of 12.5 hours online during their buying journey. (Autotrader)
- 2018 used car buyers spent an average of 15 hours online. (Autotrader)
- 56% of online buyers in 2018 started their journey on 3rd party sites, and not on dealer sites or search. (Autotrader)
- 71% of mobile-first auto consumers prefer to do all their research online and go to the dealer for the final transaction. (Facebook Business)
With the average slow dealership implementation of social media, you have a real opportunity to attract attention in this space. You also have an opportunity to really engage with key consumer segments, such as millennials. As we learned earlier, 45% of millennials do most (if not all) of their research online before making a decision to purchase. Let’s go over some ways you can increase engagement on Facebook.
Use Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace can be an extremely valuable channel for pre-owned inventory. Posting and maintaining a listing on Facebook Marketplace is completely free and easy to manage. It also puts your inventory in front of consumers in the area that are actively searching for a vehicle. Another benefit to using Marketplace is that a consumer can seamlessly interact directly to the dealership. This can answer any questions or concerns they might have about a model they are interested in much faster than other vehicle listing services available. Thus, moving them down the sales funnel much quicker.
Curate a Clear and Consistent Social Media Strategy
Curate a strategy of both organic content and paid ads so you know what and when you are going to post. It’s also important to remember that organic content should not be focused on selling your inventory or converting leads. Rather, the intent should be focused on building trust, providing value to the consumer, and engaging with your consumers, which we’ll touch more on below. When it comes time to curate your next strategy, take a little time and effort to analyze your best performing results and create new content based off of what your consumers related to the most.
Engage Engage Engage
It is extremely important to respond to every relevant comment, review, and mention of your page. From an outside viewers perspective, even a poor review left by a disgruntled consumer will look like a positive interaction if the business has promptly responded to the reviewer with a clear intent to understand the individual and correct any issue or misunderstanding the individual might have experienced. The sooner you can respond to these engagements, the better. Due to a recent report performed by Sprout Social, 45% of consumers will share a positive response to a social complaint. On the contrast, only 6% of consumers will continue to boycott the brand after having received a positive response to their complaint.
Conclusion
If you feel like your dealership is executing well on Facebook and still aren’t receiving enough engagement, let us know. At Advocate Advertising Group, our Auto Advocate team is dedicated to providing our clients with the best possible digital marketing solutions for automotive dealerships, top-notch customer support, and impressive results for our clients, each and every time.
With Advocate, you’re choosing a partnership over a promise. We’d love to hear from you. You may give us a call Monday through Friday from 8:30AM until 5:30PM at (318) 865-5002. You may also send us an email at info@aag.agency.