Cars cost a lot, so buying one usually takes time and involves several steps. Nowadays, most people start looking for a car online. They do their research, ask for advice, and often test-drive several cars before making a purchase.
This makes it really important for car dealerships to have effective marketing and sales strategies. For instance, you need to know how to advertise your car dealership on Facebook. Or, what keywords are currently trending.
- Importance of car dealership marketing strategies
- Top three car dealership marketing strategies for 2024
- Car dealership marketing ideas you might be overlooking
- What to take away from this?
This article explores essential car dealership marketing strategies and tools across Meta solutions that can boost your dealership’s performance in no time.
Importance of car dealership marketing strategies
According to Google, almost all (95%) of car shoppers start their search online. There is an increasing trend in keyword and visual content searches that are especially relevant to car dealership marketing.
That’s why it’s important for your dealership to have a strong online presence. This means having a good website that’s easy to use and find, and setting up profiles on social media platforms like Facebook, directories, and review sites.
By doing this, you make sure that people looking to buy cars know about your dealership and what you offer. This is about engaging with potential customers.
Besides user trends, the automotive market is fiercely competitive. Having the right marketing strategies can set your dealership apart.
Implementing targeted marketing strategies also helps increase the visibility of your dealership while attracting more qualified leads and converting them into sales.
Top three car dealership marketing strategies for 2024
The key to selling more cars is to attract car sales leads and provide them with a great shopping experience. Consider using these strategies to bring in more customers and improve their experience at your dealership.
1. Digital marketing for car dealerships
In 2024, establishing a strong online presence through a well-designed website is not just necessary but expected. In addition, you can create engaging social media content and set up effective SEO practices that help you reach a broader audience.
Try using video content, such as virtual tours of new models or feature highlights. This can give the viewers the boost they need to keep them interested.
Here’s what you need in your car dealership marketing toolkit to start with:
A well-designed website
Whether you want to attract more people to buy cars or sell more parts online, your website is often the first thing a potential customer sees. If your website is poorly designed, this might be the only impression they get of your dealership.
To enhance your dealership’s online strategy with a high-performing website, it’s beneficial to consider investing in high-quality domain names. Selecting an impactful domain name ensures better visibility and traffic, similar to optimizing your social media presence.
SEO optimization
Focus on keywords like “most reliable car dealership” and create relevant content for them. This makes it easier for potential buyers to find your dealership when searching for their next vehicle online.
Organic social media content
Posting regularly on Facebook can really help, especially if you don’t want to pay to boost your posts. The platform supports many types of content, so dealerships can start conversations, share quick tips, and link to videos and photos that attract visitors. Keeping an active and varied presence on Facebook, along with using its analytics tools, can boost your brand’s visibility and increase sales.
Looking for more ideas? Here are 20 car dealership event ideas you can use all year long.
2. Using Facebook ads for car dealerships
Facebook ads are a powerful tool for car dealerships. They allow for precise targeting based on demographics, interests, and behavior.
Your goal is to create compelling ad campaigns that showcase your cars and special offers that can effectively reach potential customers who are most likely to purchase.
Incorporating LeadsBridge integrations can further upgrade your Facebook advertising efforts. When you seamlessly sync your automotive CRM data with your ad campaigns, the rest just follows naturally. You can make sure that your leads are immediately accessible for follow-up, create highly targeted audience segments, run nurturing campaigns and more.
Here’s what you can do with advertising tools and solutions across Meta for car dealerships:
Lead ads
Meta lead ads for automotive streamline the process of gathering potential customer information directly through social media.
They provide pre-populated forms that make sharing contact details quick and effortless. Streamlining your automotive lead data management allows your team to run quick follow-up with interested leads.
User tracking features
Journey-based advertising is the best way you can go about audience targeting. Facebook offers specialized Meta Pixel setup for automotive.
The Conversions API for CRM is designed to connect your marketing data directly with Meta’s systems. This connection makes ad targeting more precise, while reducing costs and improving your ability to measure the outcome.
It links data from your server, website, app, or CRM, such as website events, app events, offline conversions, and messaging events, back to Meta.
This feature also helps personalize and optimize your ads across all Meta platforms, so that you can make sure your ads reach the right audience.
There are multiple ways to set up the Conversions API for CRM, and many don’t require a developer. However, keep in mind that while offline conversions can’t currently be used for ad optimization, the Offline Conversions API will be discontinued in May 2025. Once that happens, you should switch to using the Conversions API for CRM for event uploads.
Automotive inventory ads
Automotive inventory ads use Meta’s AI and your vehicle inventory catalog to create industry-specific ads. When combined with the data from the Meta Pixel on your website, you can target in-market shoppers with relevant vehicle ads.
Precise audience targeting
Meta audience targeting for automotive businesses involves using custom audiences to retarget site visitors and find new shoppers on Facebook.
In addition, Conversion leads performance goal feature uses advanced machine learning to display ads to users most likely to engage, optimizing ad effectiveness. To use this feature, however, you need to implement Conversions API for CRM first.
Retargeting campaigns
Facebook’s retargeting features help re-engage users who have visited your website but have not made a purchase. This can increase conversion rates by keeping your dealership top-of-mind.
3. Implementing automation with LeadsBridge integrations for automotive
Automation is transforming car dealership marketing. Streamlining data management processes helps increase the efficiency with which you nurture and convert those leads.
LeadsBridge offers exhaustive integration solutions that connect your marketing and sales platforms. These connections automate your data transfer and ensure that your team can focus on closing sales rather than managing data.
Here’s how automation can help you
Automated lead management
With LeadsBridge, you can automatically sync leads from Facebook ads and other platforms directly into your CRM or email marketing software. This ensures that every potential car buyer is quickly contacted and nurtured effectively.
Improving your audience targeting
LeadsBridge integrations enable you to create targeted audiences. In addition, when you sync your CRM segments with your advertising platforms, you are also optimizing your ad spend and improving your conversion rates.
Seamless tracking
Setting up the right integrations allows you to track specific events to measure the impact of your online advertising efforts. Then, use this data to optimize your existing and future campaigns for the best performance.
Car dealership marketing ideas you might be overlooking
Marketing your car dealership effectively can help attract more customers and boost sales. Here are some proven car dealership marketing ideas, with examples to help you get started.
1. Host community events
Entertaining the local community through events can create buzz about your business. Besides building an impressionable brand image, you use these opportunities to create strong relationships and even get some leads.
For example, you can organize a car show or sponsor a local sports team. A car show can attract car lovers and hopefully some potential buyers. At the same time, sponsoring a local team can increase your dealership’s visibility in the community.
Here’s how Kunes Buick GMC – Greenfield does it. They’ve also sent out a Facebook ad campaign to let people know about their event.
2. Keep your social media current
No, organic social media marketing is not dead! Platforms like Meta offer powerful mediums for reaching a wide audience. Regularly posting engaging content, such as customer testimonials, behind-the-scenes looks at your dealership, and special promotions, can attract followers and potential customers.
You can even make things more fun. For instance, you can run a Facebook contest where participants share their favorite car memories for a chance to win a free service or a discount on their next purchase.
Check out this post, which shows a grand presentation of Orr Nissan Central‘s behind-the-scenes success. While providing visibility, they indirectly give their audience social proof of many other customers.
3. Personalize your email marketing
88% of people use their emails on a daily basis. That makes email marketing an effective way to keep in touch with potential and existing customers.
Send out regular newsletters with updates on new inventory, upcoming sales, and special offers. For example, a monthly newsletter highlighting the latest models and featuring customer success stories can keep your audience engaged and informed.
Want to know how the best in the business do it? Here’s a personalized email from Tesla to a customer. It’s friendly, straight to the point, and informative.
What to take away from this?
What we touched on in this article is a brief but comprehensive look at automotive marketing strategies in 2024. This new approach to digital marketing for car dealerships can help your business stay competitive and thrive.
Meta provides car dealerships with diverse tools that help develop and strengthen their marketing strategy. When used correctly, you can target the right audience with personalized ads, increase lead generation, and even directly drive sales.
However, you shouldn’t overlook the importance of using these features in combination with the right tools. LeadsBridge’s integrations for automotive can streamline your processes, boost your dealership advertising strategy, and potentially drive more sales.
Explore LeadsBridge integrations for automotive today.
