Facebook Targets Bigger Slice of Dealer Marketing Budgets

March 4, 2020

Through new integrations with DealerSocket, Facebook believes its platform can help auto dealers turn car buyers into customers for life.

By Gregory Arroyo

Remember when the prevailing wisdom when it came to your dealership’s interactions on social media was to treat it like a cocktail party? Join the conversation and don’t sell, they said. Dealers haven’t lived by that standard for years, and now Facebook wants to make it even easier for you to market your inventory and post-purchase services.

In fact, the social media giant believes its family of apps can act as an extension of your CRM and turn car buyers into customers for life. Brent Parres, partner manager for Facebook’s automotive vertical, talked about Facebook’s new play during a recent webinar in which three new integrations with DealerSocket were revealed. He also shared the following stats to prove the platform is worth your attention and a bigger slice of your marketing budget:

The timing of Facebook’s push is interesting. Currently, approximately 34 states are considering changes to their privacy laws. Speaking at the Vehicle Finance Conference this past February, Mark Templin, president and CEO of Toyota Financial Services, said there is a real possibility the industry could be looking at “51 different standards” when it comes to protecting consumer data.

As I noted back in January, data remains our industry’s best opportunity as well as its greatest threat. Facebook knows all too well what I mean.

Remember all the scrutiny Facebook came under after the exposure of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal in March 2018. Well, it forced two significant shifts in how the social media giant manages its platform:

Shift No. 1: Facebook now views its family of apps as a single, privacy-focused messaging and social networking platform. For users, that means easily and securely communicating across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. For dealer marketers, that means you can use the same budget to target car buyers across Facebook’s platform.

Shift No. 2: Facebook no longer allows marketers to use natively integrated data from third-party firms like Nielsen Data and Polk for custom audience targeting. That doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of third-party data targeting outside of Facebook. The social network simply wants dealers to rely on their data (whether scrubbed by a third party or not) when operating on its platform, which brings me to the first of three key integrations between Facebook and DealerSocket:

Integration No. 1: Facebook Audience Integration with DealerSocket’s CRM

The new connection, a pilot of which was recently completed, will allow Facebook campaigns to sync with customer lists inside DealerSocket’s CRM. Parres said that translates into limitless audience segmentation. Think about what that means in terms of your operation’s post-purchase, customer-for-life efforts.

“Those systems will match data back and forth and update back and forth, so you don’t have to constantly update your audience lists,” Parres explained. “The fact that DealerSocket is going to set this up for you and refresh the data automatically … You can’t get any better than first-party data.”

Integration No. 2: Automotive Inventory Ads

DealerSocket will soon roll out an inventory export that automatically uploads a dealer’s entire inventory to Facebook to populate the social network’s Automotive Inventory Ads. Facebook serves up these ads based on availability, pricing, and intent. That means consumers looking for Volkswagen are shown models with the body styles that mean the most to them.

“It’s our best-performing product when trying to drive leads or sales on a specific piece of inventory, so this integration would put you at a unique advantage,” Parres said of the integration, which will be available to users of DealerSocket’s CRM, Inventory+, and DealerFire websites. The connection also means no more switching out creative, because the creative is the inventory out on the lot.

Integration No. 3: Facebook Direct Lead Post

Facebook Lead Ads, which take advantage of the social network’s audience selection and optimization products, allow dealers to customize lead forms that auto-populate based on a Facebook user’s profile data. Soon, through a new integration, the information collected from those lead ads will automatically post into DealerSocket’s CRM so the sales team can take immediate action.

“We know the longer a lead sits, the worst the potential outcome will be,” Parres said. “So, this would be a huge convenience for [dealers].”

What’s also interesting about Facebook’s timing is many dealers are reconsidering their investments in third-party lead sites. Maybe a little competition is what’s needed.

Gregory Arroyo is the former editor of “F&I and Showroom” and “Auto Dealer Today” magazines. He now serves as senior manager of strategic content for DealerSocket. Email him at [email protected].

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