Dealerships have a constantly expanding group of lead sources available to them today. With so many choices, it can be difficult to decide which to try. While considering lead sources, it is important to consider the cost per lead, lead volume and the quality of the leads. At the end of the day, it is deliveries that matter — not the number or cost of the leads — so quality stands out. ROI is the most important statistic because, after all, we are in business to make money.
As third-party lead providers lose their stranglehold on automotive searches and research, dealers have the opportunity to capture shoppers earlier and eliminate the need to buy back the customers from their own backyards. This is due both to search engines placing greater value on local businesses and the rise of social as a lead-producing giant.
Properly designed search ads with make, model, price and payments will perform better than ever for dealers due to their social efforts. Social has become an absolute gold mine for dealers who use it properly. Facebook lead generation ads are ads that show up right in the newsfeed. They provide dealers with the lowest cost per lead available today. In fact, many dealers who try these ads are overwhelmed with the quantity of leads that are produced.
No matter how inexpensive the leads, they are no good if you only get 20 percent of them to respond to any communications. This is where dealers often fail to convert. Text messaging has proven to be the most effective way to communicate with Facebook leads and convert them into appointments that show and take delivery. “In my entire career working in and with dealerships, I have never seen a more effective way to convert leads into car buyers in the showroom,” said Brian Creed of BG Solutions. “Dealerships that use text messaging effectively will see communication rates in excess of 80 percent.”
Every dealership should be using Facebook lead-generation ads. If no other dealers — or very few — are using them in your market, the opportunity to get tons of inexpensive leads is even greater. Car buy back ads and specific vehicle special ads work great. Quickly, you will be generating as many leads as you can handle. If you feel you are too covered up with leads, adjust your spend to produce the number of leads you can handle, or hire more people. Another solution is to outsource your texting to a company that can set the leads for you. Then, you and your people will only have to do what you do best — sell cars.
Never before have dealers had such power to dominate the car research and shopping process online. Redirect some of your marketing budget from buying leads into creating them yourself. You are likely already spending time on Facebook daily. Now it can finally make you money. If you would like to see how to create an effective Facebook lead generation ad yourself, please send me an email with “FB Lead Gen” in the subject.
