Facebook Marketplace No Longer Allows Dealer Ads
Online marketplace and Craigslist competitor Facebook Marketplace no longer allows dealers to post listings on its platform, according to Automotive News. The policy shift marks a major change for one of the most popular places to find cheap enthusiast cars and hidden gems.
Business accounts are no longer able to publish vehicle listings on the platform. The policy change reportedly took place at the end of January, per Automotive News. The outlet suspects that Facebook made the change to encourage dealers to take out paid advertisements on the social media site, though we cannot confirm this.
However, as a staff of avid Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist fans, we can confirm that there are plenty of posts that appear to be from dealers. These listings often feature a car that appears to be physically located on a dealer’s lot, have stock numbers, and urls for external sites that seem to belong to car dealerships. However, the ads we have seen are typically posted from personal accounts, a simple way to get around Facebook’s new restrictions.
We’ve reached out to Facebook for further information on the policy, its justification, and its enforcement. We will update this post if we hear back.
