Spooktacular Fun Awaits: Using Meta Advertising to Promote Trunk or Treat Events

Do more than just sell cars! Build trust through valuable community connections by not just
helping customers find the right car, but a lasting relationship with your brand. Hosting
events at your dealership allows you to connect with potential customers in a fun, casual,
and engaging way. Your dealership shouldn’t just be a shopping mecca – it’s a potential
gathering place for your community to create lasting memories with family and friends.

Sisbarro Auto Group came to Team PCG to promote their annual Trunk-or-Treat event.
Our social media team immediately got to work, knowing Meta provides engagement
optimization options right in Ads Manager to get some eyeballs on the occasion! We first
created an event on the store’s Facebook Business Page, highlighting Sisbarro’s Trunk or
Treat event and why folks should attend, complete with pictures from previous years. By
showcasing the fun along with key information like time, address, and location, we made
the event a one-stop-shop for anyone interested.

Keep reading to learn how to get started with promoting your dealership events through an
organic Meta strategy.

Get Started Organically

Events are free and easy to post on Facebook, making it a breeze for users to find your next
event. Based on Meta insights, there are 700 million people who use Facebook events each
month to market their events, and 35 million people who view a public event every day. Creating
an event on your Facebook Business Page gives your in-person or virtual event a home for
people to gather information.

Follow these quick steps to create an event on your business page:

1. Once you’re on your business page, Click Events in the left menu (you
   may need to click See More first)
2. Click + Create a new event on the left
3. Choose an Event name, date and time, location, and whether the event
   is in person or virtual
4. Enter all the event information below ‘What are the details?’
5. Click Create Event

Organic Event Preview

Build in Ads Manager

Once you have your organic event set up and optimized, the next step is creating Meta
Advertising to complement those organic efforts. Advertising your upcoming event provides an
opportunity to increase awareness by displaying the event to a wider audience, retargeting your
first-party data, and using Meta’s engagement optimization options to encourage people in your
market to RSVP. This also allows dealers to stay in touch with the community through updates
and reminders to those who mark “interest in attending”.

Follow these steps below to create an event ad to gain interest:

1. Go to Ads Manager
2. Click + Create
3. Select Engagement as the objective
4. Add campaign details and set your advantage campaign budget, click Next
5. In the Conversation section > select On Your Ad
6. For Engagement Type > select Event Response
7. Set the date to run the ad through, targeting radius, and click Next
8. Select the correct Facebook page that has the event organically posted
9. You have the option to change the graphic in the Media section as well as the ad copy in
   the text section
10. In the Event section, enter the title or URL of the event to promote (this will auto-
    populate with the organic post)
11. Add any tracking information, when complete, select Publish.

Let’s Take a Look

Check out the preview of the Meta Ad we created:

Drive into the Details of a Meta Engagement Campaign

Campaign Level:

• Choosing a lifetime budget at the campaign level allows Meta to best distribute
  the budget over the campaign’s lifespan. This way, Meta is spending money
  only when engagement is happening on the ad.

Ad Set Level:

• PCG Digital recommends creating two ad sets for an engagement campaign.
  • The first ad set is what we label a ‘broad audience’ ad set and includes all of Meta’s detailed targeting options relevant to the campaign.
  • The second ad set is called a ‘custom’ ad set, which includes first-party data retargeting options Meta offers in Ads Manager, like website engagement, social channel engagement, video engagement, custom audience lists from the dealership, and Facebook Marketplace engagement.
• Set a reasonable radius that people are willing to drive for this event

Ad Level:

• We chose animated graphics for Sisbarro’s ads, as they’re the best-performing creative option for Meta advertising outside of short-form video. We then created similar creative for organic promotion to create an interconnected experience for potential trunk-or-treaters!
• We enhanced the ad copy – “Join us for a spooktacular morning at Sisbarro Buick GMC’s annual Trunk or Treat! Thrills, treats, and CANDY galore! Mark your calendars and we’ll see you there!”

Now, let’s look at the results:

This ad ran from Oct 11th through the 26th–the day of the event. The objective of this ad was to gain event responses. This campaign targeted the community of ​​Doña Ana County, NM.

Brainstorm Event Ideas

Here’s a list of year-round dealership event ideas:

• Kick-off Football Season (Fall)
• Trunk-or-Treat (Halloween)
• Christmas Charity (December)
• BBQ Season! (Summer)
• Local First Responders (Summer)
• Local business weekend
• Animal Adoption

Learn More About Meta Advertising from PCG Digital

To receive additional information about Meta Advertising for your dealership, reach out to the
PCG Digital team.