Digital Dealer - March 2018 - 48

// Direct From Facebook

FEATURED SPEAKER
By Gabrielle Garrison,
Partner Manager, Automotive Facebook

DD24

FACEBOOK
BETTING BIG ON
AUTO: TAILORED
SOLUTIONS
TO INDUSTRY
CHALLENGES
When did you last buy a car? If it was in
the last few years, your decision-making process likely looked a lot different than
it might have 10 years ago. People no longer
spend time researching cars inside a dealership and, for the most part, show up to the lot
with their preferences already vetted. In fact,
the average car shopper today only makes two
dealership visits when shopping for a vehicle
because they're arriving mentally prepared to
make a purchase (1).
So, where are these
car shoppers doing
their research? Online,
of course. Specifically,
car shoppers are using
their mobile device more
than ever before to help
guide them to the dealership lot. In fact, more
than half (56%) of automotive internet shoppers
conduct research on
a mobile device. This
new behavior represents
a huge opportunity for
auto businesses. Each
of these interactions
on mobile gives auto
companies another
chance to become part
of someone's purchase
consideration. 64% of car
buyers are undecided at
the start of the process
- but you can't wait for
car shoppers to find you.
You need to make sure
you are meeting customers where they are
discovering, proactively
48

MARCH 2018

reaching people with the
right message at the
right time.
At Facebook, we're
focused on building value
for people and businesses. And in automotive,
that means building tools
to support the evolving
needs of the industry.
Facebook has identified
the need to connect car
shoppers to personalized
online experiences during
the research and discovery process, which is why
we were excited to announce a new tool tailored
specifically for automotive
late last year: Dynamic
Ads for Automotive.
Car buying is a highly
personal and customized
shopping experience,
yet there is a desire for
automation and scale
in marketing. To meet
these specific automotive
needs, Facebook tailored
its dynamic ads solution to

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

specifically help dealerships reach more car
shoppers, with the right
vehicle, at the place they
are spending the most
time.
Dynamic Ads for
Automotive are tailored to
people who are in market
for a vehicle. Before
this automotive-specific
offering, marketers had to
rely on a product that was
built for a retail and ecommerce environment. The
product didn't take into
account automotive-specific factors, such as the
fact that consumers do
not purchase vehicles online. Tailoring this product
to perform functions such
as VIN-specific targeting
required workarounds that
proved challenging. Dynamic ads for automotive
changes all that.
Manufacturers and
dealers can now upload
their entire catalog of vehicle inventory with relevant
details such as make,
model and year, and then
show the most compelling
inventory and features. It
then automatically generates ads that show the
most compelling inventory
to the right audiences,
driving them toward
vehicle detail pages, lead
submission forms or other
valuable places. This
automation happens by
placing a Facebook pixel
or SDK on your website,
which will then gather the
shoppers looking at the
VDPs, connect that signal
to your product catalog,
and serve that user the
generated ad with the exact car they were looking
at on your website (down
to the model, trim and
VIN).

After a one-time pixel
and product catalog setup,
Facebook does the rest of
the work to deliver and optimize your ads. The system
determines which specific
car someone sees by taking into account the intent
signals of that person both
on and off the Facebook
family of apps, as well as
with audiences that demonstrate similar characteristics
as that individual. So we're
able to dynamically show
the right car ad to the right
person, leaving time for you
to focus on closing the sale.
We know that auto faces
unique challenges when
it comes to personalized
advertising at scale, and at
Facebook, we are always
thinking of news ways to
partner with the automotive
industry to find solutions. To
learn more about dynamic
ads for auto, visit https://
www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-createad-dynamic-ads-for-auto.
Sources:
1 - Cars.com The Car Shopping
Journey 2014

GABRIELLE GARRISON
is on Facebook's Partner
Manager Team where she
makes sure clients are thriving
at the forefront of the quickly
changing digital landscape
on Facebook. With 7 years in
the media business, Gabrielle
has held positions in all
aspects of the advertising
space ranging from radio to
traditional media and currently
digital media. An alumnus
of the University of South
Florida in Tampa, Gabrielle
got her start in advertising
helping small businesses
in Tampa succeed in their
marketing objectives, and later
moved to digital advertising
for eBay.com helping brands
such as Progressive, Ford,
The Chrysler Group, Ronald
McDonald House and State
Farm just to name a few.

https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-create-ad-dynamic-ads-for-auto https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-create-ad-dynamic-ads-for-auto http://www.Cars.com http://www.eBay.com http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - March 2018