Hi there to all of you. I read the article at RIP Facebook Marketplace for Car Dealers and noticed that a few people had figured out how to use the catalog as previously. However, I still need assistance with the vehicle catalog on Facebook. I created this thread on Alex Snyder's suggestion, and I'm hoping you guys will assist me in figuring out how to use the catalog. For our company, this would be very helpful. By the way, I'm new to this community and am happy to say that I'm thankful to have found such a kind and supportive group of people who all work toward the same goals. Thank you to everyone of this community in advance.
Help with the Facebook vehicle catalog
- Thread starter Betty
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- Mar 21, 2012
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Who is your inventory feed provider? Many feed providers will be able to provide you a feed URL that is in the correct Meta inventory catalog format.
AET Automotive is another great option for dealers that want to run DIY Facebook dynamic inventory ads, but may not have all the technical know-how to set everything up completely from scratch.
Pretty inexpensive, easy to use, lots of extra benefits, and they'll help with the initial catalog+pixel setup.
AET Automotive is another great option for dealers that want to run DIY Facebook dynamic inventory ads, but may not have all the technical know-how to set everything up completely from scratch.
AET Automotive - The New Standard in Automotive Marketing
The AET Marketing Suite blends together beautiful ad design, powerful audience targeting, & lightning fast deployment for automotive dealerships, agencies, & OEMs. Easily create vehicle incentive ads for your dealership and deploy them to Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat in seconds.
www.aetautomotive.com
Pretty inexpensive, easy to use, lots of extra benefits, and they'll help with the initial catalog+pixel setup.
I appreciate your response. Ryan, I have been using v12software for the past six months, however this supplier is uploading the listings straight from my own Facebook profile. When the catalog was functioning well in the past, I used to manually upload the listings using the.cvs extension; this method was quite simple and didn't require a feed provider. To make sure I understand correctly, would aetautomotive allow me to post vehicle listings on my Facebook page as a car dealership once more? Do you mean that our company's Facebook page will be listed by this feed provider? I apologize, but my familiarity with these feed providers is limited, which is why I'm looking for help here.
- Mar 21, 2012
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A Facebook automotive inventory catalog can only be used to run paid ads now:
- Business pages can no longer post free organic listings on Marketplace.
- Only personal profiles can post free organic listings on Marketplace.
- Business pages can choose to run paid ads on Marketplace.
I'm not familiar with v12's software personally, but there are several companies that offer a service like that. They are likely using a workaround that logs into your personal facebook profile and uses software to move your mouse, upload photos, and create vehicle listings "automatically". Technically this is against Facebook's terms of service and you could risk having your Facebook account deactivated.
I understand, however according to the latest reply to this thread RIP Facebook Marketplace for Car Dealers, a person can upload vehiles straight from their Facebook page to the marketplace. Would you please read the most latest reply to this topic, Ryan?
- Mar 21, 2012
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That person is either a spammer or doesn't know what they are talking about. Business pages can no longer post free organic vehicle listings on marketplace. Only personal profiles can.
Your best bet is to find a go-getter salesperson or BDC rep to post your inventory on their personal Facebook profile.
Couple pitfalls to be aware of:
- If you raise or lower the price of a vehicle, you'll have to remember to also update the price on Marketplace.
- Same thing if the vehicle sells, you'll have to remember to delete the listing.
- Every personal profile has a marketplace star rating. This may cause people to give you a 1-star rating simply because you're a dealer. This can affect your ability to sell or buy non-work related items on Marketplace
- All messages will be sent to your personal Facebook profile, not your business Facebook. AKA only 1 person can reply unless you share your login.
- All listings are tied to your personal Facebook profile. AKA make sure whoever is posting cars has a clean Facebook profile and doesn't share anything crazy or offensive.
OR just use a solution like AET and dedicate a small budget to paid inventory ads that also run on Marketplace.
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Is not just that one person. Ryan, you should also read Alex Snyder's response on the final page of that thread, as he has stated that someone has discovered a few things about this.
- Mar 21, 2012
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I really hope I'm wrong @Betty and there is some secret cheat code I'm not aware of, because trust me I'd love a viable workaround that takes us back to the "old days" of how Marketplace used to be.
The last DealerRefresh user who left the comment was directing people to DM him, which is never a promising sign. DealerRefresh is all about open sharing and helping each other get better! Asking to DM usually means = either doing something sketchy or trying to shill a product. Also keep in mind these couple posts were from 2 years ago, a lot can change in 2 years time.
But as far as I know, these are the only 3 "options" available today and most likely what is being referenced in that thread:
- Manually post marketplace listings from a personal facebook profile.
- "Automatically" post marketplace listings from a personal facebook profile using software that automates the manual posting of marketplace listings using a virtual machine or some sort of remote control that may be against Facebook's Terms of Service.
- Or create a new personal profile under the name of your business (also against Facebook's policies and likely to get deleted or converted to a business page) and use the automation software to post manual listings from this personal profile.
- Use a Facebook Inventory Catalog to run paid AIA marketplace ads.
Due to our group's large Meta spend, we are on Meta's Managed Automotive Team and hold bi-weekly meetings with Meta (actual reps, not the outsourced Meta Pros from India). We also get early access to any new alpha or beta features, and I have heard nothing new related to organic Marketplace vehicle listings coming back for business pages.
But hopefully someone else does chime in and provides a different answer! I'll be the first to hop on it (provided it's not against Facebook's terms of service) and then give my Meta rep crap next week for not letting me in on this inside secret.
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- Jan 23, 2020
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I am the person that figured it out but this was 2 years ago. It was always a Catalog approach and never a marketplace posting hack. I 100% Agree with Ryan. I currently run AIA ads using a feed from Frikintech and some scripts. I take a different approach and have multiple vehicle sets that are small with custom overlays for click for payments, certified, trucks etc. They do show up in marketplace and direct people to our digital retailing tool. I also have one salesperson who lists the cars he cherry picks on his own marketplace profile. This approach works for us. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
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Exactly, the perfect 1-2 combo! Motivated salespeople posting vehicles organically on Marketplace (under defined guidelines), and then a small budget on AIA ads broken out into vehicle sets so you have more control over where the spend goes.
I'm sorry if some of the old comments on the other thread gave a glimmer of false hope @Betty. Should I hear any news about Meta planning to reintroduce organic Marketplace vehicle listings for business pages, I'll make sure to share it here first!
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