Facebook and Instagram are two of the most important social media platforms for auto dealers to build a presence and appeal to consumers.
Most automotive customers begin their shopping experience online. More than ever before, that means turning to social media to find vehicles that appeal to them with the features and qualities desired. Social media is an important part of digital marketing for auto dealers, especially when the goal is to create a presence on Facebook and Instagram, which are two of the most popular platforms for users to find products and shared interests.
Why is Facebook important?
As many as 84% of your potential consumers are on Facebook. You need to advertise your vehicles where your customers are located, which means ensuring you use the features of this social media platform to advertise the vehicles you’ve got on your car lot. You can narrow down the ads to your geographic area and push ads to your local users instead of allowing them to be more widespread than you need them to be. Ads on Facebook can also be narrowed to gender, vehicle type, consumer interests, and more.
Why is Instagram important?
Younger generations are growing up quickly, and they are using Instagram instead of Facebook for their social media time. This means you need to have a strong presence on Instagram to engage with millennials and Gen Z shoppers. Instagram is primarily used on mobile devices and has a strong focus on sharing photos and videos, giving your dealership an excellent platform to share your story and bring the images and videos to your customer base to see what you have to offer.
Facebook Marketplace is a great place to begin
Facebook has a place to sell items called Marketplace. Most users will post items they want to sell, but this space is also available for dealerships to share their vehicle inventory with potential customers. The settings allow the starting point to be a local area within a certain number of miles from where the customer lives. This means your local shoppers can find your vehicles much more easily. Make sure your car dealership is leveraging the functions of Facebook Marketplace.
Instagram Stories and Reels are important
If you want to maintain the attention span of social media users on Facebook and Instagram, using the Stories and Reels features of Instagram gives you that capability. You can create short, engaging videos that tell the story of a vehicle, your dealership, or the services you provide. This helps your marketing strategies to create an emotional connection with the dealership and the vehicle that you’ve got for sale. There are some great ideas for these videos that can make them pop and bring more audience members into your fold.
Showcase your reviews on Facebook
Facebook makes it easy to connect your blog links to your dealership account, ensuring you can showcase any information you want on your pages. This means you can collect several customer reviews and testimonials to give your audience the stories they want to enjoy. Your collection of revies can give future customers the feeling of confidence in your dealership team and what you have to offer. This is an important part of your social media marketing.
Host live events on social media
You can Go Live on Instagram or Facebook and use these social media platforms to answer questions, engage directly with customers, and provide information to your audience. This is a great way to talk about new vehicles coming to your dealership, additional services available to your customers, and various financing options that can make it much easier for customers to buy from you. These live sessions allow customers to get to know your team and take advantage of everything you’ve got available to them.
Paid Ads can be a big deal on Instagram and Facebook
Gaining organic traffic and followers is great, but you can still invest in paid ads on social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, to ensure you have an easy way to push your ads in front of car shoppers. Paid ads can be targeted to specific demographics and a small radius of local shoppers to help narrow your field and allow you to get the most out of the money you’ve spent on the ads.
These are only a few of the ways that social media can be used to advertise your dealership on Facebook and Instagram, where you want to build a presence. Which of these tops will you put to use?
