Let’s start with a straightforward but profound query. How much time and effort, if any, do you devote to following up on leads after they’ve been submitted?

Why Are You Inquiring?

This is merely a rhetorical query designed to get you to consider your current follow-up procedures. Although constant communication is an essential part of the sales process, it is also an aspect to which few people devote much, if any, thought or time.

According to research, only 2% of transactions are made on the first touch between a salesperson and a lead. Even then, the small percentage of those who eventually close a deal do so just because the leads have done their homework and know exactly what they want. Basically, the agent just had to turn up.

After the initial sales touch, several studies have shown that it takes at least five ongoing follow-up attempts before a customer says yes. FIVE STARS! From the fifth to the twelfth touch, nearly 80% (yes, 80%!) of all sales are made!

Take a look at the following figures:

After receiving one “no,” 44% of salespeople give up.

After two “no’s,” 22% of people give up.

After three “no’s,” 14% of people give up.

After four “no’s,” 12% of people give up.

As a result, after hearing ‘no,’ ‘not yet,’ or ‘not now,’ up to four times, 92 percent of salespeople give up. That is to say:

Just 8% of salespeople are responsible for 80% of all sales!

Does it make you wish you had been more enthusiastic about maintaining a constant conversation with your leads? It certainly does for me. Persistence, my friend, is the key to making it into the top 10%!

Wooden sign that says “Go Further” with a picture of a paradise in the background.

7 Effortless Follow-Up Techniques

So, how do you make sure you’re following up in a timely and effective manner? The seven techniques mentioned below will help you shift follow-up from the back burner to the top of your priority list!

1. Make a schedule for follow-up.

Clearly, follow-up isn’t something that happens by accident. Make a schedule that shows when you can make calls and send emails. Leads won’t fall right between your fingertips any longer.

You’ll only need two types of contact schedules at first:

Active Leads: These are attentive leads who are willing to purchase in the near future.

Passive Leads: These are qualified leads with a long-term purchase horizon.

These schedules are often planned out for up to a year. But, depending on the level of interest shown and the prospect’s current needs, the frequency and purpose of communications can change over time.

2. Use a variety of follow-up methods.

The aim is to contact prospects in a variety of ways in order to avoid getting lost in the shuffle of competition and to remain on the prospect’s mind. Snail mail, emails, phone calls, messages, tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn posts, or any other suitable social contact tool may be used to reach out.

3. It’s All About Timing

Certain days of the week, and even times of the day, are busier than others for us. When trying to make a link with a prospect, these are the moments to avoid because anything you say is likely to go totally unnoticed, and not on purpose.

Graph 1

The highest email open rates and phone contact rates tend to be on Wednesday and Thursday. According to study, the best email weekday is Thursday, which has a 26 percent higher open rate than the worst email weekday, Monday. Thursday is also 49% higher for phone touch rates than Tuesday, which is the worst day for phone contacts.

The bottom line is that if you time your method of interaction within the confines of these communication sweet spots, you’ll have a better chance of making contact or getting a response from a prospect. While this may be useful in some cases, research shows that consumers who are approached within five minutes of sending an interest form, regardless of the time of day, are more likely to turn into a transaction. Giving immediate attention demonstrates how much you appreciate their time and emphasizes your excellent customer service.

4. Build email template designs

Create templates to help you with the follow-up process, starting with your most popular and repetitive emails. Keep in mind that these aren’t intended to take the place of your work; rather, they’re meant to help you with it. It’s also important to personalize the message so that it doesn’t come across as impersonal.

This will reduce the amount of creative work required at each stage of the follow-up process, leaving you with no reason not to contact your prospect as soon as possible. What could be better than improved email efficiency and accuracy with less effort?

5. Obtain permission to go on with your follow-up.

I hope it’s self-evident that if anyone really asks you to avoid contacting them in some way, you should. However, it’s not always clear whether or not the prospect wants to keep in touch.

This is where obtaining permission to proceed comes into play.

By requesting their permission to continue following up, you reduce the chances of being a bother and losing whatever goodwill you’ve built up so far. “Do you mind if I check in with you in two months to see how things are going?” for example. or “Would it be okay if I sent you an email in a week or so with more information?”

Ending each discussion by asking permission to proceed would build an environment of mutual respect and consideration, regardless of how motivated a prospect appears to be. If the answer is no, at the very least you’ll know where you stand with them. If the answer is yes, it would be easier to follow up understanding that it is desired on the other end.

6. It’s Important to Use Relevant Content

I’ve already discussed the importance of varying your communication methods, but it’s also important to vary the quality of your messages in order to establish more meaningful interactions. What is the reason for this? And no matter how many times you ask, “Are you ready to buy?” you can only ask it so many times until it irritates your prospect, which is particularly true if they are already dealing with many other businesses. The reality is that people buy when they’re ready to buy, not when you’re ready to sell.

So, how do you go about it?

Send them a range of valuable content that will help you stay in touch while also adding value to their lives or businesses. While creating good content requires a significant amount of time on your part, it is an investment that will pay off in the long run. Such interactions will show them that you’ve been thinking about their company and will remind them of how you can assist them in succeeding.

When a customer is ready to spend money, they would most likely choose the business that is at the top of their mind – that is, the one with which they have had the most recent, regular, or meaningful interaction.

7. Keep track of how many people open and click on your emails.

Knowing whether and when an email has been opened, as well as the click-through rates it has created, gives you a lot more information about what your prospects are interested in.

Any potential explanations for low open rates include your subject line not being important or interesting enough to your prospect, or you sending too many or too few emails, causing your email to be overlooked. It’s important to strike a balance!

Creating relevant content and increasing click-through rates go hand in hand. The more useful and engaging the material, the more likely your prospect will continue reading. It’s also a good idea to avoid phrases like “press here” because they leave the reader unsure about where the link will take them. To get them there, they must first understand where you want to take them. You could also get more click-throughs if you provide several links to the same material in a single email, giving the reader several chances to click.

With sketched heavy and muscled muscles, a young businessman wonders.

Continue to be brave.

In the business world, agents do not hope to close significant transactions in a single conversation. Humans like to hear something several times before it really sinks in, and the business world is no exception. There has long been a limiting assumption that following up with a lead isn’t worth the time. This belief is absolutely false, as shown by the statistics! Follow up on leads with tenacity. For those who persevere, there are offers to be had!

Will these tactics be beneficial to you and your team? Or do you have your own set of successful closing strategies? Comment below to share this post or to highlight those wise words!

Many factors contribute to increased selling power, one of which is having the right resources for the sales team. Your sales dialer is an effective outbound tool that you should be looking into more. Performance, ROI, and the customer-to-agent call ratio are all metrics that look for the smartest, quickest, and best dialer choice for your sales team.

Aside from fully removing manual dialing from your sales process, sales dialers often help your sales team be more productive and achieve bigger goals.

1 – A boost to productivity

Imagine how many dials an agent would make in a day if power dialing would maximize the amount of dials per hour. This not only helps them meet their goals, but it also improves their chances of bringing in more clients. Power dialers will miss bad numbers and voicemails, resulting in more valuable calls for your business.

An unanswered call isn’t the end of the story; power dialers keep track of these calls so you can reach out to them at a later time or with a different approach. You can keep track of events with power dialing by using call dispositions, marks, and notes. Contacts will be maximized as a result, and the chances of converting them to a paying customer will be increased. The ‘Follow The Sun’ feature in SimpSocial’s power dialer allows agents to sort leads by timezone, making call schedules for both domestic and international customers more coordinated.

2 – Reluctance is what Lessens calls it.

The job of a salesperson is not straightforward. Aside from strong communication skills, one must be able to determine when to demand a bid, when to reengage, and when to avoid. A lot of the time, sales teams create call reluctance issues as a result of inadequate call management. Unbeknownst to them, closing further sales needs more than just expertise.

Since it records and monitors calls and results, power dialing will help agents become more successful during any call. Agents will be able to review previous calls, identify areas for improvement, and increase the effectiveness of potential cold calls in this manner.

3 – Increases the number of connections

Smarter sales dialers can dramatically increase link rates thanks to technological advancements. Local presence is a feature of these dialers that allows businesses to dynamically view an area’s local ID to fit the customer’s place. Link rates will increase by 30 to 40% when a cold caller’s area code seems more trustworthy to customers.

Since the first step in establishing a relationship with a customer is making a connection, connection rates are detrimental to cold calling performance. Assume there were contacts who were unable to be linked via phone calls. Power dialers may also send these contacts automated voicemail, SMS, or email sequences, allowing agents to handle them via other networks. This accomplishes two goals: it gives the agents more opportunities to connect with customers, and it gives customers more choices on how they want to be contacted.

4 – Improves call quality

A power dialer not only speeds up the process of communicating with customers, but it also allows agents to plan in between calls. Wrap-up time can be customized to allow agents to relax and plan before speaking with another customer on the phone. This benefits both you and your customers by improving the efficiency of your calls.

Most power dialers often have dynamic call scripts to help agents with their sales pitches. You may be able to find a power dialer that also integrates with your favorite CRM if you’re lucky. An automated dialer would be able to help you know how to pitch and approach each lead if you have lead and contact details in your CRM database.

5 – It has a positive return on investment.

Yes, a monthly or annual subscription is needed, but the benefits you’ll receive are incredible. Call recording and monitoring tools are included with power dialers, allowing you to evaluate the output and workflow of each call. You can see metrics and reports in real time because everything is automatically registered. When you progress against your objectives, this will assist your team in defining better sales strategies.

You can set the speed according to your company’s customer-to-sales representative ratio, allowing your agents to concentrate more on developing relationships now that you have complete leverage. Automated dialing saves time for your agents, allowing them to make more money-generating calls. Furthermore, since everything is included in your subscription kit, you won’t have to think about TCPA fines and penalties, repairs, or machine upkeep.

 

SimpSocial’s Power Dialer is a good option.

The endless possibilities a power dialer can provide for your company are well worth your sales team’s time and effort. With SimpSocial, you can get all of these benefits – plus an unlimited call plan – in one convenient package!

 

Enjoy designing call campaigns and cultivating long-term customer relationships. Made possible by a power dialer that automates all of your tasks, and made versatile by CRM software you already use. SimpSocial is unquestionably more than just a sales dialer.

 

Today, learn more about SimpSocial’s power dialer. Let’s set up a free demo to talk about it.

Contact Center Automation for Faster Sales Follow-Up

Contact center automation helps businesses respond faster, reduce repetitive work, and deliver more consistent customer experiences across phone, chat, email, SMS, and social channels. Instead of relying on agents to manually route calls, log notes, send follow-ups, qualify leads, and answer the same questions all day, automation handles the repeatable parts of the process so people can focus on higher-value conversations.

For modern dealerships, this matters more than ever. A shopper may ask about a vehicle on Facebook, submit a website form, reply to an SMS, or call after viewing live inventory. If the team responds too slowly, that lead may move to another dealer. SimpSocial helps solve this problem with precision-targeted social media lead generation tied to live inventory and an AI Automotive CRM engagement platform that responds, follows up, and books appointments automatically.

What Is Contact Center Automation?

Contact center automation is the use of software, artificial intelligence, workflows, and CRM integrations to manage repetitive communication tasks without constant manual input.

It can support both customer service and sales operations. In a dealership, that may include answering common questions, routing leads, sending appointment reminders, following up with cold prospects, re-engaging missed opportunities, and helping agents prioritise the most serious buyers.

Common contact center automation features include:

• AI chat and virtual assistants
• Automated SMS and email follow-up
• Intelligent call routing
• CRM lead assignment
• Appointment booking workflows
• Call summaries and activity logging
• Lead scoring and prioritisation
• Omnichannel conversation tracking
• Automated reminders and task creation
• Reporting dashboards

The goal is not to remove people from the process. The goal is to remove delays, missed steps, and repetitive admin so agents can do their best work.

Why Automation in Contact Center Operations Matters

Customers expect fast answers. They do not care whether a business is short-staffed, busy, or dealing with a high call volume. If they ask a question, they expect a response.

That is where automation in contact center workflows becomes valuable. It gives businesses a way to stay responsive even when agents are unavailable, call volume spikes, or leads arrive outside business hours.

For dealerships, the impact can be significant. Many vehicle shoppers submit leads after hours, compare multiple dealers at once, and lose interest quickly if no one responds. Automated engagement keeps the conversation alive by responding instantly, collecting useful information, and moving the shopper toward a booked appointment.

Contact Center Automation Vs Traditional Contact Centers

Area	Traditional Contact Center	Automated Contact Center
Lead response	Manual and often delayed	Instant replies across key channels
Call routing	Basic queues or manual transfer	Routed by intent, priority, or agent skill
Follow-up	Depends on agent discipline	Automated sequences and reminders
Data entry	Agents manually log notes	AI summaries and CRM updates
Availability	Limited by business hours	24/7 self-service and response
Reporting	Often delayed or incomplete	Real-time dashboards and insights
Customer experience	Can vary by agent	More consistent and trackable
Agent workload	High admin burden	More time for complex conversations

Traditional contact centers rely heavily on people remembering every step. Automated contact centers build those steps into the system.

How Contact Center Automation Works

Contact center automation usually starts when a customer or lead takes an action. They may call, send a message, fill out a form, click an ad, ask about a product, or request an appointment.

The automation platform then identifies the person, checks available data, and triggers the next best action. That action might be a chatbot reply, an SMS, a call task, an appointment link, or a route to the right agent.

For example, a car shopper clicks a live inventory ad for an SUV. The system can:

1. Capture the lead source and vehicle interest.
2. Send an instant personalised response.
3. Ask whether the shopper wants pricing, availability, finance options, or a test drive.
4. Notify the right sales or BDC team member.
5. Book an appointment if the shopper is ready.
6. Continue follow-up if the shopper does not respond.
7. Log the interaction in the CRM.

This creates a smoother process for the shopper and a cleaner workflow for the dealership.

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Key Benefits of Contact Center Automation

Faster Lead Response

Speed matters. Contact center automation allows businesses to respond in seconds instead of hours. For sales teams, this can improve the chance of reaching buyers while their interest is still active.

Better Customer Experience

Automation helps customers get clear answers faster. It can route them to the right person, provide basic information, confirm appointments, and reduce the need to repeat details across channels.

Less Manual Admin for Agents

Agents often spend too much time on data entry, reminders, call notes, and repetitive messages. Automation reduces this workload, allowing them to focus on conversations that need human judgement.

More Consistent Follow-Up

Many leads are lost because follow-up stops too early. Automated workflows help ensure every lead receives timely communication, whether it is a first response, appointment reminder, missed-call follow-up, or post-sale message.

Stronger Reporting

Automated systems capture more complete data. Managers can see response times, lead sources, appointment rates, agent activity, call outcomes, and gaps in the customer journey.

Best Contact Center Automation Use Cases

1. Lead Qualification

AI can ask basic questions such as what product or vehicle the customer is interested in, when they want to buy, whether they have a trade-in, and how they prefer to be contacted.

2. Appointment Booking

Automation can offer available times, confirm appointments, send reminders, and reduce no-shows. For dealerships, this is especially useful for test drives, service bookings, and sales consultations.

3. Missed Call Follow-Up

If a customer calls and no one answers, automation can send an instant SMS asking how the business can help. This prevents missed calls from becoming lost opportunities.

4. Customer Self-Service

Chatbots and knowledge bases can answer common questions about hours, locations, availability, pricing steps, documents, financing basics, or service requirements.

5. Post-Sale and Post-Service Follow-Up

Automated messages can request reviews, check customer satisfaction, remind buyers about service intervals, and keep the relationship active after the initial sale.

6. Lead Nurturing

Not every buyer is ready now. Automation can keep in touch with long-term prospects through relevant updates, inventory alerts, offers, and reminders.

Essential Contact Center Automation Tools

Tool	What It Does	Why It Matters
AI chatbot	Handles common questions and lead capture	Improves instant response
CRM automation	Logs activity and triggers workflows	Keeps teams organised
Power dialer	Helps teams call more leads efficiently	Increases outbound productivity
SMS automation	Sends timely messages and reminders	Improves engagement rates
Call routing	Sends customers to the right person	Reduces transfers and wait times
Analytics dashboard	Tracks performance and outcomes	Supports better decisions
Appointment scheduler	Books and confirms meetings	Turns interest into action

For dealerships, the strongest results often come from combining lead generation, CRM automation, AI engagement, and human follow-up into one connected process.

How Dealerships Can Use Contact Center Automation

Dealerships operate in a fast-moving sales environment. Shoppers may compare electric vehicles, used cars, finance offers, trade-in options, and availability across multiple stores. A slow or inconsistent response can cost the sale.

SimpSocial helps dealerships manage this challenge by connecting social media lead generation with AI-powered CRM engagement. That means a dealer can attract shoppers through precision-targeted Facebook and Instagram campaigns tied to live inventory, then use automation to respond, follow up, and book appointments.

Practical dealership workflows include:

• Responding instantly to new vehicle enquiries
• Following up with Facebook and Instagram leads
• Re-engaging old CRM leads
• Sending service reminders
• Booking test drives
• Confirming appointments
• Prioritising high-intent buyers
• Automating post-sale communication

This turns the contact center from a reactive support function into a revenue-driving engagement engine.

How to Choose the Right Contact Center Automation Platform

The best platform should support your customer journey, not force your team into rigid workflows. Before choosing a solution, ask:

• Does it integrate with your CRM?
• Can it handle SMS, email, phone, chat, and social leads?
• Does it automate follow-up without sounding robotic?
• Can it route leads based on intent or priority?
• Does it support appointment booking?
• Can managers see clear performance reporting?
• Is it easy for agents to use?
• Does it improve both customer experience and sales outcomes?

For dealerships, live inventory integration and fast lead engagement are especially important. Automation works best when it connects marketing, CRM data, and customer conversations.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Contact center automation can fail when businesses automate too much, too quickly, or without a clear customer goal.

Avoid these mistakes:

• Using bots with no easy path to a human
• Sending generic messages that ignore customer intent
• Automating broken processes instead of fixing them
• Failing to connect automation with the CRM
• Tracking activity but not outcomes
• Ignoring agent feedback
• Setting up workflows and never improving them

Automation should feel helpful, not frustrating. The best systems make conversations easier for customers and agents.

FAQ's

What is contact center automation?

Contact center automation uses AI, software, and workflows to handle repetitive communication tasks such as routing, follow-up, appointment reminders, lead qualification, and reporting.

Will automation replace contact center agents?

No. Effective automation supports agents by reducing admin work and helping them focus on complex, high-value conversations that need human judgement.

What is the best use of automation in contact center teams?

The best starting points are lead response, call routing, appointment reminders, self-service answers, CRM logging, and follow-up sequences.

How does contact center automation help dealerships?

It helps dealerships respond faster to leads, book more appointments, follow up consistently, and manage customer conversations across phone, SMS, email, chat, and social channels.

Why is CRM integration important?

CRM integration ensures every conversation, lead status, appointment, and follow-up action is tracked in one place. This improves visibility and reduces missed opportunities.

Conclusion

Contact center automation helps businesses move faster, serve customers better, and reduce manual workload. It improves response times, strengthens follow-up, supports agents, and gives managers clearer data.

For dealerships, the value is even stronger. Every missed call, slow reply, or forgotten follow-up can mean a lost sale. With SimpSocial, dealerships can combine live-inventory social media lead generation with an AI Automotive CRM platform that responds, follows up, and books appointments automatically.

The result is a smarter contact center that does more than handle conversations. It creates opportunities.

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SimpSocial

SimpSocial empowers modern dealerships with two game-changing solutions: precision-targeted social media lead generation tied to live inventory, and a powerhouse ai automotive crm engagement platform that responds, follows up, and books appointments automatically.

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The Facebook Sales Funnel: Prequalifying Doesn’t Work Yet

Facebook advertising might be the most powerful tool auto dealerships have ever had. You can target people where they live, based on life events that might prompt them to buy a car, and every time they open a phone or a computer.

Unlike some other lead generating tools, Facebook catches people near the top of the sales funnel.

Table of Contents

The Top of Funnel Advantage

By catching people at the top of the sales funnel, you’re able to get to them before your competition can. You’re already forging a relationship while they’re just beginning to think about buying a car or truck. 

They aren’t spending Saturdays wandering around lots. They haven’t called anyone. They haven’t looked at finding yet.

No Pre-qualifying

Because they’re just beginning to think about buying a car, you can’t treat them like you would someone further through the process, deeper in the sales funnel. If you start asking questions about financing, co-signers, and credit information, you’re likely to scare them off. 

Take Your Time

The leads that you generate from Facebook need to be nurtured. You need to take your time to get them to your showroom and just talk to them.

They’re still in the emotional stages of buying a car. They might be shooting too high in terms of the vehicle they can afford, but that’s part of the process.

This all takes time and patience. Unlike the “hot” leads that you might from other sources, albeit fewer of them, the people will take time to get from “thinking about it” to signing on the dotted line. That said, if you walk them through the process, educate them a bit on the way, and treat them well, you’ll get a lot more loyalty out of them than someone who’s already decided on the major factors and is just looking for the right price. 

How to Lose Them Quickly

If you jump right into credit issues or down payments, anyone that’s not qualified is probably going to run away. This is doubly true if you don’t market yourself as a “bad credit, no problem” type of dealership. This doesn’t mean you can’t help people, but they haven’t built up the trust to get to that point. 

Get Emotional with Them

The leads you generate from Facebook are in the emotional stages of buying a car. You need to appeal to their emotions. They want to be excited and you need to give them permission to be excited. 

Invite them to the dealership with promises of no pressure and some fun test drives. Get them to fall in love with one of your vehicles. People can do amazing things in their lives when they really want something. 

While they’re looking at your vehicles, you can work on building trust and getting them taken care of. 

Later, when they’ve found the right vehicle and seem ready, you can start the conversation about co-signers, financing, and credit issues. 

The Power of Facebook Advertising to Build a Great Funnel

If you’re working your leads well, you can move them from lukewarm, top-of-the-funnel leads to buyers. As one group moves out of the bottom the funnel a lot more will go into the top. 

Because the number of leads entering the funnel is large, you can eventually have a significant number of leads coming in to buy vehicles.

Working this way, and keeping your interactions moving leads down the funnel, you can get out ahead of your competition and keep people in your showroom instead of shopping around.

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Text Messaging and AI: Auto Sales

We’ve all been advertising for years. You used to put an ad in the paper or the phone book and people would come to buy cars from you.

Then the internet arrived. The local paper disappeared. The phone book disappeared. We were left with Google and social media. 

The amazing part of the new technologies and advertising outlets is they can pinpoint buyers with incredible accuracy. 

Using the systems in Facebook, Instagram, Google, and many more, you can target exactly the right people at the right time. 

Following Up on Leads

At SimpSocial, we deliver leads. Often, we deliver more leads than a sales team easily handle. 

That’s where text messaging and AI come in. Using these two tools combined, we’re able to engage with your clients for months, keeping their interest without overwhelming them.

Using AI, we’re able to target your customers, answer their questions, and even walk them through inventory. What makes it most effective is that there is rarely any human interaction.

Why AI and Text Messaging

Writing a text message to every lead is time consuming. It takes hours to send out messages to each person. It’s even more time-consuming when you’re sending them messages that correspond to where they’re at in the sales cycle and based on their last messages to you. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is designed to do that thinking for you. Working together, we set up a system of predefined steps that your customers can go through. The AI will recognize questions about financing, inventory, availability, appointments, and more without any input from your team.

So Why Text Messages?

The answer is in the numbers. Over 95% of text messages are read by the recipient. In most cases, our phones will hold a text message on the screen until we read it or dismiss it. 

Compare that to emails which are read less than 50% of the time and phone calls that are answered less than 10% of the time. With text messaging, you’re getting the lead to read what you wrote (or what the AI wrote). Even if they don’t respond, you’ve made another impression and you’ve reminded them they need a car.

The CRM Connection

When this is integrated with your CRM, it can provide you with a lot of information and some very warm leads. 

The AI will even invite the lead to the showroom, find out what vehicles they’re interested in and tee it all up for you. All you have to do is make the sale.

Sure, there will still be some phone calls and emails coming in, but anyone that opts in for text messages will have your message right in front of them anywhere.

All of this can be connected to your CRM and deliver detailed information. Every question in the lead asks, every time they clicked a link, even the inventory they looked at will all be listed in your CRM. You’ll know what the customer wants, even if they’re not sure yet.

Can We Live Without Text Messaging?

No. If you want to reach younger car buyers, you need to start using text messages. The average Millennial doesn’t use their phone to make phone calls.

“A poll by Gallup also confirmed that text messaging outranks phone calls as the dominant form of communication among millennials, with 68 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds saying they texted “a lot” the previous day. In the last couple of years, monthly texting among this age group has more than doubled.”

The same report from EZTexting also notes that 76% of Millennials would rather lose the ability to make calls than the ability to text.

The future is in text messages and the ease and convenience of sending written messages. Texting will only get easier as voice recognition improves and we can speak our messages. 

Text Messages and AI: The Fastest Way to Fill the Pipeline

Using social media advertising to capture leads, a CRM to track them, and text messages and AI to follow up on them, the average dealership can fill their sales pipeline in about a week. 

It requires some expertise and planning, but it’s easy to do with the right help.

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Website Down! The Problem with the Old Way

“The website is down again!”

How many times have you heard that? If you hear it more than once or twice a year, you might have a problem.

How It Used to Be

If you have an older site, it might be located on a single server. That means that if it gets too many hits at once or there’s a problem in that one location, your website will go down.

That was the old way of putting up a website. Some smaller companies will still offer you “on-site hosting”. It’s usually inexpensive and they push it because then they can have it right there in front of them.

How It is Now

With the advent of cloud computing, websites can be set up to be redundant. This means that your website can be repeated all over the globe. 

Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and many more have cloud servers all over the world. The goal for these servers is to shorten the distance between your site and the end user. For example, if you have a website hosted only in Florida and someone in Seattle wants to take a look, they might have difficulties if there’s a lot of traffic in between.

Also, if the server in Florida is down for maintenance or lost power or is simply overwhelmed, the consumer might not see your site.

With cloud computing, your site is copied on servers everywhere. The person in Seattle is really looking at a complete copy of your site on a server in, say, Seattle. Every day, the cloud system will go out and look at your website to make sure everything matches. Also, every time you make a change, the cloud system will send out a message and new copy to all the servers.

What About the Big National Hosting Sites

Every day, you’re contacted by big dealer website companies that want your business. They can set up a site in a few days and might even make it seem less expensive. 

The problem is that many of those companies haven’t updated their infrastructure. They aren’t using cloud computing to store your site. They still have everything on the server they installed in 2001. This means that if they have a problem on their server, you’re out of luck. 

Almost every dealership has tried working with these companies once or twice. It all sounds so awesome and easy, but you’re just a number. You’re one of thousands of other dealerships that have hired them to make a cookie-cutter website that looks exactly like everyone else’s. 

The cost savings is not worth it. The hassle is definitely not worth it. There’s a better answer!

Buy Local

Instead of taking what looks like an easy path, talk to your local website design companies. They’ll help you build a great website and they’ll put up on the cloud systems for you. 

Smaller companies don’t generally have their own services to put the website on. Instead, they build on cloud systems that will automatically install redundancies. There will be copies of your website everywhere, making it easier for consumers to access it from anywhere, instantly.

Service outages aren’t necessary any longer with websites. That’s all very 1999. Today, with the massive cloud server systems, your website should be up and available every day, all day.

If you have any problems or aren’t sure what to do, contact us. We’ll help you find a great vendor for your website.

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SimpSocial

SimpSocial empowers modern dealerships with two game-changing solutions: precision-targeted social media lead generation tied to live inventory, and a powerhouse ai automotive crm engagement platform that responds, follows up, and books appointments automatically.

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Automotive CRM Texting Compliance for Car Dealerships

Texting is one of the fastest ways for car dealerships to reach shoppers, confirm appointments, answer inventory questions, and keep leads moving. But speed only helps when the process is built correctly. Automotive CRM texting compliance is about making sure every message your dealership sends is based on permission, documented in the CRM, respectful of customer preferences, and aligned with the rules that apply to calls and texts.

For sales teams, BDC departments, and managers, this is not just a legal topic. It affects lead quality, customer trust, appointment show rates, and brand reputation. A compliant texting process helps dealerships communicate faster without turning follow-up into unwanted pressure. Dealerships that rely on automotive text messaging need clear controls around consent, message history, opt-outs, and staff visibility.

This article is for general information only and should not be treated as legal advice. Dealerships should review their texting policies with qualified counsel, especially when using automated SMS, AI follow-up, broadcast messaging, or third-party lead sources.

What Is Automotive CRM Texting Compliance?

Automotive CRM texting compliance means your dealership has clear rules for when, why, and how customers receive text messages through your CRM or automation platform.

A compliant process should answer four questions:

• Did the customer give permission to receive messages?
• Can the dealership prove when and how that consent was collected?
• Can the customer easily opt out?
• Does the CRM stop future messages after an opt-out?

For car dealership SMS compliance, the CRM is central because it stores lead source, consent details, message history, opt-out status, appointment notes, and staff activity. This is why understanding CRM in automotive is important. If texting happens outside the CRM on personal phones or disconnected tools, it becomes harder to track consent, review conversations, and control risk.

Why Texting Compliance Matters for Dealerships

Dealerships rely heavily on fast lead response. A shopper may submit a form, request a payment estimate, ask about a trade-in, or click a social media ad tied to live inventory. Texting can help the dealership reach that shopper while interest is still high.

The problem is that customers do not want random, repeated, or unclear messages. A text message feels more personal than an email. If a shopper never gave permission, or if they already opted out, even a well-written message can create a complaint.

Strong compliance protects the dealership in three ways. It reduces regulatory risk, improves customer experience, and gives managers cleaner visibility into what the team is sending. A deeper understanding of TCPA compliance can also help dealership teams build safer communication policies before launching automated campaigns.

Consent Comes First

The most important rule is simple: do not text people who have not given appropriate permission.

Consent may come from a website form, digital retailing tool, Facebook or Instagram lead form, trade-in request, service request, appointment form, or another dealership-owned lead capture process. The key is that the customer should understand that they are giving the dealership permission to contact them.

For marketing or automated promotional texts, dealerships should be especially careful. Consent language should be clear, easy to see, and tied to the dealership or business that will send the messages. It should not be hidden in vague terms or assumed because a phone number was collected. Using SMS marketing best practices can help teams keep messages permission-based, relevant, and easier for customers to manage.

A good consent process should include:

• The customer’s phone number
• The date and time of opt-in
• The lead source
• The form or campaign where consent was collected
• The consent language used at the time
• The dealership or entity authorised to contact the customer

This is why CRM documentation matters. If a customer later asks why they received a message, the dealership should be able to check the record quickly.

Do Not Rely on Purchased Phone Lists

Purchased phone lists are risky for dealerships. Even if a vendor claims the contacts agreed to receive offers, that does not always mean they agreed to receive texts from your dealership.

The safer approach is to build your own first-party lead database through dealership-owned campaigns, inventory ads, website forms, showroom activity, service interactions, and customer reactivation programs. When people knowingly engage with your dealership, your CRM can store cleaner consent records and better customer context.

A large list is not valuable if it creates complaints. A smaller list with clear permission and strong buying intent is usually more useful for sales and BDC teams.

How Opt-Outs Should Work

A compliant SMS process must make it easy for customers to stop receiving messages. Common opt-out words include STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, and similar language that clearly shows the customer no longer wants texts.

The CRM or messaging platform should automatically mark the customer as opted out and prevent future automated texts. Staff should also be trained to recognise manual opt-out requests, such as “please stop texting me” or “don’t contact me again.”

A best-practice opt-out workflow includes:

• Immediate suppression of future marketing texts
• A clear opt-out status in the CRM
• Internal alerts for sales or BDC staff
• A timestamped record of the request
• A final confirmation message only if allowed and non-promotional

The goal is not to argue with the customer or find another way to message them. The goal is to respect the request and keep the CRM accurate.

Transactional vs Marketing Texts

Not every dealership text has the same purpose. A message confirming a scheduled appointment is different from a message promoting a weekend sales event.

Text Type	Example	Compliance Consideration
Appointment confirmation	“Your test drive is confirmed for 2 p.m.”	Should match an active customer request
Lead follow-up	“Are you still interested in the 2022 SUV?”	Should be tied to documented inquiry or consent
Marketing message	“This weekend only: payment specials available.”	Usually requires stronger consent controls
Service reminder	“Your service appointment is tomorrow.”	Should match customer relationship and preferences
Broadcast campaign	“New inventory just arrived.”	Higher risk if sent without proper opt-in records

For finance-related conversations, sales and BDC teams should keep messages helpful rather than pushy. If a shopper asks about payments, rates, or terms, the dealership can point them toward useful auto loan negotiation tips while keeping the CRM conversation focused on the customer’s requested vehicle, appointment, or finance next step.

Dealerships should avoid treating every contact the same. A customer who asked about one vehicle last night is different from a cold contact from an old list.

Examples of Safer Dealership Texting Workflows

Here are practical examples of compliant-minded texting workflows:

• A shopper submits a lead form and agrees to receive texts from the dealership.
• The CRM records the opt-in source, campaign, time, and phone number.
• Sarah AI sends a personalised first response about the specific vehicle.
• The shopper replies with a preferred appointment time.
• SimpSocial GoCRM stores the conversation and appointment status.
• The BDC team can review the full message history before calling.
• If the shopper replies “STOP,” the CRM suppresses future automated texts.
• Managers can audit campaign performance, response rates, and opt-out activity.

This type of workflow is stronger than letting staff text from personal phones because it keeps communication visible, consistent, and easier to manage. It also supports the work of an automotive BDC by giving the team cleaner lead context, better appointment visibility, and fewer disconnected conversations.

Common Texting Compliance Mistakes

Dealerships should avoid these mistakes:

• Texting contacts from bought or scraped lists
• Sending messages without clear consent records
• Ignoring opt-out requests
• Using vague consent language
• Sending too many promotional texts
• Letting staff message customers outside the CRM
• Failing to separate sales, service, and marketing message types
• Sending image-heavy or video-heavy messages without a clear reason
• Using AI or automation without manager-approved guardrails

Compliance is not just about one rule. It is about building a disciplined communication process that staff can actually follow.

How AI and CRM Automation Can Help

AI can improve texting workflows when it is connected to the CRM and governed by clear rules. It can respond faster, personalise messages, qualify leads, book appointments, and alert staff when a customer is ready for human follow-up.

This is where an AI-native CRM for automotive dealerships can be useful. Instead of treating AI texting as a separate tool, dealerships can keep consent, customer conversations, appointment activity, follow-up rules, and staff handoffs inside one connected workflow.

SimpSocial supports this kind of workflow through Sarah AI and SimpSocial GoCRM. Dealerships can use AI lead follow-up, CRM automation, appointment booking, social media lead generation, DMS equity mining, broadcast messaging, Power Dialer workflows, and BDC automation in a more connected way.

The benefit is control. Instead of scattered messages across different tools, managers can keep lead conversations, opt-ins, opt-outs, appointment activity, and follow-up sequences inside a structured dealership system.

Dealership SMS Compliance Checklist

Before launching or expanding automotive CRM texting, review these points:

• Is consent language clear on every lead form?
• Does the CRM store opt-in details?
• Are opt-outs automatically suppressed?
• Can staff see the customer’s texting status?
• Are broadcast campaigns reviewed before sending?
• Are sales and service messages separated correctly?
• Are AI responses approved and monitored?
• Are third-party lead sources reviewed for consent quality?
• Are managers auditing message frequency and complaints?
• Has legal counsel reviewed the dealership’s SMS process?

A checklist will not replace legal review, but it gives dealership leaders a better operational framework.

Final Thoughts

Automotive CRM texting compliance helps car dealerships use SMS in a faster, safer, and more customer-friendly way. When consent is clear, opt-outs are honoured, and messages are tracked inside the CRM, texting becomes a stronger sales tool instead of a risk.

For dealerships using AI and automation, the standard should be simple: send the right message, to the right customer, with the right permission, through a system that records every step. That is how car dealership SMS compliance supports better follow-up, better customer trust, and better sales outcomes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is automotive CRM texting compliance?

Automotive CRM texting compliance means managing dealership text messages through clear consent, accurate CRM records, opt-out controls, and approved communication workflows. It helps dealerships text leads while reducing risk.

Can car dealerships text leads from Facebook or Instagram ads?

Yes, if the shopper clearly gave permission for the dealership to contact them by text. The CRM should store the lead source, time of consent, campaign details, and message history.

What should happen when a customer replies STOP?

The CRM or texting platform should mark the customer as opted out and stop future automated texts. Staff should also avoid sending manual follow-up texts unless counsel-approved rules allow a specific exception.

Are purchased phone lists safe for dealership texting?

Purchased lists are usually risky because the dealership may not have direct, provable consent from each person. First-party leads from dealership-owned forms and campaigns are generally safer and more useful.

How can AI help with car dealership SMS compliance?

AI can help by following approved scripts, recording conversations in the CRM, respecting opt-out status, and escalating qualified leads to staff. It should be monitored and controlled by dealership-approved rules.

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SimpSocial empowers modern dealerships with two game-changing solutions: precision-targeted social media lead generation tied to live inventory, and a powerhouse ai automotive crm engagement platform that responds, follows up, and books appointments automatically.

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Texting and SMS for Auto Sales Marketing

Everybody has a smartphone. It seems that they’re all on their phones all the time. Oddly, you don’t see people talking on them. You see them tapping out messages.

Texting is how the majority of all communication is happening. “US smartphone users send and receive five times more texts than they make and receive calls.”

Consumers don’t pick up the phone to ask questions anymore. The first thing they do is search the internet. When they don’t find what they need, or if they want more information, they look for a way to get it without having to talk to someone. 

The Car Salesman’s Rep

Let’s face it, car salespeople are famous for being high pressure and provide very little information. If you call a dealership for information, you’ll often get someone who’s not terribly forthcoming with information. Either they don’t know it or they are pushing for you to get down there so they can shove keys in your hand. 

They also have a reputation for being poorly trained at using the telephone to sell. Most are used to face-to-face interaction and don’t really work well with a phone on their ear, at least not from someone just looking for information.

Customers considering buying a car might just need a simple question answered, like “Are you open?” or “Is the Fiat in your ad still on the lot?” Most expect that when they call a car dealership, however, they’ll get a ten-minute interrogation into their needs and wants with a strong push to “talk to me when you get here.”

The Power of Texting

Auto dealers are still just discovering the power of texting. There has been a very slow move toward allowing customers to text dealerships, probably because it feels like you can’t then sell to them.

Since your customers are sending and receiving five times more texts than phone calls, why wouldn’t you make texting part of your marketing? 

Including texting on your marketing materials will quickly increase contacts from customers. “Call or text 888-829-1110,” will get you lots and lots of texts to ask questions. The customer doesn’t feel like they can be pressured that way, but they get the answers they need.

Your sales team can answer many more questions via text than they can phone calls. It takes a few seconds to answer a text, but a single phone call to answer a single question will often take three or four minutes. 

Managing Text Messaging

There are a huge number of text messaging management systems available. Most will allow you to send out text marketing messages on a schedule. 

Importantly, they will also show you messages that are coming to your textphone number. You can use a computer to answer questions. 

Both Android and iOS have message-to-web applications built-in. These will allow you to display the messages to and from a phone number on a computer. You can set up the manager’s phone, or a company cell phone on the manager’s computer, or for someone else who is in front of their computer all day. They can answer questions, send photos, and do anything else you can do with texting, all from their PC.

Another way to manage text messaging is to have a company phone that is passed around to an assigned person on every shift. There should be someone who is responsible for answering texts. That person keeps the shift on them for the day. 

It’s not a great idea to allow your staff to use their personal cell phones to handle company texts. There is no way for you to track what has been sent and what has been responded to. Also, you’re not later able to use those numbers to market to.

Text Messaging is a Powerful Tool

With just a little effort and a change in your ads, you can add text messaging to your toolkit. Your customers will love it, since they’re texting already. Your staff will get more customers and more sales because they are now responsive without being pushy.

Best of all, it’s cheap to do. There are viable solutions that cost no more than a single cell phone line each month. Even a text message marketing platform is about $30 a month for unlimited use. 

Turn this “new” way of communicating into your secret weapon.

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SimpSocial empowers modern dealerships with two game-changing solutions: precision-targeted social media lead generation tied to live inventory, and a powerhouse engagement platform that responds, follows up, and books appointments automatically.

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AI in Social Media Advertising

It’s been 63 years since the field of artificial intelligence (AI) was first introduced as an academic discipline, but put the term in front of the average person – regardless of what industry they work in – and you’ll typically get a glazed look and a mutter of something about computers or robots.

While we’re still lacking the advancements in AI of visionaries like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, AI itself is very much alive and well in multiple industries, and has been for close to a decade. One of those is advertising, where AI processes have been battering down barriers for years, doing amazing work in the form of processing and analyzing big Data to find patterns that might take a team of employee’s months or years to uncover, if they could so at all.

This form of AI, more commonly known as Machine Learning (ML), isn’t taking human jobs, it’s augmenting them, and getting them away from the monotony of bureaucratic jobs and back into the free space of developing campaigns and making big-picture decisions on the best way forward.

AI Social Media Advertising

Mark Zuckerberg’s social network king might have seen some bumpy back roads the past couple of years over how much data it is collecting and what it is doing with it down the road, but trying to deny the power of social media advertising means you’re either blind of in denial at this point. Until recently, most of the work done by AI in the social media niche was limited to three categories:

• Optimization
• Testing
• and recognition patterns.

The first, was great for things like tweaking emails, web content, and mobile content: Notching the correct keywords, and using the right tone for the right audience are tasks made possible by ML. Testing is also done quickly thanks to the Big Data capability involved. What would take days or weeks to coalesce is whittled down to seconds.

What’s previously escaped social media advertisers with AI has been the social part of things – we’re talking about individual relationships and real-time interactions, not the colder scientific aspects of ML.

That’s before the current round of breakthroughs, which will allow digital marketers to customize messaging in social media advertising to the look and feel of every individual user, not just the customer segment niche they fall into. These will be true one-to-one campaigns, like if your TV could view everything you’ve watched, read, and shopped for in the last 20 years and play you a commercial accordingly.

What This Means for Auto Sales

This type of social media AI is nothing short of a golden goose come home to roost for the auto sales leads industry. Internet advertising has painted with a broad brush when it comes to pairing customer segments with automobile ads. Geography, income level, and gender have always topped the list of what ad to send across that screen.

This sort of AI involvement means it’s time to dream bigger and be bigger than that. Let’s run through an example or two to really grasp the scope of this new tech. The first is Daisy, a young, single professional woman who is ready to move past her clunker from college and invest in a vehicle that fits her station in life. She’s not tied down so she’s looking for something sleek but fuel-efficient.

When the new AI crawls her Facebook and Instagram profiles, it picks up on her age, where she works, and what places she’s frequently checking in to. They are mostly restaurants in the area where she works and fun places like karaoke bars and baseball games on the weekend.

Her pictures feature friends and coworkers, not significant others and children. Even her typical outfit color choices can be read by the ML interface. 

The pictures and posts let the ML churn out that Daisy is not married and has no kids, meaning safety and space available for “stuff” are minimal concerns for her when considering a new vehicle. Her outfits trend more towards conservative and fun then outgoing and flashy, so a sports car doesn’t seem like her type of ride.

Then there’s all those check-ins on social media at local restaurants. ML uses Google Maps to plot a course of everywhere she usually hits for lunch and works up a list of dealerships that she regularly passes by to and from lunch, heck she probably sees their dealer names so many times she could probably tell you all the names in her sleep.

And when those names start popping up on Daisy’s social media pages advertising sedans and small SUVs that get solid mileage at an affordable price, they’ll be right in her wheelhouse. It’s not just a blind stab at her business based on where she lives, it’s an efficient use of data analysis to touch on precisely what the customer wants.

Our other example is Oscar, a married father of three who is retiring this year and who is about to start helping his daughter get her toddler to daycare three times a week. Oscar’s been a sports car guy his whole life, loving the American muscle cars of his youth and their modern-day equivalent: Camaros, Vettes, Chargers, you name it, he’s owned it.

He has a few magazine subscriptions to niche publications, has a Hot Rod group he’s been a member of since the early 1990s, and buys the accessories – wheel covers, driving gloves, you name it. But crawling Oscar’s latest posts and inquiries paints a different picture than the middle-aged speed demon. Now he’s joined a grandparents’ group and is asking questions about the different models of car seats for two-year-olds, and is far more interested in rear-seat legroom than torque and horsepower.

He’s gauging safety standards like never before and joining Facebook groups that are full of suburban enthusiasts. Chewing up Oscar’s search patterns and posts reveal that he’s out of the sports car market and will soon be toting around someone who weighs less than 40 pounds and needs to be facing the rear to maximize safety. That means an SUV with plenty of room for playpens and strollers.

The analysis becomes a lead for dealerships in Oscar’s neighbrohood – remember he’s retired and no longer takes that long commute – and next time he logs onto Facebook he has the pleasant surprise of ads geared towards the needs of himself and that beautiful first grandbaby.

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SimpSocial empowers modern dealerships with two game-changing solutions: precision-targeted social media lead generation tied to live inventory, and a powerhouse engagement platform that responds, follows up, and books appointments automatically.

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Social Media Marketing In The Automotive Business

How You Can Grow Your Dealership All Through Social Media

In today’s world, it’s no secret that businesses need to learn how to leverage the power of social media to help ensure that they achieve the growth goals that they’re striving for. Social media has proven to be a valuable tool for businesses looking to grow because it provides a window of opportunity, behind which a massive new lead pool awaits.

From there, your goal is to connect with the right target audience, at the right time, and with the right content. Once you’ve mastered the art of connecting with your audience through social media, it’s time to convert your new leads into paying customers.

As a car dealership, you might not fully understand the benefits of the reach that social media offers. More than likely, your typical leads come in the form of a local buyer who is interested in paying you a visit to take a look at a particular car that you have in your lot. And in fact, you’ve probably built your business around this exact type of client.

However, think about the world of possibilities that await you when you extend your reach, pull from new locations and target audiences, and begin to give your competition a run for their money. This could be your chance to achieve the market growth that you’ve been searching for.

It’s All About Extending Your Reach

The clearest advantages when it comes to social media marketing is the fact that you can quickly and immediately engage and connect with a pool of potential customers. You can push content that targets those interested in particular car brands that you service, and you can be sure that your content appeals to a wider audience spread out across a wider geographical area.

But what about lead generation? Sure, you can push content all that you want with social media. But how can you be sure that your lead funnel is doing its job?

Generating Leads

Remember, any advertising or marketing strategy is only as good as the leads that it can generate. With that said, you need to do a little bit of work to ensure that the connections you make with your target audience through social media actually make it into your lead funnel as quality leads that you can work to convert.

For example, when a potential customer clicks on your ad, you can use a simple feature that captures their email address. From there, you have a new point of contact where a member of your sales team can reach out to that connection with some more information related to a particular car or sale that they expressed interest in.

From there, that connection becomes a lead that your sales team can work until they convert. In essence, social media was the direct catalyst that attracted a new potential lead to your business. Once you’ve made that connection, the sky is the limit.

If you’re ready to learn just how to leverage social media to grow your automotive business, Simpsocial would be proud to help. Our state of the art AI enabled customer contact center will make it easier and more automated than ever before to ensure that the leads you create through social media advertising are effectively managed by our AI technology.

Free your sales team up to convert – our AI technology will handle your leads. Learn more today.

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Facebook and Instagram Ads 2026: Turning Clicks into Sales

Choosing between Facebook and Instagram ads isn’t really an either/or decision – both live inside the same Meta Ads Manager, draw from the same auction, and can run off the same budget. But they don’t perform the same way, and treating them identically is the fastest way to waste ad spend.

This guide breaks down the real 2026 cost data, the practical differences that affect your results, and a decision framework for choosing where to invest – including what actually happens after someone clicks your ad, which is where most businesses lose the sale.

What Are Facebook Ads vs. Instagram Ads?

Facebook ads are paid placements that appear in the News Feed, Marketplace, right column, and Messenger. They support the widest range of targeting options and campaign objectives of any Meta surface, and they’re built for advertisers who want granular control over audience, budget, and creative testing.

Instagram ads run through the same Ads Manager but display in the Instagram Feed, Stories, Reels, and Explore tab. They’re visually driven – you can’t run an Instagram ad without an image or video – and they tend to reach a younger, faster-scrolling audience than Facebook.

Both require a Facebook Business account and are typically managed, reported, and optimized from one dashboard, so the real question isn’t “Facebook or Instagram” – it’s how you split your budget and creative strategy across the two. Paid placements are only one part of the picture, too – for a broader view of organic and paid tactics together, see our guide to social media for car sales.

Facebook Ads vs. Instagram Ads: Key Differences in 2026

Cost: CPC, CPM & CTR

Ad costs shifted meaningfully in 2026 as Meta expanded Advantage+ campaigns and added lower-cost Reels and Threads placements. Based on current industry benchmarks (WebFX, WordStream, Databox):

• Facebook CPC averages roughly $0.70 for traffic campaigns and $1.92 for lead-generation campaigns
• Instagram CPC runs higher – around $1.83 (Stories) to $3.35 (Feed) – due to premium visual inventory and stronger competition for attention
• CPM is fairly close across both platforms, generally $7–$14, though it varies widely by industry and season
• CTR averages 1.4%–2.2% on Facebook, while Instagram typically sees lower click-through but higher engagement (likes, saves, shares)

The takeaway: Facebook usually wins on cost-per-click, Instagram usually wins on visual engagement. Neither number matters in isolation – what matters is cost-per-lead once you factor in how each platform converts for your specific business.

Audience & Demographics

Facebook still reaches the broadest age range, with strong representation across 25–54-year-olds, making it dependable for local services, high-consideration purchases, and older buyers. Instagram skews younger, with over half its global audience under 34 – a better fit for visually driven, aspirational purchases.

Ad Formats

Facebook and Instagram largely share the same ad formats – image, video, carousel, collection, Stories, and Reels – but Facebook adds two Instagram doesn’t have: in-stream video ads (mid-roll placements) and playable ads (interactive app/game previews). If your creative strategy leans on short-form video, both platforms now reward it: Meta reports the majority of top-performing 2026 ads are video-first.

Ease of Use & Content Style

Facebook’s ad platform has more levers – pixel setup, lookalike audiences, automated rules, dynamic creative – which makes it more powerful but steeper to learn. Instagram’s simpler, image-first format is easier for beginners but far less forgiving of weak visuals; a plain product photo that performs fine on Facebook often gets ignored on Instagram.

ROAS & Performance

Return on ad spend is generally comparable between the two platforms, with Facebook holding a slight edge in most verticals. Automotive, in particular, consistently posts some of the strongest median ROAS of any Meta ad category – a big reason Facebook ads for auto dealers remain one of the highest-performing channels dealerships invest in, alongside Instagram.

Facebook vs. Instagram Ads at a Glance

Factor	Facebook Ads	Instagram Ads
Avg. CPC	~$0.70 (traffic) / ~$1.92 (leads)	~$1.83–$3.35
Avg. CPM	~$7–$14	~$6–$14
Avg. CTR	1.4%–2.2%	Lower CTR, higher engagement
Audience	Broader, older-skewing	Younger, visual-first
Best for	Lead gen, retargeting, local services	Brand awareness, visual products
Learning curve	Steeper (more tools/options)	Simpler interface
Unique formats	In-stream video, playable ads	Explore tab, Stories-first

Which Should You Choose? A Decision Framework

This decision doesn’t happen in isolation – it’s one piece of a broader auto dealership marketing plan, so weigh it against your other channels before locking in a split.

• E-commerce / visual products (apparel, food, home goods): lean Instagram-first, Facebook for retargeting.
• B2B / considered purchases: Facebook’s targeting depth and longer-form content support wins here.
• Local service businesses and dealerships: this is where both platforms matter equally – Facebook for its broader local reach and lead-gen ad formats, Instagram for showcasing inventory visually to a younger car-buying audience. For a deeper breakdown of channel mix, see these automotive lead generation strategies. The mistake most dealerships make isn’t picking the wrong platform – it’s running both, generating a flood of leads, and then losing them because nobody follows up fast enough.

That last point is worth pausing on, because it’s the part most comparison guides skip entirely.

The Part Most Guides Miss: What Happens After the Click

Facebook and Instagram ads are genuinely good at getting people to raise their hand – fill out a form, ask about a listing, request a quote. But a lead that isn’t contacted within minutes goes cold fast, and dealership BDC teams juggling phone calls, walk-ins, and a CRM inbox often can’t respond in time. That gap between “ad click” and “human follow-up” is where most ad budget quietly gets wasted.

This is the exact problem SimpSocial, an AI-powered automotive CRM built specifically for dealerships, is designed to close. Instead of Facebook and Instagram leads landing in a queue, SimpSocial connects live-inventory Facebook and Instagram lead generation directly into automated engagement.

In other words: Facebook and Instagram ads are the acquisition engine. What determines whether that spend turns into sold units is the system behind it – and for dealerships specifically, that’s the gap SimpSocial is built to close.

Running Facebook and Instagram Ads Together

Most brands eventually stop asking “Facebook or Instagram ads?” and start running both, because Meta’s own delivery system is built to shift budget toward whichever platform is converting better in real time. A common approach:

1. Launch on both from day one using Advantage+ placements, and let Meta’s algorithm find the natural split for your audience and offer.
2. Separate your creative, not your budget – build Instagram-native visuals (clean, high-quality images or Reels) alongside Facebook-friendly formats (longer copy, carousel, in-stream video).
3. Track cost-per-lead, not just cost-per-click – a more expensive Instagram click that converts into a sale is worth more than a cheap Facebook click that never gets followed up.
4. Close the loop with a proper lead tracking system so every Facebook and Instagram lead lands somewhere it will actually get worked, instead of sitting in an ad platform inbox.

That fourth step is the one businesses – and dealerships especially – most often skip, and it’s usually the difference between ad spend that pays for itself and ad spend that just generates reports.

FAQ's

Do I need separate budgets for Facebook and Instagram ads?

Not necessarily. Both draw from the same Meta Ads Manager budget, and Meta’s automatic placement optimization will shift spend toward whichever platform is performing better – though manually splitting budget is worth testing once you have enough data to compare results.

Can I run the same ad on both platforms?

Yes, but it’s rarely optimal. Facebook tolerates more text and longer captions; Instagram performs better with cleaner, more visual creative. Duplicating the same ad usually underperforms a version tailored to each format.

What's a realistic starting budget?

Most advertisers can get meaningful data starting around $20–$50/day per campaign, though dealerships running lead-gen campaigns should budget closer to $1.92 average CPC on Facebook and higher on Instagram, then adjust based on cost-per-lead, not just cost-per-click.

Do Facebook and Instagram ads share the same tracking?

Yes – both use the Meta Pixel and Conversions API, so leads from either platform can flow into the same CRM and reporting dashboard.

Which platform has better ROAS for dealerships?

Automotive consistently ranks among the highest-ROAS verticals on Meta overall, with Facebook holding a slight edge for lead-gen and Instagram performing well for inventory showcases – which is why most dealerships run both rather than choosing one.

Is it better to run ads yourself or automate the follow-up? The ad platform itself is manageable in-house, but the follow-up speed required to convert Facebook and Instagram leads is difficult to sustain manually at volume – which is the specific gap tools like SimpSocial’s Sarah AI and Power Dialer are built to solve for dealerships.

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SimpSocial

SimpSocial empowers modern dealerships with two game-changing solutions: precision-targeted social media lead generation tied to live inventory, and a powerhouse ai automotive crm engagement platform that responds, follows up, and books appointments automatically.

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Marketing ROI: How to handle all of these vendors

Multi-vendor reports are a pain, right?

If you sit down and look at all the reports that you get from multiple vendors, the total sales they take credit for exceeds the total sales you had in that time period.

So, what’s happening?

ROI (return on investment) with marketing and advertising is difficult to track. Unless you have customer who tells you what prompted them to show up at your showroom, you have no idea if it was the newspaper, the billboard, the radio ads, or the text messages that prompted them to come in.

Here are some of the things you need to do track your marketing ROI:

The last contact gets the credit – You can look at the billboard and the radio ad as branding if the last thing to get some in the door was an email they got that morning. When you track ROI, whatever the customer recalls seeing last is the vendor/outlet that gets the credit. 

Talk to your vendors – Sit down with each of your vendors and let them know that you’re changing how you track their success. You’ll be looking at only giving credit if the customer recalls their particular outlet. If the outdoor signage company doesn’t get any credit in a month, they might not be around the next month. These might be hard conversations, but in the end, you’ll be a lot happier and making more money from your marketing and advertising dollars.

Track what you can – Some things, like Facebook ads, text messages, and emails can all be tracked right though your CRM. If someone got a message on Sunday afternoon and they show up on Tuesday morning, you can attribute that sale to the latest message. 

Ask the customers – This is a shocking idea, but it’s important. “What brings you in today? Did you get a text message from us or see an ad?” Most customers don’t mind you asking. If they don’t remember, you can move on. It’s important to ask the customer what they remember and to track it.

Add tracking – Have you ever noticed those TV ads that say to text a word to their number? Did you ever notice that the word changes? That’s tracking. If I want to know if overnight Saturday ads, which are cheap on TV, are really working, run an ad that has tracking built in. The same for a newspaper ad. Include a texting number and have a special word in the ad. Use a word that’s easy to remember, not some strange code only you understand. When you get those messages, you’ll know exactly where they come from. Even a billboard or a bus stop bench can have a special code that says, “Text TRUCK to 12345 to get a special financing offer.” You’ll know precisely where the customer came from and what they responded to.

Things you shouldn’t accept

The days of “tens of thousand people a day drive past it” are gone. There are far too many ways to track exactly who saw what and when and what they did about it to accept the old idea that eyeballs on ad justifies its price.

Don’t bother with newspaper ads that aren’t trackable. As we noted above, it’s not hard to put tracking into these advertisements, but you need to plan ahead and do it well. 

What about multiple vendor packages?

If there are multiple vendors under a single contract, simply assign them a portion of the sale each. If there are four vendors under a single contract and you can’t figure out which one helped make a sale, they get ¼ of a sale each. 

End of month totals

At the end of the month, add up each source to figure out where you’re getting the best ROI. The number of sales credits should be less than your total sales for the month. If it’s more than your sales, someone is getting credit they shouldn’t. 

This process might take time, but it’s worth it. Eventually, you can narrow down where your sales are coming from and invest more money there. This increases your ROI and reduces your cost per sale. And isn’t that the goal of all advertising? A great ROI?

Selling cars across generations – Texting for Auto Dealers

From the Silent Generation (1924 to 1942) to the Millennials(1981 to 1996), there are a lot of people who have very different ways of communicating. 

The Silent Generation can remember party lines and payphones. The Millennials have always had cell phones and can barely remember flip phones. 

So how can you market to all of these generations with one simple communication channel? Texting or SMS.

• 96% of Americans own a cell phone¹
• 81% of Americans own a smartphone¹
• 97% of Americans who own a cell phone text at least once a day²

Text messaging is the number one way to communicate on cell phones. 

They’re Already Here

With almost everyone who owns a cellphone using it to text, it should make sense that texting is a great way to sell cars. More than that, they’re already using their phones and tablets to research cars. “More than half (53%) of automotive internet shoppers use a mobile device in their quest for automotive information.”³

With more than half of auto shoppers already using mobile devices and all of them texting, it’s time for auto dealerships to start using text messages to sell cars.

If you’re not sure what’s going on with your customers, look in the repair waiting area, look around Wal-mart, take a walk in a park. Everyone is looking at their phones, young and old. 

How to Make Texting Work for You

There are a few steps you should take before you start using texting for your dealership.

Get a sales floor cell phone. This is the number you will publish online and in your print ads. 

Your sales team will take over your text messaging if you let them. This will present a whole bunch of problems for you. First, you won’t have access to those numbers later to market to. Second, you have no idea what was said by any salesperson to a customer. Third, if they’re busy, the text will go unanswered.

Remember: Over 95% of texts are read and most of those within five minutes. (If you don’t believe those statistics, consider your own phone use). People expect a quick response from texting. Be sure they get it.

You will want to get your messages onto a computer screen where they’re easier to manage. There are a lot of services available that will let you send and receive messages on your computer. Both Android and iOS have free applications that will do it right from your texting app. Most other applications will let you send bulk text messages to market your dealership. Again, over 95% of text messages get read. There is no other way of contacting your customers that’s more effective.

Have the computer application where someone can watch it, on the manager’s computer, or the receptionist’s, or on a shift phone that someone is assigned to carry around every shift.

Build a text marketing strategy

Using an online service to send bulk messages, create a text marketing strategy. Look to use those text messages to promote specials on the lot or to remind customers when it’s time for an oil change. 

You can increase your brand loyalty through text messages by being consistent, not texting too often, and giving good information that everyone can use. 

Be sure that any incoming texts are responded to quickly, within five minutes, and that your outgoing texts are professional and informative. Keep it short and don’t hard sell via text. Through text messages is not the time to start asking a thousand questions and doing the “Come down and we’ll show you,” tactic. Be cool and responsive. That’s what people who text are expecting and need.

Text messaging as a superpower

Text marketing has not been adopted by many dealerships, in spite of the number of people using it and how easy it is. 

If your dealership starts doing text marketing, you have a good chance of dominating your area and building a whole new group of loyal customers.

Kicking and Screaming – Your Sales Team and the Future

The world of selling vehicles has changed a lot. 

The classic car salesman (and they were mostly men) waited for the customer to hit the lot. The customer usually arrived because they knew the make of the car or the dealdehip was the “best one in town.” 

As soon as a toe crossed the line, the salesman would ask the question, “How are you today?” Oddly, everyone knew that he didn’t care. It was a formality that really meant, “How fast can I get you into a car and earn a commission?”

That’s all changed. Today, the buyer is in charge. The world is different and sales people are finding that they need to adapt.

Using the Modern Tools

Recently, we sat down with one of our long-time clients, Oliver. He discussed why he was using SimpSocial and how it affected his business.

SS: Why did you choose to use SimpSocial?

O: Well, I realized that everyone around me was using social media. My kids, my grandkids, my sales people – everyone is social media all the time. I asked my adult daughter how often she went on Facebook and she told me that she looked at it about five times a day. That convinced me that I needed to look at using social media to promote sales.

SS: How did you decide to use SimpSocial?

O: When I started, I had no idea what to do. I gathered my sales team, a group of younger men and women, and asked them what they thought. I don’t really use Facebook or Twitter or any of those other platforms, but I know that they all did. “What do you think we should do?” I asked.

They told me that we should do social media advertising, then use text messaging and emails to develop a relationship with the lead. 

One of my salespeople, Kelly, showed me some messages she got from a competitor. They were interesting. 

SS: Then you started looking for the right service?

O: I asked my sales manager to bring me some recommendations. He came to me with three different companies. We chose SimpSocial because it was the right price, the right services, and is oriented specifically to auto dealers. 

We looked at a couple of other companies, but they didn’t specialize in what we do. I’m sure they can do a fine job, but I don’t want to have to explain our goals and priorities. SimpSocial was the answer.

SS: And how has it been?

O: Great! SimpSocial created Facebook Lead Generation ads for us and linked them to the CRM. They helped set up a communication system that pretty much runs itself. My sales manager assigned someone, Kelly, in fact, to keep track of leads and sales. 

The leads we get have been very productive. Kelly tracks leads from the time they first fill out a form to the time they buy a car or truck. We’ve been well into the 30% success rate and that’s just in six months. I’m told there are leads that might not pan out for a year or so, but that they’re moving through the sales process and will buy. 

Since I don’t have to pay per lead and I don’t pay someone to sit and make calls all day long, it’s a great return on investment.

SS: What do you say to dealers who are thinking about their advertising and sales?

O: I would say, look at social media. Everyone is doing it. I’m an old guy and it’s not my thing, but it doesn’t have to be. The best part about hitting SimpSocial is that I didn’t have to learn to do anything but read a screen on the CRM. I can see what the lead has been doing, what they clicked on, and if they’re active. 

Once in while, I just open the CRM and make a couple of [one calls. All I do is introduce myself. 

SS: How has it affected your advertising budget?

O: Honestly we’ve gone ahead and cut out most of the ads that we used to do. No one buys the paper, the phone book is a thing of the past, and billboards were never all that great for us. SimpSocial and my team have turned this new technology into a really great tool for our dealership.

I’ll tell you the truth. I was dragged kicking and screaming to this idea. I know I make it sound like I was relaxed and happy about it, but in reality, it was something I resisted until my daughter convinced me that it was probably the easiest way to reach people. 

Like I said, I’m not young, so these ideas are not foreign to me, but I’m glad I listened to her and to my team.

Managing Auto Salespeople – The Next Growth Stage

Salespeople are notoriously hard to manage. Auto salespeople doubly. The industry has a high turnover, lots of rookies, and a bad reputation as a place to work.  There are some things that a manager can do to change that climate, keep their staff, and improve their business. 

Why Should You Care?

The high turnover on the sales floor has a huge impact your business. Many dealerships have simply learned to deal with it, but it hurts your business.

Customer Satisfaction

Your customers come to your business to work with experts to buy a car. Today, they can buy a car online without ever speaking to anyone, why should they come to you? They look to someone to answer all their questions. If that person can’t, because they’re new to the company or even new to selling, they might find themselves going someplace where people know what they’re doing.

Employee Morale

Many dealerships have a core of salespeople who stay for years. They might joke about it, but the constant turnover is taxing. There’s always someone new to train, someone else that has to be broken in. They waste time teaching someone enough to get them on the floor and that person is gone in a few weeks. It’s exhausting and dieting.

Management Time

You’re wasting time hiring someone new all the time. The resumes, the paperwork, the training, the schedule – everyone comes to you with their own life and you have to accommodate. You find yourself needing to get used to a new person every few weeks, follow them around to how their doing, and retrain them in the ways of your business.

Plus, you’re responsible for their performance. How can you meet your goals if half the people who are supposed to be selling for you have been here a week?

Cost of Hiring

Every new employee costs your money. The cost of the ad. The cost of the processing and paperwork. The cost of training. There are a lot of costs associated with bringing someone new on.

What Can You Do?

There are three major changes you can make that will help you keep your staff.

1. Training

Take the time to train your staff and retrain your staff. Look for new tools, new techniques, new information to share with them. Rather than seeing their work as a job, help them to see it as a career. 

Training the “old guys” will be tough. They often walk into a room thinking they know it all. They’ve been selling cars since Edsel was a baby. You will need their buy-in to pull it off. The best way to do that is.

2. Explaining

Explain to the old guys why training is important for keeping the new people. Explain to the new people how training will help them make more money. Explain policy changes and new structures to everyone so that they can see how the change makes the company better. 

If you can, bring your staff into the decision-making process when changes are needed. If you can’t, at least respect them enough to tell them why the change.

3. Accountability

Hold everyone accountable equally. There should be a set of expectations for the team and everyone should be held to those expectations. If someone doesn’t meet their goals, hold them accountable. 

Part of accountability is retraining and teaching. If someone is struggling, take the time to not only tell them what they’re doing wrong but to teach them the right way to do it. This will create loyalty. You’re not just yelling at them and expecting them to figure it out. You’re helping them to improve. 

Times Have Changed

There’s a myth that Millennials are snowflakes who want to be coddled and aren’t willing to work hard. The reality is that they, and almost everyone else, understands that most companies aren’t loyal to their employees and that there are a lot of people who just skate by. “Why work hard if that guy doesn’t have to?” 

Times have changed. The old days of seeing salespeople as endlessly replaceable are over. It’s expensive to replace them and many are willing to make working for you a career, if they have the guidance and respect they deserve. You get a team you can count on for years. They’ll not only help you meet your goals, but will make it their goal to impress you.

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How Much Money Should You Put in Facebook Advertising?

According to the National Auto Dealers Association (NADA), over 56% of all dealer advertising dollars went to the internet. Some of the old staples, like TV, radion, and newspapers, have fallen off a cliff. 

While we lament the loss of great local papers, business must continue. 

So the big question in 2026 is: Where should I put my internet dollars?

Website – You must have a great website. Period. Many people won’t even visit a business that doesn’t have a great website. It’s like the front window of your business. 

You don’t need a big fancy website, but it’s wise to have one that makes it easy to search your inventory and to ask questions. 

Social media – Check out these numbers from Hootsuite:

• Digital consumers spend nearly 2.5 hours on social networks and social messaging every day.
• 69% of U.S. adults use at least one social media site.
• The average American Internet user has 7.1 social media accounts.
• 88% of American 18- to 29-year-olds use social media.
• 51% of 18- to 24-year-olds say social media would be hard to give up.

All of these numbers indicate one thing: You need to advertise on social media.

Which Social Media Platform to Use

YouTube is the number one social media platform. Yes, it’s considered a social media platform because you can comment on things, leave information, and read what others think. However, very few people open YouTube to communicate with their friends. 

The number one social media platform that’s real platform is Facebook. Almost all of the 69% of Americnas who have a social media account have a Facebook account. It’s that simple. 

What about Instagram? Instagram has over 1 billion active users. Facebook, by contrast, has over 2.45 billion users worldwide.

So why’s that important? Facebook owns Instagram. When you set up an ad on Facebook, you have the option of showing it on Instagram without having to create another ad. 

How Much Should You Spend on Advertising on Facebook/Instagram?

Here’s the thing: There seems to be no limit to how many leads you can generate using Facebook Lead Generation ads. 

On average, dealers spend about $20 per lead. 

So if you want leads, you just need to figure out how many times you can afford $20 for a viable lead. 

Facebook offers some success stories on their website:

“Hub City Ford reached auto shoppers in the market and drove purchases over a 60-day period between November 2017 to January 2018.

Hub City Ford generated qualified leads, resulting in:

• 154 leads generated
• 34 cars sold
• 22% of leads from Facebook ended in a sale
• Number one sales month ever achieved during the campaign in December 2017.”

“Camping World improved its shopping experience and connected with shoppers showing purchase intent. Between January 24 and April 17, 2018, Camping World’s ongoing campaign delivered:

• 3X return on ad spend
• 40% average decrease in cost per lead with dynamic ads for lead generation using dynamic ads for auto.”

Even Facebook’s own direct numbers indicate that they generate leads that buy cars. 

Even if you low ball the average price of Ford at Hub City Ford to $25,000 per vehicle, they made $850,000 in sales in two months. There’s no way to spend that much on ads in the same amount of time. 

Their ROI was massive.

Facebook at $20 Per Lead

Again, if we consider the average auto is $25,000 and the average lead on Facebook costs $20, Hub City only spent $3000 on ads. The other $847,000 they made was ROI.

In more competitive areas, you’ll end up paying more than $20 per ad. You might pay less. Either way, it’s nearly impossible to not get your money’s worth. Particularly since Facebook charges you for the lead, not for the impression. If someone doesn’t click on your ad, you don’t pay for it.

How Much Should You Spend on Facebook Ads?

As long as you’re setting the ad up correctly (and we can help if you need it) and you have a follow-up plan (we can help there too), you should start at $1000 per month. See what results you get and how you might improve your process. 

No matter what you do, you’re going to get a more traceable and provable return than you ever will with a billboard, a newspaper ad, or a radio ad.

Try it and see if you can generate all the leads your team can handle. We’re betting you can.

Get More Leads ➜

SimpSocial

SimpSocial empowers modern dealerships with two game-changing solutions: precision-targeted social media lead generation tied to live inventory, and a powerhouse engagement platform that responds, follows up, and books appointments automatically.

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Facebook Lead Gen Ads: Your Superpower

Facebook lead ads are a unique tool that is more than simply an advertising system. Facebook has created ads that are designed to specifically generate leads. One of its biggest strengths is the ads are created to capture leads on mobile devices. 

Finding New Leads is Easy with Facebook

Everyone is on Facebook. Seven in ten (69%) Americans are on Facebook. The vast majority of them go on Facebook every day. 

That means that Facebook is one of the most reliable places to advertise. In fact, only YouTube has more visitors in the world of social media. Yes, YouTube is considered a social media platform. 

Facebook allows you to keep your ads very localized. You can reach out to people at a specific distance from your dealership. 

Pre-Populated

The ads on Facebook mobile are unique. The viewer taps a single button and a form pops up. The form is pre-populated. All the person needs to do is confirm that the information is correct and it’s sent to you.

Because this system is as simple as possible, there are many fewer lost leads. Facebook users are able to reach out to you with just two clicks and no typing. 

Targeted Leads

Using the Facebook audience defining system, you can target people who are looking for a vehicle, either actively or passively. 

This audience function is the hardest part of the job. You must define your audience well and completely. 

Customization

One of the major advantages to the Facebook contact forms is you can add your own questions. This allows you to start the qualifying process well. 

Start by asking questions that build trust and help you understand the lead. The questions shouldn’t go straight to trying to sell a vehicle. They need to be subtler and help you build a profile of what that person needs. 

After that first round of questions on the contact form (no more than 2 or 3), you can send messages or emails to learn more about this person and their needs.

CRM Integration

Facebook ads integrate directly to your CRM. All the data, including the day and time, are delivered directly to your customer management system. 

This is the most powerful part of their system. Having this information in your CRM instantly, you can trigger everything. Send a text. Launch an email. Schedule a call. The sales process isn’t delayed waiting for data to be downloaded. 

The Different Forms of Ads

Your lead ads can be designed to do a lot. 

• Quote – Your ads can easily be designed to allow you to call the lead with a quote about a specific vehicle or class of vehicles. You might consider setting up your ads to the lead contacted with financing information or even simply an answer to a question.
• Appointment – Your ad can help the lead schedule an appointment to visit your showroom. They can bypass the telephone or email and go straight to planning a visit. 
• Subscriptions – Many dealerships send out a monthly newsletter to tell everyone what your brand is up to and special deals that you can offer. 
• Special discounts – Offer a special discount just for people who respond to a certain ad. This can be incentive, enticement to share their information.
• Special event – Invite people to a special event. They can RSVP right though Facebook. The event can a be whole family affair with less car sales and more community building.

The choice is yours as to how you want to entice your lead – stop click the button. 

Use Facebook Lead Gen Ads

Once you’ve created the pipeline and started to get leads, you will start seeing those soft leads turn into sales. The process can be almost entirely automated, so that the leads arrive in the showroom ready to buy.

Get More Leads ➜

SimpSocial

SimpSocial empowers modern dealerships with two game-changing solutions: precision-targeted social media lead generation tied to live inventory, and a powerhouse ai automotive crm engagement platform that responds, follows up, and books appointments automatically.

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Facebook and Your Dealership

A Bit of History

Back in the day, every dealership set up a Facebook page and invested a lot of money and time in getting “fans” or likes to their page. 

It didn’t take very long before they realized that all those likes weren’t translating into sales. 

The marketing guys start talking about “Facebook is for branding, not sales.” While branding is important, auto dealerships live and die on sales. 

That’s when it got worse. Many dealerships paid someone a few hundred dollars a month to maintain their Facebook page. Usually, it was a low level employee who had no power to make anything happen and wasn’t looking for creative ways to engage people. They were just putting up posts to keep the page alive.

Facebook Advertising

The next stage was Facebook ads. At about the same time, Google ads became a thing and everyone stood around confused as to which to use. 

It took a while for everyone to figure out that Facebook ads and Google ads did two different things.

• Facebook ads brought buyers who weren’t ready to buy yet. They might be thinking about it or simply responded to an ad that had a great image of a car or truck. They might buy in the future, but they weren’t ready to buy today.
• Google ads were delivered to someone who searched for a car or a car dealership. This is great! These were people who were ready to buy. The problem was every dealership figured this out in a few seconds and they all started buying Google ads. Today, Google ads for most car dealerships are too expensive to make it worth it. A single viable lead can cost thousands.

Facebook Lead Generation Ads

Then, Facebook changed their ads and created Lead Gen ads. These are ads where a person can click a button that takes them to a contact form. The form is prefilled. If they’re on a mobile device on the bus, they don’t have to type in all their information on a tiny keyboard. 

These customers are still “high funnel”, meaning they aren’t necessarily ready to buy right away, but they’re prompting the contact. They’re ready to talk to someone about something. 

The leads generated this way are people that you’ll nurture to the sale. Take your time, provide them with information and contacts, and help them make a decision about buying a vehicle. 

Text Messages

One of the best ways to do this is to use text messages. Craft texts that are low-key, don’t push sales too hard, but keep the lead informed about what you’re doing and how they might be able to get a vehicle soon.

The strength of text messages is that over 90% of them are read and about 70% are responded to. Make them personal, speak to what that person might like, and you’re likely to get a sale sooner rather than later.

Your Salespeople

There needs to be change in how your salespeople approach these contacts.

Many Facebook leads aren’t ready to buy just yet. They need to be approached with a bit more of a delicate touch. 

Salespeople need to build a relationship, ask questions, and even talk about the person’s personal life.

• How many kids?
• What type of work do they do?
• Do they travel a lot?
• Do they need a vehicle that they can work out of? 

The difference will be that they should work on really getting to know the contact rather than pushing to get the sale immediately. 

Make sure that everything is put into a CRM so it’s there for the next person or not forgotten by the salesperson.

Facebook is a Powerhouse

While the Facebook pages didn’t work, Facebook Lead Gen ads are great for auto dealerships. They allow you to target the right area, the right demographics, and people who are really interested in your vehicles. They might not be ready to buy yet, but they’re ready to learn about what you have to offer.

Get More Leads ➜

SimpSocial

SimpSocial empowers modern dealerships with two game-changing solutions: precision-targeted social media lead generation tied to live inventory, and a powerhouse engagement platform that responds, follows up, and books appointments automatically.

Learn More

Impact of Social Media on Consumer Behavior

There are two types of buyers in the world of automobiles: transactional buyers and emotional buyers. 

A transactional buyer is a haggler, a competitive shopper, who isn’t swayed by the beauty of a machine. They want to know that they got the very best deal on a vehicle. They see paying more than the next guy as an insult. 

An emotional buyer is exactly the opposite. They don’t care as much about the price they pay as they do about getting the car that makes them feel a certain way. You can sell to an emotional buyer with the feeling of the drive, the way that everyone will see them behind the wheel, and how much pleasure they’ll get from the car.

Auto Dealership Marketing - Now and Then

Throughout most of the auto industry’s history, the only people that most dealerships saw were the in-market customers, people who are ready to buy as they stepped onto the sales lot. Most of these people were emotional buyers, people who were inspired by an ad to purchase a car. 

Traditional advertising operates almost entirely on the emotional level. TV commercials that show people driving cars on mountain roads, along beaches, and with lots of beautiful people in the car are emotional images. Most will end with a shout-out to the transactional buyers with a list of costs, rebates, and more.

Once the social media revolution arrived that changed. Dealers began advertising for in-market transactional shoppers, people who were ready to buy based on the price they could get. 

This new customer base is somewhat problematic. These are people who expect the very lowest prices. This causes a rush to the lowest price by all of these dealers. Many were within a few dollars of losing money. While dealers were making sales, they were barely making money on a sale.

Using Social Media to Market Your Dealership

One of the most powerful aspects of social media marketing is that you can market to both types of people. With Facebook advertising, dealerships are able to run multiple ads to multiple audiences. This allows dealers to speak to each type of buyer in their own language. 

Emotional Buyer Marketing

For the emotional buyer, the key is to try to get them to imagine themselves behind the wheel. 

The power of social media to use images, videos, and more to set the emotional hook. Then you can convert them and get them in the door at the dealership. This makes Facebook incredibly powerful and probably the ideal way to market an auto dealership.

Selling to emotional buyers requires an emotional buy-in from the salespeople. Salespeople need to love the cars that they sell and be able to convey that.  Now this is a problem for dealers as most are set up to handle transactional shoppers, those looking for great deals, not for those who are buying for the experience of the vehicle. 

How to Leverage Facebook Ads to the Two Types of Buyers

Facebook ads can bring both types of buyers to your auto lot, but each type of customer needs to be treated differently. 

For the transactional buyer, the logical way to get started is to simply pull out a calculator and start crunching numbers. Get to the bottom line, talk about financing, and keep everything aimed at how much they’re going to spend.

With emotional buyers, salespeople need to learn to take their time. This is the time to get them into the car that they saw in the ad or into an upgraded vehicle. 

This will be difficult. If you’ve ever walked onto an auto lot, you’ll get the breathless feeling that the salespeople need you to sign on the dotted line and make way for the next person. With emotional buyers, they’ll want to slow down, take their time, and love the cars with the buyers.

Where to Start

The key to getting these two types of buyers in your door is to setup two separate Facebook ad campaigns, one for the emotional buyers and one for the transactional buyers. Use the audience information to retarget those people with type of ads that will keep the conversation going. 

Using the specificity of Facebook ads, your dealership can work to bring both types of buyers to the table. Once there, you can adapt your selling style to the customer’s approach. You’ll end up with more closes and have loyal, new customers who feel heard and appreciated.

Get More Leads ➜

SimpSocial

SimpSocial empowers modern dealerships with two game-changing solutions: precision-targeted social media lead generation tied to live inventory, and a powerhouse ai automotive crm engagement platform that responds, follows up, and books appointments automatically.

Learn More

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