Let’s set the scene:

You’re a car dealer with over 100 cars in stock. In order to reach more buyers and maximize sales, you know that online advertising is a must.

But where should you advertise? And how can you promote 100+ cars in the most efficient way possible?

The answer is simple: Meta’s Automotive Inventory Ads

Meta hosts over 3 billion users on its combined platforms. Their huge user base, combined with their engagement data and smart targeting capabilities, make it the perfect place to advertise vehicles, especially on a catalog, or Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), level. 

In this guide, we’re going to introduce Meta’s Automotive Inventory Ads (AIA), why they’re powerful, and how to set them up. We’ll also provide tips for maximizing conversions, and how Phyron can help.

Meta’s Automotive Inventory Ads (AIA): The What and Why

Meta’s AIAs make it incredibly easy for car dealers to advertise their entire stock of new and used vehicles with make, model, year and mileage. That’s because you don’t need to create each ad individually. Indeed, Meta will do this for you by connecting to your car-catalog feed, allowing you to advertise your entire inventory effortlessly.

Through engagement metrics and the Meta Pixel, car shoppers are targeted (and retargeted) with a selection of vehicles that match their interest and location. When an ad is clicked, buyers are automatically redirected to your Vehicle Display Page (VDP) on Meta or on your website.

Which Ad Format?

Traditionally, Meta’s AIAs were limited to still-image ads. However, as of January 2024, they’ve expanded to include videos with the launch of Product Level Video (PLV). 

This is great news because video is more dynamic and engaging, and it helps with differentiating ad creatives. Rather than being served the same still-image ad repeatedly, Meta will now serve an image or a video depending on what is most likely to convert.

Internal studies have demonstrated that this mixed approach can grow conversions by more than 48% compared to ads with images alone.

How Can I Make That Many Ads?

Being able to advertise your entire car catalog on Meta sounds wonderful, but how can you actually produce that many ads? And what about video, which is extra costly and time consuming?

The short answer is AI and automation.

Phyron AI turns your existing data into studio-quality ads (including video) for the price of a cappuccino per car. For each vehicle, we’ll create 4 video variants for 18 placements, including Meta’s Watch, Reels and Stories. Below is an example of one our client's AIAs on Meta's Reels.

How to Set Up Meta Automotive Inventory Ads (AIA)

By this point, you already know what Meta AIA are and why they’re a powerful tool for car dealers. Let’s get into the nitty gritty of how to actually set them up.

Step 1. Create a new catalog

The first step is to navigate to your Commerce Manager space in Meta and to create a new catalog by pressing the “Add Catalog” button.

Step 2. Specify your catalog type

Next, you’ll want to select “Auto” as the catalog type and choose “Vehicles”.

Step 3. Name your catalog

Add a name to your catalog, and then click “Create”.

Step 4. Upload your data feed

The next step is to navigate to the Catalog tab on the left and then click on “Data sources” from the dropdown menu. This is where you’ll need to upload your car inventory feed.

There are two options here – you can either upload a URL from your server, hosting website or Google spreadsheet; or you can upload a file of your feed from your computer. If you’re a Phyron Paid Ads customer, we’ll provide the URL for you.

Step 5. Group your vehicles

After the upload is complete, go to “Sets” in the same dropdown menu and create how you’d like to group your vehicles. For example, you can group according to location, make, model, price range, etc.

Step 6. Set up your campaign

The final step is to navigate to your Ads Manager and set up your campaign. Choose the settings you’d like to use (same as for regular automotive inventory ads).

On the ad level of the campaign, go to “Advantage+ creative” and select “Edit”. In the pop-up window, make sure “Dynamic Media” is selected. This will ensure that both still images and video are used for your campaign, based on what is most likely to convert.


Campaign setup recommendations

The video and image assets are free to use however you like. However, below are our recommendations of what we’ve seen work the best in terms of lowering cost per landing page view and conversions.

1. Create a prospecting campaign with our optimized images in a carousel. For a cold audience our finding is that the optimized image generates the lowest cost per landing page view (or cost per link click, depending on the campaign setup).

This has been A/B tested with our clients previous creatives and generated significant improvements in click through rate, cost per landing page view and cost per link click.

2. Create a remarketing campaign with a mixture of video ads and optimized images in a carousel. Alternatively, run single ads with only our video ads.

By using a Meta pixel it’s possible to retarget users from your website. From our findings, this is where the video has its highest effect and increases conversions

Partner with Phyron

If you’d like to fully take advantage of Meta’s Automotive Inventory Ads and Product Level Video, partnering with Phyron will allow you to scale your content production, whilst saving you time and costs with our AI and automation.

Today, over 3,000 retailers in 30+ countries use Phyron to create AI video and still-image ads for all of their cars in stock. From simple photographs and car specification data, we can produce thousands of personalized videos and images in minutes, complete with your branding, creative design templates, Call-to-Actions, and so much more. Sign up for a free demo and we’ll tell you all about it.