Reach More Car Shoppers with Mobile Video on Facebook

When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you do?  For me, I turn off the alarm clock, check my phone for news and weather, jump in the shower, and get ready for the day.  For others, they might have a different morning routine, but I bet that almost everyone’s morning routine involves their mobile phone.  Not only is your mobile phone part of your mornings, its most likely part of your afternoons and evenings up until the second you go to bed.  Now imagine your life without your mobile phone in it.  How would that change your morning routine or how you communicate throughout the day?  Would it take longer to find out what your family is up to or what traffic is going to be like on your way to work?

Think about your morning drive to the dealership each day.  You are in dead stop traffic and you realize you forgot your wallet.  You think you can probably get by without your wallet so you don’t turn around to get it.  You forget your phone though, it’s a whole different story.  You will most likely turn around in dead stop traffic just to get your phone.

The truth is, we live in a world that is so heavily reliant on our phones, that it is no longer just a device, it’s part of who we are.  Car Shopper behaviors are shaping around the mobile world we live in, and the way we reach out to these car shoppers must follow suit.  1 out of every 5 mobile minutes are spent on Facebook and Instagram(1), which is a huge opportunity for dealerships to reach car shoppers where they are spending a lot of time.  It’s not just about reaching out to them on their mobile phone though, it’s also important to know how to reach out to these car shoppers.

In 2017 the digital landscape saw a big uptick in video consumption, and this trend is not going away.  In fact, Cisco estimates that video will be 75% of all mobile data traffic by 2020 (compared to over half now)(2).  On Facebook, we are already seeing that globally, over 100 million hours of video are watched per day (3).  The future of mobile is video, and it’s important to know that video consumption on mobile differs from other outlets where video is watched.

It takes people only 1.7 seconds to consume mobile content on Facebook, versus 2.5 seconds on desktop (4).  Because of the speed of content consumption on mobile, capturing attention with thumb stopping creative is becoming more and more important for dealerships to reach car shoppers who they want to come into the dealership lot.  To help with thumb stopping mobile creative, its important you follow the following four principles for video success on Facebook:

Capture attention quickly

Facebook and Nielsen research found that up to 47% of the value in a video campaign was delivered in the first 3 seconds, while up to 74% of the value was delivered in the first 10 seconds (5).  Using colors, themes and imagery that identify your brand at the start of your video can help people connect the advertisement to your brand quickly. Consider starting your video with products shots of the vehicle, recognizable dealership logos or a vivid background to spark interest.

 Design for no sound

As most video advertisements in the mobile feed are viewed without sound, it’s important to deliver your message visually. Show captions, logos and vehicle incentives that can help communicate your message, even in silence.

Frame your visual story

If you look at your dealership’s commercials from TV on your mobile phone, you might notice that the impact is not a grand as it is on larger screen.  Producing videos for a small screen requires consideration of dimension and scale. Play with zoom, crop and overall visual composition to make sure that your story is told well on a small screen.

Play more

One size does not fit all when driving actions with mobile video, so keep experimenting, testing and iterating to learn what works for your dealership and target audience.  Mobile video creative is within everyone’s ability to create, and free mobile apps like Legend and Ripl(6) make the creation process easy for any knowledge level.

The mobile shift has already happened, and the future of mobile is video. Leverage these best practices to develop personalized mobile video creative that drives impact not only on a car shopper’s newsfeed, but also on the dealership lot.

Sources:  (1) Source: US ComScore data, Media Metrix June 2015, (2) “Cisco Visual Networking Index:  Global Mobile Data Tra c Forecast.  Update 2015 -2020.” by Cisco 2/3/17, (3) Facebook Data, December 2015, (4) Facebook Data Q3 2015, (5) Facebook commissioned Nielsen to analyze its database of Brand Effect studies, n+ 173 studies included video worldwide, mid Dec 2014 – Mid Feb 2015, (6) Available in Google Play and iOS app stores.

Don’t miss Gabrielle’s session, “Dynamic Ads for Automotive: Engage the Right Car Shoppers with Automatically Generated Facebook Ads” at the Digital Dealer 24 Conference & Expo on April 10-12th, 2018 in Orlando, FL!

Author: Gabrielle Garrison

Gabrielle Garrison is on Facebook’s Automotive Global Sales Team where she helps dealerships and dealership partners scale their marketing efforts to sell more cars on Facebook and Instagram. With 8 years in the media business, Gabrielle has held positions in all aspects of the advertising space ranging from radio to traditional media and currently digital media. An alumnus of the University of South Florida in Tampa, Gabrielle got her start in advertising helping small businesses in Tampa succeed in their marketing objectives, and later moved to digital advertising for eBay.com helping brands such as Progressive, Ford, The Chrysler Group, Ronald McDonald House and State Farm just to name a few.