How Many Leads Does a Car Get on Facebook Marketplace? (Real Dealer Numbers)
A healthy car listing on Facebook Marketplace brings about one buyer phone number a month. Here's the full funnel from real dealers: messages per car, how many buyers leave a number, when they do it, and why the first 10 minutes decide it.
Every dealer who tries Facebook Marketplace eventually asks the same question: is it worth it? How many real leads does a car actually bring?
Most answers online are guesses. So we counted. We looked at 1,891 Marketplace conversations between car buyers and dealers using GetReplyNow over 90 days, and how many of those buyers left a phone number or email.
- A healthy car listing brings about 1 buyer phone number or email a month.
- About 1 in 5 buyer conversations ends with a number, and 1 in 4 or better at healthy dealers.
- Almost half of those leads arrive before 9am or after 6pm, and more than a quarter on weekends.
- Buyers share their number fast: usually in their second message, about 6 minutes into the chat.
The short answer: about one lead per car per month
At healthy dealers in our data, each car listing brought about one phone number or email a month.
That sounds small until you multiply it. At that rate, a lot with 50 cars on Marketplace would be looking at around 50 buyer phone numbers a month, from listings that cost nothing to post.
But "healthy" matters. Some dealers get far less, and we'll show why below.
In this article, a lead means a buyer typed their phone number or email into the chat. It's a strict definition: buyers who said "I'm on the way" or asked to come in Saturday don't count, even though many dealers would call them leads too.
The funnel: from listing to phone number
Here's how one car listing turns into a lead at a healthy dealer:
Two things drive the result: how many buyers message each car, and how many of them you turn into a phone number.
The second part is surprisingly steady. Across all 1,891 conversations, 22% ended with a number, and at most of the busiest dealers it was between 14% and 32%. The first part, how many buyers message at all, is where dealers differ by 10× or more.
Buyers who typed their own question ("Does it have a clean title?") left a number more often than buyers who tapped Facebook's default "Is this still available?": 28% vs 21% for cars, in a separate 90-day look at our data.
Four example dealers, very different results
Here are four dealers from our data over the last 30 days, with their live cars counted from Facebook:
| Cars live | Buyer conversations (30 days) | Phone or email given | Leads per car per month | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dealer A | 20 | 90 | 23 | 1.15 |
| Dealer B | 79 | 267 | 87 | 1.10 |
| Dealer C | 12 | 143 | 2 | 0.17 |
| Dealer D | 123 | 46 | 7 | 0.06 |
Dealers A and B are what healthy looks like: around one lead per car per month, with a quarter to a third of conversations ending in a number.
Dealer C gets lots of buyers (12 messages per car a month), but almost nobody types a number. Their buyers just show up: "I'm on the way," "is Friday a good day?" Counting visit requests, Dealer C is at about 1.25 per car, right in line with A and B. A lead doesn't always look like a phone number.
Dealer D is the warning. Over 100 cars on one profile, and about 10× fewer buyers per car than the healthy dealers. Their buyers still leave numbers at a normal rate (15%). There just aren't many buyers. That's the pattern of a restricted account, not a sales problem.
Almost half of car leads arrive after hours
When do buyers actually share their number? Across 420 car leads:
Car shoppers browse Marketplace on their couch, after work, on the weekend, which is exactly when nobody is at the dealership. If a lead arrives at 9pm and gets an answer at 10am, that buyer has spent the whole evening messaging other dealers.
The first 10 minutes decide it
This is the number that surprised us most.
The typical buyer shared their phone number about 6 minutes after their first message, usually in their second message. 73% did it within the first hour.
In other words, a lead doesn't build up over days. It happens in one short burst: the buyer asks a question, gets a real answer, and hands over their number while they're still on their phone.
Miss that window and the conversation often never restarts. In our data, about half of car buyers go quiet after the first message, and only about 15% of those come back after a follow-up.
How to get more leads per car
There are only two levers, and they're very different:
1. More buyers per car. This is where the 10× differences come from.
- Write listings buyers respond to. Short, plain descriptions got about 4× the buyers in our data.
- Don't pile your whole inventory on one profile, and don't post duplicates. Both are linked to restricted accounts.
2. More numbers per conversation.
- Answer the question first. A buyer who asks about mileage and gets "What's your number?" back has no reason to give it.
- Answer fast, including nights and weekends. When a buyer does share their number, it's usually within minutes.
- Follow up once with the buyers who go quiet, a day or two later, with something specific.
What this data can't tell you
We see conversations, not sales, so we can't tell you how many of these leads bought a car. The per-car numbers come from a handful of example dealers over one month, and every dealer's market is different. And these are leads the dealers handled through Marketplace. Marketplace brought the buyers, and replying quickly made sure they weren't lost.
FAQ
How many leads does a car get on Facebook Marketplace?
At healthy dealers in our data, about one buyer phone number or email per car per month, from about 3.5–4.6 buyer conversations per car.
What's a good conversion rate for Facebook Marketplace car leads?
Across 1,891 car buyer conversations, 22% ended with a phone number or email, about 1 in 5. Healthy dealers got 1 in 4 or better.
When do car buyers message on Facebook Marketplace?
Often outside business hours. In our data, 44% of leads came in before 9am or after 6pm, and 28% on weekends.
How quickly do Marketplace buyers give their phone number?
Fast. The typical buyer shared it in their second message, about 6 minutes into the conversation.
Is Facebook Marketplace worth it for car dealers?
For dealers whose listings are healthy, Marketplace brings a steady flow of buyer phone numbers at no posting cost. The catch is that those buyers expect an answer within minutes, at any hour.
How GetReplyNow helps
Both levers are a lot of work by hand: clean listings spread across profiles, and a reply within minutes at 9pm on a Sunday. GetReplyNow's AI sales agent handles both:
- Posts your cars with clean, short descriptions at a human pace, across your team's profiles.
- Answers every buyer in about a minute, day or night, answering the question first, then asking for the best number to reach them.
- Follows up with the buyers who go quiet and sends you the leads.
It costs $2 per car per month. At the healthy rate of about one lead per car, that's roughly $2 per buyer phone number.
Data: car dealers using GetReplyNow. Conversation, lead-rate and timing figures: 1,891 buyer conversations started in the 90 days to November 10, 2026, 420 with a phone number or email typed by the buyer. Per-car figures: example dealers whose bot ran most of the 30 days to November 8, with live cars from each dealer's Facebook listing scan (November 6–7). Lead timing uses the time GetReplyNow processed each message, so after-hours shares are, if anything, slightly low. The opener comparison (28% vs 21%) is from the car-dealer conversations in a 90-day sample of 9,864 conversations. Percentages are rounded.
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