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Why Facebook is the only advertising you need to do

Last week, I had the honor of presenting the session “Selling the Lifestyle by leveraging Facebook Advertising” at the 2017 AIMExpo. I wanted to share with you the top 5 bullets from my presentation that got most of the dealers in the room to rethink how their marketing dollars are best spent with using targeted Facebook advertising strategies vs. traditional marketing tactics.

1) The shift to Facebook advertising is happening

We have a misalignment with our marketing budgets today in comparison to where people spend their time. People spend only 35 percent of their time on TV, yet dealers spend over 55 percent of their budget on TV advertising. Consumers spend a minimum of 5 percent of their time looking at print, yet dealers spend 20 percent of their budget on print. The majority of people’s time is spent almost 50 percent online, but dealers are only allocating 12 percent of their budget to digital advertising. Included in that online time is over an hour a day spent on Facebook. The time to capitalize on Facebook advertising to have a measurable ROI is now.

2) TV viewers are timing out

Think about your evenings at home with the family and when you are watching television. What do you do when a commercial comes on? Facebook’s study shows that consumers are 2 times more active on Facebook during commercial breaks and are engaging more with social content during these television downtimes.

3) Don’t boost your post

Don’t just push the boost button for your event or ad! Pushing the boost button only optimizes for more post engagement, more likes, shares, comments etc. for fans of your page or fans of your page and their friends. It does not allow an option for specific audience targeting. A motorcycle and powersports dealership audience is far different than the average Facebook user, as roughly 5 percent of the total population is an owner. Facebook advertising however allows you to target your ideal customer by the data you specify by age, income, demographics and interests. Leveraging the data in selecting who you want to see your ad is critical in improving and gaining ROIs.

4) Tips for high performing ads

Ensure your ads have the proper brand image, appropriate messaging, simple details and a clear CTA (Call to Action). Avoid too much text on your image. Images with minimal text perform better than text heavy ads. Make sure your sales team is aware of the ad campaigns running. Provide them with the ad samples and the details for the CTAs for preparation for customer inquiries that the ad generates.

5) Advertise in all aspects of the buying funnel

Ensure that you are reaching your customers along their buying journey through their awareness, consideration and conversion phases. Each ad type should be different, and have different CTAs, to drive the sales journey. Keep your previous customers in the loop by advertising with service specials and new products in store to retain repeat customers.

Our customers have a passion for our industry and this passion for the lifestyle is shared on Facebook. By keeping these 5 points in mind, you could have a successful transition from a traditional marketing plan to one that includes Facebook advertising tactics to reach your ideal customers. Shift your budget to spend money where your buyers are and remember you are in the business to Sell Bikes, not get Likes!

Jim Jabaay is the vice president of Sales and Marketing for LotVantage, a leader in digital marketing for automotive, powersports, marine and RV dealerships.  Jim has grown up in the automotive industry with the family dealership in the suburbs of Chicago. Jim started at Manheim in sales and continued to grow his career running sales teams throughout Texas for nine years.  Following Manheim, Jim spent two years at Dealertrack expanding his career in the software side of the business.  LotVantage utilizes data to help dealerships understand which inventory to post and when to post it for a local, national and social presence.  Jim’s number one goal is helping dealers succeed in an ever growing and changing dealership world.

Website: www.LotVantage.com

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3 Comments

  1. Jim… great feedback. While I certainly agree that facebook is a great way to market and advertise your dealership… it is definitely not the only way. I’d definitely say that facebook is likely the primary and best community interaction tool for folks that have already bought a bike from a dealer. Additionally it can also be a great tool to bring in new customers as well.

    That said, often when customers are in the midst of finding a new dealer for the first time… it’s important to also incorporate google business reviews as well as Yelp business reviews into a dealership’s overall strategy.

    People these days rarely even buy a slice a pizza without first checking on line reviews… and when they are first beginning their search for a new dealer… often customers are putting in key words into a search engine such as “motorcycle dealer chicago”. In order to capitalize on at least the google part of the marketing… it’s important to:

    1) set up google business page
    2) make sure all your key words attract the customers that you want to attract to your page
    3) take amazing care of all your customers (of course you already do!)
    4) ask your customers to leave positive feedback on all your pages (google, facebook, yelp)

    The more positive feedback that your customers leave on all the above pages… the higher your dealership will rank when new customers are searching for a new dealership to spend their money.

    Good luck out there!

  2. It’s easier to sell to current customers than to look for new ones, to strengthen existing customer connections try using Facebook Custom Audiences or Twitter Tailored Audiences. If you have a customer list or data from your DMS, like purchaser email addresses, that’s all you need. If you don’t have your customers email address you can always add one with email append. Once you create your Custom Audience or Tailored Audience, you can reach your customers directly on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

    Respectfully,
    Thomas Heenan
    TowerData

  3. Actually highly target audiences can be built for Boosted posts too. Even boosting a post $1 is better than not boosting a post on a company page, because only a tiny percentage of the people who Like your page will ever see the un-Boosted posts.

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