Your #1 source for auto industry news and content
Facebook marketplace said it will be deleting any active listings from Facebook Business pages starting on January 30, 2023.
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has recently made some changes that will affect car sales on its Facebook Marketplace platform. According to a recent support page, beginning at the end of January 2023, dealers will no longer be able to post vehicle listings on Marketplace via their Business pages.
The company reports it is “simply changing how to distribute inventory,” but the decision could have also been influenced by Business pages increasingly posting the same car in different locations for incorrectly low prices. In addition, analysts surmise the decision, which also impacts real estate businesses, was made due to Facebook’s desire for sellers to purchase Marketplace ads instead.
Facebook said in its announcement that auto dealers will be able to “continue reaching vehicle and home buyers or home renters on Facebook in other ways.” Individuals selling their vehicles will still be able to post listings from their own personal pages for free, and the company noted dealers will not lose any of their “ability to reach [an] audience via ads.”
In 2019, so-called Automotive inventory ads (AIA) were unveiled, which Facebook said “expanded dealerships’ reach beyond the people who had already visited their website or app, and let dealerships get in front of even more prospective car shoppers based on their visits to other auto and dealer-related Pages, websites and apps.” The goals of AIA were to “get efficient campaign performance,” “reach in-market consumers during their shopping journey,” and “offer a frictionless shopping experience” for customers.
The recent decision came as a surprise to some, as Facebook also previously invested in partnerships with automotive-related companies like Cars.com, Edmunds, and CDK Global for inventory sharing and advertising purposes.
Reactions to the latest update have been mixed, with some users feeling satisfied that false ads may be reduced and others worrying that spam listings will instead increase. These include listings from fake profiles, which Facebook Marketplace generally has trouble detecting and removing.
The main complaint about the current Facebook Marketplace auto sales process is the classic “click bait” $1 ads, which often entice Marketplace users to visit listings that end up being spam or a scam. There has also been much dissatisfaction regarding automotive listings that solely show the required down payment and not the actual price of the cars. While Facebook always assures users it is working to protect the website from such false advertisements and hopes the upcoming change will remedy them to some extent, it is unknown if the move will end up actually reducing these instead of having the opposite effect.
Facebook marketplace said it will be deleting any active listings from Facebook Business pages starting on January 30, 2023. Dealers must download their listings before then to avoid losing them, as their Business pages will also no longer feature the “Vehicles” and “Manage Inventory” tabs.
Did you enjoy this automotive newscast? Please share your thoughts, comments, or questions regarding this topic by connecting with us at newsroom@cbtnews.com.
Be sure to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok to stay up to date.
While you’re here, don’t forget to subscribe to our email newsletter for all the latest auto industry news from CBT News.
Contact us: Info@CBTNews.com
© 2023 Created by CBT News
We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.
You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in .
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
