Dealership Marketing

Special Ad Category – What it means for the future of Facebook!

Not the best way to awaken my inactive forum account. But I thought I’d be the first one to report it here. Seems some digital vendors are not prepared for it, which could disrupt your advertisements and the successfulness of them.

Or much worse, put you in non-compliance, resulting in moderation of advertisements or ultimately a permanently banned ad account.

Short TLDR; (Too Long Didn’t Read) Summary:

“HUD charged facebook, claiming that Facebook violated the 1968 Fair Housing Act by allowing advertisers that use the platform to target and exclude individuals based on protected categories such as religion, color, gender, age, etc.”

This change will prohibit dealers from promoting auto loan opportunities to people that are a specific gender and age. Certain targeting options, which may include demographics, behaviors or interests group, will be unavailable as well. Look-a-like audiences will be removed completely – this is what advanced Facebook Marketers use to achieve low-cost & sustainable results through the Facebook Platform, which creates a new challenge for dealerships trying to market themselves.

So first off, who am I?

Names John, I’m from Chicago. I own & operate a digital agency which manages a fairly large ad budget across a multitude of dealers nationwide, ranging from Used/New & Used/BHPH.. you name it.

Shameless plugs…

If you’re looking to learn how to run Facebook Ads for your dealership check out my tutorial here:

https://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/why-run-facebook-ads-for-your-dealership-more-importantly-how.6322

Or maybe you’re more interested in seeing how we generate leads, which you may view here:

https://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/collect-car-buyer-leads-cheaply-effectively.6395/

Moving On..

A few weeks ago a few clients of mine received a message in their Facebook Ads Manager, notifying each of them about a silent update Facebook made regarding advertisements related to Credit, Housing, and Employment. Stating that if you were running advertisements in these categories, you MUST navigate to campaign level and adjust each campaign individually, submitting to its respective category.

So why is this bad news?

Although this isn’t the end of the world, it truly levels out the playing field. Nearly negating the thousands of dollars in ad-spend dealers have paid to attain data, and some level of sustainability & optimization in their advertisement campaigns for selling cars.

1: You will no longer be able to target people by Age.

2: You won’t be able to target certain Genders.

3: Extreme limitations on behavior groups you can target.

4: Some limitations on interest groups as well.

5: Can no longer create look-a-like audiences, to target people similar to leads/buyers.

6: Can no longer target people in less than a 15 mile radius.

7: Cannot target or exclude individuals based on zip code.

Biggest kick in the groin being no more look-a-like audiences.

This is something advanced media buyers in the automotive space use to target car buyers more predictably. Without it, settling into optimization requires more ad budget and more time.

What can I do to stay ahead?

Again, not the end of the world. Facebook quickly announced a remedy to their removal of look-a-like audiences for those promoting ads in one of the now three moderated categories. (Credit, Housing, Employment)

It’s called a “Special Ad Audience”. :lol::lol::lol::lol: (whoever came up with the name is a snowflake)

Although the details aren’t clear as to how different Special Ad Audiences are from Look-A-Like audiences, results are showing significantly less performance across the board.

Time will tell!

This thread will be updated with results and performance, as more of our advertisements are forced to move into this new “special” ad category.

Not the best way to awaken my inactive forum account (Sorry @Jeff Kershner).

But I thought I'd be the first one to report it here. Seems some digital vendors are not prepared for it, which could disrupt your advertisements and the successfulness of them.

Or much worse, put you in non-compliance, resulting in moderation of advertisements or ultimately a permanently banned ad account.

Short TLDR; (Too Long Didn't Read) Summary:

"HUD charged facebook, claiming that Facebook violated the 1968 Fair Housing Act by allowing advertisers that use the platform to target and exclude individuals based on protected categories such as religion, color, gender, age, etc."

This change will prohibit dealers from promoting auto loan opportunities to people that are a specific gender and age. Certain targeting options, which may include demographics, behaviors or interests group, will be unavailable as well. Look-a-like audiences will be removed completely - this is what advanced Facebook Marketers use to achieve low-cost & sustainable results through the Facebook Platform, which creates a new challenge for dealerships trying to market themselves.

So first off, who am I?

Names John, I'm from Chicago. I own & operate a digital agency which manages a fairly large ad budget across a multitude of dealers nationwide, ranging from Used/New & Used/BHPH.. you name it.

Shameless plugs...

If you're looking to learn how to run Facebook Ads for your dealership check out my tutorial here:

https://forum.dealerrefresh.com/thr...or-your-dealership-more-importantly-how.6322/

Or maybe you're more interested in seeing how we generate leads, which you may view here:

https://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/collect-car-buyer-leads-cheaply-effectively.6395/

Moving On..

A few weeks ago a few clients of mine received a message in their Facebook Ads Manager, notifying each of them about a silent update Facebook made regarding advertisements related to Credit, Housing, and Employment. Stating that if you were running advertisements in these categories, you MUST navigate to campaign level and adjust each campaign individually, submitting to it's respected category.

View attachment 4277

So why is this bad news?

Although this isn't the end of the world, it truly levels out the playing field. Nearly negating the thousands of dollars in adspend dealers have paid to attain data, and some level of sustainability & optimization in their advertisement campaigns for selling cars.

1: You will no longer be able to target people by Age.

2: You won't be able to target certain Genders.

3: Extreme limitations on behavior groups you can target.

4: Some limitations on interest groups as well.

5: Can no longer create look-a-like audiences, to target people similar to leads/buyers.

6: Can no longer target people in less than a 15 mile radius.

7: Cannot target or exclude individuals based on zip code.

Biggest kick in the groin being no more look-a-like audiences.

This is something advanced media buyers in the automotive space use to target car buyers more predictably. Without it, settling into optimization requires more ad budget and more time.

What can I do to stay ahead?

Again, not the end of the world. Facebook quickly announced a remedy to their removal of look-a-like audiences for those promoting ads in one of the now three moderated categories. (Credit, Housing, Employment)

It's called a "Special Ad Audience". :lol::lol::lol::lol: (whoever came up with the name is a snowflake)

Although the details aren't clear as to how different Special Ad Audiences are from Look-A-Like audiences, results are showing significantly less performance across the board.

Time will tell!

This thread will be updated with results and performance, as more of our advertisements are forced to move into this new "special" ad category.

One of our first clients we've transitioned is starting to see some fantastic results for two campaigns.

One being a hiring campaign, and the next being a Subprime Long Form (soft credit pull) funnel. Seems to be producing a reasonable cost-per!

upload_2019-8-23_23-29-19.png

We'll see more results in the morning I assume.
 
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Have you fully transitioned all of your campaigns or are you waiting for the December 4th deadline?

Nearly all campaigns are transitioned. We're just finishing up - drafting some new campaigns as we speak.

Some of our Spanish campaigns will be adjusted accordingly too!

upload_2019-8-28_0-0-46.png

Shockingly, these new Special Ad Audiences make our standard LLA's seem expensive!!!!

Have you transitioned your campaigns in spite of Facebook's recent compliance requirements?

- John
 
Thanks again for the info....just a little confused based on my last 2 ads....

I am just noticing this now and am wondering why I had to choose a "special ad category" just to run traffic to a VDP page.....is it because a link to our credit app is on that page? Even if we are not sending traffic directly to the credit app, are we supposed to transition to the new special requirements?
 
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Thanks again for the info....just a little confused based on my last 2 ads....

I am just noticing this now and am wondering why I had to choose a "special ad category" just to run traffic to a VDP page.....is it because a link to our credit app is on that page? Even if we are not sending traffic directly to the credit app, are we supposed to transition to the new special requirements?

If you run any kind of automotive ad with the intention of selling vehicles (financing them), you NEED to run in the Special Credit category.

Otherwise you could risk getting creatives disapproved, your ad account disabled, or ultimately non-compliance.

If you wish to run advertisements outside of the special ad category, you'll have to come up with initiative angles that bring people into the dealer, without directly promoting loan opportunities. For instance - BBQ Events, Car Washes, Fundraisers, things of that nature.
 
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If you run any kind of automotive ad with the intention of selling vehicles (financing them), you NEED to run in the Special Credit category.

Otherwise you could risk getting creatives disapproved, your ad account disabled, or ultimately non-compliance.

If you wish to run advertisements outside of the special ad category, you'll have to come up with initiative angles that bring people into the dealer, without directly promoting loan opportunities. For instance - BBQ Events, Car Washes, Fundraisers, things of that nature.

Ok. This makes sense to me and something I will have to keep in mind moving forward. Thank you!
 
This is definitely a good call John! Had a dealership in our area run a "test" campaign with an agency that....really had no idea what they were doing and ended up getting 40 ads disapproved due to lack of compliance/awareness with this.

John's right everyone, gotta stay on top of this!