Marketing for RV Dealerships is in a place right now where a lot of Dealers are trying to figure out what’s working to increase sales. With sales in the RV Market down again this year and with a lot of variables in the market right now, dealerships are wondering where and how to put their marketing dollars.

Most people don’t have good data on what a good social media ad campaign looks like or know how much to spend for their ad budget, and who to trust with such an important and specific role to get consistent sales through social media marketing for their RV Dealership.

I have The Data and I’m going to give it to you!

After all the conversations I’ve had with RV & Marine Dealerships this year I decided to study and document the Facebook Ads for 577 RV Dealerships (that’s thousands of ads).

It was disheartening to see how terrible the ads were for most Dealerships. So much money has been wasted on bad ads that are targeted to the wrong people.

The good news is that we can make an impact not only on your Dealership’s sales but on the RV & Marine Industries as a whole! I expect many RV, Marine and Powersport Dealerships owners, GMs, marketing mgrs, sales teams, manufacture executives, etc are reading this.

If that’s you, would you please share this post with some people on your team or who you think would find this interesting or could benefit by seeing what good and bad FB Ads look like? Thanks in advance!

Now let’s get into some of the negative before we get to the good…

44% of RV Dealerships aren’t running FB Ads. They often have never tried running Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) or more commonly, stopped due to lack of desired results. Some weren’t running ads due to bad timing like mgmt changes, rebranding, moving, or some other variable.

56 percent of RV Dealerships were running Facebook Ads.

If you were thinking “Wow Eric’s such a great guy to provide this info for us!”, you would be correct in thinking that. However, this isn’t totally altruistic. I want to be clear that I think you should hire me to get you traffic, leads and sales for your RV or Marine Dealership through my marketing ads.

If you’re not familiar with Shorelooksnice, we’ve been doing marketing for RV & Marine Dealerships for over a decade with a focus in Social Media and Digital Marketing.

Click Here to check out the case study I did almost a decade ago on the buying process for RVers. It aged well and if you’re in the industry you might find it interesting.

You don’t want Facebook Ads. You want sales.

What’s working, what’s not… let’s take some specific examples from ads that I plucked out during my research. These are the most common issues I saw and I wanted to break down some of these challenges holding dealerships back. In studying so many RV Dealership’s ads, 74% of the ads I considered to be “Bad” ads and a waste of marketing dollars.

74% of RV Dealership Facebook Ads Are A Waste of money.

19% Were considered decent ads. Not performing well but they’re close. There’s usually 1-2 missing components in these ads that if adjusted they’ll start producing good results.

7% Were good ads that are providing consistent results that are positively and significantly affecting their sales.

One of the things I found fascinating is that most RV Dealerships didn’t really know if their ads were performing or not. They didn’t have enough knowledge or examples of what a good ad campaign looks like to drive sales and what metrics to find out if it’s successful.

Breakdown of RV Dealership Facebook Ads

I wrote these RV Dealership Facebook Ad breakdowns in the frame of mind that I was talking candidly to a friend. It might not feel good if I used your dealership as an example but I have the best intentions and hope to affect you and our industry positively. Also keep in mind that these are the most common issues I saw and there are many dealerships doing the same thing as the ones in the examples.

1. Sale Date Has Passed

This ad was for a Labor Day Sale (September) but this ad is running in late October… This should never happen and is a waste of marketing dollars.

The call to action of “get quote” isn’t accurate as they haven’t shopped for a unit yet and aren’t clicking to get a quote.

This ad was served to me in January talking about Santa… You need to have stop dates on your ads.

2. Creating Doubt

When the Facebook Ad starts off by saying that this RV Dealership is “here to stay”, it creates doubt in the mind of the consumer. It actually gets the opposite result of what they’re trying to do with this tactic which is to build trust with they’re longstanding track record.

In sales you learn to never over-talk the sale and create doubt by addressing concerns that aren’t in your prospects mind. It makes them think things like “Why are you saying this? Was there a chance you were going out of business?”.

The wording of the line “shop the same great deals” doesn’t quite fit. The person they’re trying to market to most likely wouldn’t know about their great deals and service yet so it would need to be explained.

Something like: “Are you thinking about buying an RV for your family but you want to get it at a great deal from someone who will offer great customer service (hard to find nowadays) and treat you fair?

Since 2008 we’ve been a family owned and operated dealership that treats their customers GREAT and we’ll do the same for you.

Click on over NOW to see our list of family friendly RVs and message us with any questions!”

3. Jumbled Text

This is hard to consume as a reader. People don’t have the patience to read this. Good bloggers break up their text so that people can scan it quickly. The same approach works for FB Ads. If you want people to read your text, make it easy to consume.

4. Carousel Ads

These are powerful ads if done correctly. These aren’t… Each “card” that people can flip through could be a different message. This seems to be the same message with slight variations. Wastes good “digital real estate” that could be used for messages that lead to sales. I have an entire blog post about Carousel ads, click here to check it out.

5. Hashtags on Facebook Ads?

What does #stayGRAND mean and how is it going to stop someone from scrolling? The first two lines of an ad need to STOP people from scrolling. If someone is confused they’re going to move on in their news feed and never give you another thought. The competition for people’s attention is too tough to not make that a top priority.

6. Credit/Financial/Housing Category

This limits your targeting severely and wastes marketing dollars. There is no reason for an RV Dealership to need to run a credit or housing category Facebook Ad. To put it in perspective, you lose the ability to target based on even age, so this ad is being served to 19 year olds…

7. What Is This?

What does Tiffin In Tiffin, Oh mean? Could be an error that someone didn’t catch?

8. Wrong Call To Action

Lots going on here…

The image has way too much information. You don’t need to tell them the city you’re in because ads already should be targeting people within a range that the prospect for that type of unit would generally be comfortable traveling for.

If their goal was to highlight that they are new to the area because they’ve expanded or moved and are new in the area, MAKE THAT A BOLD REASON to grab someone’s attention and get them to start shopping for RVs.

Don’t have the click call to action be “Call Now”. Most of the people on a weekday who are on Facebook are doing it while they’re on the toilet while at work and they can’t make a call (the data is clear on this).

Instead have the call to action be to click over to shop for RVs on their phones or send a message for more info.

9. The First Line Is Critical

The first two lines of a Meta Ad is critical in stopping someone from scrolling and getting them to read more.

Can someone explain to me what exactly the first line means?

I think the second and 3rd sentence mean the same thing?

This ad is all over the place. They need to get clear on who they’re targeting and for what. One of the best things about Meta Ads is their targeting. We don’t need to tell them you have camper trailers, motorhomes and car camping gear. Meta already knows that about them so create 3 different ads that target each one specifically! That way you can connect with them right away because we know based on data that they would be a prospect or have interest in what you’re presenting them.

Another alternative is to gear this ad towards the top of the sales funnel and create a carousel ad focusing the different aspects or types of units you offer. Each slide would have a different aspect.

10. Are You Confused?

I understand what this message is trying to say but they do a terrible job at delivering it.

The person this would really resonate with would most likely be someone upgrading their RV and they had a bad experience with hidden fees the first time.

There’s also a chance they have heard that other dealerships add on other fees, charges, etc; but unless they’re experienced it we should assume we need to educate them about this issue.

Something like “Did you know that a lot of dealerships out there offer one price but they have hidden charges and fees which ends up costing more than if you went with another dealership (like us)…”

11. Doesn’t Sell

This was an Ai generated video of someone walking on the snow with text overlay with a message that will never sell RVs. Total waste of marketing dollars and it will never sell an RV.

12. You Are A Number…

Looks like someone got sold the same service as someone else and someone else and someone else and someone else… These big marketing firms aren’t able to give you the personalized service that you deserve or that you’re paying for (you are also most likely over-paying). You’re a number plugged into software….

To be clear I’m not knocking software, we utilize the latest and greatest. Look at these ads, are they great? Nope. Not even good…

13. Spot Check Your Work

I make mistakes. We all do. I check, recheck and then check my ads again. I have someone on my team that reviews my ads. This eliminates these issues. One of the ways I achieve this is by spot checking and even having another set of eyes check out my work.

The 2nd line has a spelling error with the word “This”.

At the bottom the “header” has a spelling error in the word “Are”. These mistakes should not happen.

14. Wrong Product

This is a miss. It’s a timing product and the caption isn’t effective.
Typically someone is looking for a 5th wheel hitch when they’re shopping for or have just bought a 5th wheel and need a hitch for their truck. This might be effective with a retargeting ad but this isn’t something that the average RVer would use. Potentially written by someone who doesn’t understand our industry well but it’s hard to tell.

15. Wasted Opportunity

You don’t need to put the name of your RV Dealership as the most important aspect of the ad (first line) when the name is directly above it. They also don’t need it at the bottom either. Both of these spots could have been used for something that would help to sell an RV but we’re happy that they’re having a blast!

16. Ai Acting Like Ai

Hit the road with Great American RV? Find your perfect travel companion? And what exactly do they mean when they say they’re always just around the corner?

Ai (Artificial Intelligence) often creates these types of phrases like “follow your adventure”, “hit the road with us”, “live your best life”… I use Ai in my business and I love it, but not for your first 2 lines of an ad.

What’s the offer that I’ll get if I click “Get Offer”? Is it a surprise? Maybe that’s why they didn’t say anything about an offer anywhere else in the ad.

17. Mis-Matched Messages

Did you noticed it’s claiming the credit or financial category? Yep that’s going to limit their targeting right off the jump.

For the people they do reach the message is incongruent. The text is a fairly broad and the message of “don’t forget” doesn’t seem like a strong enough message to get people to take action.

This is a very specific unit and we’re able to target the exact prospects who would want this type of unit. That’s another reason why the targeting needs to be congruent with the text and the image!

In this ad they’re targeting the wrong people. Giving the wrong people a broad text message with a very specific type of unit that is a small % of the overall RV population who would be prospects for this type of unit.

18. Link in the Text

If you’ve made it this far in the case study you can probably spot some issues right away. Credit category selected limiting the targeting, targeting the wrong people and this one has a link in the text.

The ad is designed for someone to click on the call to action (learn more) which will already send them to the landing page. Adding the link in the text in this way will ensure Meta throttles back the performance of your ads.

19. Outdated?

This ad has been running since 2019. When I typically see an ad that’s been running for a long time, it’s because it’s a great ad that’s performing well. I have an ad for an RV Dealership that I’ve been running for a year and a half. That’s because we’re getting leads in real time at under $2 per lead and it’s still relevant.

This ad however has a few major issues. Meta is showing people content who they feel would want to see your content, regardless if they follow you. “Like” Ads are becoming irrelevant for RV Dealerships compared to the more effective traffic or lead campaigns. Pages with 20k likes get the same or similar engagement as pages with 1k…

Also this is a video. Not the best type of “like” ad but potentially could perform well as another type of ad and they fix a couple of things.

Now that you’ve seen real life breakdowns from Facebook Marketing Ads for RV Dealerships, it’s time to consider what you want your ads to look like and how they’re going to perform.

Common Struggles with Ads

Common struggles RV & Marine Dealerships find themselves in when it comes to social media ads:

1. Having someone at the dealership create FB ads or boost posts. That individual may be sharp but they wear many hats and aren’t specialized in ads, they’re not obsessed with it, and they don’t have the technical knowledge to get good results.
2. Having an agency doing ads and the person creating the ads isn’t an RVer and doesn’t understand our industry well enough to target the right person for the right unit.
3. Having someone who understands technically how to create ad campaigns that reach a lot of people, but doesn’t understand how to generate sales from them. They need to have the ability to write these ads in a compelling way to drive people to act and take a step towards buying an RV, Travel Trailer, 5th Wheel, Motorhome, Boat, ATV, Fish House, Snowmobile, etc.

What’s a Good Budget?

Have you ever wondered how much you should be spending on Facebook Ads per month?

Every dealership’s situation is unique and so should your marketing strategy. I’ve got RV, Marine and Powersports Dealerships clients that spend a range of $100 – $13,000 a month in Facebook Ads.

A good start is to gauge how many units you sell in a month and then as your ads are dialed in to where you can get consistent results, adjust the ad budget up or down as needed.

As you know, some months there are more guppies in the pond. Jan might look a lot different than July to you and your marketing budget should adjust accordingly.

Units Sold: 5 or less

Social Media Spend: $500 – $750

Units Sold: 5-15

Social Media Spend: $1,000 – $1,500

Units Sold: 10-25

Social Media Spend: $2,500 – $3,000

Leads that Lead to Sales in 2025

There’s obviously other important factors that go into a successful Facebook Marketing Campaign but this post is long enough already. I have some other resources and blogs I’ve written on various similar topics on my site that you may want to check out. If you’ve gotten this far, odds are you’ll find my other stuff informative.

Here’s why I’ll be better than anyone else at getting people to stop scrolling on social media and take action from my ads that lead to RV Sales FOR YOU in 2025…

Experience = Connection: I have over a decade of doing social media marketing for RV Dealerships. I also lived in my RV as an RV Travel Blogger for over 6 years visiting dealerships while I built this company. That means I can write ads for a type of unit that you have and target the right person at the right time with pinpoint accuracy to get it sold.

Volume = Results: This year I provided over 100 million impressions for RV Dealerships with my Facebook Ads. That sheer volume alone will always keep me on top of your marketing person. When you’ve done something well more times than anyone else, you get REALLY good at it. I don’t need to waste money to “figure out” how to get your ads to perform, I already know.

Personalized = What YOU Need: Did you notice some of the ads from some of the larger marketing firms earlier in this post? Cookie cutter. You’re a number that they plug into software. When you work with me, you get me! My clients can text me. I’m not going to work with your local competitor. I’m going to customize every single ad I write for you.

Hard Work = Success: Nobody is going to work harder on your marketing than me. My competitive nature makes me always striving to get better at my craft, stay ahead of my competition and CRUSH IT for my clients. A bonus is that if you hire me I won’t be working for your competition (no

Put me in coach! Let’s get you leads that lead to sales so you can explode your sales in 2025.

Contact me right now and let’s set up a time to talk about how we can make that happen.

Eric Hannan

763-807-9537

Eric@shorelooksnice.com