Whether we like it or not, big changes are coming for both Facebook and iOS, two platforms that play an essential role within the field of automotive marketing. Keep reading our latest article to learn what these new updates mean for advertisers and how your dealership can be prepared for them

Over the past decade, platforms like Facebook have become a crucial part of any business’s marketing mix, especially within the automotive industry. Apple’s iOS 14 platform has quickly become one of the leading mobile operating systems in the world and advertisers across the country optimize their digital strategy to target the platform. What many dealerships don’t know is that big changes are coming to both systems, affecting the way they can advertise and track customer actions.

Change to the iOS Privacy Agreement

Apple’s newest iOS 14 update is aimed at customer privacy, giving users the choice to opt-out of ad tracking. In simpler terms, users will now get to choose if they want to share their browsing habits and demographics with third-party advertising partners. This significantly affects advertiser’s abilities to personalize their marketing campaigns and see in-depth analytics. Furthermore, Apple’s update also directly impacts how Facebook processes and reports on data. It will be more difficult to track users’ actions and as more users implement this update and choose to opt-out of ad tracking, retargeting audiences will also shrink. 

As a result, Facebook has moved from a pixel-based tracking system to Aggregated Event Measurement as a way to measure web events from iOS 14 users. If your marketing team has opened Ads Manager as of April 2021, they have likely been blasted with notifications and warnings about this update.

If your team has not already taken action, here are three steps to make the most out of these updates:

1. Verify Your Web Domain

To verify your domain in Business Manager, go to “Business Settings” and scroll down to “Brand Safety. and click on “Domains.” 
From here, follow these instructions from Facebook to complete the domain verification process. 

2. Optimize Web Events 

Once verified, you can configure up to eight web events as part of the Facebook Aggregated Events Measurement tool. Facebook will use these events to optimize the ad delivery process.

For dealers, we recommend the “View Content” event remain a top priority. Most automotive Facebook calls to action aim to direct viewers to inventory on your site.

3. Strategically Expand Your Ad Targeting Audience

We know that custom audience size is going to decrease as a result of Apple’s update and while dealers may now have a smaller sample to pull from based on their web activity, consider focusing on Interest-based Facebook targeting options or a list of past purchasers or service contacts from your CRM.

The Future of Facebook for Auto Dealers

The exact impact Apple’s AppTracking Transparency will have on auto marketers remains unknown. While these updates may seem a bit overwhelming for your dealership, it’s important to keep in mind that the iOS 14 update does not limit web tracking capabilities for non-Apple users and those shopping on desktop. It seems that even with the new iOS update, Facebook will continue to be a marketing platform that’s worth the time and investment.

Thousands of dealerships nationwide trust our team of social media gurus to affordably expand the reach of their business and engage with new customers. To learn more about our social media management program, visit us online.

Is your dealership having trouble growing its social media presence? You're not alone. Car dealers aren't exactly known for having a large following on social networking platforms. However, DealersLink is looking to change this misconception. Keep reading to discover how our social media management system is helping dealerships nationwide expand their reach like never before.

If there’s anything we’ve learned over the past year, it’s how to adapt. Although the automotive industry has been around for over a century, much of the industry’s sales techniques have been based on traditional, face-to-face methods, not incorporating much online interaction with the consumer. But since the inception of the COVID pandemic, dealers across the nation are beginning to use the full potential of social media marketing to help their dealerships find success in a changing environment.

Facebook Opportunities for Dealers

Car dealers know that advertising and managing content on Facebook can be both time-consuming and difficult. So, we’ve made it easy here at DealersLink. Our social media tool helps dealers simplify their social media process by fully automating content creation and advertising. Dealerships that use DealersLink have increased brand engagement, reaching ready-to-buy consumers, driving promotions and events, and ultimately building lifelong customers.

Facebook Content for Dealerships

One of the most crucial aspects of social media marketing is content creation, an aspect DealersLink specializes in. Be it capturing video, taking photos, writing engaging social posts, or updating current inventory, we can turn any dealership’s Facebook page into a lead-generation machine. Simultaneously, dealers can stay up to date with their dealership’s performance from our custom-designed social dashboard, allowing them to track leads, engagement, and posting.

Facebook Marketplace for Dealerships

Facebook is more than simply a content channel for your dealership. The Facebook Marketplace has grown rapidly over the past years, especially within the field of used car sales. In fact, in the US alone, more than 20 million people click on used vehicle listings every month. DealersLink helps dealers tap into this hotbed of demand, creating up-to-date, engaging listings for any car on the lot, then sending leads directly to dealers as soon as they are received.  Furthermore, marketplace listings and ads can be automated based on criteria set by the dealer, allowing full customization.

Facebook Ads for Dealerships

No social media strategy is complete without digital advertising. By using Facebook’s advertising platform, DealersLink makes engaging your target customers simple. Our custom-designed targeting system allows any dealership to reach its ideal customers based on location, interests, and behavior. Dealers can track their campaigns from a custom digital dashboard and watch as leads flow in from all over their local and regional area.

So, what is your dealership waiting for? Engage your customer base and sell more cars using our team of proven social media experts. Schedule a demo today or visit us online at DealersLink.com.

Broomfield, CO – Cumulating months of research and development, automotive software innovator DealersLink has just announced the completion of its DMS integration with automotive retailer Reynolds and Reynolds. This bi-directional communication offering allows dealers using the Reynolds and Reynolds Dealership Management System (DMS) to stay updated in near real-time with the latest data from their DealersLink platform, eliminating the need to manually upload or recheck data. This is the third major API integration from DealersLink in the past year, as it now offers integrations with the three largest DMS providers in the United States: Reynolds and Reynolds, CDK, and DealerTrack.

While DMS systems have traditionally excelled at data storage and retention, they have a need for an analytical inventory management solution, something the DealersLink platform specializes in. Previously, auto dealers have had to manually import data between their DMS and inventory management system, a task both time consuming and difficult. However, with the newest DealersLink API integration, this process has been eliminated. Dealers utilizing both platforms can now rapidly share pricing data between the two systems with the click of a button.

A key feature of this integration is the DMS Writeback Solution. This aspect of the system allows pieces of information that have been changed inside of the DealersLink platform (mainly pricing) to be rapidly “written back” into the Reynolds and Reynolds DMS system, ensuring that dealers are using the most up-to-date price when beginning a deal. This not only perpetuates trust with a customer but allows a dealership to maintain efficiency and profitability during every deal.

“DealersLink has developed these integrations to help dealerships quickly, efficiently, and correctly price their vehicles. With these API write backs, no longer does a dealer have to do any kind of double entry to ensure that the pricing for their vehicles is correct inside their Dealership Management System.”

– DealersLink Dealer Services Director, Devon Peterson

Complementing this DMS integration, DealersLink has also received its Reynolds Certified Interface (RCI) certification. This certification confirms that DealersLink is a safe and secure vendor when it comes to data sharing between the two platforms. Both Reynolds and Reynolds and DealersLink put a strong emphasis on data security and any dealership using the two systems can firmly rest assured that their data is secure at all times.

To learn more about DealersLink and its API integrations, request a live demo.

Whether we like it or not, the events of 2020 have changed the course of the future for us all. The automotive industry is no exception, especially within the sector of used vehicles. However, what many people don’t know is that the year’s events have created the “perfect storm” for used car sales, giving dealers unforeseen competition in a never-before-seen climate.

When the COVID-19 pandemic first started just over a year ago, panicked car dealers dumped their inventories in an all-out frenzy. In fact, here at DealersLink, we had the most units ever activated in our marketplace during May 2020. But, as the economy began to reopen during summer 2020, the industry began seeing unprecedented demand for used vehicles, rapidly reducing inventory supply across the country. Now, as we near the end of the first quarter of 2021, used inventory levels remain at all-time lows.

With high consumer demand and extremely low inventories, dealers need any type of competitive advantage they can get in these cutthroat conditions. That’s where DealersLink comes in. With our fully immersive used car sales management software, our dealers are able to stock inventory, trade cars, and compare retail market data like never before.

Acquiring inventory from trades

In the words of our own Vice President of Sales, Travis Wise, “With a shortage of cars, stimulus money, and tax return season, it’s creating a perfect storm for used car sales. Everybody wants to know that it’s going to get better. Well, it really isn’t right now. The only thing that you can focus on and do a good job on is evaluating a trade.”

Trade-ins are a great way for dealers to gain inventory in this climate. However, there are a variety of factors that dealers need to keep in mind. For starters, when appraising vehicles, it’s important to be transparent with the customer. A dealer needs to make sure that they are doing the best vehicle evaluation possible and make sure they’re getting the car at the best possible price at the point of trade. While dealers know that this is often easier said than done, the DealersLink FastBook platform can help them tremendously simplify the process. We are quite literally the masters of evaluating a trade. Using FastBook, DealersLink scans over 50,000 online dealership sites daily to provide the most accurate true-market retail data with unmatched depth. In a matter of minutes, a dealer can know if they’re pricing a trade-in correctly and how much they will make on a deal.

Keep Buying, Selling, and Trading

Furthermore, dealers need to be continuously making vehicle transactions, something made simple with the DealersLink Marketplace and our Trading Desk feature. Like the stock market, it’s important for dealers to actively buy, sell, and trade cars, especially if they have interested customers.

“A vehicle is worth the most when somebody wants to buy it,” describes Travis. “If another dealer wants to buy a car, then you need to consider that transaction. Don’t just hold onto it, because if nobody’s willing to buy it, it’s a wheel chock.”

Right now, dealers need to move high-dollar and old-aged units while the money is still strong.

To learn more about the DealersLink platform and the current state of the used car market, visit our website.

Broomfield, CO – After a soft release this past week, automotive software leader DealersLink has added a new set of trade evaluation features to its FastBook platform. These intuitive new features are aimed at giving dealers a data-driven approach that justifies trade-in vehicle values while increasing transparency with customers.

In line with the DealersLink modernized, data-driven approach to car sales, these new trade evaluation tools can help dealers more accurately and efficiently appraise a vehicle for a customer. With a variety of built-in industry and retail market statistics as well as car history information, the system promotes increased transparency and trust during the customer trade valuation process.

Built into the FastBook appraisal platform, these new features use several true-market data points to justify a more accurate trade-in offer that dealers can be confident in presenting to their customers.

In the words of DealersLink Founder and VP of Development Mike Goicoechea, “We are excited to deliver another industry first. These new trade evaluation features culminate 10 years of analytics progression.  They allow desk managers to identify vehicle characteristics that lower the value of the trade and then communicate them to the customer. There is no process more critical to dealership profitability than trade offer justification. This has the potential to increase dealership profitability by hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Once a dealer enters this information into the appraisal system, it creates a custom trade-in appraisal for the customer, breaking down the offer and showing the comparison based on other book values. A secondary page is also provided, showing vehicle history, a vehicle inspection report, and market analysis for their trade-in vehicle. With merely the click of a button, a dealer can present an accurate, fully justified, data-backed trade-in appraisal for a customer, valuating their vehicle with full transparency.

“This new feature allows dealers to be more confident in their appraisal price while providing unmatched transparency for the customer. It’s a modern data-driven approach to justifying trade-in values,” describes DealersLink Services Director, Devon Peterson.

For more information visit: DealersLink.com

About DealersLink

DealersLink® provides industry-leading evaluation, pricing, inventory management, syndication, and analytics. It has been eliminating wholesale transaction fees for 15 years with over $1 billion in used inventory available to dealer members 24/7. Members use the marketplace daily to stock their lots with clean reconditioned units, locate hard-to-find vehicles for their customers, sell inventory without incurring wholesale losses.

DealersLink Contact:
Taylor Hollingsworth
sales@dealerslink.com
(844) 340-2522

The first quarter of 2021 has finally drawn to a close. A year ago, things were looking uncertain, especially within the automotive industry. But 12 months have gone by and the future looks bright here at DealersLink, especially given the fact that our record-breaking Q1 was our best quarter to date. But it’s not just this quarter that is special – we see DealersLink expanding at a RAPID pace for quarters to come!

Here are some of the highlights from our best quarter yet:

Record Sales

DealersLink gathered the best sales talent from all over the US to form an elite sales team that shatters sales record after sales record and Q1 of 2021 was no different. With the addition of a marketplace-specific sales team and a record number of dealer referrals – DealersLink was able to break its quarterly sales record by over 11%. 

Product Innovation

Several groundbreaking new features were added to our inventory management platform including a Lost Deal indicator, state-of-the-art trim exacting, and trade justification analytics. Behind the scenes, the development team has been hard at work overhauling, updating, and scaling existing products like our Trading Desk, mobile inventory management app, and Mediation Wizard to meet the needs of our dealer members.

Quarterly Retention Record

The only thing our dealers love more than our products is our customer service and it’s the reason our dealers continue to trust DealersLink year after year. During the first quarter we shattered our all-time retention record, achieving a retention rate of 98.55%! At DealersLink, every team member is dedicated to delivering the absolute highest standard of dealership service.

Record Quarters of Growth

Did we mention this was of 61st consecutive quarter of record-breaking revenue growth? That’s over 15 years of continuous improvement.

With DealersLink expanding continuously, we remain the fastest-growing inventory management company in the nation, and we have BIG plans for next quarter.