Selling Cars On Facebook

[FacebookAdsGuy 0]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum.

A quick back story... I recently left quite a large digital marketing agency, where I was managing a couple of dealership accounts.

My brother is a relatively established used car trader (15-20 cars on forecourt) and I've started working with him and we've being doing quite well with Facebook, Google and YouTube.

I'm a big fan of Facebook as 44 million people in the UK use the platform.

I wanted to find out the experience of other dealers in terms of how much success you've had with online and social media marketing, apart from Autotrader?

What tactics have worked for you and where have you failed?

For the record, I don't think boosting posts is a great idea

Abe

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

for the record .........................  i am a dinosaur i am on Facebook marketplace but its just a  load of 3am brigade  one message wonders

[justina3 518]

Ironically marketplace is a disaster for us where as boosted ads works very well. 

 

[MrV 66]

Facebook is my most successful platform EASILY smashing Auto trader out of the park

[Nick M.K. 574]

Hence you want to move to Cat N cars????

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

10 hours ago, MrV said:

Facebook is my most successful platform EASILY smashing Auto trader out of the park

i take it you are not doing 15-20k cars then....................what are you doing to make this platform your most successful means of selling cars, i  mean this in a  positive way i really am interested  because up to now i have not seen a  benefit i am doing something  different to you and it is not working for me

 

I have tried  "boosting" specific cars and had no interest in that either, I mean i see the  numbers and see the  traffic  on my  boosted car but not had anything meaning full happen from it

[MrV 66]

11 hours ago, Nick M.K. said:

Hence you want to move to Cat N cars????

Only one nick 

1 hour ago, Blenheim Car Sales said:

i take it you are not doing 15-20k cars then....................what are you doing to make this platform your most successful means of selling cars, i  mean this in a  positive way i really am interested  because up to now i have not seen a  benefit i am doing something  different to you and it is not working for me

 

I have tried  "boosting" specific cars and had no interest in that either, I mean i see the  numbers and see the  traffic  on my  boosted car but not had anything meaning full happen from it

I've been doing some research and it seems demographics are the main influence! 

[Nick M.K. 574]

20 minutes ago, MrV said:

Only one nick 

Every time I buy only one of something if it sells well I end up selling a dozen of it in the next year or two. 

Sold one Cat N with huge profit last year but it's not a market I want to delve in. Beginners luck I reckon. 

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

45 minutes ago, MrV said:

 

I've been doing some research and it seems demographics are the main influence! 

yes this is what i mean, How are you doing things to control the right demographics to be looking at your cars and selling them rather than just random facebook people, Thats where i am failing then

[Nick M.K. 574]

15 minutes ago, Blenheim Car Sales said:

yes this is what i mean, How are you doing things to control the right demographics to be looking at your cars

Stock selection. 

1) White BMW 3 series M Sport coupe with dark grey or black alloy wheels

2) very low mileage Honda Jazz Auto under six grand. 

 

Very different people will look at either car so the Facebook targeted "boosted" ad will aim at 25-35 year old men for the first car for example and 55-69 year old ladies for the Jazz. Heavily focus on Finance for car 1 and don't even bother mentioning it for car 2. 

Edited July 14, 2019 by Nick M.K.

[CCC 31]

The beauty is Facebook ads done through Facebook business (as opposed to just boosting posts) is the level of targeting possible and the ability to run split tests. We’ve stopped doing cars for the moment due to volume of work in my other interests but presently doing a lot of work on FB business and the split tests options has enabled us to learn a lot about what works best (aka cheaply). 

Edited July 14, 2019 by CCC

[FacebookAdsGuy 0]

1 hour ago, CCC said:

The beauty is Facebook ads done through Facebook business (as opposed to just boosting posts) is the level of targeting possible and the ability to run split tests. We’ve stopped doing cars for the moment due to volume of work in my other interests but presently doing a lot of work on FB business and the split tests options has enabled us to learn a lot about what works best (aka cheaply). 

You've hit the nail on the head. This is how I was running campaigns in my old marketing job and am applying for my brother's business.

Most people boost ads without really thinking about customer avatars and what not.

I'm also testing just generating local leads and getting them onto the forecourt to see our stock.

[MrV 66]

I don't even boost my posts I find that is, a waste of money because even if I target it to a specific location I still get enquiries from 300 miles away, I simply put them on marketplace and as many local groups as allowed and so far like I say, it's my most successful platform by a mile

[Mghaffa 0]

6 hours ago, Blenheim Car Sales said:

i take it you are not doing 15-20k cars then....................what are you doing to make this platform your most successful means of selling cars, i  mean this in a  positive way i really am interested  because up to now i have not seen a  benefit i am doing something  different to you and it is not working for me

 

I have tried  "boosting" specific cars and had no interest in that either, I mean i see the  numbers and see the  traffic  on my  boosted car but not had anything meaning full happen from it

Hi, 

new to this forum so please excuse any misunderstanding. 

I've been selling cars on facebook for a number of years and generally the cheaper cars sell quite well on facebook. I tend to stay away from boosting ads as the end result is I won't make much money. HOWEVER be prepared for a massive number of tire kickers and people who want to take 50% of the price of the car. I generally just slap on my part exchange arrivals on there and they sell relatively quickly (as long as you have the patience for messers). Anything more than 2500 is harder to sell on facebook and I would advise on selling on places like autotrader and gumtree etc...

18 hours ago, justina3 said:

Ironically marketplace is a disaster for us where as boosted ads works very well. 

 

what type of cars do well on the boosted ads for you? what price range of cars ?

[MattR 177]

20 hours ago, Mghaffa said:

Hi, 

new to this forum so please excuse any misunderstanding. 

I've been selling cars on facebook for a number of years and generally the cheaper cars sell quite well on facebook. I tend to stay away from boosting ads as the end result is I won't make much money. HOWEVER be prepared for a massive number of tire kickers and people who want to take 50% of the price of the car. I generally just slap on my part exchange arrivals on there and they sell relatively quickly (as long as you have the patience for messers). Anything more than 2500 is harder to sell on facebook and I would advise on selling on places like autotrader and gumtree etc...

what type of cars do well on the boosted ads for you? what price range of cars ?

WOW. A contribution from a newbie!