Automotive Social Media Marketing
Buyers will drive four hours for the right rig. Paid social media marketing puts your stock in front of the ones willing to make it.
Turn Browsers Into Buyers
Your next buyer is thumbing past fishing photos, a caravan ad, and a reel from your competitor. Being on the platform doesn’t mean being seen; catching their attention does.
Retain Media is a specialist social advertising agency that runs paid campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest for dealers and OEMs across Australia and New Zealand’s vehicle and machinery industries.
We’re your team on the inside. We know a buyer weighing up a tandem-axle caravan researches differently from one pricing a 20-tonne excavator, and we plan every campaign around your market’s unique buyer activity. The payoff is more enquiries per dollar and less money spent on people who were never going to commit.
Map Your Journey
Paid social is an effective marketing tool, with every platform playing a role. We match the mix to your audience and goals, then tailor targeting and creative to suit.
The relentless workhorse for dealer leads. Facebook Ads let you reach buyers by location and interest, retarget those who’ve browsed your stock, and trace enquiries back to the ad that started it.
Pinterest Advertising
Pinterest cops a reputation for recipes and wedding boards. In reality, 51% of users are 45 or older with money behind them. Quiz and showcase ads catch them mid-daydream, so you’re front of mind when they’re ready to buy.
Built for the walkthrough, the build, and the reveal. Your footage runs full screen with the sound on, and TikTok’s lead forms let buyers spec a model without ever leaving the app. Leads where you’d least expect them.
Instagram Advertising
Where the shortlist gets made. Reels and Stories run your unit full screen, and the saves and shares do the quiet work: buyers send your product to their partner long before they ring you. Same Meta targeting as Facebook, same buyer, different frame of mind.
Straight Off the Dyno
We could harp on about our expertise all day, but the proof is in the numbers. Here’s how our paid social efforts helped two Australian dealers move more stock.
Sold Out in 3 Days
A stock-clearance push on paid social, built around price and scarcity, sold out one model within three days of going live. Cost per add-to-cart improved 8%, and every ad held an above-average quality ranking.
32% More Leads Than Other Campaigns Combined
High-intent, on-platform lead forms outperformed the rest of the account, generating 32% more leads than all other campaigns and running 89% more cost-efficiently than onsite leads.
Paid Social Rides Better in Pack
Social creates the demand and search collects it. Buyers see your Facebook ad on Tuesday, then search for you on Google on Sunday. Showing up everywhere helps you get the sale.
Google Ads: Catch Them When They’re Ready
Branded searches climb once social’s running. Be the first cab off the rank when they type your name, not buried in the marketplace among your competitors.
SEO: Stay Found Year-Round
Buying cycles end, but SEO keeps you found through the off-season. Rankings for your models, suburb, and service department keep earning while your ads are paused.
Muster More Buyers With Retain Media
We exist because too many marketers arrive not knowing a tandem axle from a tri. Brian founded Retain in 2018 after years in the trade press and at Carsales, so we started out knowing your market, not learning it on your dime.
Tell us what you need to move this quarter, and we’ll build the paid social plan to make it happen.
The Parts Counter
The machinery and automotive social media marketing questions we hear most.
What does a social media marketing package look like at Retain?
Retain Media gives you a dedicated performance manager and all the work that sits under them. You’ll get your own specialist pod that writes the strategy, builds the campaigns, installs your tracking, and produces or rejigs creative as you need. We wire the lead forms into wherever your sales team actually works, and deliver monthly reports detailing your campaigns’ performance. No lock-in contracts, one setup fee, and a monthly management fee scaled to what you’re running.
Can you advertise our actual stock, or just general brand ads?
We can advertise your actual stock*. We connect your inventory feed to the ad platforms so single units show to the people most likely to buy. Ads contain pricing and availability pulled directly from the feed, and sold stock drops out on its own.
Our paid ads specialists can also split the feed by range, model, price, or location so you know exactly what you’re spending where. All we need from you is access to your feed. If you haven’t got one, we’ll tell you what it takes to build one.
*Social media ads depend on your feed carrying the right details for each unit and your stock meeting each platform’s rules. We’ll let you know if anything is missing.
Can’t I just list my vehicles on Facebook Marketplace?
Not the way you’re probably thinking. Facebook Marketplace stopped supporting vehicle listings created through a business Page back in January 2023. You can still advertise as an independent seller, but it’s not as effective. Marketplace puts your unit beside every other listing in the category. Buyers never reach your site, and you can’t track the data.
Paid social reaches people who weren’t searching at all and sends them straight to you. It tells you which audiences are producing enquiries and which aren’t, so your budget goes towards quality buyers.
Do you need us to supply photos and video, or do you make the creative?
Either way works, but we prefer having your assets on hand early. Send us what you already have, and we’ll get the ball rolling. Some dealers give us walkthrough videos they’ve recorded on their phones; others send us photos of their inventory or footage from a show.
Don’t stress if you don’t have any collateral, though. That’s what our Creative Team is for. We’ll sometimes charge an additional fee for their services, but your performance manager will let you know if that applies.
What’s the difference between social media ads and Google Ads?
Google catches buyers who already know what they want, while social reaches them before they do. The two work in tandem, with many users finding your business on Facebook before looking for it on Google later. Most dealers run both channels, and we’d rather split a budget across the two so we know exactly where your audience sits and what’s driving your leads.
How long before we see enquiries?
Most campaigns go live within 15 business days of your brief, and enquiries usually start within the first few weeks. The first two to three months are where it sharpens, as the platforms learn which audiences convert. We cut the ones that don’t. You’ll learn all about how your campaign’s going in your monthly catch-up with your performance manager.
“Their knowledge in the industry is tenfold. just in the past year, our conversions have doubled."
