What comes to mind when you hear of Facebook? Do you define it as just a social network? A platform for telling others about your dealership, or a robust tool that drills through the data to find your target audience? In many ways, Facebook is all of these things. Remarkably, it is a platform to socialize just as much as it is a powerful digital marketing tool. As of December 31, 2018, Facebook has over 2.32 billion active users, a nine percent increase from the same period the previous year. This scenario provides an excellent opportunity to ensure that your dealership inventory gets to those who are the most likely to engage. Facebook’s targeting features have always been powerful, and new targeting expansions are increasing their usefulness. Facebook’s advanced algorithms and their new online behavioral targeting tool can be an excellent resource for dealers. Read on for how these tools can impact your digital marketing strategies.
The Power of Facebook’s Targeting
With over two billion active users, comes countless opportunities for data collection. Facebook allows businesses to target users using location, demographics, interests, and connections. Years ago, you would have to collect this data yourself through surveys or expensive marketing software. Now, Facebook has become an extensive library of customer data. So much so, that the social marketing platform has had to answer critical questions regarding the collection and use of such data. Your only limitation is the time it takes to select your targeting parameters and your monthly ad budget.
Harnessing Facebook’s Reach
Through data, you collect through a CRM and Facebook’s targeting algorithms, you stand to gain a lot through utilizing Facebook’s Ad feature. Not only does the platform allow you to create custom audiences and connect with existing customers, but it also lets you create was is called a “lookalike audience.” You can use customer information from your website, analytics on individuals who have interacted with your site, or data from customer audiences to target similar customers. The platform’s algorithm will eliminate some of the work required in searching for customers by automatically showing ads to consumers that have a similar profile to current customers. However, the results are only as good as your targeting strategies and present data. Lookalike audiences are another example of how Facebook’s wealth of data and marketing algorithms can help your dealership reach your target audience. However, the company recently released another feature that can move the marketing efforts of dealers even further.
Facebook’s New Target Features for Auto Dealers
While dealers and marketers have been able to target based on demographics, location, and hobby data, the social media platform has missed out on one key element. Sophisticated marketing automation tools like Salesforce and Marketo have utilized behavior-based marketing, and earlier this month, Facebook joined this group. Automotive industry ads can now target potential customers based on their visits to the other webpages and apps of dealers and automotive companies. Research has shown that customers typically compare makes, models, and pricing across a variety of dealership and third-party websites. Now, businesses can harness this information and potentially target customers based on data. Instead of targeting ads to individuals just based on primary demographic and location data, dealers can now pair this with viewing history to personalize Facebook ad content further. Also, customers do not have to visit your website to receive an ad, as the platform can still target them based on the fact that they have expressed interest in car buying by visiting another dealership website. This new feature expands on target and lookalike audiences to provide a robust marketing automation and ad creation package.
Final Thoughts
Facebook is a global social network, but it is also a powerful tool for getting your cars in front of a target audience. Facebook’s features and new expansion allows you to take the guesswork out of marketing. No longer do you have to go on intuition, but you can zero in on the actual data you need to create targeted ads that work. According to an Accenture study quoted by Facebook, 63 percent of individuals discover new vehicles online. Why not create a better chance of meeting them where they are on a social media network that provides the tools to do so?
