The 2023 Facebook Ads Guide for Auto Dealers

Facebook has seemingly endless options for advertising — but not all ad types drive the performance your dealership needs. Generate more high-quality, low-funnel leads for your dealership with inventory-specific Facebook advertising.

Top Performing Facebook Ad Types

Facebook isn’t the only social media platform to consider for lead generation, but the ability to generate leads within its larger user base with hyper-targeted ads that drive conversions sets it apart from the rest.

Automotive Inventory Ads

Dynamic advertising is essential for any competitive dealership to efficiently and effectively promote its inventory. Inventory-based catalog ads make Facebook advertising especially effective for auto dealerships looking to generate high-quality, low-funnel leads. Automotive Inventory ads instantaneously generate ads for your current inventory — pulling from your website’s vehicle inventory feed — with up-to-date vehicle descriptions and live pricing information. 

Guarantee full-funnel coverage by targeting a mix of previous website visitors and new in-market shoppers. Push high-funnel users to visit your website by segmenting particular makes or models to ensure that your ads are only shown to interested Facebook users. Reconnect with lower-funnel users who already viewed individual vehicles on your website with VIN-specific ads that link them to the exact vehicle they viewed on your website.

The results? Our experience shows that dynamic Facebook ads result in a 2x higher click-through-rate, 47% lower cost-per-click, and 3.4x more conversions compared to static ad creative.

Lead Form Ads

Facebook Lead Form ads allow users to quickly fill out and submit forms to generate in-app leads without leaving their interface. The ad type and form are completely customizable, and you can sync your CRM to make sure the leads you generate are automatically sent to your sales team.

Video Ads

Facebook video ads are an effective way to increase brand awareness by reaching a high volume of relevant users at a relatively low cost. Increase brand awareness for users who have yet to interact with your dealership through highly influential video ads served where your target audiences are already watching. Pick from your choice of in-stream, feed, reels or stories video ads. 

Reach Your Target Audiences

Facebook offers a wide range of targeting options across its various ad types. Here are the three that have proven most effective for Adpearance’s automotive clients.

Remarketing

Remarketing has proven to be the most effective targeting method for our auto clients’ advertising on Facebook. Target previous website visitors to ensure your ad spend is focused on users who are already familiar with your brand and known to be in-market for a vehicle. 

Create a retargeting audience by tracking and retargeting previous visitors using the Facebook Pixel. This audience can then be segmented into specific campaigns based on the pages they viewed on your website, the amount of time since their last visit, their total amount of time on the site, and other relevant activities.

First-party Data

Leverage your own CRM data to target repeat customers. Create custom audience segments derived from previous content consumption and use dynamic retargeting to target previous website visitors with custom creative.

Third-party Data

Layer in third-party data to your targeting strategy to connect with in-market vehicle shoppers based on the vehicle they have an exhibited interest in. You can even use third-party data to pair a custom audience with vehicle sets to maximize your targeting accuracy. This level of targeting requires integration with a custom third-party data provider, but it’s worth it for the sharply focused approach to reaching ready-to-buy car shoppers.

Next Steps

Are you interested in learning more about how Facebook advertising could benefit your dealership? Request a free digital analysis to see how you stack up against the competition and where you have opportunities to improve.