Leverage Facebook advertising to reach local prospects

By Lauren Labunsky

The main reason why Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is such an effective advertising strategy is because people spend so much time on search engines and use them so often while browsing online. Another online platform that most people use frequently? Social media sites, with Facebook being the most valuable for advertising strategy. 

The nature of how people use Facebook is similar to search engines like Google in some ways – people use both of these platforms to look for information and discover new things. The fact that Facebook is social in nature is helpful for your dealership as a business focused on local customers. It’s important for you to build relationships with the people who will become your customers. Connecting and advertising to them in a social environment is highly beneficial.

Facebook audience targeting capabilities far surpass that of Google’s, giving you a major advantage if you choose to implement both search engine and social media ads simultaneously (which is recommended). Facebook advertising allows you to target the site’s users based on multiple demographic and behavioral factors on the platform, leveraging the right ads to the right prospects. Posts that they’ve liked, pages they’ve followed, and other actions they’ve taken on the site can all be used to advertise to Facebook users in the most effective ways. Considering the amount of time that people spend on Facebook and the variety of activities they can do on the site, this presents a high chance of success in your advertising efforts.

The wide variety of ad types on Facebook is also a huge benefit for advertisers:

• Newsfeed Ads are a highly cost-effective option and allow you to keep track of traffic and conversions to your site. Facebook presents a massive reach potential with 1.5 billion people using the platform each month, plus your ads appear on Instagram for even more exposure.

• Dynamic Remarketing Ads take Facebook ad strategy up a notch by connecting your website’s inventory feed to Facebook. You can advertise to people who have already shown interest in your boats by visiting your site, and the ads you deliver to them can even include the exact units they viewed.

• Lead Generation Ads help you capture more leads by allowing users to fill out forms directly on their newsfeed – no redirection needed, meaning users aren’t required to interrupt their session on Facebook. These ads and lead forms can be tailored with custom questions depending on the goals of your dealership’s ad campaign. The lead forms your ad receives can even be integrated with your CRM or downloaded directly from Facebook.

• Event Ads allow your dealership to promote an upcoming event to a highly targeted audience of local community members who are most likely to attend. Beyond targeting things like location and age group, you can also target users by interest in specific models and brands, along with past behavior and activity on Facebook that signals their interest.

• Additional varieties of ad formats to choose from include Carousel Ads that show multiple units, Conversion Ads that are designed to drive specific actions, Engagement Ads that are designed to draw “likes” and comments, Video Ads, and more.

Facebook advertising strategy continues to improve with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which allows advertisers to optimize and run the best-performing ads to Facebook users with the highest level of engagement. As a business with a local presence and a specific audience to engage with, your dealership has a great opportunity to drive powerful results with Facebook advertising.