Facebook advertising, it’s certainly not a new concept. Dealerships have been using Facebook to advertise their sales and service promotions for years, but what does that exactly look like?
Working closely with dealers over the last few years, I’ve noticed one common trend with Facebook advertising; it’s usually an afterthought for any campaigns being run. Too often do I hear “We need to get this message out to all of our customers via email & SMS, create a new webpage with the event details, and we need to add a new banner onto our homepage. After the campaign is live, I’ll hear back from the dealer saying “Oh yeah, we should probably push it out on Facebook too…”.
But why is Facebook often an overthought? Facebook has a total of 2.3 billion monthly users and people tend to spend 35 minutes per day on their Facebook account. People also specifically go to Facebook and Instagram to engage with content; comment on posts, like interesting articles, and share their favourite content.
My theory, is that dealers don’t have the time, or the budget, to run these ads for every minor promotion. This is because, it’s not just the ad spend associated with your Facebook campaign that you need to consider. Dealers don’t have the time to learn the Facebook Business Manager, or coordinate with their agency for every minor promotion, or even work with their graphics team to get Facebook ads built. So, what happens? Dealers will add the promotion onto the 4th slide on their homepage carousal, sit back, and watch the money roll in…
Not so fast.
Your website visitors are likely going to your site for one of two reasons; to book a service appointment, or browse through your inventory. It’s extremely unlikely that your visitors are hanging around your homepage, waiting for your 4th slider to appear, with information on your incredible service promotion. If you have a fantastic service or sales special on now, there are so many other successful ways to get this message out, not only to your regular website visitors, but to the whole community.
Enter Facebook Ads.
Now I’m not talking about the time-consuming, agency requiring, graphic designer demanding, Facebook Ads. I’m talking about Bumper Ads.
Today I’ll be introducing our very own version of Facebook Ads, an ad tool that has revolutionized the Facebook marketing game, and here’s why…
Content Creator
Odds are, only a small portion of the specials you’re running in your dealership make it to Facebook. I’ll work with dealers who launch 5 marketing emails on a monthly basis, but only run 1 Facebook campaign throughout the month. Dealers tend to only save their big events for Facebook, but fail to advertise their smaller, perhaps more important, communications. For example, dealers will advertise their cash box events, weekend BBQs, and tent sales, but won’t advertise their new model launches, oil change discounts, or detailing packages.
Typically for a weekend sale promotion, dealerships will set aside a larger budget. They will work with their graphic designers to create some appealing content, work with a marketing company to get the message out to their customer database, and request that all mediums have a campaign running, advertising this promotion.
When it comes to oil change promotions, offering a $10 off coupon doesn’t necessarily call for an extravagant campaign, especially when you need to work with an agency to communicate the message.
With the content creator built into Bumper Ads, we have pre-populated templates for all dealership promotions, across all departments. Putting an ad campaign together isn’t something that you need to outsource, your account already has all the resources you need to get started and build a nice-looking campaign, no matter what you’re advertising. Just select your theme, switch out any of the vehicles or images using our OEM-specific file manager, and there you have it! An easy-to-create custom ad, for any dealership promotion.
Custom Facebook Audiences
Facebook has a very large selection of audience options for any campaign. Working with agencies, I’ve noticed that ad audiences aren’t something that’s commonly discussed. Agencies will usually use their best judgement to select a remarketing list, select a few good behavioural or interest categories that have worked well in the past, and call it a day. Now this isn’t a negative by any means, after all, this is why dealers hire agencies in the first place. You trust their judgement and are happy with the results that they generate.
Now for dealers that don’t want to outsource their Facebook campaigns, or wanted to save some money, we have simplified the audience selectors, and have built custom audience groups specifically for your automotive business. This makes creating your ads so much easier and ensures you’re targeting all applicable people for your business, and for your campaign.
We have created custom audience groups to quickly target people who own your brand of vehicle, or your competitors’ brand. We have also grouped together similar interests or behaviours. For example, if you’re promoting the new Subaru Outback, and you want to target consumers who have an interest in hiking, fishing, camping, etc. You don’t need to filter through endless Facebook categories, you can simply select ‘The Outdoorsy Consumer’ option in Bumper Ads, which will automatically encompass all those categories into one easy selection.
Engagement Focused Webpages
When it comes to traditional Facebook marketing, whether you’re a dealer or an agency, odds are you end up spending a few hours putting together your Facebook campaign. I’ll give you an example, you want to introduce the launch of the new 2021 redesigned SUV in your lineup. This new vehicle is going to be the hottest trend since heated seats and you NEED to get this message out. You work with your team to build and develop your promotional idea, have a special ad created by your designer, carefully select your audience to target, and craft the perfect text to be delivered alongside your vehicle lifestyle image, and where does your ad go? To your vehicle inventory list of course!
I see this time and time again. Dealers or agencies put so much thought into the ad itself, but little to no thought on the actual landing page. What’s the purpose of spending money on clicks or engagements if all that effort draws traffic to a page that’s only partially relevant to your message? Visitors that you spent your carefully planned marketing dollars on, aren’t given the proper resources they need to actually make a purchase decision.
If you’re introducing the 2021 SUV of the decade, your landing page needs to express that. You need to include walkaround videos, brochures, coupons, links to build & prices, reviews, etc! Use the excitement you’re creating within your ad and carry that through to a webpage used to enhance your message.
With Bumper Ads, we make it easy to continue the excitement. All Facebook ads automatically have a personal webpage connected to the campaign. This personal webpage includes downloadable PDFs, video options, printable coupons, click-to-calls, form submissions and so much more.
In-depth Behavioural Tracking
Now the least exciting aspect of any good marketing platform, but arguably one of the most important components, brings us to reporting. Because why would you continue to use an agency, platform, or ad direction, if you aren’t seeing success?
Answer: you shouldn’t!
Bumper has always been known for its in-depth behavioural tracking on all campaigns, and with Bumper Ads, you have access to all the same glorious stats. We carefully measure all actions across the Bumper webpages and track the number of clicks you’re generating with your campaign, but also what content is being engaged with. Is your audience more engaged with your videos or PDFs? Do they prefer your click-to-call options, or online chat options? This information gives you powerful insights to maximize your campaign performance time and time again.
I said it before and I’ll say it again. Facebook advertising isn’t a new concept. If you haven’t launched Facebook campaigns for your dealership, I’m probably not speaking your language. If you are currently launching Facebook campaigns for your dealership, there is ALWAYS room for improvement. Our Performance Managers are here to help and are always available for a strategy session to help you get the most out of your marketing spend.
Interested in learning more? Contact us today to book a demo and see Bumper Ads for yourself. Download product sell sheet PDF.
