Facebook removed the ability for business pages to post any vehicles to Marketplace.

So how does your dealership continue to reach that audience?

The ability to post used cars on Facebook Marketplace by a business is gone.

It had gotten increasingly difficult to get vehicle postings live — and when they were live, the engagement was low.

So how can you still tap into that audience now that business posting is gone? 

Alternative Tactics to Posting on Facebook Marketplace

1. Post manually as a person.

We’re listing this on at the top simply to get it out of the way. While you can still post vehicles manually from your personal Facebook page, it’s clunky and time-consuming — and not exactly scalable if you have hundreds of vehicles on your lot. 

The problem with this solution is that it’s not automated. Not only do you have to take the time to add each vehicle, but you also have to account for price changes — since changing the price on the website won’t automatically change it on the Marketplace listing — and take the vehicle down in a timely fashion after it sells. 

That’s why we don’t necessarily recommend this option. However, it could be a solution for a few specific vehicles or if you have a smaller inventory you want to highlight.

2. Add your inventory to your Facebook page’s Vehicles tab.

Did you know you can add your inventory to your dealership’s Facebook page — for free? 

When you connect your inventory catalog to your dealership’s Facebook page, shoppers can see your new and pre-owned inventory directly from the Vehicles tab on your business page. 

They can filter by make, model, mileage, body style and more — just as if they were on your website’s search results page.

And if they want to learn more, they can visit your website from a specific vehicle or contact your dealership through Facebook Messenger.

What to Know About Adding Inventory to Your Dealership’s Facebook Page

3. Use the Facebook Marketplace ad placement.

Facebook offers several placement options for automotive ads — one of which is ​​Facebook Marketplace. 

When you set up a campaign in Ads Manager, you can select either Automatic Placements or Manual Placements, where you can pick and choose specifically where you want your ad to appear across Meta’s platforms (Facebook and Instagram). 

Choosing Automatic Placements (the default campaign setting) will include Facebook Marketplace as a selected placement. If you choose Manual Placements and want to make sure Facebook Marketplace is included, remember that Marketplace isn’t available as a single ad placement. Your ad campaign must include Feed.

4. Leverage Offline Events.

The tools we used for Facebook Marketplace posting did a great job of closing the loop – showing which specific sales were impacted by Marketplace engagement. Facebook’s Offline Events feature allows you to continue to close the loop on your Facebook advertising efforts. 

Facebook’s Offline Events feature allows advertisers to see how many contacts in your customer relationship management (CRM) system became leads or sales after seeing one of your automotive Facebook ads. 

This helps you prove your Facebook return on investment (ROI) and gives you a fuller picture of the people who see your ads and then purchase a vehicle, so you can make better decisions in the future about where to market your vehicles.

Reporting and ROI

5. Run Vehicle Inventory Ads

At 9 Clouds we use your car dealership’s inventory feed to drive your advertising strategy. In fact, inventory-based ads regularly receive more than twice as many clicks as ads featuring non-inventory content.

To get started, we’ll need to connect to your dealership’s inventory feed. We can do this through a third-party platform that supports the feed, such as HomeNet or DealerTrack. 

Once we’re connected, we can use the feed to create ads for each vehicle in your inventory.

Unlock a Bigger (and Better) Advertising Strategy with Your Dealership’s Inventory Feed

Make the Most of Your Automotive Facebook Ads 

The world of automotive digital marketing is constantly changing, and keeping up with these changes takes time and energy. 

If you’re wondering where to start, we’re here to help. At 9 Clouds, we work with a variety of dealerships and other businesses, helping to improve their Facebook ads and keep up with digital changes on every platform. 

Ask us your questions and get a free digital marketing assessment! We’ll listen to your pain points and keep you at the forefront of digital marketing. If you’re not quite there, see how we help businesses just like yours with their online advertising.

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