On Tuesday, Edmunds launched what the company called Edmunds Ad Solutions, a new mobile-optimized ad product for dealers to target in-market vehicle shoppers on Facebook and Instagram.

Site officials explained Edmunds Ad Solutions uses exclusive first-party shopping data from Edmunds to serve shoppers with highly relevant native ads on Facebook and Instagram to drive buyer traffic directly to dealer sites.

The data also is used to identify and target “lookalike” shoppers — individuals who show similar shopping behavior — on those premium partner sites.

Edmunds explained its engineers worked closely with Facebook’s solutions engineering team to design and build an end-to-end automatic ad-buying system that leverages Facebook’s marketing APIs and dynamic ads platform. As a result, Edmunds Ad Solutions can give subscribing dealers added exposure to Edmunds’ vast audience of highly qualified shoppers.

Officials highlighted that a national pilot found that Edmunds Ad Solutions delivered 20 times more click-through traffic to dealer sites when compared to a Google-rich media gallery display automotive click-through benchmark study from November to December of last year.

Dealers in the pilot program also enjoyed up to a 61 percent increase in new visitors to their sites, as well as a 50 percent increase in overall visitor site engagement.

“Edmunds Ad Solutions is proving to be an indispensable tool for a dealer’s comprehensive digital marketing strategy,” Edmunds.com vice president of dealer sales Scott Fanelli said.

“Not only does it get dealer inventory in front of Edmunds’ rich audience of in-market shoppers, it also gives them exposure to other shoppers who perform similar ready-to-buy behaviors on other sites,” Fanelli continued. “There’s no better way for a dealership to expand its inventory’s digital footprint to an audience of relevant shoppers.”

The site went on to mention Edmunds Ad Solutions is specifically optimized for mobile devices, which have quickly become a popular tool for vehicle shoppers.

According to a Facebook IQ study, 71 percent of all respondents used mobile during the purchase process. And 58 percent say that in the future, their smartphone is likely to be the only device they use for all their vehicle research.

Edmunds said it’s no surprise, then, that early testing found an overwhelming 90 percent of Edmunds Ad Solutions traffic comes from mobile devices.

“Edmunds Ad Solutions is one of the best ways that dealers can keep their inventory top of mind for consumers from the beginning of their online shopping journey, right through the moment they're ready to purchase,” said Mike Miller, digital marketing manager at John Elway Dealerships.

“The product delivers serious and engaged customers who spend far more time on our vehicle detail pages than other paid marketing campaigns,” Miller continued. “The bottom line: Edmunds is helping us to deliver highly targeted ads that are getting the right cars in front of the right buyers.”

With millions of visitors every month, Edmunds insisted it has built a powerful network that both shoppers and dealers have come to trust.

An estimated 59 percent of all new-vehicle shoppers will visit Edmunds at some point in the shopping process, and a study by CDK Global found that shoppers who visit both Edmunds and dealer sites are four times more likely to buy than shoppers who visit a dealer site only.

Dealers interested in subscribing to Edmunds Ad Solutions can reach out to their Edmunds account executive or contact dealersupport@edmunds.com.