Identifying Your Shopper
Meet âJohn.âÂ

John is a 36 year old male who is interested in an F-150. John is in your addressable market but has never been to your dealership, isnât in your CRM, and has never visited your website.Â
He just started doing research on 3rd party sites like Edmundâs and Autotrader. After a little investigating, John decides that he wants a new, white or gray F-150 between $40,000-$50,000.
Bringing Awareness To Your Dealership
Using Facebook and 3rd party data, we now know that John is an in-market shopper in your PMA who is browsing for a new F-150.Â
We certainly could send John ads with your F-150 inventory at this point.Â
But if you immediately start showing âSales-yâ ads to John, before you even have had a chance to introduce your dealership, itâs kind of like asking someone to marry you before you even know their name. And thatâs just⊠wrong.

Next time John hops on Facebook or Instagram, you first want to capture his attention by deploying engaging ads that introduce John to your dealership.
These ads should include âWhy Buyâ messaging about features that make John want to purchase from you, instead of your competition.Â
Winning the âConsiderationâ Stage
John is now aware of your dealership and has been engaging with your Awareness ads through Likes, Comments, and Video Watches.
In this next stage, you want to accomplish 3 things: 1) Encourage Johnâs interest in the F-150, 2) Inform him about current specials on the F-150, and 3) Show your live, on-the-ground F-150 inventory.

With these ads, John will click through to your SRPs, which will trigger a View Content event back to Facebook.
Now weâre going to start showing him all relevant live inventory that your dealership has on the lot.

Once he engages with your ads and either lands on your website VDP or an on-Facebook VDP, we know once and for all that John is ready to buy.
But if John leaves your VDPs without converting, itâs crucial that we retarget him to keep your store top-of-mind until he makes a decision.
Bringing John Back With Retargeting
1. Continue enforcing what sets your store apart from other dealerships.
While âsales-yâ ads are a priority at this stage, donât forget to continue messaging John about what sets your store apart.
Customer testimonials, awards and accolades, and your involvement with your community are sure-fire ways to build trust with John.

2. Stay relevant and ask for a lead conversion (at the right time).
If John is looking at neutral color F-150s between $40-50k, you certainly donât want to retarget him with a bright blue F-150 that is out of his price range.
Instead, retarget John with the exact VIN that he viewed, and all similar inventory you have in stock.
Then, when John is at the peak of his shopper journey, ask him to submit a lead directly on Facebook to Apply For Financing, Schedule a Test Drive, or Schedule a VIP Appointment!
With On-Facebook Lead Ads, you can provide John a frictionless experience without slow page load times, pop-ups, or other friction. (Want to learn more about reducing auto shopper friction? Watch: Reduce Auto Shopper Friction with Facebookâs Newest Solution for Dealers)

Did you know? Many dealerships and agencies run Lead Ads either too early, or for too long, which can waste your ad dollars. With Facebookâs custom retargeting windows, you can maximize your spend by ONLY asking John for a lead conversion when he is at the peak of his journey: 3-7 days after he left your VDP.
Once John raises his hand and submits his information, your team will see his information dropped immediately into the CRM as a lead so youâre one step closer to the sale.
Attributing The Sale
Say John never submitted a lead form on Facebook, but still came in and bought that new truck.
How can we attribute that unit sale to your Facebook campaigns?
Using Facebookâs Offline Conversion tool, dealers donât have to guess anymore.
Simply upload your sales report into Facebook (or via our our awesome new dashboard), and you will be able to see the amount of shoppers who viewed or clicked a Facebook ad before they bought.

Learn more about how Facebook Matchbacks work here.
This will give you immediate insight into your return on ad spend and cost per unit sold, so you can stop guessing and start making better decisions with your advertising dollars.
But Johnâs journey with your dealership isnât done yet!
Customers For Life
Now that John is in your CRM as a successful sale, you can run service and promotion campaigns to him and the rest of your established customer base.
Keeping your dealership in Johnâs timeline, we can continue to drive fixed ops revenue and ultimately start reenaging him with trade in incentives to get him back into your store to buy again.
Want to see how your dealership can engage your customer base to start getting back much needed inventory back on your lot? Click here to download the 2021 Buy Back Ad Playbook.
Now that Johnâs journey has come full circle (and heâs a raving fan of your dealership), grab a testimonial and turn it into an ad for future shoppers who you meet during their auto shopper journey.
Nothing builds trust like word of mouth referrals, so itâs so important to continue to nurture these relationships even after the sale. You never know the connections one person can bring!
The Journey Never Ends…
By now, you understand the full spectrum of interactions in the auto buyer journey.
There are so many opportunities to optimize each touch point to drive a potential buyer (and everyone they know!) into becoming a raving fan.
Facebook and Instagram are a digital marketers playground: internet users spend an average of 144 minutes per day on social media. Moreover, 63% of car buyers are discovering new vehicles online and 86% of shoppers want to engage with brands post-purchase.
From prospecting and retargeting, to nurturing the relationship (and revenue) post-sale, these strategies will help your business build local awareness, enhance engagement, garner qualified leads, and get the most out of your advertising budget.
If your business isnât leveraging digital marketing across the marketing funnel, your local audience is one click away from giving their business to your competitor.
Ready to learn more with real world examples? Check out this video to see the auto buying journey in action.