Monthly Updates
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      Monthly Updates - 2020

      January 2020

      July 2020

      August 2020

      September 2020

      October 2020

      November 2020

      December 2020

      January 2020

      Happy New Year BuyerBridge partners!

      Since it's been a few weeks since our last update, this one will cover a few changes in our roadmap that are important to note in addition to what's new. We've been hard at work creating new tools and features to ultimately create a better experience for you and your dealers so I'm excited to share what we've been up to!

      Highlights

      • By far our largest initiative since our last update has been our work around the development of a Monitoring System, which aims to ensure that every one of your dealer accounts are set up in line with Facebook's best practices and are performing to our standards. As of today, we've developed over 30 monitoring points and continue to develop more. Throughout the remainder of this month and next, we will be working on adding new dashboard screens and automated emails to expose the monitoring data to you in a way that's simple and actionable to ensure that issues are dealt with swiftly. We understand a lot can go wrong when trying to maintain automotive inventory ads, and we know those challenges first hand. With this new system, we're putting you in the drivers seat so there are no surprises when it's time to report on performance or a dealership asks you a question about their services with you.
      • The "Dealer" page now has an entirely new way to resend Page Access, Site Provider and Feed Provider requests. The new tool will provide transparency in not only "who" will receive the requests. but also "what" requests are sent. For dealers that use BuyerBridge's Business Manager for Marketplace and your own Business Manager for ads, this will be drastically more intuitive than the previous experience.
      • You now have the ability to add and manage Call Tracking numbers for existing dealers.  This feature was previously only available for new dealers during onboarding. If you have dealers running Pro or Ultimate, we welcome you to add Call Tracking numbers in the dashboard for better visibility in Facebook advertising performance. As a reminder, activating Call Tracking will automatically replace the phone number displayed when Facebook users reach a dealer site through an ad, and will send a recording of the call directly to the dealer's CRM when the call completes.
      • We added a new "Quick Links" section to the "Dealer page" that aims to give you a "one-stop-shop" for jumping throughout the Facebook UIs that we know are critical to managing Marketplace and Inventory Ads.

      What's Coming

      • We're hyper focused on monitoring! As you could guess our next few updates will be monitoring-related. As mentioned, we're working hard to expose the data to you in a way that's actionable so over the next 2 months we'll be adding new dashboard tools and automated emails to improve that visibility.
      • For those paying attention, you've probably noticed that interstitials aren't live yet. We're as disappointed as you are that these aren't available yet but we made a difficult decision to put the project on hold until we were 100% confident that the accounts we have with our parters are in an optimal state -- with all aspects of AIA monitored. Currently, we're aiming to have some dealers running tests on interstitials by the end of the quarter so we'll keep you posted!

      Enhancements

      • We continue to enhance our Website Lead Tracking script to cover even more events.  Our ultimate goal is to track every meaningful event that occurs on a dealer's website to properly communicate the performance we already know is happening but is only visible when a dealer providers match backs which can be difficult to maintain.  We know website leads are critical to your business so we'll continue improvements until our goal is met.
      • We've improved our overall support for catalogs and events with some major updates to our ViewContent events along with the relevant catalog fields to back them up.  This ultimately means your BuyerBridge inventory ads are covering every base Facebook makes available to ensure optimal performance.

      Bug Fixes

      • In some rare cases, the JavaScript that replaces phone numbers was breaking links and image URLs.  We've updated that code to only replace displayed phone numbers and numbers in links prefixed with "tel:".
      • A number of bugs that would have prevented Page Access requests from being sent have been resolved.  If you have any issues with Page Access requests not being received by dealers, please let us know!
      • We've resolved a number of issues with the way we calculate Marketplace statistics and have updated historic data to ensure it's in line with Facebook's data.
      • When initially onboarding, the dashboard wouldn't display the navigation until a dealer had been onboarded. Now new agency accounts will redirect to the onboarding form until the first dealer has been added.
      • We resolved some issues on the Marketplace metrics report where the graph wouldn't display and metrics couldn't be compared.

      Known Issues

      • We've been tracking an issue where some California-based dealer's pixels are being blocked from tracking users. This is an active issue that we're working closely with Facebook on resolving.  At the moment, it seems to only affect retargeting.  Broad Audience Targeting for prospecting continues to function normally in cases where the issue is exhibited.

      July 2020

      🎉 New Product Features 

      • MarketAnalyzer Tool Launched 
        We recently developed a new tool to help your agency get into more sales conversations with dealership prospects, called the "MarketAnalyzer." This tool builds a report of active Facebook users within a specified target radius, with a full breakdown of their demographics and in-market shopper behavior. Learn more about how you can use the MarketAnalyzer at your Agency here: How to Use the MarketAnalyzer Tool to Generate More Opportunities
      • New Onboarding System in Alpha Testing
        We are pleased to announce that our new Onboarding System, "Onboarding 2.0," is in alpha testing! The new version will be universally available within the BuyerBridge app on September 1, 2020, but you can learn more about the Onboarding System launch and how you can begin testing it here: How to Use the Onboarding 2.0 System (Step-by-Step Guide)

      📌  Big Updates 

      • Update: Limited Data Use (LDU) for CA dealers
        This update currently only impacts dealerships in California and refers to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Facebook's data policy compliance. Please read the full article about LDU and CCPA here: Navigating Limited Data Usage (LDU) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

      • Update: Deactivate/Reactivate Flows
        This update is currently LIVE for all users and introduces the ability for any dashboard user with agency access and above to deactivate and re-activate accounts. Users can also view inactive accounts in order to re-activate them. Learn more: How to Deactivate or Reactivate an Ad Account

      🔧 Bug Fixes and Improvements

      • Updated the page caching system to ensure more consistent testing during development leading to fewer bugs and a faster interface
      • Resolved a bug where the dealer name wasn't updating the page title when changed
      • Implemented LDU system for California dealers to ensure they remain compliant in advance of having control in the dashboard
      • Updates to feed processing to ensure CPO vehicles are also considered used for processing downstream
      • Tracking phone numbers can now be selected in Canada
      • Updated the white-label system to pull from the server making it easier to setup white-label resellers and reduce onboarding time

      August 2020

      🎉 New Product Features 

      • Offline Event Uploader Tool

        We have introduced a new feature that allows agency and dealership users to upload offline events! This tool creates an Offline Performance Report for you to view the # of matched events that occurred within a specific time period, and how the customers' events you uploaded could be attributed to ads on Facebook. Learn about the value-added benefits of the Offline Event Uploader Tool here:

      • Ad Preview Tool

        Our new tool allows greater visibility inside the way we structure playbooks under your ad accounts. Now, you can preview ads internally and we will generate a secure URL of the preview for you to share with individuals outside of BuyerBridge! The goal of this is to streamline the approval process of your ads. Explore further details about our useful Ad Preview Tool here: How To View & Share Ad Previews On BuyerBridge

      📌  Big Updates

      • Update: New User Flow

        This update is LIVE for all users and makes agency life easier day by day. We have released User Management for all dashboard users. Adding a new user, deleting a user, and managing existing users is now effortless for agencies. Discover more about our update here:

        New User Flow: Adding A New User, Deleting A User, and Managing Existing Users

      • Update: Lead Tracking Script

        This update removes the thresholds that were originally put in place to mitigate any risk of affecting a dealer's site performance (since the script has been deployed on so many websites without performance issues). Now, our system will continuously look for new widgets, forms, etc being introduced to a page as the user engages in its content. This will almost certainly have some positive effect on CPLs (CPLs may have dropped in Aug)! 

      🔧 Bug Fixes and Improvements

      • The upgrade view on the dealer dash was temporarily disabled as we made some changes to the way the system understands our products. Earlier this month, we re-enabled this!
      • Lots of bugs that came in from the new onboarding system were resolved... Thank you to all of our partners testing that system! We love the positive feedback and will continue staying on top of any issues you identify.
      • We improved our system by adding the ability to map in a sales price from custom feed providers. This allows us to show strike-through pricing in ads and is something we'll be aiming to expose in the UI in the future. For now, we're piloting the feature with a small number of partners but if you're interested let us know!
      • A ton of improvements have been made behind the scenes to ensure consistent lead delivery while establishing new monitors (which our team regularly evaluates to ensure our lead transfer systems are operating as expected).
      • We added a reset button to the Facebook ads report and cleaned up the way that campaigns are selected (which was previously a bit buggy).

      September 2020

      🙌  Enhancements

      • New Quick Links

        Near the bottom of the page on the BuyerBridge Account Dashboard is a “Quick Links” section, which provides easy access for managing important parts of your account. There are quick links for your Ad Account, Pixels, Ad Catalogs, Account Page, and Marketplace Catalogs, but this month we added some new enhancements to make it an even more valuable part of your Account Dashboard! Learn about the enhanced “Quick Links” section here: Increasing the Quality of our Dashboard’s “Quick Links”

      • Update to Ad Previews Tool

        The BuyerBridge Ad Previews Tool was developed to make the process of sending ad previews to your dealer clients and getting them approved easier than ever. (Read all about the Previews Tool here .) Since launching the tool, we have made the following enhancements:

        • Status Filter: On the Ad Previews Page, we added an ad Status filter for you to easily see the current ad Status and quickly choose which type of ads you want to preview: Active, Paused, Disapproved, Archived. You can filter the type of ads you want to preview, and then solely share those with your clients

          • For example, you can filter the ad preview page to show Disapproved ads, clean them up, and share with your clients the URL that’s specific for ‘Disapproved’ ads. Or, you can look at ads that are Paused, see if they’ve been approved by Facebook, and then share them with your clients for their approval.

        • Specific Preview URL: After choosing the type of ad status you wish to share, the shareable URL will now sync with the specific ad preview Status selected. This update enables you to share ad previews of a specific ad status type with your clients, saving the time of your agency and clients both!

      • Update to Onboarding

        We’re constantly updating our Onboarding system based on your feedback, and because we know how critical this first step is!

        • Onboarding now only displays the required catalog in the Asset Setup Step (e.g. all current playbooks will only require vehicles but plays that need product will require it).
        • We made a change so that the user who created the onboarding will be added to (most) the new onboarding status user interface. 
        • We adjusted the Ad Account Dependencies Step so that it now only displays the required Terms of Service approvals, rather than requiring the approval of Terms of Services, irrelevant to your account. (e.g. Pro won't require custom audience TOS
        • We added more support to allow a wider variety of feed providers (remote data sources) in the new onboarding system!

      • Update to Budgeting Tool

        Our Budgeting Tool offers you an easy way to establish your Monthly Budget Goal, and optimize your budget. We just launched a quick update to our Budgeting Tool that makes budgeting for your dealer clients more effective. The new features added to this tool include icons that directly link to your accounts Business Manager Settings and Payment Settings page, and the ability to change your Monthly Budget Goal; all within the BuyerBridge Facebook Budgeting Report. Discover more about our most recent update to the Budgeting Tool here: New Budgeting Tool Features 

      • Miscellaneous

        • We added the ability for users to export website inventory! This way, if you need dealers to review their inventory you can easily send attachments.
        • We are constantly updating the widgets that are currently tracked and at what interval we trigger the lead event to Facebook. You can review them here: Tracked Web Lead Widgets

      📌  Big Updates

      • Update: Onboarding System

      During development, we made the decision to allow onboardings to be shared and done collaboratively, but this created a bit of a bootstrapped situation with how we were initializing them.

      As a result of this, we made a pretty major update to the onboarding system which changes the way that onboardings are created & initialized.

      This change won't be visible to the user outside of the URL changing but brings in a ton more stability to the system in terms of starting/exiting/canceling onboardings. If you have any issues starting/exiting/canceling onboarding's just let us know! 

      REMINDER: Upon the full release of Onboarding 2.0, the former version of the Onboarding system will be removed from the platform as of 9/30/20.

      🔧 Bug Fixes and Improvements

      • Our team made a fix to the Chatbot that allows dealer agents to take over conversations. This way, dealer agents can handle speaking engagements and control conversations taking place.
      • Print layout improvements: 
        • We tweaked the print filename from Facebook ads reports to now show as `Facebook Ads Report - {AccountName} - {DateStart} to {DateEnd} - {Agency}
        • We improved the print layout of the Facebook ads report based on whether offline events were active or not.
        • We fixed page breaks so that they dynamically adjust based on the presence of the offline events section!
      • Users were having trouble with images and downloading them, so we made improvements to the vehicle page to introduce a custom image slider that shows the image count, along with buttons to open the image and copy its URL to your clipboard. 

      October 2020

      🎉  New Product Features

      • Marketplace + Chatbot

        We are excited to introduce our Marketplace + Chatbot feature! Prior to this, agencies and dealers were unable to view the chatbot’s default language, and if they needed to modify their messaging, they had to submit a support ticket... Now, users have visibility into the chatbot automation, along with the power to change their copy AND use dynamic data for more specific chatbot messages. Get details about our new Marketplace + Chatbot product feature here: New Marketplace + Chatbot Product Feature 

      🙌  Enhancements

      • Update: Facebook Marketplace Report UI

        We made an update to the Facebook Marketplace report so that it now reflects the same user interface (UI) as our budgeting tool; aggregating all Marketplace stats on one single screen. This update was made for users to easily identify response rates, and run group level reports for total Marketplace stats through our searchable table! Learn more about the new UI, here: New User Interface (UI) for the Facebook Marketplace Report

      •  Offline Event Uploader Tool 

        Offline events that are created and uploaded aren’t always 100% accurate; sometimes, when a customer's phone number is the same area code as the dealership’s, out of habit, area codes are left out… We understand this can be frustrating, but for the purpose of sales matchbacks, we need to validate as many indicators as possible. Aware of this, we made the following enhancement:

        • For Offline Events that are uploaded containing phone numbers without area codes, the BuyerBridge system now will autocomplete those using the dealer's area code.

      • Update: Hotfix Page Request

        We are now scraping Facebook pages to validate the page URL and obtain the pages ID, that way BuyerBridge can send out the Page Access Request from your Business Manager! With the new API call, we completely streamlined the Page Access Request process so that we get more consistent results when using your page’s URL to add new ones during onboarding. 

      🚨  Important: FYI 

      • During onboarding, partners were reporting that ID strings from feed providers couldn’t be processed properly after the provider had exported inventory to BuyerBridge. We made a major update to the way that worked in the onboarding system to resolve the issue. 
        • Partners need to keep in mind that when a feed provider has provided an ID String, that doesn’t mean that they've actually sent BB the inventory! Almost every provider only sends BuyerBridge Inventory on a nightly basis, meaning that if we get an ID String around 9 pm eastern time we typically have to wait until the next day to try to process it.
          We’re working to build new tools to automate this and make it easier all together... so stay tuned!
      • You can no longer select an existing catalog to use in the new onboarding system! The reason that we did this is that while the system technically would support an existing catalog, there are a number of areas in the BuyerBridge platform that assume that BuyerBridge is supplying the inventory. While we do not currently, we do plan to support inventory coming from your own catalog in the future. We’re not there yet, but we will be very soon...make sure to keep an eye out!  

      🔧  Bug Fixes and Improvements

      • Previously, when users searched for deleted dealers by name, the results would come back empty. For agency partners who want to reactivate a dealer account, or view deleted accounts, this posed a problem. Our team made sure to fix this issue so that when searched by name, the results display the deleted dealer accounts! 
      • The way that BuyerBridge determines where to send access from is based on the product that the dealer has or is onboarding, and if the reseller has their own Marketplace Catalog.
        • The rules are that if an agency has its own Marketplace catalog, the page access request would only go out from that agency’s Business Manager.
        • If the agency does not have their own Marketplace catalog but the product selected was Marketplace, the Page request would go out from BuyerBridge.
        • If the agency doesn’t have their own Marketplace catalog and the product they chose was pro or ultimate; the Page access request would go out from the Business Manager, BuyerBridge, and agencies.

          This logic wasn’t working correctly and it wasn’t happening consistently, breaking a small % of the time. It wasn't a systemic bug but there was a problem of being inefficient, so we fixed this issue so that custom products/plays no longer determine which Business Manager account gets Marketplace Page access!

      November 2020

      🎉  New Product Features

      • BIG UPDATE: New Playbook Library

        With 31 Playbooks (and even more in the works!), we felt they deserved a home of their own, which is why we are thrilled to introduce our new Playbook Library! This new feature has been built to provide simple search functionality and give users a way to easily locate all Playbooks through filtering (by OEM, campaign focus, etc). Find out more details about our Playbook Library here: New Playbook Library

      • BIG UPDATE: New Product Packages

        As of today, all of our current products have migrated to NEW Product Packages: Marketplace, Marketplace+, Advertising & Advertising+. With clear feature comparisons and simple product activation, these exciting new packages have been developed to help you scale! Discover everything you need to know about our 4 Product Packages here: New Product Packages

      • 14 NEW AIA Playbooks

        We are thrilled to announce that 14 new AIA Playbooks have been launched into the dashboard! We expect to continue evolving them over the next few weeks based on your feedback, so dig in! 

        • These will ultimately replace the previous Pro & Ultimate Playbooks
        • The lead ad campaigns have been separated, meaning that users who want leads now have the option to deploy Lead Gen campaigns separately as either prospecting or retargeting setups
        • If you deployed ALL of these playbooks you would only ever end up with 2 campaigns: "AIA - HEC" and "AIA - Lead Gen - HEC” 
          Learn about our AIA Playbooks further here: How to Choose the Right AIA Playbook for Your Dealer Clients

      🙌  Enhancements

      • Update: Budgeting Report

        Previously, the BuyerBridge Reseller > Budgeting Report contained incorrect calculations (primarily Projected Spend and Suggest Daily Adjustment). The goal of this update was to clear up issues where the report’s adjustment calculations weren't 100% accurate depending on when you were checking the numbers throughout the month (especially on the first and last day). There's a few new features in this release and we're still working on some additional value-added features: 

        • With this update, users can Filter based on Adjustment! If you want only to view accounts that need attention...you now can! 
        • Now, users can HOVER over calculated columns to see the math being applied and how the number is derived

      • Update: User Settings

        We know that it can be confusing for users when you’re unable to see which user you’re logged in as, or make changes to user settings within the BuyerBridge platform...which is why we made this update to User Settings that allows users to change their name, email, and password all within the interface! 

      🚨  Important: FYI 

      • We've officially deprecated the old onboarding form for all resellers! A few notes:
        • The old link (https://app.buyerbridge.io/onboard-dealer) will route to the new onboarding form
        • The menu item to access the form has been removed
        • The old onboarding status page has been marked "legacy" and will remain active until we've confirmed that all legacy onboardings are closed
        • We've updated the messaging on the old onboarding status page 
        • Admin users can still access the old form (with an updated notice) at: https://app.buyerbridge.io/onboard-dealer-legacy

      🔧  Bug Fixes and Improvements

      • The payment dialog on Facebook wasn't working for Resellers on custom domains, but we made sure to fix this so that it goes directly to Payment Settings instead. 
      • When Onboarding a Marketplace product, you will now be able to complete Onboarding as soon as you have eligible inventory! Although there will no longer be a delay until listings are available, it can still take up to 48 hours for listings to show on Facebook.
      • Previously, when users would deactivate dealers, they were not automatically redirected to the dealer list; we have resolved this issue and users will now be redirected to the dealer list, immediately.
      • If you DO NOT have a site provider during Onboarding, we now require an explicit indication. This new requirement allows our team to more accurately track when we need to check unknown websites and ensure compatibility.
      • In an effort to ensure that 100% of the leads captured are delivered, we added additional backup scripts.
      • We deployed a front-end update to the dealer page slide-outs to better align our Resend Site Provider Request and Resend Feed Provider Request. BuyerBridge will no longer send out the feed and site request emails, but will of course display them. 

      December 2020

      🎉  New Product Features

      • COMING NEXT WEEK: Dealer Dashboard

        BuyerBridge has been working behind the scenes on a new Dealer Dashboard that will make a great first impression on your dealer clients right out of the gate! Next week, the previous “Dealer Dash” will be replaced with a more data-intensive version (which is also now the new homepage for ALL users!):

        • The Dealer Dash will immediately display key metrics, versus settings (settings will be moved). 
        • If you’re currently onboarding a dealer account, your client (e.g. dealer user) will be presented with an alternate page showing them all of the Onboarding steps alongside progress indicators.

          Learn about the exciting features of our new Dealer Dashboard here: “New & Improved Dealer Dashboard” 

      🙌  Enhancements

      • Update: Offline Events Uploader Tool

        Previously, users were only allowed to upload offline events up to 60 days old. Now, with our most recent update, our tool now supports offline events that are up to 90 days old! Users now have the ability to attribute a higher number of sales to Facebook ads and demonstrate ROI to their clients. Find out more about the BuyerBridge Offline Events Uploader Tool here: How to Use the New Offline Event Uploader Tool 

      • Update: Reseller Report

        The Reseller Report underwent a couple of enhancements this month! 

        • First, we added an Export to CSV button on the Advertising Report for Resellers, along with 3 new metrics: UC / Reach, ULPV / Reach, and lastly, Frequency.
        • We also pushed out another update that adds the “Export CSV'' button to ALL Facebook reseller reports!

          Before we made this update, Resellers were required to export CSVs for dealer reports individually and could not export CSVs for all dealer accounts at once - but now, resellers can easily export all the CSVs they want

      • Update: Playbook Library

        To ensure that all users are comfortable and confident when selecting Playbooks, we made the following updates to the Playbook Library:

        • Legacy partners will love that our Playbook Library now displays icons that establish if a specific Playbook was used for (or is similar to) our legacy products, “Pro” and “Ultimate!” 
        • Our Playbooks provide INSTANT ad previews, allowing users to get an idea of what the ad creative, copy, and campaign types for Playbooks will look like.

          Discover all of the awesome features and 31 Playbooks within our Playbook Library here: New Playbook Library
      Click here to check out the BuyerBridge 2020 Annual Recap and see exactly how far we’ve come in the past 365 days! 

      🔧  Bug Fixes and Improvements

      • We deployed an update to allow the configuration of the vehicle_id field to be used for auto catalogs & leads. 
      • Our team made sure that we worked on the backend to allow agencies and dealers to disable Facebook leads completely. 
      • Agencies will be able to see “completed onboarding count” when they get to the dealer endpoint.