Social media sites have allowed dealerships to interact with customers in a way they never thought possible just a few years ago. The value they receive from these relatively inexpensive outlets in terms of generating excitement for their brand, promoting new products, and answering questions from potential customers cannot be overstated. In this article, we will outline two approaches to social media marketing and how Facebook ads for automotive dealerships can take a dealership’s product/service promotions to the next level.
Organic Marketing — A Traditional Approach
Organic marketing efforts involve the more “usual” uses of social media with which dealerships are most familiar. When companies interact with potential customers through their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, this is a form of organic marketing. They allow customers to come to them, and then they generate excitement. Good social media accounts will also give insight by interacting with the customer in a post. Dealerships can also promote their new model lines and/or service promotions on their social media accounts, which are then seen by their followers.
Another avenue of organic marketing occurs when companies upload SEO-optimized blog articles to their own websites. Again, these types of SEO-optimized organic marketing efforts are of interest to consumers already searching for key products and/or services. When blog posts are optimized, it naturally draws interested parties to their website. Companies then analyze their organic traffic to review whether their promotion efforts were successful. Based on these results, they can fine-tune their SEO efforts.
Organic marketing definitely has value and should be a part of every dealership’s overall marketing strategy. Organic marketing can draw like-minded individuals together, such as a group of fans of a specific car model. It also allows companies to answer questions from potential customers. Organic marketing efforts allow search engines to find quality content matching the keywords that search engine users are looking for. However, organic marketing’s main downside is that it tends to be somewhat passive in nature. Rather than reaching out directly to customers, organic marketing focuses more on an inbound strategy. It requires interested parties to make the effort to visit a dealership’s web presence.
Targeting with Paid Facebook Ads for Automotive Dealerships
Paid ads are similar to organic marketing efforts in that they may use the same social media outlets, but the similarities stop there. With paid social media ads, companies have the ability to take the lead and reach out directly to potential customers. Instead of waiting for customers to come to them, auto dealers can use paid ads to target potential customers.
Facebook ads for automotive dealerships can be created in such a way as to match products with their target audiences. Say a dealership has a sale coming up soon and wants to target a specific group. They can target their ads to reach exactly the type of customer most likely to buy a specific vehicle model.
Facebook, in particular, has a wide range of helpful tools that allow dealerships to create, target, and track paid ads. With a targeted automotive Facebook ad, dealerships can show the right vehicle at the right time to exactly the right person. Of course, dealerships want to do more than just reach out to customers with an announcement about an upcoming sale, and with the robust targeting tools available with social media, they can do so.
Paid targeting tools allow dealerships not only to reach out to potential clients, they also can exclude groups. This helps advertisers to avoid wasting advertising dollars on a dead end. As an example, Facebook allows dealerships to exclude a competitor’s employees from an ad campaign, simply by researching the Facebook user’s place of employment. Conversely, paid ads campaigns can be promoted to include very specific groups. For example, if a dealership wants to run a campaign touting the safety features of a certain vehicle, they run an ad that targets parents — one of the premiere groups most interested in vehicle safety features.
Summary
While organic marketing strategies certainly have value in developing a brand voice, as well as interacting with brand enthusiasts, it does have its limitations. Paid social media ads come with their own targeting and analytical tools. These allow dealerships to harness the power of social media sites to run their most effective campaigns ever.
Want to know more about taking your Facebook ads for automotive dealerships to the next level? VIP Marketing is here to support your efforts. Please contact us for help with your next social media advertising campaign!
