How To Generate Leads For Car Dealerships Using Facebook Ads

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FACEBOOKadvertising


GETTING PERSONAL A HOW-TO GUIDE TO FACEBOOK ADVERTISING

Welcome to the second of five content marketing guides for the automotive industry, from industry experts GoldSand Digital. Content Marketing is in our blood, and we’re passionate about sharing best practice so we thought we’d share a few of our favourite aspects in these short, informative guides.

In this second guide, we take a closer look at Facebook advertising, and give beginners and advertisers alike a run through of its most impressive and useful features.


THE SOCIAL NETWORK

It’s hard to believe, considering how prevalent it has become in each of our lives, but Facebook is just ten years old.

In that time it has spread to almost every internet-enabled computer on the planet.

And yet it’s still underestimated as a resource, not just for automotive, but for businesses across the globe. If you still think that Facebook is just where your niece

shares videos of her cat, then it’s time to dig deep, and understand its real power.

It’s time to think about Facebook in a new light: as a monster advertising machine.

While getting comments, likes and followers on your Facebook page is valuable - it shows you interact with your customers and genuinely care about them - the real power of Facebook is in its advertising tools.


THE AD REVOLUTION

In the early days of Facebook advertising, you wouldn’t see any more than a few spammy ads in the right hand column. We’d all ignore them, and rightfully so. They weren’t interesting or engaging, and crucially they weren’t at all targeted.

When Facebook went public, there was real concern that Facebook wouldn’t provide any substantial, long term revenue. But, revenue of $2.59 billion in 2013 and a rise from $13 to $77 per share proved beyond doubt that Facebook is a seriously big player.

Today, you can create incredibly targeted, great looking and effective Facebook ads that can help you get more likes, boost your posts, generate new subscribers, and most importantly, generate real sales. How? Facebook now has an incredibly powerful advertising tool called the Power Editor, and within it are nine amazing ad targeting tools.

Let’s take a look at each one, and see how it can help you to grow your business.


UTILISING YOUR TEAM

Lookalike Audience allows you use your existing email database to create a new conquest list.

Simply upload your email data and it will actually match the information it can find on your audience, with its own database. It will then provide you with a targeted list of similar people.

This is an unbelievably powerful tool for lead generation.

This is where Facebook’s demographics seriously come into their own. You can target an audience based on their interests. Want to go out and target people interested in BMW? Go for it. How about rugby fans?

No problem. It’s worth adding quite a few relevant interests to build a good sized audience though as targeting a very small volume of people is unlikely to get you a result.

2. DEMOGRAPHIC TARGETING

4. AD PLACEMENT

1. LOOKALIKE AUDIENCE

3. INTERESTS

One of the most exciting features is the ability to drill down your targeting. Identify your usual demographic, and Facebook will find everyone that matches your criteria.

This will enable you to get much more specific. On top of the usual categories, you can also target in education, interests and even marriage status. This is all highly relevant, with a direct route to prospects outside of your current targeting.

This feature allows you to decide where your ad is placed on the platform. As a rule, it’s better to start promoting any new ads on desktop only as this is where most buying decisions are made. However, once ads are up and running it’s well worth testing it on mobile and tablets too. You are also able to decide if you want your ad in the sidebar, in the news feed or just as a status update. Again, the most effective are generally natural-looking ads in the news feed.


We all know how vital it is to include a call to action button on your ads, and Facebook now includes a selection to choose from. This button will take your customer to a website, landing page, offer, or even your Facebook page. It’s up to you where they go, giving you the power to control that interaction.

This is one of the best ways to get your posts seen by more people. For just a few pounds you can boost your post and target specific customers to see your offers. This is perfect if you have a clear ‘call to action’ or strong offer on your post and you want to give it an initial boost or help get numbers up. By encouraging people to share you also get the benefit from the viral element, which leads us on to the most vital element of any kind of advertising.

6. SCHEDULING 7. TRACKING

9. REPORTING TOOLS

5. CALL TO ACTION

8. POST BOOST

A new feature is ad scheduling and is great if you have an offer that is about to start soon. It means you can set up your campaigns early and then schedule the ad to go live, for a set period of time if desired, and then to stop when the offer ends. This could be used for short-lived offers such as a 24 hour 50% off sale.

Facebook ads create a tracking code that can be pasted on your website.

With this code, you can indentify who has clicked from your Facebook ad onto your website. This is invaluable data, as you can keep on top of exactly who is interested in your advertising.

There are excellent reporting tools on Facebook ads. You can see how many impressions there have been, your cost per impression, cost per click and even how many likes you received in that time. Use this information.

One of the most important is cost per click. Find out if it is cheaper than other advertising platforms, and look at your impression-to-click ratio to find out how you can improve your ad.


LOOK OUT FOR THE NEXT IN OUR SERIES, ON HOW TO GET CUSTOMERS TO BUY MORE FROM YOUR WEBSITE, COMING SOON.

For help with your content marketing strategy, don’t hesitate to get in touch with GoldSand Digital on 0203 598 2782, or email [email protected]

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