Third-generation car dealers and brothers Doug and Andrew MacIver own and operate Ride Time, an independent auto dealership in Winnipeg, Canada. Their grandfather, uncles, father and now they have operated dealerships in the area and they have a track record of success. Ride Time specializes in custom trucks, but retails vehicles in every category. They run about 50 / 50 subprime to prime deals and generally carry nothing older than seven model years. Doug said that he and his brother are self-admitted “tech junkies” and love to try new things to drive sales to the dealership. They both recently spoke at DrivingSales’ Canadian Dealer Forum.
“I know our store is different,” Doug said. “We have a strong social footprint and spend heavier in social than most. We’ve had a national reality television show and do lots of funny commercials. We are not afraid to try new things in order to stay ahead of our competition and grow our dealership.”
Doug was spending around $6,000 per month on digital marketing and generating a total of 250 leads per month including those that came in organically. Last month, Doug decided to outsource his digital spend and start using an offsite texting company to set appointments with the leads he is generating using Facebook lead generation ads.
“We turned it on Tuesday and Saturday we delivered three vehicles,” Doug said. “For half the amount ($3,000) we spent before, we generated 313 leads so far and the month is not even over. We are delivering lot of cars from Facebook lead gen ads. We just sell the customers the cars they want when they come into the store.”
Doug said he is willing to more money into any system that works, and plans to increase his digital spend on Facebook next month. “We are seeing super-charged customers from every end of the spectrum from Facebook,” he said. “It allows us to touch a huge amount of customers for a small amount of money. ”
Ride Time has always been a dealership ready to try the next big thing and gamble on new and unproven tech to grow their business. They believe they hit the jackpot this year with the Facebook lead program. They are producing more leads at a lower cost per lead than ever before in dealership history. They are using text to convert more of these leads into appointments. Text reminders are also driving a higher show rate than they have ever experienced. Doug and his team outsource their texting so they have more time to work with and deliver the customers at the store.
Facebook lead gen ads and texting will work well for your dealership whether your team does the texting or you outsource it. One thing is for sure: If you are not using this new form of Facebook ad to generate leads and texting to convert them into shows, you are missing the boat and leaving the door open for your competition to grow market share at your expense. For a free live walk through of how to create an effective Facebook lead gen ad, please email me with “Dominate” in the subject line.
