This case study highlights how we helped auto dealerships streamline the process of posting their inventories on Facebook Marketplace, both through APIs and alternative solutions when Facebook discontinued marketplace partnerships with vendors.
Dealerships faced significant challenges in manually posting inventories using personal Facebook accounts, which required additional manpower and increased costs. Furthermore, leads generated through these postings were managed via personal accounts, preventing integration with the dealership's CRM. This lack of a centralized system made lead management inefficient and hindered overall operations. Our solution addressed these issues, enabling dealerships to post inventories and manage leads effectively while maintaining centralized control.
Challenges:
After Facebook discontinued posting to Facebook Marketplace using feed files on January 30th, 2023, dealerships across the USA faced a major challenge.
With the change, their only option was to post inventory manually through personal accounts.
This new process required dedicated staff to manage the posts in the office, leading to increased workload and inefficiencies.
This shift created widespread panic as dealerships saw a significant drop in leads, which directly impacted sales.
To cope with the situation, many dealerships assigned their sales representatives the additional task of posting inventories to Facebook Marketplace.
However, this solution proved inefficient and costly. Sales reps, already drawing high salaries, were burdened with a tedious task they were reluctant to perform.
The situation was further complicated by the need to manage multiple Facebook accounts and respond to chats across various profiles.
This led to disorganization and chaos, as managing these accounts became increasingly difficult.
The lack of structure not only hindered operations but also caused frustration among team members, exacerbating the overall challenge.
Solution:
The client, an approved Facebook Marketplace partner, was providing services to dealerships to post inventories and manage leads on Facebook Marketplace through APIs.
We had designed a seamless system that enabled car dealerships to post on Facebook Marketplace effortlessly, with all leads efficiently managed via business page APIs.
However, when Facebook discontinued its Marketplace partnership program, dealerships were restricted to posting on the Marketplace using personal Facebook accounts.
This change disrupted the existing process, creating challenges for dealerships to manage their inventory and leads effectively.
We developed an automated process to post 20–23 inventories daily to Facebook Marketplace.
This ensured that the inventory was consistently updated, helping generate leads at scale.
Additionally, we created a browser extension to streamline the posting process.
This extension allowed dealers to manage posts directly from their computers with ease, simplifying the entire workflow.
Once the posting issue was resolved, a new challenge emerged: managing leads.
Since inventory was posted through personal Facebook accounts, leads were being routed to individual Messenger accounts.
There was no API available to centralize these leads, creating a significant gap in the process.
To address this, we implemented an additional layer of technology by building a unified web and mobile platform for sales teams.
This platform allowed all leads from various Facebook accounts to be managed through a single application, streamlining the lead management process.
Although the added layer introduced a minor delay of 4–5 seconds in message delivery, dealerships readily accepted this trade-off for the efficiency and organization it provided. This solution not only streamlined lead handling but also enhanced productivity across sales teams.
Transformation:
- Cost-Effective: Sales representatives can now focus entirely on selling, rather than spending time posting on Facebook Marketplace.
- Increased Leads and Sales: Dealerships experienced a surge in leads, which translated into higher sales.
- Happier Sales Teams: Sales reps are relieved of the tedious task of posting on Facebook Marketplace, leading to improved morale.
- Enhanced Lead Management and Transparency: A centralized platform ensures better organization and complete visibility into lead handling.
