A Facebook ad is a real-time ad that you run on Facebook to drive traffic to your fan page or your website.
Because Facebook is always tweaking the platform, what works today may not work tomorrow, so you need to understand the basics of the ad platform before you start. You can always adapt as Facebook changes.
There are over a billion Facebook users, and while that sounds overwhelming, with the right plan, you can find the right people for your message.
Group vs. Page
Facebook offers a business fan page and a group page. The Facebook fan page is your public profile that is open to all, and the group can be closed to select members. A group can be open to the public, restricted membership or be private. You can have both pages set up and use them differently.
You would think that if you post a message on your Facebook page that all would see it, but that is not how Facebook works. Remember, posts on the fan pages show up only in the newsfeeds of those who follow your page, and thanks to throttling from Facebook, your message may never make it to the newsfeeds of the majority of your members. Statistics say that less than 10 percent of your members will see post updates on your fan page. Unless, of course, you pay!
The posts in your group are different from your page posts. Group members come to the group to catch up on the latest posts. If they are in the group, they may see more of your posts come through on their newsfeeds because they are considered "friends" and friend posts show up more often.
Why Pay to Advertise Your Dealership On Facebook?
You may be happy with the page traffic, and your group discussions are lively with many active participants, so you may wonder why you should advertise.
Like all communities, you are going to lose members, so you should be actively recruiting new members. In addition, if you have a new product you want to promote, advertising can bring in interested buyers.
Plan Your Promotions
Planning an advertising campaign on Facebook can be complex and costly if you are not prepared, so here are the basic things that you need to consider before you place your first ad.
1 - Create your objective - What do you want from your ad?
Post engagement - you want them to read and share. You can promote a post from your page to the newsfeed.
Page "Like" - you want them to "Like" your page.
Website click - you want them to visit your site.
Website conversion - you want them to go to your site and perform an action like sign up for your email list.
Event response - you want them to come to your event.
Offer claim - you want them to use your coupon code.
2 - Decide on a budget for the ad. Facebook can eat up a budget quickly, so start very small and build from there.
3 - Define your Facebook audience - With whom do you want to engage? Take a look at your current members and find the common denominator. You can select a group based on income, gender, marital status and other factors. You probably also want to consider having different targets for different ads.
It is possible to target your members, their friends and others who have a history with you or complete strangers in your geographic location.
4 - Decide where you want to place your ad:
. Newsfeed ad - this puts your ad in the newsfeed of your audience. It is also available in the mobile app format.
. Right-hand column - It sits off to the side below trending updates.
5 - Create a visually appealing ad that is relevant to your target market and has a clear Call to Action. Depending upon where you are placing your ad, you may have to make adjustments for size or orientation.
Advertising on Facebook is not like any other advertising. Your ad moves fast and has less time to capture your audience's attention than a car commercial on the local news. You have to monitor your ad engagement, rotate them regularly and tweak your audience as you go, or the results will be disappointing.
With proper planning and diligent analysis of the results, you can be successful with your Facebook marketing.
If you would like some help planning a successful automotive marketing ad campaign for your dealership, don’t hesitate to contact the automotive marketing experts of Turbo Marketing Solutions every weekday by dialing 1-800-262-0081. We will gladly show you how to take advantage of Facebook to increase the sales of your dealership!
Lucie Gauvreau is the CEO of Turbo Marketing Solutions. You can contact her by email here or reach her by phone every weekday at Turbo Marketing’s head office