What’s New At DU: Dealership Culture In The Age Of Social Media

by Brooke Jensen | Jun 28, 2022 | Company and Events, Industry News, Social Media

What’s New At DU: Dealership Culture In The Age Of Social Media

What impact does social media have on your culture? 🤔

Check out the video above to hear from Justin Friend, VP & General Manager, and Molly Dennehy, Brand Manager, or skim the highlights listed below.

💡 Pro tip: You can jump to different sections in the video by using the video navigation tools or by clicking any “(Watch at #)” linked below.

Agenda:

Social Media & Dealership Culture
Customer Spotlight: Zeigler Auto Group 👏
TikTok Best Practices

Social Media & Dealership Culture (Watch at 0:35)

With social media platforms capturing attention at an increasing rate, it definitely has an impact on our culture. Dealerships who embrace social media and incorporate it into their culture both internally and externally are seeing remarkable results.

Getting your staff involved not only is a great way to create content for your brand and share what the culture is like at your dealership, but also a method of team building!

The Top Reasons People Visit Your Social Media (Watch at 1:20)

We recently learned that the top reasons a user visits your social media pages are: 1) to read reviews and 2) to check out your culture. People want to learn about your customer experience and meet the people they would be interacting with.

Start A Team Content Contest (Watch at 2:07)

Creating a social media content contest can jump start your efforts to improve your social media footprint on your dealership culture. Here is how to do it:

Determine the prizes. We suggest prizes for most engagement + most votes for creativity. Get the community involved with voting! (Google Forms is great for this.)
Set the topics or categories. Think about what’s trending & sharing your culture. Do they have to say a buzzword or phrase? Use a prop or sound? Show off the team or inventory?
Set the duration. For each category, set the time to measure results. We suggest 1 week per video.
Have regular check-ins. Hold brainstorming and training sessions before, during and after! Share the winning video across channels.

If you hold a contest, we want to help! Share your videos and accounts with us, and we will help promote your content! Email: [email protected]

Customer Spotlight: Zeigler Auto Group (Watch at 3:59)

Our Customer Spotlight of the month is Zeigler Auto Group! We chose Zeigler to be our spotlight because they truly are embracing social media into their culture, and have put together some unique programs to promote content creation amongst their team.

This group spans 24 brands in 4 states with over 35 rooftops.

Lindsay Latsko is the Director of Internet and Marketing Operations for several of their locations, and she is a member of our Customer Advisory Board. In this month’s meeting she shared that they have created an internal program called “Driving Social”.

Their team meets once a month to brainstorm and inspire each other on creating content by sharing ideas, tips, and training on the platforms. By adding some friendly competition, it is truly ‘driving’ some great content and camaraderie!

TikTok Best Practices (Watch at 6:20)

We recently hosted a webinar on the #1 most downloaded social platform in the world- TikTok. If you are interested in learning best practices for creating content for your dealership, you will want to catch the replay! We have also put together some resource guides that you can download to help you get started or optimize your current strategies.

Click here to watch the replay! https://www.dealersunited.com/resource/webinar-taking-on-tiktok
Click here to download the TikTok Organic Guide! https://www.dealersunited.com/wp-content/uploads/TikTok-Organic-Guide-Dealers-United.pdf
See some of our favorite TikTok examples: https://www.dealersunited.com/resource/tiktok-examples-car-dealers/

Written By Molly Dennehy
Molly Dennehy is a marketing expert who has evidenced effective digital marketing strategies across six different industries. Now, she brings her diverse experience and creativity to automotive dealers. From audience targeting, campaign set-up, and content creation, Molly is passionate about sharing new and innovative ways to drive results.

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What’s New At DU: NADA Data & Powerful Brand Ads

by Brooke Jensen | Apr 29, 2022 | Digital Marketing, Identity and Branding, Industry News

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What’s New At DU: NADA Data & Powerful Brand Ads

New Data ✅ New Ads ✅ New Promotions ✅

There is a lot of NEW for YOU this month. Check out the video above to hear from Justin Friend, VP & General Manager, and Molly Dennehy, Brand Manager, or skim the highlights listed below.

💡 Pro tip: You can jump to different sections in the video by using the video navigation tools or by clicking any “(Watch at #)” linked below.

Agenda:

NADA Data 2021: Full Year Report Analysis & Opportunities
Powerful Ad Examples: Branding, Custom Order & Pre-Order, Pre-Owned, Vehicle Acquisition, and TradePending
Customer Spotlight – Tynan’s Auto Group 👏
Pinterest & Snapchat Special Promotions 🤑
Trade Show Discounts – Digital Dealer & DrivingSales

NADA Data 2021: New Light-Vehicle (Watch at 1:10)

The 2021 NADA Data full year report features the many major milestones achieved by the retail auto industry during the year.

Take a look at the inventory trends for New Light-Vehicles:

With new inventory still in demand, auto shoppers have less to choose from, which makes where they buy their new vehicle even that much more important.

To help put your brand out in front of the competition, dealers should promote ads focused on their brand and “why buys.” Show and tell your local market what makes you special and sets you apart from the dealer down the road.

You can also leverage social media platforms to promote your Custom Orders and Pre-Order campaigns. Share how easy you make the process of getting exactly what they want.

NADA Data 2021: Used Inventory (Watch at 4:06)

Pre-Owned vehicles are also in high demand: by consumers and dealers.

NADA shared these graphs to highlight key stats:

Used-vehicle sales dipped in 2020 (not surprisingly) but picked up again in 2021. We expect that 2022 will outpace last year due to inventory shortages and high demand. Do you have a plan to source pre-owned vehicles to replenish your lot?

Try running a buy-back or vehicle acquisition campaign on multiple social platforms for an Omnichannel sourcing strategy.

We have also shown success by running campaigns directly to your TradePending page on your website. These ad playbooks are branded to reflect TradePending colors for a seamless user experience.

Want to look deeper into your market to enhance your acquisition campaigns? Try the updated Dealers United MarketAnalyzer. This free tool can not only provide audience size and demographics, but also calculate a suggested budget and return on investment.

Check it out at https://app.dealersunited.com/analyzer#/

Customer High-Five (Watch at 6:59)

🖐️ Tynan’s Auto Group is absolutely crushing the video game!

This group consists of a VW, Nissan and Preowned Supercenter, and they are doing a fantastic job at showcasing their dealership, promoting their “why buys”, and presenting the personalities of their team in their online content. (Definitely watch their ads at 7:12)

We called Markus Kamm, Director of Sales, to ask him about his video strategy.

“Now that the market has changed, we can really focus on our brand as a dealership: what we’re all about, what we stand for, how we do business and who we are – and attract people that way.

Putting our videos on social media has given us the opportunity to really showcase “us”. So in other words, make the deal secondary, and just put out there who you are, what makes you unique and special, why people should come do business with you. Because there are still the same amount of dealership choices and people need a reason to come to you.

So, if you’re not out there branding yourself and showcasing your dealership’s personality through the showcasing of your employee’s personalities, I would say you’re absolutely missing the boat.”

Pinterest & Snapchat Promotion! (Watch at 9:30)

Interested in adding a new platform to your social strategy, but haven’t made the jump?

We have two amazing promotions for new activations for Pinterest and Snapchat.

Receive a $1000 Ad Credit for Pinterest when you spend $3000!

Earn a $375 Ad Credit for Snapchat when you spend $750!

Reach out to your Performance Manager or Account Executive to take advantage of either (or both!) of these great incentives.

Trade Show Ticket Discounts (Watch at 10:10)

If you plan on attending Digital Dealer in Tampa, FL, May 9-11, or DrivingSales Presidents Club in Ft Lauderdale, FL, May 15-16, we have some awesome discounts for you!

Use our links to get discount codes for up to $200 off your Digital Dealer ticket and $100 off Driving Sales!

We are also very excited to be apart of both events!

Justin Friend will join Allison McConeghy, Sr Partner Manager from Pinterest, for a breakout session on Tuesday, “How to Sell Where Your Customers Are Shopping With Dealer Inventory On Pinterest”, where they will go over everything you want to know about the platform.

Use this link to RSVP or sign up to get the slides. If you are not going, sign up and we will send the recording!

And Justin and Molly have a virtual session for Digital Dealer NOW about turning your customers into raving fans by flipping your marketing funnel! If you plan on grabbing a virtual pass, be sure to check it out!

At DrivingSales Presidents Club, Justin will sit on a panel to review and analyze the results of DrivingSales research project regarding current marketing strategies and expenses. There will be a lot of great insights into current trends and strategies that Justin will bring back and share with us.

That’s all folks!

Thanks for checking out what’s new with DU. Stay tuned for more updates next month!

Questions? Compliments? Ready to maximize your success?

Reach out to us at [email protected] or schedule a 15min consultation.

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Welcome To The Metaverse: What Facebook’s Rebrand To Meta Means For Auto Dealerships

by Brooke Jensen | Oct 29, 2021 | Industry News, Social Media

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Welcome To The Metaverse: What Facebook’s Rebrand To Meta Means For Auto Dealerships

Nothing like a major announcement by the world’s social media giant to get the digital sphere buzzing!

In recent months, we all have learned the importance of flexibility – with iOS updates, inventory shortages, cookie privacy changes, and most recently, the deprecation of Facebook Marketplace automation – auto marketers have learned to stay alert and ready for action in the wake of disruption.

Facebook’s most recent announcement falls well within the concept of “with great change comes great opportunity.” While this news may have some people concerned as to what it means for the auto industry, personally, we are confident that this will provide more ways to connect with local communities in a meaningful way.

So, let’s break it down.

Why did Facebook change its name to Meta?

On Thursday, October 28th 2021, the company Facebook announced that it was renaming itself to “Meta.”

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that his company was going beyond today’s social networking, which Facebook has been built on since it was founded 17 years ago. Having Facebook as the corporate name when the company now owned many apps and was fundamentally about connecting people was no longer tenable, he said. (Source: The New York Times)

Image Source: about.fb.com

What is “Meta” and the “Metaverse”?

According to an article on Facebook Newsroom, “Meta builds technologies that help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology.”

“The metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together — and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world. It’s the next evolution in a long line of social technologies, and it’s ushering in a new chapter for our company.”

What does this mean for my dealership’s advertising on Facebook-owned platforms such as Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram?

We expect little, if any, changes to your current advertising across Facebook-owned platforms. You will still see “Facebook” labeled in your Google Analytics, advertising reports, direct invoices, etc. That said, we’ll continue to be on the lookout for any new unforeseen changes and will notify you as soon as we learn more.

It’s also important to note that Zuckerberg and the company have made it clear that investments will still be made toward the social media platforms under the Meta umbrella. “Building our social media apps will always be an important focus for us. But right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future,” Zuckerberg said.

What opportunity does the “Metaverse” offer auto advertisers?

In a note from our Facebook Partner Manager, we are assured that Meta is “committed to helping you deliver on [marketing] objectives by reaching the right people and engaging with your customers – today and in the future.”

The Metaverse concept, while forward-thinking, also poses a massive opportunity for dealership advertisers in coming years. With a spotlight on virtual and augmented experiences, this new environment could change not only our advertising, but even our lives drastically! What kind of opportunities do we have for advertising for our dealerships to show up? We are excited to learn more about these media opportunities and what they mean for auto dealers.

So do we start referring to Facebook’s platform as “Meta”?

Not necessarily. Facebook and its other apps, such as Instagram and WhatsApp, will remain—but under the Meta umbrella. For example, you don’t need to worry about the big blue and white logo changing on your phone screen.

That said, we have noticed that the “Facebook for Business” Facebook Business Page has indeed changed to “Meta for Business,” while sites like facebook.com/business are still intact and only Facebook-focused. We will keep you informed about any additional changes.

What IS changing and when?

According to Meta’s announcement, the company’s corporate structure is not changing, and the metaverse concept will likely take years – potentially a decade or more – since the concept is theoretical right now. That said, it will begin trading under the stock ticker MVRS beginning on Dec. 1, and is expected to begin branding some of its virtual-reality products as Meta, shifting away from the original brand name of Oculus.

Now what?

Take a deep breath knowing that there are no critical changes to your ads or accounts to act on. We will keep updating you as more information becomes available. We can’t wait to see what the metaverse offers the auto industry!

Subscribe to our blog and Facebook page to stay in-the-know as we navigate these changes together.

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Facebook Marketplace Automation Discontinued! How Your Dealership Can Continue To Post Your Inventory

by Brooke Jensen | Sep 20, 2021 | Industry News

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Facebook Marketplace Automation Discontinued! How Your Dealership Can Continue To Post Your Inventory

Facebook recently announced that they will be discontinuing the distribution of automated inventory catalog listings on Facebook Marketplace.

This Marketplace change took effect on September 13th, 2021.

What does this mean for auto dealers?

This means that dealers will no longer be able to bulk-upload their used inventory feed to Facebook Marketplace.

But even though automated Facebook Marketplace listings are being discontinued, the ability to list vehicles manually on Marketplace will remain unchanged.

However, without syndication, managing inventory on Facebook will be a daunting task…

PLUS, if their inventory goes unposted, dealerships risk losing exposure to the more than 20 MILLION monthly auto shoppers on Marketplace!

But we’ve got a solution!

To try and make the impossible seem possible, we’ve been hard at work building a new Facebook Marketplace solution, where dealers can easily identify listings that need posted, updated, or removed.

So, what is the solution?

Continue to post to Facebook Marketplace faster and with more accuracy using Dealers United’s new Facebook Marketplace Management Tool!

While this solution still requires that all listings are done manually from your team, our Facebook Marketplace Management Tool is guaranteed to save you time by providing a “To-Do List” that will:

Make it easy for you to compare current inventory to what is on Marketplace
Identify listings with inaccurate or outdated information (like if a price changes)
Display actionable information for listings that need information added, updated, or removed

Check out how it works!

And you’ve got options…

Here are some options that your dealership may choose to pursue after the deprecation of Marketplace automated listings:

Facebook AIA Consolidation – If you are running Automotive Inventory Ads with multiple vendors, choose ONE. Facebook recommends one catalog per dealer, so attribution is based on the catalog not the dealer. This helps you understand the specific metrics from your Facebook advertising. Remember, vendors can share your existing catalog, putting YOU in control!
Start posting your vehicles – Activate our Facebook Marketplace Management Tool to get your pre-owned vehicles back in the hands of millions of active shoppers.
Lead Management – Once your vehicles are re-posted to Marketplace activate our MessengerBot and Call Tracking add-on to turn inquiries into CRM leads!
Consider Automotive Inventory Ads (AIA) – Now that you are using our Facebook Marketplace Management Tool, you are only a few clicks away from proactively delivering your inventory of both New & Pre-Owned vehicles, in real-time, to in-market shoppers! AIA is always on and can further leverage the MessengerBot & Call Tracking options for Marketplace.

How Can We Help?

We use Facebook & Instagram to solve dealership’s business challenges!

Dealers United has been at the forefront of Facebook Solutions for automotive dealers and has been working closely with our Facebook team to ensure that the removal of automated vehicle listings catalogs will not derail our dealer’s goals or inventory visibility.

Through our years of experience with Facebook for automotive we know what inventory strategies work!

To discuss how we can help your dealership further, click here get in touch with our marketing experts today!

Manage vehicles on Facebook Marketplace after listings are discontinued.

Click Here

Written By Drew Detweiler
Drew manages inbound and outbound marketing for Dealers United. When he’s not at work, he’s probably enjoying the outdoors, fishing, or eating.

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Everything Your Dealership Needs To Know About Snapchat

by Brooke Jensen | Jun 23, 2021 | Digital Marketing, Industry News, Social Media

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Everything Your Dealership Needs To Know About Snapchat

Every dealer knows that a key to success in this industry is getting your dealership in front of the right shopper at the right time.

But dealerships are now being faced with a new challenge of reaching the next emerging auto buyers – Generation Z.

More frugal and well informed than their Millennial counterparts, Generation Z knows what they want, and you better be where they want to shop.

And with Gen Z entering adulthood with around $3 trillion in purchasing power, it’s high time that we start to focus on how to reach tomorrow’s auto buyers.

But don’t underestimate the other generations’ usage of Snapchat.

What Is Snapchat?

Founded in 2011, Snapchat gives users a way to express themselves via images without having to worry about a ton of people seeing their content.

You can take a photo or video and send it to one or many people and after a set amount of time, poof, the media would disappear.

Snapchat was also the original way users could easily apply filters, add unique location tags, text, and even draw on their content. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have since “borrowed” this concept for their platforms.

Snapchat has evolved immensely since its inception, but never lost its fun creativity, and now that the majority of its users are entering the career field, dealerships are seeing an opportunity to capitalize.

Why Snapchat?

Where does Snapchat fall in the realm of social giants? Great question.

When it comes to the kings of social, Facebook has always been on top. Back in 2012, Instagram presented a threat to their throne, but Facebook bought them out before they could take it.

In 2013, Facebook also tried to purchase Snapchat for a booku bucks type deal, but Snapchat’s owners respectfully declined.

Snapchat may never take over Facebook and Instagram as social media’s top dog, but the platform is now reaching an astonishing 75% of Millennials and Generation Z.

Instead of simply being present on multiple platforms like traditional “multichannel” advertising, Omnichannel is customer driven and aims to hit the right customer, at the right time, with the right message, where they are shopping, every time.

Image Source: Snapchat

The platform lays claim to an impressive 93 million US users per day and over 60% of those users are actively “snapping” on a daily basis.

What’s almost more impressive is that Snapchat is increasing their user base by 22% year-over-year.

Over 80% of Snapchat users also share their location with the app, providing a great opportunity to target local auto shoppers to build awareness of your dealership and any current offers or events.

With usage stats like that, it stands as no surprise that advertisers are ready to capitalize on this rising opportunity.

Advertising On Snapchat

Luckily for Snapchat, Facebook has really blazed a trail for social advertising.

So if you know how to advertise on Facebook, Snapchat is a simple next step.

Very much like the Facebook Pixel, Snapchat also uses a “Snap Pixel,” installed on your site so they can create audiences and retarget shoppers from your site on Snapchat.

You can create lookalike audiences (audiences similar to your customers or website visitors), audiences from your CRM lists, retargeting audiences, and engagers of your Snapchat content.

Dealerships can also target in-market Snapchatters using Datalogix auto shopper segments, Edmunds custom audiences, and Placed dealership visitors.

Advertisers can create catalogs to display as inventory ads, which is a BIG win for auto dealerships.

And dealerships can start getting their message and inventory in front of these audiences for as little as $5 a day!

Ready to learn everything about setting up and running successful dealership ads on Snapchat? Click here to download Snapchat’s Auto Dealers Playbook.

snapchat-auto-dealer-playbook-booklet-thumb

Download the Snapchat Auto Dealers Playbook!

Click Here

Which platform is right for me?

Dealers United is on a mission to create a complete marketing system that focuses on the individual, instead of the channel.

We’re calling this new approach “Omnichannel,” and by having your marketing efforts work in unison instead of in competition, we are reshaping the way the dealerships reach their customers.

Picture this; a Facebook user clicks on one of your ads and looks at your inventory, but then doesn’t log back in for days.

So is this where their journey ends?

With Omnichannel marketing, we can start reaching that shopper with your live inventory on the other platforms where they are spending their time – including Snapchat, Tik Tok, Pinterest, Facebook, Bing, MSN Autos, and Google.

Using customer driven data, long gone are the days of having different ad agencies randomly toss your inventory up on different channels so you have a check in the box.

Interested in learning more about Omnichannel?

Click here!

Written By Drew Detweiler
Drew manages inbound and outbound marketing for Dealers United. When he’s not at work, he’s probably enjoying the outdoors, fishing, or eating.

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13 Ads That Are Restocking Dealership Inventory

by Brooke Jensen | Apr 22, 2021 | Digital Marketing, Industry News

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13 Ads That Are Restocking Dealership Inventory

Q1 of 2021 flew by. Thankfully for dealers, the market bounced back from disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic much faster than experts predicted…

(Despite the unique business challenges that were presented, this quarter highlighted some awesome results!)

…but even so, there were still unforeseen obstacles on the horizon – lack of inventory being one of the most critical.

Be it from supply chain issues or the high demand for desirable used units, dealers everywhere are feeling the pinch, and in a lot of cases, if you don’t have the right units, it’s leading to lost revenue.

And we don’t want that, which is exactly why we’ve created our 2021 Buy Back Ad Playbook 👉 13 ready-to-run ads and audience targeting strategies meant to help car dealerships get back those top model-lines directly from the source – their owners.

Click here to get the free 2021 Buy Back Ad Playbook! For detailed targeting information, read on!

Industry Insights

According to a recently released report by IHS Markit, “Auto Industry Insights: Q1 2021,” COVID-19 created the largest decline in auto sales in a single year, yet the dip wasn’t as bad as anticipated.

What’s even better news, the market has made huge strides towards recovery.

The industry report by IHS also highlights the scarcity of dealer inventory and how this is a catalyst for lower incentives and possible lost customers if dealers don’t have the right inventory on the lot!

So how can dealers claw back and get more top-model lines on the lot?

Enter the 2021 Buy Back Ad Playbook!

How Dealers Are Increasing Top Inventory

With Facebook and Instagram users at an all time high, it’s fair to say that owners of the model-lines you want on your lot are out there.

Get in front of them with offers to trade keys, lease pull ahead, or outright buy back their vehicles.

Getting offers in front of owners with desirable late-model vehicles or those vehicles coming off-lease is giving dealerships a much more enticing selection of newer vehicles to attract new shoppers with.

With our 2021 Buy Back Ad Playbook, dealers are leveraging 13 ads that are appealing to vehicle owners and getting dealerships back in the game in inventory count.

So far this month, Zeigler Cadillac of Lincolnwood was able to drive 21 leads for $13.11, bringing in more potential inventory for their dealership.

Click here to download the playbook!

How Do I Reach The Right Vehicle Owners?

So you have some awesome looking ads to grab the attention of top-model line owners – great! But now what?

Although certain ad agencies are okay with using a dealer’s ad spend to target all users in their PMA, we prefer a more targeted approach.

Using IHS and Oracle in-market vehicle owner data, you can get these ads in front of owners of the exact model lines that your dealership wants on the lot.

By reaching these ideal customers, your dealership can get in front of them with your message where they are spending their free time – Facebook and Instagram.

Recap

With the auto market recovering, almost all dealers need to get their hands on more appealing used inventory.

Our 2021 Buy Back Ad Playbook gives you 13 scroll-stopping assets for your dealership to run on Facebook and Instagram to immediately start getting more desirable units on your lot.

Coupled with IHS and Oracle targeting for top model-line owners, your dealership can optimize ad spend and appeal to only the right vehicle owners.

Click here to download the 2021 Buy Back Ad Playbook and start getting units back in your inventory.

Want to skip the fuss? Click here to chat with one of our experts and let us do the heavy lifting for you.

Written By Drew Detweiler
Drew manages inbound and outbound marketing for Dealers United. When he’s not at work, he’s probably enjoying the outdoors, fishing, or eating.

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« Older Entries

What’s New At DU: NADA Data & Powerful Brand Ads

What’s New At DU: NADA Data & Powerful Brand Ads

New Data ✅ New Ads ✅ New Promotions ✅

Questions? Compliments? Ready to maximize your success?

Facebook Marketplace Automation Discontinued! How Your Dealership Can Continue To Post Your Inventory

Facebook Marketplace Automation Discontinued! How Your Dealership Can Continue To Post Your Inventory

What does this mean for auto dealers?

But we’ve got a solution!

And you’ve got options…

How Can We Help?

Manage vehicles on Facebook Marketplace after listings are discontinued.

13 Ads That Are Restocking Dealership Inventory

13 Ads That Are Restocking Dealership Inventory

Industry Insights

How Dealers Are Increasing Top Inventory

How Do I Reach The Right Vehicle Owners?

Recap

Categories

Register for the webinar, “The 3 Biggest Facebook Mistakes Even Advanced Dealer Marketers Are Making”!