Anyone use Facebook ads and have had success?

[Alexander Lau]

Hey Alexander, I assure you we're not trying to get anything by you. Just trying to share a bit of our experience with facebook ads for car dealers. Emily clarified her comment and we're all in agreement its not a typical or expected result, was just a cool moment when she saw that number on a report. We get super excited about Facebook advertising. We come in peace.

Yeah, I don't think anyone meant anything negative. We're used to picking things apart (partly to see if we can steal the same methods, if they are viable), especially at that % increase.

I'm going to have to agree with @craigh @reverson here.

 

[Christine Plunkett]

I assure you gentlemen that insulting your intelligence was not Emily's goal here. Neither she nor I work in sales, we simply chimed into a thread which is relevant to our unique automotive marketing roles. We spend all day every day building and monitoring Facebook ads and posts for car dealers and we're very proud of our results, but not trying to close any business. If anyone is interested in learning more about what we do we'd be thrilled to have a call or invite you to take a look at our website or blog.

I'll note that I asked Emily to join Dealer Refresh because I believe this is an important and enjoyable place to interact with others in our industry. I didn't warn her to be wary of attacks or to prepare a power point presentation before chiming in. I'm wondering if this is the welcome Noob's receive will they be encouraged to share insights going forward or not? Gentle correction is always welcome if we've missed the mark with our message as seems was the case here. If your goal was to haze a new Refresher you've succeeded. She clarified the offending stat and we all agree that alone the number is insignificant. Can we retract those claws? Going forward I assure you all we'll tread lightly with the stats. Excellent advise to show vs. sell, we meant no harm. Namaste, Wakanda Forever, please stop yelling at us. Lol.

 

[craigh]

I have no intentions of attacking anyone, but when you post with contact information, call to actions and inflated numbers... you’re here to sell.

We love contributions of all kinds, but it tends to go over better when you show numbers upfront. The reality is that that 6,000% increase is a stat that has no value in context, especially when the context is < 250 website visitors. That’s not an attack, just a perspective.

Hope you stay and continue to contribute. Don’t ever hesitate to push back, just fight fire with facts

 

[Jeff Kershner]

And how many of those increased sessions lead to a sale? Did it sell cars? a lot of dealers are more interested in Cost Per Sale?

I'm not saying I don't track cost per sale but I'm not going to completely grade the ad source on a sale. That's our (the dealers) job.

 

[Rick Buffkin]

I think I'm just gonna park this, right here! Seems like a good spot!!!

 

[Alexander Lau]

I'm not saying I don't track cost per sale but I'm not going to completely grade the ad source on a sale. That's our (the dealers) job.

Agreed, you can look at web traffic attribution too (distinctly different than sales atttribution). There is value in seeing what drives traffic (against on-site goals, etc.), especially if many leads or conversions were had (calculate a channel's Cost Per Lead or Cost Per Acquisition of Goal). If a dealership drops the ball with those leads, well that's a different issue.

 

[Tom davies]

Wow thread blew out lol.. I need to work on building that email list using Facebook ads!

 

[KatherineLn]

We've used customer list imports to build ads for "look a like" audiences based on our previous customers. Can't say that we've had a sale directly from this, though we're pretty new to the game. We did test lead generating ads with service deals and had a handful of leads come through, but ultimately no conversions from those. I have had members of our sales team make sales from posting vehicle listings in local 'buy 'n sell' groups though.

 

[Ryan Everson]

Can't say that we've had a sale directly from this, though we're pretty new to the game.

Facebook offers some of the best offline attribution reporting. Did you upload your CRM/DMS data after the campaign ended to see how many people bought a car after seeing your ads? Obviously a simple ad impression can't take the full credit but it may have partially influenced their purchasing decision.

To learn more, here's a good video about Facebook's offline conversion measurement capabilities.

 

[Tyson Madliger]

Starting with a good list to import into Facebook is a good start. Testing different wording and graphics for ads is also a key component. Ryan is correct that Facebook has some strong attribution reporting. Most customers are not going to say they came to your dealership because of Facebook, but it may have been the source that drove them to your website.