What are my targeting options for Cars Social?

What are my targeting options for Cars Social?

Cars Social gives your dealership flexible, data-powered targeting on Facebook and Instagram — using real-time shopper behavior to prioritize your most important inventory. Understanding your targeting options helps ensure your campaign reaches the right buyers in your local market.

In this article, you’ll learn how Cars Social campaigns target shoppers by geography, inventory, and audience behavior — and how to adjust your settings to meet your dealership’s goals.

1 Geographic targeting

Cars Social campaigns use radius-based targeting centered on your dealership’s physical address. The radius adjusts based on how many units you’ve purchased:

  • Half unit (Cars Social Essentials): 15 miles
  • 1–4 units: 30 miles
  • 5–6 units: 45 miles
  • 7+ units: 50 miles

Custom Radius: You can request a reduced radius (down to 15 miles) for a full Cars Social unit, though we don’t recommend this due to performance implications. A smaller radius significantly reduces your targeting pool and may limit campaign delivery.

Pin location: By default, campaigns target from your dealership’s physical address. However, you can request a different pin location if needed. Contact support to update your targeting address.

2 Inventory targeting

Cars Social allows you to filter inventory based on your dealership’s strategy:

Stock Type

  • New vehicles
  • Used vehicles
  • Certified Pre-Owned (CPO)

Aged Inventory Prioritization

You can allocate 50% of your ad budget to focus on vehicles that have been on your lot the longest. This helps move aging inventory faster.

  • Recommended thresholds:
    • 15+ days
    • 30+ days
    • 45+ days
    • 60+ days
  • Choose your threshold — vehicles meeting that “days on lot” number will receive priority budget.

Important: Aged inventory targeting requires a full unit ($999) or more. It is not available for Cars Social Essentials (half units).

Contact support to apply a stock filter type or specify an aged inventory threshold. We recommend prioritizing inventory over 30 days old.

3 Audience targeting

All Cars Social campaigns use Cars.com’s exclusive first-party audience data, ensuring your ads reach real, in-market shoppers.

  • Audience Pool: Shoppers who have researched vehicles on Cars.com in the past 90 days
  • Data Refresh: Updated daily for accuracy
  • Targeting Precision: Based on each shopper’s browsing behavior, including make, model, and price range

Restrictions:

Cars Social does not support:

  • Filtering by photo count
  • Targeting by specific make/model
  • Demographic or interest-based filters outside of Cars.com’s audience data

4 Inventory requirements

To appear in Cars Social ads, each vehicle must meet Facebook’s minimum merchandising standards:

  • VIN
  • Model
  • Price
  • At least two photos
  • Mileage (required for used vehicles)
  • Seller’s notes (generic batch taglines not accepted)

Minimum Inventory Recommendation: Campaigns perform best with at least 50 vehicles. Fewer VINs may result in limited reach or inconsistent delivery.

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