Montana Dealer Generates Trade-in Leads with Facebook Lead Ads

The Challenge

After experiencing a reduction in inventory as a result of COVID-19 — like many auto dealers — Denny Menholt University Honda was on the hunt for vehicles to add to its used selection. 

The Missoula, Montana, dealership wanted to spread the word that it was offering top dollar to anyone wanting to sell their vehicle. If it had four wheels and drove fine, University Honda wanted to buy it!

University Honda’s general manager, Michael Frame, wanted to generate new trade-in leads through a Facebook campaign. From here, 9 Clouds knew what we needed to do for our client. 

The Solution

To help University Honda achieve its goal of spreading a “sell us your vehicle” message to generate new trade-in leads, 9 Clouds set up a Facebook Lead Ad campaign.  

Facebook Lead Ads make the automotive lead generation process easy, as a person never actually needs to leave the Facebook platform in order to become a lead! 

When someone taps a Lead Ad, a form pops up, usually pre-populated with the person’s Facebook contact information. Once the user completes the lead form, their contact information is submitted, ready and waiting for you to reach out!

For University Honda, we set up the Lead Ad form to ask for basic contact information as well as basic vehicle information, including the trade’s make, model, year, and approximate mileage. We targeted this ad to a Custom Audience of recent website visitors and a Special Ads Audience based on that Custom Audience. 

We then integrated the lead form with University Honda’s email marketing platform. We set up a workflow so that as soon a person submitted a lead form, an automated email was sent to the dealership with the lead’s information. Then, it was up to the University Honda sales team to reach out to their new, prospective leads. 

While Lead Ads take a little extra time to set up on the front end, the return on investment is often worth the extra work. And in University Honda’s case, our efforts paid off!

The Results

Facebook Lead Ad Case Study for Auto Dealers

With a campaign length of 2.5 months, this Facebook Lead Ad was able to produce impressive results:

  • 89 total lead form submissions
  • $18.54 average cost per lead

People spend half of an hour every day on the Facebook platform, making it the perfect place for University Honda (or any auto or RV dealer) to find new, qualified leads. 

Regarding the success of this automotive Facebook Lead Ad strategy, Frame says:

“Thus far, we’ve been able to set multiple appointments as a direct result of the Facebook Lead Ad.”

Ready for Results Like These?

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