Not all Facebook Ad campaigns are the same. They can vary in their content, in their targeting, in their budgeting—but even more fundamentally, they can vary in their type. Facebook allows advertisers to choose from a number of different types of ad campaigns, and it’s important for dealerships to understand what they are and what they mean.

Don’t underestimate the importance of this! You can write the world’s greatest ad copy and you can be meticulous in choosing your targeted audience—but if you have the wrong  bidding strategy, and put down too much money on the wrong kind of ad, that can effectively nullify everything else you have done.

With that said, we’re going to devote some space in this post to outlining some of the different Facebook Ad campaigns that dealerships can choose from.

Different Types of Facebook Ad Campaigns

CPM Bidding

This stands for Cost Per Mile, and when you choose this option, what you’re basically doing is choosing the maximum amount of money you would pay to deliver 1,000 impressions to buyers within your target audience.

This is unpredictable at best, and it’s fairly easy to spend a lot of money without getting a lot of measurable results. We’d generally caution dealerships to stay away from this, unless your sole objective is to blanket Facebook users with brand mentions, and to just get your name in front of as many people as possible.

CPC Bidding

This one stands for Cost Per Click, and it works similarly to how CPC functions work on other advertising platforms. That is, you only have to pay when a user clicks on your ad.

The upshot? You can have your ad seen by more than 1,000 people, but if none of them actually click on the ad, you won’t pay a cent. The worst-case scenario, really, is that you get a lot of brand visibility for basically no money. Meanwhile, if you do end up paying, it’s because a potential buyer actually clicked on something—and that’s usually something you’ll be alright paying for!

CPA Bidding

A final option we’ll discuss today is Cost Per Action, or CPA bidding. If this is the route you go, Facebook will do everything it can to deliver your ads only to those target audience members who are seen as the most likely to convert. In other words, Facebook will try to help you fulfill the goals of your ad set. And you can set different goals—likes, page engagement, link clicks, etc.—to fit your dealership’s marketing goals. This is a highly recommendable option for the simple reason that it lets you eliminate the risk of paying for ads that simply don’t work.

Choosing the Right Type of Facebook Ad

So, which type of Facebook Ad makes the most sense for your dealership? We generally recommend CPA, but we’re happy to walk you through the pros and cons of each ad type. Reach out to Get My Auto for a full Facebook Ads consultation!