Dealers United Leverages Facebook Click to Marketplace Ads to Boost Automotive Dealer Sales

Digital automotive agency, Dealers United, continues to guide their dealer customers to success by utilizing Facebook’s newest feature for automotive, Click to Marketplace, or C2MP, Ads

Facebook Click to Marketplace Ads were created to help reduce friction in the auto shopper journey, and keep users shopping without ever having to leave Facebook’s platform. The new feature gives dealerships the power to connect with auto shoppers more frequently and drive leads for less money than other ad types.

At the beginning of 2020, Dealers United participated in a beta test with Facebook Automotive to test C2MP Ads with a few of the agency’s dealership clients. The test showed that, on average, dealers were able to drive 2.3x more impressions and reach 1.7x more shoppers than traditional campaigns for the same ad spend. Since launching the official product live in March, some of the agency’s customers are realizing leads as low as $4 or less, with one dealer attributing 15 sales to the new ads in only one month.

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Similar to Automotive Inventory Ads, C2MP Ads display a dealership’s live inventory on Facebook to in-market auto shoppers. Where the products differ is the traffic destination. Automotive Inventory Ads drive shoppers to a dealership’s website, while Facebook Click to Marketplace Ads direct users to a dealership’s Facebook Marketplace listing.

Facebook Marketplace has become one of the most popular destinations for used vehicle shoppers. Due to Marketplace’s incredible audience size and no inventory listing limitations, it is also becoming an essential listing platform for auto dealerships. However, previous to Click to Marketplace Ads, auto dealerships were unable to use Facebook’s data targeting to drive traffic directly to their Marketplace listings.

With C2MP Ads, dealers now are able to target local in-market auto shoppers and send them to the Facebook Marketplace listing, reaping the full benefits of the platform. Users can view up to 50 images of the vehicle, find the full description of the vehicle and retrieve Kelley Blue Book price comparisons, see additional listings from a dealership, and easily get in direct contact via Facebook Messenger.

The dealer can then dynamically retarget the shoppers the same way as they would with Automotive Inventory Ads. By tracking user’s vehicle views and engagement on Marketplace, dealerships can deliver targeted ads showing the same vehicles the shoppers showed interest in until a conversion is complete.

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“Facebook has devoted a lot of time to reducing friction in the auto shopper’s journey,” said Pete Petersen, CEO of Dealers United. “With their latest Click to Marketplace Ads, shoppers can browse and learn more about the dealer’s inventory, then directly communicate with the dealer without ever having to leave Facebook. Not only are load times faster, but it’s more shopper friendly. Our initial tests across over 50 dealers have shown higher VDP engagement and lower cost per interaction. This opens a new opportunity for dealers to reach and engage local New and Used shoppers on Facebook Marketplace.”

Since opening the C2MP campaigns up to more dealer-partners, Dealers United is continuing to see an average lead cost that is lower than On-Facebook Lead campaigns. On average, their dealer-partners are realizing 19% reductions in Cost Per View metrics, and 69% reductions in Cost Per Leads, compared to website traffic campaigns.

Driving shoppers to an on-Facebook VDP or Marketplace listing with C2MP offers several additional benefits compared with driving to a dealer website, including:

• A mobile-optimized experience with a 1.3 second average page load time, reducing auto shopper friction
• Opportunity to prospect and qualify leads in real-time via Facebook Messenger
• Retargeting capabilities for users who engage with the vehicle listings or send a Messenger inquiry
• Zero loss in reporting and attribution issues caused by loss of website conversion data
• Ability to continue tracking key performance metrics and breakdowns such as view content, cost per view content, leads, and cost per lead
• Retargeting capabilities for users who engage with the vehicle listings or send a Messenger inquiry

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