EVER-EVOLVING SOCIAL ADVERTISING

Everr-Evolving Social Advertising

As Over the last 10 years, social media has become one of the most influential mediums on which businesses can advertise their products, however, the rapid rate at which the platforms and their ad formats change can be intimidating for many business managers. 

Whether you have never advertised on social media, or you have dabbled in it but not achieved desired results, there are several reasons we encourage you to revisit this form of advertising as a way of driving quality leads into your dealership.

According to social media company, Napoleon Cat, as of December 2020, 68.6 percent of Australia’s population uses Facebook and 42 percent has an Instagram account. This demonstrates the enormity and diversity of the audience that is actively engaging with these platforms multiple times a day, and is available to advertisers who wish to build awareness of their products and services.

Why would you waste money on advertising a ute to a broad audience that includes retirees? Or a sports car to young families?

One of the key differentiators of social media from traditional advertising is the ability to target specific groups of people who have an increased likelihood of converting.

Unlike the scattergun approach of print and radio, audiences can be built within social platforms, based on location, age, gender, interests and similarity to your existing customers, meaning you are only paying to advertise to those who are likely to convert.

Social media is constantly changing, with new ad types and features being released all the time. Some of the most recent and effective social ad types include:

Video & Animated Ads 

After watching a video, consumers are 64 percent more likely to purchase a product online. Short video ads grab viewers’ attention and stop them scrolling.  They also present an opportunity to evoke interest and emotion that static ads can’t, further increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Dynamic Live Inventory Ads

 In the auto industry, we now have access to dynamic live inventory advertising where you can present a customer with an ad for a specific vehicle they’ve looked at on your website, along with other similar available stock that may be of interest. Such adaptable advertising has proven to be one of the most successful forms of generating dealership enquiries.

Canvas Ads & Stories

Canvas ads allow advertisers to present a full screen ad to social users, that removes all other distractions and fully immerses the viewer in their brand. They can be set up like a landing page within your social ad, so provide an opportunity to give a lot more information about your offering, including descriptions and lists of features.

 Facebook and Instagram offer Stories advertising, which can be in video or static form and also deliver an immersive full-screen experience.  An Ipsos survey found that 62 percent of people said they became more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in a Story.

 Both Canvas and Stories ads are perfect formats for dealers to showcase new models, with quality imagery and videos, and plenty of scope to deliver important vehicle details.

Reporting

Considering how to allocate an advertising budget can be difficult, particularly during challenging times such as these.  With social media advertising, however, dealerships can have confidence that every dollar they spend will be accounted for with the transparency provided by the platforms’ reporting tools that show all ad impressions, views, and click-throughs. 

Taking it one step further, some marketing agencies are able to offer leads matching tools that track a customer from their original advertising source right through to test drive and sale.  Such reporting gives dealerships visibility on the actual return on investment of a specific social advertising campaign- data that is unattainable with traditional ad types.

There is no doubt that nowadays, social media advertising is a vital component of any good marketing strategy. With the right message, targeting and ad formats being used, dependent on your goals, a social campaign can prove to be a game-changer to your dealerships bottom line.  Given the ever-changing and complex nature of the medium however, our recommendation is to engage a trained professional to partner with for campaigns.  They can help you get the most out of your spend, using their up-to-date knowledge and expertise on the social platforms, while you do what you do best – sell cars.