As of September 13th, automotive Facebook Marketplace Listing Partners (e.g. car dealers) will no longer be able to automatically push their inventory catalogs/feeds into Facebook Marketplace as listings.
This means dealers will no longer be able to use a software system or service to bulk-upload their used inventory.
However, dealers will still be able to manually upload vehicles to Facebook Marketplace and run Sponsored Automotive Inventory Ads.
What does this mean for my dealership?
This Facebook Marketplace change creates some new challenges, but it also provides opportunities to adopt new strategies to ensure your used vehicle inventory is still visible to a Facebook audience.
Here are 3 ways you still take advantage of Facebook’s platform to market your inventory:
Vehicle Inventory Tab:
The Inventory Tab option lets you add a dedicated Inventory section – called a page tab – to your Facebook business page and display your inventory directly to this tab. This creates another online digital showroom besides your dealer website.
Potential buyers on Facebook can browse a gallery of your inventory and can chat directly with your dealership or submit inquires as a lead. You can also manually create Marketplace listings form your Inventory Tab.
DealerCenter has a built-in feature that seamlessly and automatically posts your inventory to Facebook business page’s Vehicle Tab. Plus, with our integrated Chat technology incoming Facebook chats tie into the DealerCenter CRM and can be routed, tracked, and managed on a single screen. Incoming chats can even create customer records in CRM!
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Automotive Inventory Ads:
Facebook offers dynamic, sponsored ads - called Automotive Inventory Ads (AIA) - that pull in inventory images, descriptions, and even offers from your inventory catalog/feed to create targeted ads for active shoppers. These ads can be placed in the Marketplace and in News Feeds, as well as other Facebook locations like Instagram.
Automotive Inventory Ads offer superior placement and more control. You can even run custom campaigns with ads. Plus, potential buyers on Facebook can engage with ads by submitting their basic info with just a couple clicks, this in turn generates leads, which funnel directly to DealerCenter CRM and notify you of interest on a specific vehicle.
Manual Listings on Marketplace (and be smart about it):
You will still have the options to manually create Marketplace listing for vehicles one-at-a-time. This means you’ll want to employ some strategy and focus on posting high-value listings. Review what vehicles and categories of vehicles have generated the most interest.
What kind of inventory has been most popular and profitable? Maybe its trucks or later model sedans – focus your energy on those vehicles.
DealerCenter is here to help!
DealerCenter is your technology partner, and we have years of experience in digital marketing on every platform. We’re working closely with Facebook to ensure a smooth transition and we’re launching more solutions and features in DealerCenter that will allow you to easily leverage the power of Facebook.
