Automotive News has published an insightful article on the Cardinale Automotive Group’s social media efforts and what tools should be properly utilized to get a customer from their computer screens or mobile phones to the dealership.
Social media is no longer just a platform to chat with friends, share pictures, or update your status. These various platforms are now a strategic tool for businesses to reach, obtain, and maintain customers. The Cardinale Automotive Group is keen on utilizing each tool to its full potential. There is a science behind it all and these tools are part of the equation.
According to Erich K. Gail, Cardinale Automotive Gro
up CEO, this outlook on social media marketing campaigns is necessary. He states that “this mentality is driven by a disciplined approach to spending money in which simply covering costs isn’t good enough. If time and resources are spent, there must be a return on investment.”
Facebook and Instagram, in particular, are social media platforms that have come a long way over the years; now offering ways to effectively spend money in the right places to reach the right people. As noted by Automotive News, “The evolving targeting capabilities on Facebook and Instagram over the years have given dealers more control over who sees their ads.”
The group, with its 22 rooftops throughout California, Arizona, and Nevada, wants to ensure that money is not being put towards hope, but rather towards a worthwhile ROI. Gail further expresses that “the stores take a granular approach that enables them to attribute the marketing dollars of their digital campaigns to floor traffic and sales.”
An effective place to spend marketing dollars is in Facebook’s Ad Manager. This tool gives the group the 
capabilities to target specific audiences throughout the market based on age, location, interests, and behaviors, and track the consumers that are taking action on each ad. Along with customer relationship management data, the group can further the analysis by knowing the sites consumers are coming from, how many have booked an appointment, and who physically came into the dealership to purchase a vehicle.
With the integration of Instagram and Facebook, customer reach has now increased and in a more 
efficient manner as Instagram Ads can be made by the checking of a box. The group understands the effectiveness of Instagram Ads. During the fourth quarter of 2016, the group launched an Instagram campaign for all of its dealerships. Through this campaign, there were 184,000 potential customers reached, resulting in 237 direct actions via phone call or online chat. Of those direct actions, 107 appointments were made, resulting in 66 consumers entering the dealership. The most impressive stat is that of 54 of the people that showed up to the dealership, left in a new vehicle. Overall, the investment per unit sold was $132.
The Cardinale Automotive Group is not new to the utilization of social media within its digital marketing strategy, but as the tools evolve, the group adapts accordingly in order to have an optimized social media strategy.
