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Automotive paid social on Meta and TikTok
Automotive paid social is where a dealer's stock gets in front of people who were not searching yet, and where a parts retailer reminds someone about the coilovers they left in the basket. We run Meta Automotive Inventory Ads from your live stock, TikTok for dealers, and retargeting for parts stores, tied to leads and orders.
Who we do this for
- Car Dealers
- Car Parts Retailers
- Tuning & Performance
- Detailing & Valeting
- Garages & MOT Centres
- Motorcycles
Native data integrations
Social ads in the motor trade fail when they are treated like a boosted post. A photo of the forecourt and a weekend offer reaches people who scroll past. What works is the same as everywhere else in automotive: the actual car, the actual part, shown to the person most likely to want it, with a way to act now.
Meta Automotive Inventory Ads are the dealer format. A vehicle catalogue built from Auto Trader Connect or your DMS feeds Facebook and Instagram with your real stock, and Meta shows each car to people who have looked at similar vehicles on your site or elsewhere. When a car sells, it leaves the catalogue. Lead forms or click-to-WhatsApp bring the enquiry in with the vehicle attached.
For parts, tuning and detailing brands, Meta and TikTok are catalogue and retargeting channels: dynamic product ads from the store feed, video of the part being fitted, and audiences built from site visitors, customers and lookalikes. For garages, lead ads for MOT and servicing offers to a tight radius. Everything is measured through the pixel, the Conversions API and, where possible, the CRM, so we count sales and bookings rather than likes.
Sound familiar?
You probably need this if
- Your social ads are boosted posts run by whoever has the login.
- Stock ads show cars that sold last week.
- You can see reach and engagement but not a single enquiry attributed to spend.
- Parts abandoned in baskets are never followed up anywhere.
- A competitor dealer's TikTok is everywhere and yours has three videos from years ago.
- iOS tracking changes broke your attribution and nobody set up the Conversions API.
Deliverables
What you get
- Meta vehicle catalogue built from your stock feed and kept in sync, with Automotive Inventory Ads campaigns.
- Meta and TikTok product catalogues for parts stores with dynamic product and retargeting ads.
- Pixel and Conversions API implementation for leads, bookings and purchases, plus CRM match-back where possible.
- Creative production or direction: walkaround video, fitting video, presenter-led TikTok, static and carousel formats.
- Audience build: site visitors, customer lists, lookalikes, and exclusions for existing customers.
- Lead forms, click-to-WhatsApp or Messenger flows routed into your CRM or DMS.
- Monthly reporting on cost per lead, cost per booking or ROAS.
Meta Automotive Inventory Ads
The catalogue is the campaign. We build it from the same stock source as your website and Google feed, map the fields Meta requires, and install the pixel events (vehicle viewed, lead submitted) that let Meta show the right car to the right person. Then we run prospecting to in-market audiences and retargeting to people who viewed a car and did not enquire.
TikTok for dealers
TikTok rewards a consistent presenter and honest content: walkarounds, what to check when buying, stock arrivals, the odd disaster. We help you find the format and the person, build the organic account alongside paid, and use Spark Ads to boost what already works rather than producing ads from scratch.
Retargeting for parts, tuning and detailing
A parts buyer often researches for days. Dynamic product ads bring back the exact part, fitting video shows it going on, and customer-list audiences let you reach previous buyers with the next upgrade. We exclude recent purchasers, cap frequency and report on orders rather than reach.
Process
How we approach it
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Audit and tracking
Existing accounts, pixel, catalogue and attribution reviewed; the Conversions API goes in first because nothing else is measurable without it.
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Catalogue and feed
Vehicle or product catalogue built from your stock source and validated in Commerce Manager.
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Creative
Formats agreed and produced: walkarounds, fitting videos, presenter pieces, offer creatives.
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Launch
Campaigns structured by objective (prospecting, retargeting, lead generation) with budgets set per objective.
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Optimise and report
Weekly creative and audience rotation; monthly report on leads and sales, not reach.
Paid Social: common questions
What are Meta Automotive Inventory Ads?
A Meta ad format that shows a dealer's actual vehicles from a catalogue feed to people likely to be in the market, on Facebook and Instagram. The feed carries make, model, year, price, mileage, images and a vehicle page URL; sold cars drop out automatically.
Does TikTok work for car dealers?
It can. Presenter-led walkarounds, honest what-would-I-buy content and stock reveals reach a younger used car audience. It needs a person on camera who is comfortable and consistent, and the ads work best on top of an active organic account.
Can you retarget people who abandoned a parts basket?
Yes. With the pixel and Conversions API installed and a product catalogue synced from your store, Meta and TikTok can show the exact parts left in the basket, with fitment in the creative where the data supports it.
What budget do we need?
Enough to give Meta data to learn on. We agree a starting budget at scoping based on your stock or catalogue size and target cost per lead, then scale what works. Ad spend is paid direct to the platforms; our fee is separate.
Do we need our own video?
It helps a lot. We can produce walkaround and fitting video with you, or direct your team to shoot on a phone to a simple template. Static ads work for retargeting; video wins for prospecting.
How do you measure leads from social?
Pixel and Conversions API events for forms, calls, bookings and purchases, lead forms pushed into your CRM, and where possible a match-back from the CRM to the ad platform so we can see which campaigns produced sales.
Sectors
Who we do this for
Car Dealers
Car dealer marketing that does not rent all your traffic from Auto Trader.
View servicesCar Parts Retailers
Car parts marketing agency built on fitment: TecDoc K-Type, reg lookup, eBay and Amazon feeds on Shopify, WooCommerce or Magento.
View servicesTuning & Performance
A tuning company website that books dyno and remap slots and sells performance parts with hand-built fitment, written to ASA rules.
View servicesDetailing & Valeting
Car detailing website design for detailers and valeters: deposit booking, ceramic and PPF pages that rank, and a products shop.
View servicesGarages & MOT Centres
Garage marketing that fills the diary: local SEO, garage website design with online booking and MOT reminders from DVSA data.
View servicesMotorcycles
Motorcycle dealer website design, parts eCommerce with fitment data and Auto Trader Bikes feeds, built for the spring peak.
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Talk to us about paid social
Tell us what you sell, fix, break or race and what is getting in the way. We will come back within one working day with a straight answer and, if it fits, a fixed-price scope.