Facebook is the world’s most popular social networking platform, with over 2 billion active users. Social media has become part of the everyday culture in our world today with and Facebook has become the go-to platform for many dealerships to promote their business.

Considering the potential of Facebook, having an active presence on the platform is now a necessity for dealers. No matter where you are or what type of cars you sell, your target market is spending time on Facebook. Most of your potential customers are logging on every day and multiple times a day. 

But Facebook can be frustrating for any business if they’re not seeing more sales from it. It’s possible to waste a lot of time of Facebook and not get anything out of it. But if you focus on the right things, Facebook can become one of the most powerful marketing tools for your business.

In this guide, you’ll learn what you should focus on when using your dealership’s Facebook page. You’re going to learn what type of content to post and how you can get the most bang for your buck from the time you spend on Facebook.

Why Should Car Dealers Use Facebook

#1. Connects you to a larger audience

Facebook gives you the platform of reach a lot of people with minimal effort. Using Facebook’s advertising tools, you are able to get massive exposure for your dealership. And it doesn’t need to cost you a lot of money.

#2. It’s Free

Using a business Facebook page doesn’t cost you anything. Yes, you will need to pay if you want to run ads and reach a larger audience. But you can still reach car buyers in your area with free posts.

#3. Your Competitors Are Already There

If you’re not actively using Facebook as part of your dealership marketing strategy, you’re giving your competitors the opportunity to get ahead of you. Every day other dealerships throughout Australia are selling vehicles through Facebook.

#4. Benefit From Targeted Advertising

Facebook offers more powerful targeting options for their advertising than nearly any platform in the world. Unlike traditional TV and radio advertising, where you pay to put your brand in front of a lot of people who are unlikely to buy from you. On Facebook, you can choose exactly what type of people you want to see your ads.

#5. Facebook can help generate word of mouth

Because it’s so simple for a user to share a post, Facebook can help drive word of mouth. Of course, you will need to post the right type of content if you want people sharing your posts. We discuss what type of content that is in this guide.

#6. An active Facebook gives you extra credibility

People expect to see regular recent posts from your dealership when they check out your page on Facebook. If you haven’t posted anything since 2018, it raises alarm bells. People will wonder if you’re still in business. Just by posting regular content, you give the appearance of being an active and credible business.

Facebook Reviews

Getting positive Facebook reviews for your dealership business page is essential for the following reasons.

Helps to drive sales: People rely heavily on online reviews when making purchase decisions these days. Aside from Google, Facebook is one of the most referred to platforms for online reviews. If potential customers visit your Facebook and see lots of positive reviews, they will feel much more comfortable in purchasing a vehicle from you.

A way of gaining customer feedback: Reviews are an excellent way of getting feedback from your clients and allowing you to know your areas of strengths and weaknesses.


How you can get more Facebook reviews

  • Use Email: Email all customers, requesting a review. The closer to the sale, the better. This is a process that can be automated in some dealerships.
  • Request from customers in person – get your sales staff to ask customers for reviews in person
  • Incentivize sales staff: While there are rules against offering customers incentives to leave reviews, you can still incentivize your staff to get reviews. You can run a competition within your dealership to see which team member can get the most reviews in a month.

Responding to Facebook reviews

Facebook reviews can be both positive and negative. In responding to negative reviews, ensure your response is not confrontational. Let the customer know you have read the review, express regret over the customer's experience, and promise to resolve the customer's issues.

If a customer takes the time to leave you a positive review, you should always thank them for leaving the review and doing business with you.

Types Of Content To Post

Many businesses wonder what they should post on their Facebook page. Not knowing what else to post, many will just post promotional materials.

But it’s worthwhile putting some thought into the content you post on your dealership page. The right content will get more engagement (likes, comments, shares..) and when Facebook sees your posts getting higher engagement, they will show it to more people.

Customer Photos

Customer photos tend to perform very well on Facebook for dealerships. Next time a customer comes to collect their new car, ask if you can get a photo of them with their new vehicle.

These photos usually get high engagement and they make your customer feel special.


Customer Testimonials

If you’re already getting positive reviews on Google or Facebook, it’s easy to turn them into content using a tool like Canva.


These customer testimonial graphics work well because they establish trust and confidence in your brand. Potential buyers who visit your Facebook page will feel more confident in buying from you when they see these positive testimonials.

Video Content

Video has become one of the most popular types of content on Facebook for all businesses, including dealerships. In 2021, video higher engagement rates than any other type of content on the platform (image posts, text, link posts, etc..).

Including staff in your videos is a great way to create a more personal feel on your Facebook page. Try to capture videos of staff talking about new arrivals in the showroom, taking test drives or talking about anything interesting that has happened in your dealership recently.

Don’t let video quality stop you from using videos on your Facebook page. Even a video shot with an iPhone camera can still perform very well on Facebook. The content of your video is more important.


Video Ideas

  • Car reviews
  • Customer collecting new car
  • Staff member profile
  • Test drives
  • Behind the scenes at your dealership
  • Special sales and deals
  • Share videos from the manufacturer
  • Customer testimonials
  • Birthday celebrations

Facebook Messenger For Dealerships

Facebook Messenger offers dealers an excellent way to initiate conversations with potential buyers. Many people prefer to communicate with a business through an online chat like Messenger initially, rather than on the phone.

Once you have engaged a potential customer through Messenger, you can then direct the conversation to the telephone or prompt them to come into the dealership to continue the conversation.

Monitoring your Facebook inbox regularly is essential to ensure your responding to Messenger enquiries as fast as possible. A potential customer will be more likely to go to another dealership if they don’t get a timely response from you.

Much of your Messenger communication can be automated using a tool like Many Chat. Using Many Chat, you can create an automated sequence of messages to capture the customer’s details, book a test drive or organize a servicing appointment.

Using automation for this can save your staff time and ensure that potential customers are getting a fast response to their enquiries.

Facebook Ads

Facebook ads give dealerships a cost effective way to reach a much larger audience than regular Facebook posts.

With regular (organic) Facebook posts, your reach will generally be limited to just those people who follow your page. And even then, it may only be 5-10% of your followers who actually see your posts.

But through Facebook ads, you can pay to have your posts shown to a larger audience. You also have the ability to set your budget and specify who you want your ads to be shown to. Because Instagram is owned by Facebook, you can also have your ads displayed on Instagram.

To get ideas for your Facebook ads, look at what other dealerships are doing with Facebook ads. You can go to Facebook’s ad library here and type in the name of a competitor to see what ads they’re currently running.


Benefits of Facebook Ads for Car dealers

  • You can include links in your ads to your website, increasing web traffic
  • Set your budget and stop your ads any time you want to
  • Cost effective – compared to other advertising alternatives, Facebook ads tends to be extremely cost effective
  • Select your target audience – define the area, demographics, interests of the people you want to see your ads

Next Steps

  • Start asking customers to leave reviews on your Facebook page
  • Take a few minutes to respond to any existing reviews on your page that haven’t been responded to
  • Begin collecting photos of customers with their new cars (or even videos) and then start posting these photos as soon as possible
  • Take some of your existing Facebook and Google reviews and turn them into graphics to post on Facebook, using a tool like Canva
  • Discuss ideas for video content you could produce within your dealership
  • Check your Facebook inbox and create a free Many Chat account so you can begin testing Messenger automation
  • Check the Facebook ads library to see what ads other dealerships are running

Find out how you can get your vehicles listed on Cartopia by calling us on 1300 696 392 or submit your details on this form

Jordan Ballard

Jordan Ballard

Automotive Content Editor

Jordan is a car finance and automotive industry specialist at Only Cars. With over 20 years of experience with frontline and management roles in sales, finance and other areas, Jordan has an incredible understanding of the automotive industry. As Automotive Content Editor, Jordan loves sharing his passion for cars with the Only Cars audience.