How to Use Facebook’s New Ads to Promote Used Car Sales

Buying a product via social media advertising has come a long way. At first, it was just sponsored posts, much like a magazine or newspaper. Eventually, the process grew to feature links to an advertiser’s website, then the specific product, and finally the ability to purchase without ever leaving the app. It’s the last part that we’re most interested in as automotive marketers. 

Dealerships have been able to run automotive ads on Facebook and Instagram for a while now. But there’s never been a clean way to generate leads without forcing users to leave the app. That all changed when Facebook announced its new Click to Marketplace ads this year.

Advertising Used Vehicle Inventory on Facebook

While officially called Dynamic Ads with an On-Facebook Destination, we’re going to refer to these new ads as Click to Marketplace or C2MP.

Here are some key features of Facebook’s new automotive ads:

• Dealers can only feature used vehicles for these promotions
• You do not have to list the vehicle on Marketplace to create an ad
• The ad works like an on-Facebook vehicle details page (VDP)
• Customers can send a Facebook message, call, visit the website, and get directions to the dealership from the ad
• Facebook shows a KBB estimate of the car’s value to highlight how the advertised price compares
• C2MP ads work on both Facebook and Instagram, though Instagrammers will be taken to Facebook to view the VDP

How to Make the Most of Facebook’s Automotive Ads

With these new ads, Facebook does a lot of the work for you. The most important step for dealers is keeping your vehicle catalog up to date. Once a vehicle sells, make sure to remove its listing so you’re not paying for leads on an already-sold piece of inventory.

An ad agency like Strong Automotive Merchandising can help you get set up with these ads. You’ll have to run them using the Special Ad Category given the credit component of the offer. As for targeting, you can either target new in-market customers, or retarget customers who have already interacted with your page or offers. Facebook recommends targeting new customers when you first begin using C2MP.

According to Facebook, the new C2MP ads reduce cost-per-lead by 82% and cost-per-view by 17% compared to the original automotive inventory ads. The reach with On-Facebook ads is twice as high as website destinations.

The used vehicle market is on fire right now. Take advantage of this new way to connect your used inventory with social media users who are looking to buy.