3 Tips to Steer Your Car Dealership’s Fall Advertising Strategy

Depending on where you are in the country, you’ve either got mere days of summer remaining or several weeks to go before cool weather takes hold. But don’t let the inevitability of autumn cool the sales momentum you’ve generated throughout the busy summer selling season. There’s much to look forward to, including several seasonal advertising opportunities (and one that’s very specific to 2016), to capitalize on summer’s lingering demand while also creating new interest from highly qualified traffic.

These three tips will help you optimize your dealership’s advertising strategy as you begin the transition from summer to fall:

1. Dial in your digital advertising for football and the 2016 election.

You can count on college and professional football every fall for an enormous and dedicated audience of fans, many of whom are highly interested car shoppers. But what makes 2016 unique is the presidential election. With only weeks remaining until Tuesday, November 8, you can only expect the candidates’ campaigns to reach maximum velocity, and so, too, the media’s coverage of it all.

In the next two months, presidential and vice presidential debates as well as weekly football games and even fall’s primetime TV lineup will likely elevate media consumption. While it’s prudent to consider traditional media advertising, your dealership will get much better value from digital ad campaigns that strategically target in-market, media-consuming shoppers. It’s no surprise that the election lives just as much online as it does offline. Reach potential buyers virtually everywhere they’re traveling online to keep tabs on the latest election news, or to check their favorite football team’s standings. The bottom line is digital gives you a lot more for your money.

2. Leverage the power of Facebook Dynamic Ads.

Facebook Dynamic Ads are a relatively low-cost channel to reach automotive shoppers on the world’s most popular website. Ads are generated dynamically based on customers’ interests and behaviors on Facebook, whether they’ve visited your website or not. Remember all those eyes on the 2016 presidential race and the football season we just mentioned? Those people are also checking Facebook frequently. Create campaigns that are aligned with your sales strategy and are deep-linked to your inventory pages, creating a direct line from Facebook’s ads to your digital dealership.

3. Create additional demand with targeted display campaigns.

Traditionally, fall sees a decline in shopper interest compared to the preceding summer’s sales. Which is why it’s critical to shift advertising dollars more toward display ads, ensuring your dealership is generating high-quality shopper demand by delivering impactful inventory ads to potential buyers virtually everywhere they travel online. Although automotive interest overall typically lulls before heading into the holidays, an effective display strategy can keep your inventory top of mind during autumn months.

The halcyon days of summer may be in the rearview mirror, but they’re not as far as they might appear. Make sure you’re leveraging summer’s car shopping popularity as you set your advertising budgets for fall mode, keeping in mind many of the seasonal – and quadrennial – events, heavily covered by multiple media sources. There’s plenty of opportunity left to make the most of the remaining months of 2016.