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Why Run Facebook Ads for Your Dealership? More Importantly: HOW

John.H

Hat Trick
Nov 12, 2018
94
85
First Name
John
There's a lot of venders out there that try their best to hide secrets, especially when it pertains to running successful media buying campaigns. People go to trade shows, participate in webinars, even hire people internally or externally to manage their ads for them. And although that can be the BEST thing a dealership can do, there's so many inexpensive alternatives to this, such as running ads yourself.

Which is why I decided to make a MEGATHREAD on how to run Facebook Ad campaigns the RIGHT way, and what to avoid when starting out. Should you have any questions regarding topics in this thread, feel free to comment down below.

WHO AM I?

My name is John Hozjan, and I'm 24 years old. Been in the Internet Marketing game for 8 years now, and have mostly been an affiliate marketer up until about three years ago. I own an agency called Arbor Advertising, and have been serving a multitude of automotive clients in the Chicagoland area for years, ranging from semi repair shops, all the way to family owned buy-here pay-here dealerships. We've slowly transitioned into media buying through Facebook as an alternative lead source, but have recently focused our attention to the network solely, due to the successes we've had.

giphy.gif


giphy.gif


Why Run Facebook Ads?

Due to it's affordability, impressive ability to find audiences through machine learning, and unlimited lead potential.

Unlike other media buying sources, you're not paying for each click. Rather, you're paying for impressions. So things like your Cost Per Click, Click Through Rate, and other variables may be adjusted and optimized to fit your needs. Whether that would be delivering a large quantity of leads through an aggressive campaign, or performing simple retargeting with the objective of consistently reminding potential buyers of vehicles they've taken interest in.

So NOW WHAT?

giphy.gif


Sit back, relax, and read up. Because I'm about to BLOW your MIND.

What types of Ads should I run when starting out?

There's a MULTITUDE of ad campaign types/objectives you can run on Facebook, so things can get pretty complicated if you don't know your way around. Below are the campaign-types you're likely already running, have ran before, or have never ran at all. Some a bit more common than others.

Above all entries is a brief explanation of what each campaign type is, what it does, and finally the PROS and CONS of using it as your primary objective. Please click each spoiler to reveal information regarding each campaign type.

Funnel + Conversion Ads - What Is it?

giphy.gif


A Facebook Ad with a Conversion objective is an advertisement that algorithmically optimizes the demographic your promotional content is displayed to, based on performance. For instance, if you specify a custom conversion event, such as submitting information through an online form, visiting a web page, ect. Facebook will accumulate demographic data of those completing each conversion objective you specify, and find more people who fall in a similar demographic, and are likely to complete the same conversion event as those who've completed an event previously. This is very effective, and is my favorite campaign type to use.

A funnel is a custom built web form, and can be used in conjunction with a conversion ad. As long as you install the Facebook Pixel into the funnel, and specify conversion events through each page, it can be the best way to capture lead information, and on a predictable basis as well.

Funnel + Conversion Ads - Pros

1: Very consistent for producing leads predictably.

2: Tends to optimize itself.

3: Extremely affordable lead cost.

Funnel + Conversion Ads - Cons

1: Custom Funnels/Websites/Forms are difficult and expensive to make.

2: In higher budgets Cost Per Acquisition can rise.

3: Initial setup is complicated.

Lead Ads - What Is it?

giphy.gif

Lead ads are much like Conversion Ads and Funnels. However, only difference is the landing page being internal, and part of Facebook's architecture. This is one of the cheapest and quickest ways to begin generating leads through the Facebook Platform.

Much like Conversion Ads, Lead Ads optimize algorithmically based on leads produced in a certain time period. Only difference is that you may not optimize for custom conversion objectives, like scheduling an appointment, or anything outside of generating basic contact information.

And this seems to be flawed as well, as Facebook auto-populates contact information in these forms, based on private information associated with the Facebook profile. Sometimes these phone numbers and emails are outdated, and at times people accidentally submit their information, due to the simplicity of submitting a lead.

Lead Ads - Pros

1: No out-of-pocket costs other than adspend, unlike a funnel/form/landing page.

2: Extremely cheap to generate leads with.

3: Algorithmically optimizes over time, much like Conversion Ads.

Lead Ads - Cons

1: People tend to accidentally submit their information, due to the simplicity of the process.

2: Many of the leads you generate have invalid or old contact information.

3: Inability to customize and integrate custom functions, like scheduling, ect.

Retargeting - What Is it?

Out of all the campaign types listed in this thread, this is one of the most popularly used among Car Dealerships. It's the bread and butter for car classified websites, and is the most BASIC but ESSENTIAL campaign type to utilize.

Let's say you're on cars.com searching for a vehicle to purchase, and you forget about a vehicle you had watched for some time. You happen to spend a lot of time on social networks (most people do), and continually come across a post advertised by cars.com with the exact car you were looking at, as well as a few others. You submit your information because that post reminded you of your interest in the vehicle, pestering you until you took action. This is called retargeting - or the more technical term, Dynamic Remarketing.

Vendors will say that this is the only campaign type you'll need to run. However, I'd like for you to keep an open mind in this thread, as there are more unique ways of generating business, other than through Dynamic Remarketing.

Retargeting - Pros

1: Great way of producing sales from referral traffic. Ex. Car classifieds, search engines, and social.

2: Typically very affordable, depending on how much inbound traffic your dealership website generates.

3: Extremely easy to setup, nearly anybody can do it.

Retargeting - Cons

1: Requires an inventory feed, which is constantly updated, and in the correct format for Facebook to use.

2: If your website has low traffic volume, it'll be tough generating results.

3: You can run through audiences very quickly, if your audience size is too small.

Post Engagement - What Is it?

giphy.gif

Good old Post Engagement campaigns. Probably the most simple to setup, and can be very affordable for growing your brand socially, and creating awareness for your business.

Although Post Engagement campaigns can produce leads/sales, I've found it to be much less effective, as it's objective is revolved around attaining social proof, and that alone.

I never recommend running this campaign type if your intention is to make sales through Facebook. However, I do recommend promoting engaging content, for the sake of remarketing to those that engage.

Post Engagement - Pros

1: Great for building social proof.

2: Affordable method for growing brand awareness.

3: Awesome way to introduce new viewers to your content.

Post Engagement - Cons

1: Unpredictable & Expensive for generating leads/sales.

2: At times optimizes for events other than post reactions, comments, and shares.

3: May lose optimization and become expensive after running for a duration.

Link Click - What Is it?

giphy.gif


Link click campaigns are among some of the most basic campaign types to use when advertising on Facebook. And although they can be quite inexpensive at generating web impressions, they are very costly and unpredictable for generating leads/sales via the Facebook platform.

In larger budgets, they can perform drastically better when compared to more modest adspend. However, it's like shooting the broad side of a barn door. You'll have more success with 100 attempts versus 10.

Link Click - Pros

1: Easy to setup.

2: Optimizes internally, for the objective of people clicking through the ad and landing on your website.

3: Easy to attain a reasonable CPC in almost any industry.

Link Click - Cons

1: Wasteful when running smaller budgets.

2: Unpredictable at generating sales/leads.

3: Generates a lot of dud traffic.

Which Campaign Objective is the one for me?

There's no real way to answer this question without knowing your situation, budget, and the time you have to invest in initiating a successful campaign. More than anything, running successful advertisements takes time and experience, which are both valuable resources in this industry.

My preference has always leaned towards utilizing Conversion Ads and Funnels, building out custom Websites/Forms to lead people through, tracking each acquisition through a Facebook Pixel. Then optimizing via these implementations. Which is exactly what I'm going to be teaching you TODAY!

How do I setup a Conversion Campaign and Funnel?

Find your Offer/Angle:

There's many ways to entice people in the products you're selling. The greatest ways you can do this is offer something in return for nothing. Whether that's information, another product, or an irresistible offer. Sometimes it's as simple as running creatives to a specific audience, and allowing performance to narrow down the best offer.

Below are some creative angles/offers we've used in the past, which have worked
wonderfully:

6QYDDsu.jpg

In this campaign we were working with a dealer who also owned a car wash, and they gave everyone who came in to test drive a new vehicle (only those that qualified) free car washes for a month!

CAboada.jpg

This campaign was a little tricky, but was golden after we found our winning image. Much like our previous campaign, this one incentivized people to test drive vehicles, for the chance to win an iPhone XS Max, a 50-Inch Flatscreen TV, and other prizes.

7qhPCNF.png

One of the best performing campaigns gave nothing away as a prize. Instead, it offered incredible financing solutions for rideshare drivers. Generated over 140 appointments/walk-ins, and sold at a considerable close rate as well.

Build a Website/Landing Page/Funnel to capture lead information.

giphy.gif

One of the best ways to capture lead information via a conversion campaign is through a simple landing page.

There's many page builders out there. Wordpress offers them, Clickfunnels offers them, or you could have a web developer make a custom landing page for you. My personal preference is using Phonesites, which is a landing page builder. It does take some time to get used to building landing pages, and will require a bit of coding experience, and a bit of effort to integrate into most CRM's. It is BY FAR one of the greatest solutions I've used to date, and can make the funnel/landing page building process a breeze.

You can view my explanation/tutorial on building a Phonesites landing page HERE.

Setup a campaign through the Facebook Ads Manager

If you don't already have a Facebook Ads Account, I highly recommend you set one up, or have somebody set one up for you. Otherwise, continue reading.

1: Create a draft campaign, adset, and ad

giphy.gif


Navigate to your Facebook Ads account, and click the green "Create" button on the upper left hand side. From there, name your campaign, change the campaign objective to conversions, name the adset, and finally name the ad. Once finished, go ahead and click the "save to draft" button.

2: Select your adset's targeting & conversion event

giphy.gif


Once the entirety of the campaign has been created, navigate to your newly created adset, and select the "Lead" conversion event location, under the website option. Then enter the address and radius distance you intend to target, I prefer 50 miles around said dealer location. Once finished, select the language of person you intend to target with your ads.

As far as interest targeting goes, you don't have to use if you don't want to. Can either help a campaign or destroy performance.

3: Creating creative content

giphy.gif


Once the targeting has been selected, and the entirety of the campaign has been created, it'll be time to come up with creative content. This is where your creative angle will come in play.

My recommendation is that whatever image you choose to create or utilize in your campaign, it is 1200 x 628 pixels, has less than 20% text within the image, and that it is your own to use.

When coming up with creative copy/text within the ad, make sure to include emojis, as they're found to increase retention rates, which can affect things like Cost Per Click, Cost Per Lead, And Click Through Rate.

Ultimately you'll find what works best for your unique strategy. If you have the budget to spend, I recommend testing multiple ads for a while to see which one attains the lowest cost per acquisition.

4: Setting a custom Conversion Objective (little bit tricky)

So here's the hardest part to integrate into a campaign, and that is proper tracking.

Now that we've made a Conversion campaign, it's time to implement a tracking pixel into the appropriate landing page(s) you intend to promote. You can find the tracking pixel, alongside custom conversion event calls within the ads manager, right under the "Pixel" category.

Facebook will supply you with a Javascript code that looks like this (please replace the text *examplepixelid* with your pixel ID):

<!-- Facebook Pixel Code -->
<script>
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',
'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
fbq('init', '*examplepixelid*');
fbq('track', 'PageView');
</script>
<noscript><img height="1" width="1" style="display:none"
src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=*examplepixelid*&ev=PageView&noscript=1"
/></noscript>
<!-- End Facebook Pixel Code -->

This is the javascript code you want to place somewhere in the head of your landing page, so Facebook may track all page visits, and algorithmically optimize your ads for you. *WARNING* IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO CODE, HAVE SOMEONE ELSE DO IT FOR YOU *WARNING*

In order to track lead submissions, you want to place the same Facebook code above into a "Thank You" page, or a page a user is directed to after submitting their information.

Also need to place this little snippet into the end of your Facebook Pixel code, to track using the custom conversion objective named "Leads" on your "Thank You" page:

<!-- Custom Conversion -->
<script>
fbq('track', 'Lead');
</script>
<!-- End Custom Conversion -->

5: Finalize campaign and begin promoting

Once you've compiled your campaign, setup your funnel/landing page, and installed your pixel to the appropriate pages, you may then begin the campaign.

Facebook should give you a big blue button on the upper right hand side named "Review & Publish". Once clicked, your campaign will go through a thorough review process to verify it abides by community standards and Facebook Ad Policies. Shouldn't take longer than a day to have a campaign approved!

Then rake in those SALES. :popcorn:


Things to AVOID when running
Conversion Campaigns:

1: Editing a successful campaign.

2: Pausing a campaign, only to start it again.


3: Raising the budget more than 20% per day.

4: Narrowing your target audience to a specific group of people.

5: Running a high budget in one adset instead of diversifying with numerous.

Things you SHOULD do when running Conversion Campaigns:

1: Ensure you reach at least 50 conversions in a 7 day period, if you're using a 7 day conversion window. If you're using a 1 day conversion window, you should reach 50 conversions in one day. Things can still optimize with lesser amounts - however it is a lot harder to do.

2: Test a variety of creatives, across a multitude of adsets. See what images work best with your audience.

3: Insure you test a few angles before narrowing down to one. Some might perform worse than others, and nothing is worse than throwing ad budget into something that doesn't work.


Conclusion

Running Facebook ads can be difficult if you don't have direction. Which is why I decided to create this thread, give a little insight into our processes, and how we've attained such awesome results.

I want this thread to be as interactive as possible. So I encourage any reader to post down below and participate - let's air out the room and get learning.
 
There's a lot of venders out there that try their best to hide secrets, especially when it pertains to running successful media buying campaigns. People go to trade shows, participate in webinars, even hire people internally or externally to manage their ads for them. And although that can be the BEST thing a dealership can do, there's so many inexpensive alternatives to this, such as running ads yourself.

Which is why I decided to make a MEGATHREAD on how to run Facebook Ad campaigns the RIGHT way, and what to avoid when starting out. Should you have any questions regarding topics in this thread, feel free to comment down below.

WHO AM I?

My name is John Hozjan, and I'm 24 years old. Been in the Internet Marketing game for 8 years now, and have mostly been an affiliate marketer up until about three years ago. I own an agency called Arbor Advertising, and have been serving a multitude of automotive clients in the Chicagoland area for years, ranging from semi repair shops, all the way to family owned buy-here pay-here dealerships. We've slowly transitioned into media buying through Facebook as an alternative lead source, but have recently focused our attention to the network solely, due to the successes we've had.

giphy.gif


giphy.gif


Why Run Facebook Ads?

Due to it's affordability, impressive ability to find audiences through machine learning, and unlimited lead potential.

Unlike other media buying sources, you're not paying for each click. Rather, you're paying for impressions. So things like your Cost Per Click, Click Through Rate, and other variables may be adjusted and optimized to fit your needs. Whether that would be delivering a large quantity of leads through an aggressive campaign, or performing simple retargeting with the objective of consistently reminding potential buyers of vehicles they've taken interest in.

So NOW WHAT?

giphy.gif


Sit back, relax, and read up. Because I'm about to BLOW your MIND.

What types of Ads should I run when starting out?

There's a MULTITUDE of ad campaign types/objectives you can run on Facebook, so things can get pretty complicated if you don't know your way around. Below are the campaign-types you're likely already running, have ran before, or have never ran at all. Some a bit more common than others.

Above all entries is a brief explanation of what each campaign type is, what it does, and finally the PROS and CONS of using it as your primary objective. Please click each spoiler to reveal information regarding each campaign type.

Funnel + Conversion Ads - What Is it?

giphy.gif


A Facebook Ad with a Conversion objective is an advertisement that algorithmically optimizes the demographic your promotional content is displayed to, based on performance. For instance, if you specify a custom conversion event, such as submitting information through an online form, visiting a web page, ect. Facebook will accumulate demographic data of those completing each conversion objective you specify, and find more people who fall in a similar demographic, and are likely to complete the same conversion event as those who've completed an event previously. This is very effective, and is my favorite campaign type to use.

A funnel is a custom built web form, and can be used in conjunction with a conversion ad. As long as you install the Facebook Pixel into the funnel, and specify conversion events through each page, it can be the best way to capture lead information, and on a predictable basis as well.

Funnel + Conversion Ads - Pros

1: Very consistent for producing leads predictably.

2: Tends to optimize itself.

3: Extremely affordable lead cost.

Funnel + Conversion Ads - Cons

1: Custom Funnels/Websites/Forms are difficult and expensive to make.

2: In higher budgets Cost Per Acquisition can rise.

3: Initial setup is complicated.

Lead Ads - What Is it?

giphy.gif

Lead ads are much like Conversion Ads and Funnels. However, only difference is the landing page being internal, and part of Facebook's architecture. This is one of the cheapest and quickest ways to begin generating leads through the Facebook Platform.

Much like Conversion Ads, Lead Ads optimize algorithmically based on leads produced in a certain time period. Only difference is that you may not optimize for custom conversion objectives, like scheduling an appointment, or anything outside of generating basic contact information.

And this seems to be flawed as well, as Facebook auto-populates contact information in these forms, based on private information associated with the Facebook profile. Sometimes these phone numbers and emails are outdated, and at times people accidentally submit their information, due to the simplicity of submitting a lead.

Lead Ads - Pros

1: No out-of-pocket costs other than adspend, unlike a funnel/form/landing page.

2: Extremely cheap to generate leads with.

3: Algorithmically optimizes over time, much like Conversion Ads.

Lead Ads - Cons

1: People tend to accidentally submit their information, due to the simplicity of the process.

2: Many of the leads you generate have invalid or old contact information.

3: Inability to customize and integrate custom functions, like scheduling, ect.

Retargeting - What Is it?

Out of all the campaign types listed in this thread, this is one of the most popularly used among Car Dealerships. It's the bread and butter for car classified websites, and is the most BASIC but ESSENTIAL campaign type to utilize.

Let's say you're on cars.com searching for a vehicle to purchase, and you forget about a vehicle you had watched for some time. You happen to spend a lot of time on social networks (most people do), and continually come across a post advertised by cars.com with the exact car you were looking at, as well as a few others. You submit your information because that post reminded you of your interest in the vehicle, pestering you until you took action. This is called retargeting - or the more technical term, Dynamic Remarketing.

Vendors will say that this is the only campaign type you'll need to run. However, I'd like for you to keep an open mind in this thread, as there are more unique ways of generating business, other than through Dynamic Remarketing.

Retargeting - Pros

1: Great way of producing sales from referral traffic. Ex. Car classifieds, search engines, and social.

2: Typically very affordable, depending on how much inbound traffic your dealership website generates.

3: Extremely easy to setup, nearly anybody can do it.

Retargeting - Cons

1: Requires an inventory feed, which is constantly updated, and in the correct format for Facebook to use.

2: If your website has low traffic volume, it'll be tough generating results.

3: You can run through audiences very quickly, if your audience size is too small.

Post Engagement - What Is it?

giphy.gif

Good old Post Engagement campaigns. Probably the most simple to setup, and can be very affordable for growing your brand socially, and creating awareness for your business.

Although Post Engagement campaigns can produce leads/sales, I've found it to be much less effective, as it's objective is revolved around attaining social proof, and that alone.

I never recommend running this campaign type if your intention is to make sales through Facebook. However, I do recommend promoting engaging content, for the sake of remarketing to those that engage.

Post Engagement - Pros

1: Great for building social proof.

2: Affordable method for growing brand awareness.

3: Awesome way to introduce new viewers to your content.

Post Engagement - Cons

1: Unpredictable & Expensive for generating leads/sales.

2: At times optimizes for events other than post reactions, comments, and shares.

3: May lose optimization and become expensive after running for a duration.

Link Click - What Is it?

giphy.gif


Link click campaigns are among some of the most basic campaign types to use when advertising on Facebook. And although they can be quite inexpensive at generating web impressions, they are very costly and unpredictable for generating leads/sales via the Facebook platform.

In larger budgets, they can perform drastically better when compared to more modest adspend. However, it's like shooting the broad side of a barn door. You'll have more success with 100 attempts versus 10.

Link Click - Pros

1: Easy to setup.

2: Optimizes internally, for the objective of people clicking through the ad and landing on your website.

3: Easy to attain a reasonable CPC in almost any industry.

Link Click - Cons

1: Wasteful when running smaller budgets.

2: Unpredictable at generating sales/leads.

3: Generates a lot of dud traffic.

Which Campaign Objective is the one for me?

There's no real way to answer this question without knowing your situation, budget, and the time you have to invest in initiating a successful campaign. More than anything, running successful advertisements takes time and experience, which are both valuable resources in this industry.

My preference has always leaned towards utilizing Conversion Ads and Funnels, building out custom Websites/Forms to lead people through, tracking each acquisition through a Facebook Pixel. Then optimizing via these implementations. Which is exactly what I'm going to be teaching you TODAY!

How do I setup a Conversion Campaign and Funnel?

Find your Offer/Angle:

There's many ways to entice people in the products you're selling. The greatest ways you can do this is offer something in return for nothing. Whether that's information, another product, or an irresistible offer. Sometimes it's as simple as running creatives to a specific audience, and allowing performance to narrow down the best offer.

Below are some creative angles/offers we've used in the past, which have worked
wonderfully:

6QYDDsu.jpg

In this campaign we were working with a dealer who also owned a car wash, and they gave everyone who came in to test drive a new vehicle (only those that qualified) free car washes for a month!

CAboada.jpg

This campaign was a little tricky, but was golden after we found our winning image. Much like our previous campaign, this one incentivized people to test drive vehicles, for the chance to win an iPhone XS Max, a 50-Inch Flatscreen TV, and other prizes.

7qhPCNF.png

One of the best performing campaigns gave nothing away as a prize. Instead, it offered incredible financing solutions for rideshare drivers. Generated over 140 appointments/walk-ins, and sold at a considerable close rate as well.

Build a Website/Landing Page/Funnel to capture lead information.

giphy.gif

One of the best ways to capture lead information via a conversion campaign is through a simple landing page.

There's many page builders out there. Wordpress offers them, Clickfunnels offers them, or you could have a web developer make a custom landing page for you. My personal preference is using Phonesites, which is a landing page builder. It does take some time to get used to building landing pages, and will require a bit of coding experience, and a bit of effort to integrate into most CRM's. It is BY FAR one of the greatest solutions I've used to date, and can make the funnel/landing page building process a breeze.

You can view my explanation/tutorial on building a Phonesites landing page HERE.

Setup a campaign through the Facebook Ads Manager

If you don't already have a Facebook Ads Account, I highly recommend you set one up, or have somebody set one up for you. Otherwise, continue reading.

1: Create a draft campaign, adset, and ad

giphy.gif


Navigate to your Facebook Ads account, and click the green "Create" button on the upper left hand side. From there, name your campaign, change the campaign objective to conversions, name the adset, and finally name the ad. Once finished, go ahead and click the "save to draft" button.

2: Select your adset's targeting & conversion event

giphy.gif


Once the entirety of the campaign has been created, navigate to your newly created adset, and select the "Lead" conversion event location, under the website option. Then enter the address and radius distance you intend to target, I prefer 50 miles around said dealer location. Once finished, select the language of person you intend to target with your ads.

As far as interest targeting goes, you don't have to use if you don't want to. Can either help a campaign or destroy performance.

3: Creating creative content

giphy.gif


Once the targeting has been selected, and the entirety of the campaign has been created, it'll be time to come up with creative content. This is where your creative angle will come in play.

My recommendation is that whatever image you choose to create or utilize in your campaign, it is 1200 x 628 pixels, has less than 20% text within the image, and that it is your own to use.

When coming up with creative copy/text within the ad, make sure to include emojis, as they're found to increase retention rates, which can affect things like Cost Per Click, Cost Per Lead, And Click Through Rate.

Ultimately you'll find what works best for your unique strategy. If you have the budget to spend, I recommend testing multiple ads for a while to see which one attains the lowest cost per acquisition.

4: Setting a custom Conversion Objective (little bit tricky)

So here's the hardest part to integrate into a campaign, and that is proper tracking.

Now that we've made a Conversion campaign, it's time to implement a tracking pixel into the appropriate landing page(s) you intend to promote. You can find the tracking pixel, alongside custom conversion event calls within the ads manager, right under the "Pixel" category.

Facebook will supply you with a Javascript code that looks like this (please replace the text *examplepixelid* with your pixel ID):

<!-- Facebook Pixel Code -->
<script>
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',
'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
fbq('init', '*examplepixelid*');
fbq('track', 'PageView');
</script>
<noscript><img height="1" width="1" style="display:none"
src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=*examplepixelid*&ev=PageView&noscript=1"
/></noscript>
<!-- End Facebook Pixel Code -->

This is the javascript code you want to place somewhere in the head of your landing page, so Facebook may track all page visits, and algorithmically optimize your ads for you. *WARNING* IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO CODE, HAVE SOMEONE ELSE DO IT FOR YOU *WARNING*

In order to track lead submissions, you want to place the same Facebook code above into a "Thank You" page, or a page a user is directed to after submitting their information.

Also need to place this little snippet into the end of your Facebook Pixel code, to track using the custom conversion objective named "Leads" on your "Thank You" page:

<!-- Custom Conversion -->
<script>
fbq('track', 'Lead');
</script>
<!-- End Custom Conversion -->

5: Finalize campaign and begin promoting

Once you've compiled your campaign, setup your funnel/landing page, and installed your pixel to the appropriate pages, you may then begin the campaign.

Facebook should give you a big blue button on the upper right hand side named "Review & Publish". Once clicked, your campaign will go through a thorough review process to verify it abides by community standards and Facebook Ad Policies. Shouldn't take longer than a day to have a campaign approved!

Then rake in those SALES. :popcorn:


Things to AVOID when running
Conversion Campaigns:

1: Editing a successful campaign.

2: Pausing a campaign, only to start it again.


3: Raising the budget more than 20% per day.

4: Narrowing your target audience to a specific group of people.

5: Running a high budget in one adset instead of diversifying with numerous.

Things you SHOULD do when running Conversion Campaigns:

1: Ensure you reach at least 50 conversions in a 7 day period, if you're using a 7 day conversion window. If you're using a 1 day conversion window, you should reach 50 conversions in one day. Things can still optimize with lesser amounts - however it is a lot harder to do.

2: Test a variety of creatives, across a multitude of adsets. See what images work best with your audience.

3: Insure you test a few angles before narrowing down to one. Some might perform worse than others, and nothing is worse than throwing ad budget into something that doesn't work.


Conclusion

Running Facebook ads can be difficult if you don't have direction. Which is why I decided to create this thread, give a little insight into our processes, and how we've attained such awesome results.

I want this thread to be as interactive as possible. So I encourage any reader to post down below and participate - let's air out the room and get learning.
Love this!!

If you are ever looking for a change of scenery and want to make an impact at a large nationwide dealer group, let me know ;)
 
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R u sure Fb is the best Ads Platform for cardealership? I don't think so. Mb it suits 4 brand awareness, but not for marketing.

I think everything has a place in the automotive world, as far as advertising goes. Which is why people still run Commercial, Radio, and Flyers.

Compared to traditional methods of advertising, there's no doubt that Facebook supersedes. Even when stacked up to more modern advertising methods, such as Google Ads & TV Advertisements. And the biggest reason is because of Facebook's intuitive machine learning.

Don't let me be the example though. Let's use you as an example.

Ever talk about a certain something around your phone, such as a brand, an item you're looking for, or a place you want to visit. Only to be shown an advertisement on your Facebook News Feed correlating to a previously discussed topic?

People commonly say that Facebook is listening to our conversations through our phones, but that's not the case at all.

The way Facebook sorts audiences for advertising purposes is based on a multitude of factors, such as behavior, interests, age, gender, previous content interactions, and the list goes on. And through Facebook's AI the network has an extremely accurate way of targeting customers through the platform.

Which makes it AMAZING for lead generation.

Although Google Ads works on a similar premise (and works well, might I add), you're limited by search volume. Which inevitably puts a restraint on your potential reach.

Again, don't let me talk. The results speak for themselves:

upload_2019-1-9_12-40-39.png

Paid $0.50 a lead yesterday. (Lead being phone number, zip code, work experience, full name, desired vehicle)

And that resulted in 22 appointments on my clients calendar.

And if they can't close 22 appointments for financing, that aren't subprime, then I'm working with the wrong people. lol

Point is, there's so much potential because not many are doing it. So if you're looking to grow in 2019, Facebook is the perfect place to start!
 
R u sure Fb is the best Ads Platform for cardealership? I don't think so. Mb it suits 4 brand awareness, but not for marketing.
Think of it as the Sunday Paper. You would pick your best units, put them together in an ad, and Sunday morning someone would be reading the paper and see them. Facebook is the new "paper". People are there for information, entertainment, or news so having your ad units handed to them in a way that you can measure and plan is pretty spectacular.
We have had some decent success with Facebook Ads so far. When we first started our bounce rate was HUGE! But after trial an error and trying news things our analytics look much better and the ROI is substantial. I can get similar result as CPC for a fraction of the cost.
 
Hey John, that's great stuff, I can tell you're really good at what you do. Dealerships, in general, are struggling to harness the power of Facebook and stop at the Social portion vs. the Media portion.

It's very different from one another. FB Ads are also in a class of their own, you must be willing to go the distance lead nurturing wise to exponentially increase your ROI.

Facebook suits for EVERY portion of a dealership's operations. I can't stress this enough. If Facebook doesn't work for you, it's because you don't know how to work Facebook.

Important: Facebook is very different from Google Ads, Organic Traffic, or Email Marketing so please manage your expectations. You will be the ultimate winner if you do.

We on our end use ClickFunnels as our main landing page builder and I'm convinced it's currently the best landing page builder for dealerships right now. It's uber fast, affordable & very flexible.

Generating traffic is great but you do have to have a strong landing page to convert, otherwise, you're stuck with traffic, not leads. The offers above are a perfect example of that. I personally love Facebook Ads to get new customers that are in the market to change vehicle to submit a trade-in appraisal request. When approached the right way (customer oriented & not dealer oriented), it's very effective.

What you'll get with FB Ads,

Take this free Trade-In landing page if you want to try it. Or you can also use the template for new vehicle launch, also amazing paired with Facebook Ads.

As a dealer, you have to know your objective because the strategy & tactics are going to be very different. For example, dealers are really strong on the branding portion and will always be.

We had some fun building a Car Dealership Branding Recipe where you can self-serve & create your own branding campaign. It's simple and can be tweaked for different results. Here's an excerpt of the full post.


How to brand your dealership using Facebook
Alright, this post was taken directly from our Facebook Ads Cookbook. It was built to give you the capacity to create & run your own flawless Facebook campaigns.

Although it might not be your role or you may not have the time, but understanding everything in and out will ensure you make the right decisions when hiring someone or an agency to do it for you. Enjoy.

Read the full post
 
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I think everything has a place in the automotive world, as far as advertising goes. Which is why people still run Commercial, Radio, and Flyers.

Compared to traditional methods of advertising, there's no doubt that Facebook supersedes. Even when stacked up to more modern advertising methods, such as Google Ads & TV Advertisements. And the biggest reason is because of Facebook's intuitive machine learning.

Don't let me be the example though. Let's use you as an example.

Ever talk about a certain something around your phone, such as a brand, an item you're looking for, or a place you want to visit. Only to be shown an advertisement on your Facebook News Feed correlating to a previously discussed topic?

People commonly say that Facebook is listening to our conversations through our phones, but that's not the case at all.

The way Facebook sorts audiences for advertising purposes is based on a multitude of factors, such as behavior, interests, age, gender, previous content interactions, and the list goes on. And through Facebook's AI the network has an extremely accurate way of targeting customers through the platform.

Which makes it AMAZING for lead generation.

Although Google Ads works on a similar premise (and works well, might I add), you're limited by search volume. Which inevitably puts a restraint on your potential reach.

Again, don't let me talk. The results speak for themselves:

View attachment 4018

Paid $0.50 a lead yesterday. (Lead being phone number, zip code, work experience, full name, desired vehicle)

And that resulted in 22 appointments on my clients calendar.

And if they can't close 22 appointments for financing, that aren't subprime, then I'm working with the wrong people. lol

Point is, there's so much potential because not many are doing it. So if you're looking to grow in 2019, Facebook is the perfect place to start!

The functionaly of FB is out of the question. But still, u won't sell ur cars somewhere far from ur area very often. On local area mb even newspapers works good. Social media works better on global level. I was talking about that.
 
Think of it as the Sunday Paper. You would pick your best units, put them together in an ad, and Sunday morning someone would be reading the paper and see them. Facebook is the new "paper". People are there for information, entertainment, or news so having your ad units handed to them in a way that you can measure and plan is pretty spectacular.
We have had some decent success with Facebook Ads so far. When we first started our bounce rate was HUGE! But after trial an error and trying news things our analytics look much better and the ROI is substantial. I can get similar result as CPC for a fraction of the cost.
Ofc, any cent used for ads worth it. But if ur budget is limited, u need to divide it in a right way, and mb there are some sources that works better for ur business exactly.
 
Ofc, any cent used for ads worth it. But if ur budget is limited, u need to divide it in a right way, and mb there are some sources that works better for ur business exactly.

I've worked with some pretty low budgets before, investing into link building campaigns for SEO. And let me tell you, nothing has worked better than Facebook, or more instantaneously.

Compared to Google Ads, Facebook seems to be the cheaper alternative.

If your budget is less than $100.00, I don't recommend advertising, because you have bigger fish to fry. However, anything above $500.00 is enough to get some traction and begin optimizing for results.

Most of my clients and I are spending anywhere from $1,000/m on the low end to roughly $15,000/m on the high end in ad budget. Every situation is unique, and some automotive groups have the money and time to invest in themselves.