What happens to the ad when the car sells?

Why do ads for sold cars keep running?

Because nothing tells them to stop. A boosted post or an ad built by hand has no link to your stock system. The truck sells on Saturday and the ad runs through Wednesday, until someone remembers to pause it. Some vendors have the same gap. One dealership user wrote in a G2 review: "PureCars connects with your inventory, so you are never serving ads for vehicles you no longer have in stock- which is a problem we faced with other vendors."

How does a feed-driven ad come down?

It follows the unit through the same plumbing that updates your website. The speed depends on how often each step runs, so ask your vendor for the schedule.

• The deal is posted and the unit is marked sold in your inventory system
• The next inventory feed export leaves that VIN out
• The ad platform or vendor reads the new feed
• The ad for that VIN is paused or removed

What does an ad for a sold car cost the store?

The spend is the small part. A shopper who taps the ad and lands on the vehicle detail page (VDP) of a sold unit, or calls and hears the car is gone, can read it as bait and switch before anyone offers a similar unit. We know of no study that puts a number on that.

How do I check my own ads in the Meta Ad Library?

Meta's Ad Library is public and needs no login. Go to facebook.com/ads/library, set the country to the United States and the category to all ads, then search your Page name and pick your Page from the suggestions. Filter to active ads. Scroll through and look for units you have already sold or prices that have since changed. Each ad shows the date it started running. The library does not show spend or reach for regular commercial ads in the US, so use your Ads Manager account for those numbers.

What should I ask a vendor about sold units?

Ask how often they read your feed, how long after a unit leaves the feed its ad stops, and what happens when a price changes. Ask whether the ads run in your ad account or theirs, so you can check the answers in Ads Manager. u/rcxhc, the marketing manager for an 11-brand dealer group, wrote on r/marketing in June 2023: "We have a data person who deals with the feeds from the stock system to the website and 3rd party feeds." If your store has that person, include them in the call.

Related

• Minnesota: what 302 franchised dealers actually run on Meta
• VinScroll vs Flick Fusion
• How do dealer video ads stay in sync with inventory?
• Automotive Inventory Ads vs Vehicle Listing Ads
• What is an automotive inventory ad?

Common questions

How fast should an ad come down after a car sells?

With a feed that updates at least daily, the same day is a fair standard. Ads built by hand depend on someone remembering, which is how a sold unit ends up advertised for a week.

Can I see ads other companies run on my cars?

Partly. On Meta, search the Ad Library for your store name, though third-party ads often name the vehicle rather than your store, so you may also need to search by model. Google's vehicle listing ads (VLA) don't appear in Meta's library. Dealers notice these, as one DealerRefresh thread title shows: "Why are third parties running Google VLA ads on MY vehicles? Shut it down!"

What does VinScroll do when a car sells?

Each VinScroll ad is tied to one unit in your inventory feed. When the unit leaves the feed, its ad comes down the same day. A price change rebuilds the ad with the new price.