We receive this question quite a lot, so we thought, “Let’s tell them what we think!” Hence why we decided to address this on our blog. But the answer to this question is tricky, so bear with us as we talk through our thoughts on the matter.

As many social media marketing managers have noticed, Facebook’s organic reach has slowly started to decline over the past few years, making it more and more inevitable for business pages to invest in Facebook advertising. But many wonder, “Does it work?” or “Is it worth it?”, which are great questions to ask yourself. But before we get into it, we think it’s best to figure out what your goals for using Facebook are.

If you are just on Facebook to be on Facebook, and not really developing a community around your dealership, Facebook advertising isn’t going to work for you. Why? You need to develop content that will intrigue your target fan base to “like” you. Not being active on Facebook or simply posting your inventory isn’t going to attract new fans or keep those you currently have engaged as they aren’t receiving any benefit from connecting with you.

Now, if you are active on Facebook, yet your likes and engagement rates are down so you are looking to grow your follower base, Facebook advertising can work for you. How so? Facebook advertising has great targeting options. These targeting options, such as location, gender, age, and interest, help you maximize your ad spent dollars, which can be as little as $5/day,  as you are only advertising to people that fit your specific qualifications. This is great because these people are more likely to “like” your page and interact with your dealership’s posts, and hopefully become a customer. Once you grow your fan base, you can start sending out promoted posts, which are Facebook posts that you would like an action on, such as a sale or open house event. With promoted posts, it’s great to direct people to you a specific landing page on your website that is aligned with what you were promoting so they are able to take action right away!

We weren’t sure about Facebook advertising, so we gave it a try for one our dealers. The results were incredible. In just 11 days and with a simple page like ad, our dealer saw an increase of 70 page likes. The ad we ran cost $36.15 and had over 2000 impressions and 84 clicks. That is a huge return for something that you can just set and let the magic happen! The key though it is continue to engage those new followers with great content after they like your page.

So should you try it? Our advice is to try to grow your following organically first by developing your Facebook content calendar, asking current customers and employees to like your page, connecting with other local businesses on Facebook, and promoting your page on your website. Once you have done all of that and feel that you have exhausted those solutions, look to Facebook advertising. Start out small and see what happens. You can always invest more later!

If you have tried Facebook advertising, we would love to hear from you about your experience with it. Did you feel it was worth it? What kind of return did you see? Share with us in the comments section below!