Why Facebook is currently ‘gold’ for dealers!

At the moment there are just a few car dealers that use Facebook to advertise. This is unfortunate because Facebook is currently the cheapest channel with the best results, in combination with the best data available. However, many car dealers do not have a good marketing partner who facilitates them in the right way and that is a real shame! We are giving you 3 examples to deal with Facebook in a better way as a car dealer.

Example 1: Tecobi

Tecobi is a platform from the US that makes it possible for dealers to advertise on Facebook in a different way. The advantage of Facebook, USA and American dealers is that they can mix the vast data of Facebook with Polk Data, so that one can exactly target prospects who own the right car. We do not have this advantage (yet?).

Tecobi ensures that dealers show nice and attractive ads to the targeted group, that is not unique, but the unique thing is that, unlike almost all other advertisements, nothing else is needed to convert to an application. If the prospect is attracted to the offer, then just one click on the ad is sufficient to request more information from the dealer. After all, Facebook already knows who and what you are. Normally, you will be referred to a different page on the click, after which you can leave your name, address, email etc. Now, you don’t have to do any of this..

Since Tecobi understands that the Facebook user for the most part consumes Facebook on his smartphone, he sends the lead via an SMS to the seller, who can then start a dialogue with the prospect via SMS. So you ensure that the customer does not do a single click too much, and then you enter into the dialogue in a way the 2017 customer values the most: via the smartphone, via text, SMS, WhatsApp. Tecobi has plans to make some changes, I will keep you informed!

Example 2: Targeting your database

Your database of sold and unsold customers is worth gold! Nowadays, there are many dealers who use this well, through e-mail marketing and through dated systems such as care-mail in its current form. Now you will see that the engagement on email is just getting less over the years. It is not that exciting anymore to receive an email and what do you do if someone didn’t even read this email for 4 times already? Send again (as I still do now, stupid!) Or are you taking a different path? Are you going to reach this customer, who you want to reach, via the platform that this person is using frequently? Facebook! Facebook has made it possible to upload your database in Facebook ad management. After doing so, Facebook checks this data with its own data to see if there is a match. In more than 60% of the cases with a normal database there is a match and you can put the messages you want to send, with better copy and visual than usual (very important), in the newsfeed of your customers on the medium where they do actually consume content. Just look at yourself, you do not read more than 50% of your emails, but if you are a Facebook user, you can consume the content there.

Example 3: Be there before the big brands are there!

Adidas already admitted it. They don’t advertise on TV anymore, but they fully focus on online marketing. Facebook understands one thing more than everyone else, and that is that the news feed may contain advertisements, but this should be dosed. This means that the places that can be divided are scarce. Now it is still the case that those places are cheap compared to Google AdWords, for example. However, this will change quickly, very quickly, in the next two years, now that nobody is using TV advertising anymore and the news feed is now the piece of online real estate where you want to be. These places will therefore be taken by importers who do not always want to send the traffic to you as a dealer.
Luckily, most marketers at importers are ‘check the box marketers’ and therefore buy a ridiculous amount of TV advertising, because then they can say that they have done everything to generate traffic and that it is now up to the dealers, but that is not the case, of course. Everyone that lives in a 2017 world picks up their phone or remote control when commercials are played and no one looks at it consciously. The real marketer understands that the focus is there, on the small screen in your hands, and that can be a game changer for dealers in the next two years, but only if you switch now…

Is there a conclusion?

No, after all, I do not have all the answers and I know what will happen in the next two years. Just look at Snapchat, for years the most dominant player under the age of 25 and is now heavily competing with Instagram, with almost the same features, which makes it an issue to break through to the older generation. Something that most specialists on social media couldn’t even imagine 6 months ago. Try it, see what works and what does not work, but please do not be romantic in the idea of what it was like yesterday.

Orginal article

About Paul de Vries

Paul de Vries became a Key Automotive Spokesperson at eBay (Marketplace) after selling Nieuweautokopen.nl to eBay back in 2015. Paul is the founder and CEO of the #DCDW Academy and the presenter of the #DCDW Podcast. He is also a by dealers and importers frequently asked speaker in the online automotive industry. Paul is the winner of the prestigious Lighthouse Award 2016 in the U.S.! `Lead the Way op de digitale snelweg’ is Paul’s new book, which can be used as a guide in the online automotive industry. More information is available at: DCDW.nl.