How the two channels differ
Carsales is a marketplace. You pay to list your cars where buyers are already searching, next to every other dealer selling the same model, and the marketplace owns the search and the buyer's attention. Meta is an ad platform. You pay to show your own video to local people who are in the market for a car, in their Facebook and Instagram feeds.
How to compare them on your own numbers
Cost per lead is the fairest single number, as long as you put the full cost on both sides.
- 1Take last month's Carsales invoice.
- 2Count the leads Carsales sent you that month. Use your CRM if you can, so you count the same way for both channels.
- 3Divide the invoice by the leads. That is your Carsales cost per lead.
- 4Do the same for Meta: last month's ad spend plus any management fee, divided by the leads Meta produced.
- 5Compare the two, then check how many of each became appointments and sales.
For reference, 120 in 60 estimates about $13 a lead in Meta ad spend, and Werribee Isuzu UTE got 222 leads from one campaign at $5.61 each. Both figures are ad spend only.
Why Meta leads can cost less
On a marketplace your car sits in a list next to the same model from other dealers, and price is the easiest thing to compare. On Meta the buyer sees one dealership: yours. Your video shows your cars, your yard and your people, so you compete on more than price.
The enquiry comes to you. On our packages it goes into SCRM OS, tagged with the campaign and ad that produced it, so you can see which cars and offers pull enquiries.
Meta also lets you show ads again to people who watched your videos or visited your website. A buyer who looked at a ute last week can see that ute again this week.
When to keep Carsales running
Many buyers search Carsales for a specific model, so a well-priced listing there still brings in enquiries. Turning it off means giving those buyers to the dealers who stayed.
Keep your listings live, run Meta alongside them for at least 60 days, and track cost per qualified lead for each every month. Move budget toward whichever is cheaper, a step at a time. We built our Partner package for used-car dealerships that want to cut what they spend renting leads from sites like Carsales.