With around half of auto consumers saying that recommendations from friends and family are influential when deciding which new brand to buy, and 77% saying that posts on social media have made them consider buying or leasing a new model, it's clear that social platforms should be a significant consideration for auto marketers in order to maximize brand awareness and promotion.

In this respect, online platforms have changed the auto marketing process, providing entirely new streams to promote and connect with relevant buyers. The challenge, then, is to ensure that you're tapping into the right elements to best showcase your offerings, at the exact right time and place.

To help with this, Facebook recently conducted research across nine different geographical markets, in order to glean more insight into the best ways to use its platforms to connect with car shoppers.

You can download Facebook's region-specific insights here, but below is an infographic of Facebook's key findings for the US market.