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Why Dealers Need to Rethink Paid Social
13 Plays1 month ago
Most dealers run the same social ads: a carousel of inventory and prices. The problem? They all look alike and they don’t move buyers closer to choosing you.
In this episode of More Than You Can Chew, Dane chats with Dave Lemon, CRO of Dealer OMG, to dig into why dealers are wasting money on cookie-cutter social ads... and what to do instead.
You’ll learn:
- The #1 mistake most dealerships make with Facebook ads
- Why automotive inventory ads (AIAs) fail to create real impact
- How collection ads give you space to stand out with video, testimonials, and brand messaging
- Why “being social on social” matters more than showing prices
- What questions to ask when vetting an agency partner
If you want your dealership’s ads to be memorable (and actually convert), this episode will show you the smarter way to approach paid social.
👉 Links & Resources
- Learn more at: searchlabdigital.com
- Get help with your Local SEO & PPC: Searchlabdigitalsearchlabdigital.com/seo-demo-request
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Transcript
Introduction to More Than You Can Shoo
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to More Than You Can Shoo. It's my absolute pleasure to have you. As always, no reservation required for these insights we're excited to
Meet Dave Lemon from Dealer OMG
00:00:09
Speaker
share. And today's guest is special me because he's a longtime personal friend. Dave Lemon, Chief Revenue Officer Dealer OMG, an automotive marketing firm that specializes in paid social strategies, digital advertising, and first-party targeting. I know that because their LinkedIn told me so.
The Niche Focus of Dealer OMG
00:00:30
Speaker
ah Dave, welcome to the show. I appreciate you having me. Very long time, Fred. It's good to see you. You as well. So anything about what I said about Dealer OMG, paid social, digital advertising, first party data targeting, anything that missed out about what you guys do?
00:00:45
Speaker
No, I mean, that's that's basically it. We're founded by Facebook guys. We're an inch wide and a mile deep and doing one thing really well, and that's social advertising for dealers. I love it. So, you know, that's why I want to have you on.
00:00:57
Speaker
I've had people on talking about content and SEO. And I believe that if for a small business, especially car dealers, even more specifically to even both to who you, you and I both speak to often,
00:01:09
Speaker
you know, you want to have a diversity, right? ah A mixed media ah model for how you approach reaching people where they're at, right? People are on search engines. People are on social media. People are on programmatic.
00:01:22
Speaker
And so I want to have someone on who I know has a breadth and a depth of knowledge about paid social media because I don't have that. I don't purport to be that. Same thing with you guys, right? We focus on like two avenues of of what we do and we try to be the best
Challenges in Automotive Social Campaigns
00:01:38
Speaker
at it. So,
00:01:39
Speaker
With that in mind, I know you talk to a lot of car dealers in particular, analyzing paid social campaigns. So I want to ask this for our listeners, and this might even apply to people outside car dealerships, right? Like so like you can use other verticals to learn about maybe issues you're facing that you didn't even know that you were.
00:01:58
Speaker
But when you're analyzing paid social campaigns, What's the most common issue that dealer OMG identifies that's holding back the campaign's potential to deliver truly on good results?
Facebook's Role in Automotive Shopping
00:02:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great question. So, and I will direct it a little bit automotive specific just because that is that is kind of my area. 90% of the car dealers in America, when they run social ads, they run something called automotive inventory ads.
00:02:28
Speaker
They're AIA is what it's called. um If you've seen one, you've seen all of them. It's going to be a carousel ad. It's pictures and prices of cars, right? The way it works is pretty pretty cool and it works actually better in some industries than others. It's a dynamic ad that's being served by the Facebook algorithm to people that Facebook thinks are looking for that product.
00:02:52
Speaker
So if you're not cars, then you're going to have SKUs or you know inventory numbers that tell Facebook what's in the catalog. With cars, it tells it that vehicles are in the catalog law by then.
00:03:04
Speaker
Here's the good side. The good side is Facebook does a really good job of figuring out what people are shopping for. Better than almost anybody else. I have tiraded against words like in-market shopper and intender and that sort of data in the past because I think a lot of it's not very accurate.
00:03:26
Speaker
Facebook's great at it. Facebook knows. I've been going to dealership Facebook pages. I've been going to dealership websites that have pixels on them. I've been searching in marketplace for this product. I have Facebook open and Google open on two different tabs and I just searched for something over here. Facebook knows.
00:03:43
Speaker
That's the good part. The hand raises are good. It knows what shopping behavior is out there. Here's what's bad. Particularly with automotive, it catches those hand raises really early.
00:03:55
Speaker
If I have my Facebook open and I pop open to Google right now and I search for a waffle iron, by the time I get back over to Facebook, I'm going to have 25 waffle irons at my feet.
00:04:08
Speaker
That's probably great because I'm probably buying a Waffle Iron today, tomorrow, certainly this week, right? But people don't buy cars that way. A lot of those people are going to be 90 days away from sitting across the desk in a dealership buying a car.
00:04:22
Speaker
So if all you're showing them is pictures and prices of your cars, you're not making any impact. You're not moving them closer to choosing you or buying a vehicle at The other problem is because 90% of the dealers out there do this, you're all advertising to the exact same people with an ad that looks exactly like everybody else's.
00:04:45
Speaker
So when you look at what happens from those ads, and you are in GA a lot, you're in Google Analytics a lot, I'm sure you see this, a lot of Facebook traffic has lot of visits, a few seconds on site,
00:05:04
Speaker
No real low funnel conversions, no you know no form fills or chats or clicks to call or anything like that. Why? Because you haven't moved them closer to purchase. You haven't given them a significant advertising message. You've just showed them pictures of your inventory and left. it So, you know, when we look at that, it's a huge missed opportunity because you are finding somebody that is starting the process of shopping for a car, but you're not standing out.
00:05:32
Speaker
If every dealership in a 50-mile radius is running AIA, Which, by the way, Facebook thinks I am perpetually looking for a car because of what I do for work, right? So when I open my Facebook page, I have 10 carousel ads from different dealerships all the time in my feed.
00:05:50
Speaker
And for the life of me, I would not be able to tell one from the next. I could not tell you which dealerships, none of them stand out.
Effective Ad Strategies: Collection vs. Carousel
00:05:58
Speaker
So my advice to people is there's another type of ad functions exactly the same way. And this goes to, I believe, any industry.
00:06:08
Speaker
You can be doing the same thing. So even if you're e-com, even if you are one of those fast purchase items, instead of just a carousel ad that's just pictures and prices, you can run what's called a collection ad.
00:06:23
Speaker
A collection ad functions exactly the same way. It's still going to have your inventory carousel, right? So all of your pictures of prices of your products. But it gives you all the real estate above that where you can do video.
00:06:38
Speaker
You can do graphics. You can you know create a real message that's going to make you stand out, that's going to advertise your company, the experience, the whys. It could be as simple as...
00:06:53
Speaker
Get a whole bunch of five-star reviews and just create a video that just loops up over and over and over again. So now everybody else has these carousel ads. You have something that says, here's a real reason that you want to remember us, that you want to shop with us.
00:07:08
Speaker
um Testimonials, amazing, right? So you have these opportunities to now go into a sector where everybody's doing the same thing and with a very small change.
00:07:21
Speaker
Do something so different that your results completely change. We see traffic from those types of ads with two, three times the amount of time on site. We see way more low funnel conversions. And then you've got the ad recall too.
00:07:38
Speaker
You can retarget people that watched your whole video. You can do so much more with it after that. It just becomes a much more powerful way to do your inventory advertising than the very basic everybody does it simple solution.
Crafting a Unique Brand Message
00:07:56
Speaker
So that really is my biggest recommendation is that you make that switch from carousel inventory you know product marketing to market you, market your company.
00:08:07
Speaker
It's social media. When I go to social media, I'm looking for videos of my friend Dane traveling the globe or eating amazing meals, right? I'm looking for him apparently lately just frolicking at the beach nonstop, which I'm very jealous of.
00:08:23
Speaker
But that's the stuff people connect with on social. It's people, it's places, it's community. And you know you have this opportunity to change your advertising style so that it does exactly that with exactly the same functionality as the ads that don't.
00:08:41
Speaker
That's great. And I love that. And now, even though you don't have the beach, we do have the shared quality of black bears as we learned before we started recording. So we least have that shared trait where we both live. ah I think that's great. And I think even though like switching from, what's it called? what What's the ad type called? Collection.
00:08:56
Speaker
Collection. So switching from kera standard carousel AIA to collection ad. But I think what you said in there, some of the context of the meat of what you talked about is is relevant to anybody, any business, right?
00:09:08
Speaker
I think the the crux of it is don't just focus on trying to get that purchase in tender because social media is not necessarily for the right now purchase in tender. Other avenues are probably going to be a little more effective than that. But...
00:09:21
Speaker
When you stand out and you talk about your your your unique selling propositions, you talk about, you know, make sure you work in your personal branding. Not that you're a Ford dealer, but who are you as your brand, not just your Ford, your brand of your dealership.
00:09:35
Speaker
You work in testimonials, people talking about you. In SEO, the huge thing is user-generated content, right? Getting more people talking about your business. the more you can make yourself memorable and stand out, even though they might not have initially been a purchase and tender in that moment, in that exact moment, as you retarget or as time goes on, you stood out, you've separated yourself, you distinguished yourself, and now you have that brand recall, just like being a citation in Google AIO.
00:10:02
Speaker
you're not ah You're not going to get the traffic from that most likely, but you're building your brand awareness. So I think that the idea is that for any business, think about how you could, like you said, how you can be social on social media and spread sort of the idea of who you are as a business and why out of all the ads I'm going to see, I should give you my business because like you said, and it's true for SEO,
00:10:26
Speaker
The Ford dealer in one side of town sells the same exact inventory as the Ford dealer on the other side of town. The used car dealer on A Street sell sells the same types of used cars as the used car dealer on Z Street, right? So how can you differentiate yourself? So let me ask you a quick follow-up
The Case for Specialist Marketers
00:10:43
Speaker
then. So...
00:10:45
Speaker
When someone's going to talk to an agency, a firm like Dealer OMG, right, they're going to vet someone and they want to know that they have the competence, the skill, the approach that makes the most sense.
00:10:56
Speaker
Are there some high level questions that they could ask to kind of get the feel of do they know what they're even talking about? Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, i the biggest thing that I will say is, and this is something you and i actually have talked about a lot, and you and I and a lot of our friends that we've had in this business for a long time all sort of share in common and talk about a lot.
00:11:23
Speaker
Find specialists. Find people that are really good at their channel and their thing. And what I found is whether it's SEO, whether it's paid search, whether it's OTT, or whether it's paid social, the people that aren't trying to do everything do way more within that channel than anybody else.
00:11:46
Speaker
So, you know, if I'm a company that does websites and SEO and SEM and OTT and content creation and organic and paid and on and on and on and on, just purely out of reality, there's no way I can spend a ton of time on each one of those things. I'm going to find the most automated.
00:12:07
Speaker
Maybe generic is the word solution to each one of those things that I can. Meaning my paid search keywords for you as a Ford dealer are going to be the exact same paid search keywords that I'm using for every Ford dealer, no matter where they are.
00:12:23
Speaker
My SEO content is going to look really similar from one store to the next because I need to be able to c crank it out at volume because I'm trying to do so many things. So for me, it's find somebody that approaches your business thoughtfully, that wants to take the time to not understand how many cars you have a lot, which by the way, I can look at your website, know the answer of before I ask you, but wants to know what's the experience like when I shop at your store?
00:12:53
Speaker
you know Talk to me about the people in your store. Talk to me about your customers that have come back and bought 10 cars from you and why they did that they They need to want to understand your brand because this is them communicating it to the world.
00:13:09
Speaker
I mean, you can reach 100,000 people on Facebook for not a lot of money in a very short period of time. You better have something meaningful to say. So find people that really do care.
00:13:20
Speaker
If they're afraid to talk to you about brand, they should not be your advertiser.
Avoiding Budget Pitfalls in Social Advertising
00:13:28
Speaker
Gotcha. Gotcha. I like it. And you know I'm sure it's true in paid socials is and PPC that I'm sure Facebook will take your money just like Google will take your money. Iniscriminately. So you want to have a partner who truly understands you as a business and has a good strategy in place to optimize that spend and make sure the dollars that Facebook and Google take from you are well-spent dollars.
00:13:53
Speaker
Yep. Yep, that's, yeah I mean, of course, yeah, Facebook's going to spend whatever you tell it to spend. They're really good about that. As somebody who has watched people make budgeting mistakes occasionally, they'll spend it all. Like, whatever, you you add a zero, they're spending it.
00:14:09
Speaker
So, yeah, like, it's it's critical that it's that it's thoughtful and that it's, you know, completely unique to every client they have. They're creating a solution for you, not one-fits-all.
00:14:22
Speaker
And that's the AIA challenge is is designed to be a one-size-fits-all solution that's easy for dealers to be able to advertise on Facebook. And I get that, and I support the concept behind it, but it doesn't mean you can't do better.
00:14:36
Speaker
I love it. Well, I think today the the the bite everyone take can take that's more than they can chew starting about pivoting from AIs to the collections. Collection ads. you have Collection ads.
00:14:48
Speaker
And the real challenge there that the takeaway is to me is for everyone listening to start understanding how to create a unique message that speaks to your brand, your business, and most importantly, how that is best communicated to your buyer, your consumer, in your market.
00:15:08
Speaker
So, Start, so that's the takeaway. Start thinking about that, how you can better communicate your a brand, your message to your audience in your market. Dave Lemon, I really appreciate the insights today, but I want to glean one more thing from you before we end
Ray Raids BBQ in Columbus, Ohio
00:15:24
Speaker
today. And of course, as with every guest,
00:15:27
Speaker
Whether it's in Columbus or it's been in your travels, because I know you're well-traveled guy, speaking at different events and ah different ah locations. Is there a place where you go, look, if you are in this particular city, you have to go eat at this place because it's so good?
00:15:47
Speaker
There is. And I'm going to pick a Columbus, Ohio place. And I'm going to pick a style of food that no one will ever think about Columbus, Ohio for, which is barbecue. So there's a place in town called Ray Raids.
00:16:00
Speaker
And the guy who runs it is an absolute genius. And he's kind of a maniac. ah James, and i can't remember his last name. He's such a maniac that after achieving a ton of success with with his barbecue trucks, which is how it started, you know, big smokers out back, he decided that he needed to step it up a notch.
00:16:22
Speaker
He couldn't source pork that he thought was good enough. bought pasture and now raises his own Berkshire or whatever they are. pay also small So he's kind of a crazy person, but there's multiple locations for Ray Ray's.
00:16:36
Speaker
um They're all sort of truck based, but they're the, the dish that they have that when they do it, you've got to have it is a product called meat sweats.
00:16:51
Speaker
Meat sweats is a giant box that's got the brisket, the pork, the jerk chicken, the dry rub ribs, hot links, like a whole bit is just shoved into this giant box that will give you meat sweats.
00:17:07
Speaker
But I would put this barbecue up against... ah a lot of big barbecue cities in the world. and i was not I would not have thought Columbus as ah as a barbecue place, but you know what? Hey, when I lived in Cleveland, there was a place that ah my wife, Michelle, and i went to that I would do the same thing. Like, like they're there they're smoked turkey. I'd probably get any smoked turkey I've ever had.
00:17:29
Speaker
yeah So Ray Ray's, Columbus, Ohio, a couple locations. Get them the meat sweats to get the meat sweats. Yeah. Yes, that's right. And it's it's well worth the dollars. All right, awesome. So two awesome insights, two great takeaways from Dave Lemon, CRO of Dealer OMG.
00:17:44
Speaker
ah Dave, thanks again for joining More Than You Can Chew today. I appreciate you having me. It was a lot of fun. All right, everyone, and I'll catch you on the next More Than You Can Chew.