SARASOTA, Fla. — Top 150 Ford dealer Sarasota Ford and digital solutions provider Dealers United were recently the focus of Facebook Business feature highlighting their Facebook advertising success story.
The case study showcases how the dealership reached its community and earned a 125X return on its ad spend using Dealers United’s Facebook Program. The full story can be viewed by click here.
“By tailoring messaging about their events and promotions to ideal prospects, advertisers are able to layer in a variety of data points to build their perfect audience,” stated officials with Dealers United. “For auto dealers, this ranges from Facebook’s behavioral data, user hobbies, psychographics, and automotive-specific data from DLX Auto Powered by Polk.”
It was this level of advanced targeting that landed Sarasota Ford its presence on Facebook Business’ feature page. Specifically, the dealership’s Ladies’ Day Wednesday campaign, which targeted local in-market female vehicle shoppers and owners of particular makes and models with a service offer, generated 30,185 video views and five vehicle sales within 30 days.
“I’ve been running TV ads for years, and no customer has ever told me, ‘I’m here because of your ad,’” Sarasota Ford Owner and Operating Partner Matt Buchanan said in his Facebook interview. “However, with Facebook, it was unbelievable how many customers actually mentioned that they had stopped in to check out our facility and the Sarasota Ford experience due to the [Ladies Night] campaign.”
Buchanan, who is also the co-founder of Dealers United, was the first dealer to try the firm’s Facebook Advertising program before its launch to members in 2015. The company helps hundreds of dealerships run custom Facebook Advertising campaigns.
“If I’m ever in my office thinking of a campaign that I want to deploy immediately, I can go ahead and blanket my entire market or laser-target any specific market that I want,” said Buchanan. “For instance, let’s say I want to only talk about and target teachers, firefighters, first responders, I can do that. It’s a great tool to have available to me that I can use to get immediate and incredible results.”
Dealers United refers to this strategy as “microtargeting,” and claims it’s their secret sauce to getting dealers’ messages through the noise and connecting them with car buyers.
“We call it microtargeting because we’re talking to a ‘micro group’ of people with an ultra-specific message,” said Pete Petersen, CEO of Dealers United. “We just do it differently over here. WE take the time to dissect a dealer’s specific goals and community and really use Facebook’s data to narrow in on their desired audience.”
