Category: Automotive Marketing

Drive Local Traffic to Your Business With Google My Business Posts

Posted on by Rebecca Reichert

Google My Business listings are one of the most effective ways for businesses to be discovered and engaged with on Google. We’ve marketed thousands of clients nationwide from apartment communities, senior living communities, auto dealerships, hotels and hospitals, and have seen first-hand how effective GMB listings are for local businesses.

Across a sample of 409 clients, we found that 28% of their website sessions came from GMB listings. These listings don’t only deliver more traffic than the typical organic search listings, they also deliver higher quality traffic. Website sessions coming from Google My Business listings convert 29% more than the average traffic source.

Google gives businesses plenty of opportunities to promote their company and improve their Google Business profile, but most local businesses don’t take advantage of them or don’t know they exist. In this blog post, we’ll explain how Google determines which listing to show to searchers, how you can use GMB posts to drive local search traffic to your website, and how you can use GMB to convert searchers into leads.

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Drive Traffic to Your Dealership with Strategic Advertising

Posted on by Andrew

Dynamic Display GifWhen consumers begin their car search, they are turning to their smartphones to research this huge purchase. The car shopping journey is increasingly influenced by mobile, instead of dealership visits. According to a Google study, the average car shopper in 2006 made five visits to dealerships in order to research potential vehicles. Ten years later, that number has dropped to two. With buyers making limited visits to dealerships, it’s critical that you have an ad strategy in place to reach active buyers.

Google recently investigated search patterns and foot traffic data and discovered that the most popular to reveal popular times of year for consumers to visit actively shop at a dealership are during summer and the holiday season. Take advantage of these key moments and ensure people head to your dealership and not the lot next door.

During these busy periods, auto shoppers prefer checking out cars during daytime hours. When they’re on the lot, consumers are still using their smartphones to search for information. According to Google, the top action people perform with their phones while on the lot is confirming that they are getting a good price on a vehicle.

An ongoing ad strategy will help you drive foot traffic year round, but during these peak shopping times, consider adjusting your mobile budgets so your ads appear when people are searching for auto information near your dealership. By executing the following strategies and making sure you have a mobile-friendly site, you will reach shoppers when they are ready to buy.

Dynamic PPC Ads: Car shoppers typically begin their search in the Google search bar, looking for a specific make or model. We help you reach active buyers by delivering your real-time online inventory via our Dynamic PPC Ads. Our servers crawl your site and extract the cars you have on your lot. We create ads for your current inventory and when a consumer searches for a car you have in stock, your ad appears. When they click on your ad, they go directly to the vehicle details page (VDP) for that car. Dynamic ads give you the ability to advertise your entire inventory: new and used. Connecting active buyers with their ideal car means more sales for your dealership.

Enable Extensions: Providing detailed information through ad extensions can increase CTR and make it easier for consumers to call, text, or locate your business. Give your ads relevancy and value by enabling the following extensions:

Compelling Call-to-Action (CTA): Put all of your important information and mobile-specific CTAs in the title or first line of your mobile ads. Fill that space with incentives and promotions that will drive traffic to your dealership.

Facebook Delivers Quality Car Buyers to Dealership Websites

Posted on by Andrew

Facebook AdvertisingOnline car research and shopping creates ease and convenience for the buyer, but can pose a challenge for dealerships. As consumer behavior changes, you need to shift your strategy to deliver relevant ads to high-quality prospects. What is the best way to reach consumers online and deliver a compelling ad that drives traffic to your site?

Facebook Marketing Science and Oracle Data Cloud recently analyzed 64 auto campaigns, evaluating the quality of audience and scale across a variety of publishers. The study found that auto advertisers should use their data to create high-quality audiences and then execute highly-targeted campaigns to achieve the quality of audience and scale that delivers results.

According to the study findings, advertisers were able to reach more car buyers on Facebook than through most other publishers. In this analysis, Facebook’s audience was above average on the quality index and was particularly strong in delivering auto buyers at scale. Facebook ranked in the top 10% of publishers in these studies and first on 25% of the campaigns analyzed. Combining quality and scale resulted in the best performance for Facebook compared to other publishers.

What strategies can you implement to reach more car buyers on Facebook?

Lookalike audiences: Lookalike targeting gives you the ability to find more qualified prospects by leveraging the data from your existing campaign, reaching people who have not yet expressed an interest in your business, but more than likely are interested in what you have to offer.

We can pull lookalike models directly from the pixels we’ve placed on an advertiser’s website for your specific retargeting campaign and then use that data to target similar Facebook users.

Custom audiences: Creating custom audiences within Facebook enables you to deliver a relevant and effective message to known audiences, increasing efficiency in your marketing campaigns. With custom audiences, you can define groups of existing and prospective customers and serve ads to these targeted groups who have already expressed an interest in your brand.

Dynamic Facebook ads: We offer a relevant, highly-targeted advertising option with our Facebook dynamic ad campaigns. This tool reaches active car buyers by sharing your real-time inventory with them. Our Facebook dynamic ad campaigns show your inventory to the best prospects on Facebook by driving traffic right to the Vehicle Detail Pages (VDPs) for your cars. Dynamic ads are relevant, maintenance-free, and shown to buyers who are lower on the purchase funnel.

By implementing these strategies, you can increase your ROI by targeting in-market shoppers who are looking for cars you have on your lot. Contact us today and we’ll get your social media advertising campaigns working for you.  

Dealership Sees Increased Sales After Going Digital

Posted on by Andrew

Digital AdvertisingDoes your dealership still rely heavily on traditional advertising methods to reach potential car buyers? TV, print, and radio ads may have been effective in the past, but now digital advertising is where it’s at. If you haven’t taken the plunge, consider going all-in with a digital campaign.

Google recently profiled a small-town Canadian car dealership that experienced huge results after abandoning their traditional marketing plans and launching a digital strategy. Recognizing that car buyers were spending more and more time online, the dealership decided to go all digital in 2014. Since then, they have experienced:

  • 50% increase in new car sales
  • 79% increase in website visitors
  • 67% increase in the dealership’s website page views

By advertising to an online audience, the dealership was able to deliver highly-relevant ads to a targeted market. In addition to increasing sales and online traffic, a digital campaign can deliver these three benefits:

Multiple tools: Digital advertising allows you to develop a proactive strategy with the flexibility to adjust as needed. Here are a few tactics that we implement to drive traffic to your dealership.

  • Paid search ads: By using targeted keyword lists that focus on purchase intent, our paid search campaigns put an ad for your business at the top of the search results pages, giving you increased visibility to local searchers.
  • Dynamic Facebook ads: After identifying the best audience and determining purchase intent, we serve the most relevant ad to that potential buyer. The ad pulls real-time inventory from your website’s data feed. We optimize the bid to bring the most potential traffic back to your site, generating the maximum amount of VDP views. Dealerships using our highly-targeted dynamic ads are achieving record sales. Compared to standard Facebook ads, dealerships experience increased time on website, increased page views per session, and improved vehicle search conversion rate.
  • YouTube video ads: Video gives you the opportunity to personalize your dealership and creatively advertise your current promotions and deals.

Increased Engagement Opportunities: Digital advertising offers multiple platforms to boost engagement, build brand awareness, and foster relationships. Through social media, email marketing campaigns, and your website, you can reward buyers with valuable information they need to make an informed decision.

Measurable results: It can be difficult to pinpoint the effectiveness of a TV or radio promotion. With digital, you can track many metrics such as emails, site visits, calls, and car sales. By being able to instantly measure your results, you can spend your ad budget on tactics that deliver the best ROI.

 

We specialize in digital auto ad campaigns. We have the expertise and experience to create a plan for your dealership that will deliver results. Contact us today to get started.

Boosting a Facebook post or Launch a paid social campaign? Which is best?

Posted on by Andrew

Boost Post on Facebook

 

When you post on Facebook, it might be tempting to click the “boost” button to increase your reach and exposure, but hold on a second! The “boost” button is not the most effective way to reach your audience. This tool lacks the options available to advertisers who deliver ads to new and existing customers. Still need help making a decision?

 

Here are three reasons why you should avoid boosting your posts:

1.Limited Posts: You can only boost one post at a time, eliminating any opportunity to test different posts to see which is performing best. You miss out on refining your audience targeting to make sure you’re getting the right message in front of the right people.

2.Limited Targeting: With boosted posts, there are essentially two groups of people you can promote to: “fans and friends of fans” and interest groups.

  • “Fans and friends of fans”: Fans are interested in what you’re selling, but “friends of fans” most likely aren’t. Don’t waste ad dollars on an indifferent audience.
  • Interest targeting: Interest targeting is strictly limited to interests. It doesn’t include any demographic or location targeting.

3.Increased Expense: Without the ability to properly test posts and using vague audience targeting, you spend more money for less engagement than an ad that reaches your target market.

Skip the boosted posts and share your message through a Paid Social campaign. Using the following three tools, we deliver your ads to a relevant, engaged audience.

Optimized Bidding: We can optimize your bids to reflect what you want to achieve with your ads. First we determine your campaign goals (e.g. brand awareness, lead generations, and clicks to website), and then we can define optimization goals, bidding strategies, and ad formats that will reach your audience and compel them to take the action you want. Depending on your objective, you can choose to get charged for different actions, including impressions, page likes, and post engagements. By determining objectives and bids, you can efficiently extend your reach and maximize every ad’s potential.

Custom Audiences: Creating custom audiences within Facebook enables you to deliver your message to known audiences, increasing efficiency in your marketing campaigns. With custom audiences, you can define groups of existing and prospective customers and serve ads to these targeted groups who have already expressed an interest in your brand. Extend your reach and increase your ROI by delivering your ad to highly-qualified audience.

Facebook Dynamic Advertising

 

Dynamic Facebook Ads: We create an audience of people who are most likely to buy your products. After identifying a potential buyer’s intent, we serve the most relevant ad to that person. This ad pulls real-time inventory from your website’s data feed. We optimize the bid to bring the most traffic back to your site. When the prospect clicks the ad, they are sent right to the product page, creating the highest possibility of conversion. Compared to standard Facebook ads, businesses using our dynamic ads experience decreased bounce rate, increased time on website, and increased page views per session.

 

We have expertise and experience to help you execute a Paid Social campaign that reaches your target audience. Contact us today.

Facebook Broadens Dynamic Ad Options

Posted on by Andrew

Facebook Dynamic AdvertisingFacebooks’ dynamic ads are an excellent tool to show your real-time inventory to in-market buyers. Until now, your audience was limited to potential customers who had already interacted with your website. Now, Facebook is expanding its dynamic ad offerings by allowing you to deliver ads to users who have browsed multiple websites or engaged with content on Facebook looking for a similar product.

How will this work? Facebook’s ad-serving algorithm has added multiple signals and behaviors that will help determine who sees a particular ad. By expanding the retargeting pool, you can expect better performance from your dynamic ads. The updated dynamic ad options offer:

Broader retargeting: The update broadens Facebook’s dynamic ad format beyond basic retargeting. Let’s imagine that you own a car dealership. Instead of being limited to promoting a car to someone who has looked at your website, you now have the opportunity to promote your car to people who looked at similar cars on other sites or followed a Facebook page dedicated to automotive-related content. You can reach these broader audiences of people who have expressed interest in what you’re selling, even if they haven’t engaged with your website.

Improved relevance: By using multiple signals for retargeting, dynamic ads are becoming much better at predicting intent and becoming more relevant. A user could be checking multiple websites for a product, or they maybe clicking content on Facebook that provides Facebook with signals that indicate they may be interested in buying a certain product. Your ad reaches more active shoppers, giving you a greater ROI.

Exposure to new customers: Get your brand in front of potential new customers, in addition to people who already may be customers. You can promote specific products to a buyer who is searching for what you’re selling, but may not know that your business exists.

Benefits small business: In the past, dynamic ads have been most beneficial to big e-commerce companies that drive considerable website traffic. Smaller e-commerce sites have been limited by their traffic, only showing ads to the people who have visited their website. Without that traffic, there are fewer people to reach and fewer ads to be shown. This expansion provides new opportunities to show relevant ads to potential customers since it has broader reach.

But is Facebook dynamic ads right for your dealership? View a case study from one of our automotive clients here. We can get you started with an ad campaign that targets Facebook users when they spend time on the social network. Contact us today.

Five Strategies to Craft a Killer Call-to-Action

Posted on by Andrew

call-to-action

Your website is the go-to place that car buyers visit to learn more about your dealership. To drive qualified prospects to your website through paid search ads, you need to engage users with a strong call-to-action (CTA) that compels visitors to click and learn more. The key to an effective CTA strategy is getting the right message in front of the right person at the right time. Here are five tactics to consider when writing CTAs for your paid search ads.

  1. Use a strong action verb to start your CTA

Be clear, concise, and get straight to the point. With limited ad space, you don’t have many words to get your message across. Let your audience know exactly what you want them to do by starting the CTA with a strong action verb. Use words like “buy” or “test drive.” Instead of writing, “the 2017 models are now here,” move users to action by saying “test drive our brand-new 2017 models.” Creating informative, yet direct CTAs will improve your click-through rate.

  1. Give your audience a reason why they should act

How will your dealership offer value to potential buyers? Include language like “call today to schedule your free test drive!” or provide some sort of incentive to come into the dealership. You have stated the action you want the user to take, but you have also provided them with a valuable reason why they should take that action.

  1. Create a sense of urgency

Fear of missing out is an extremely effective motivator. When there is a sense of urgency, people are quick to jump at the opportunity for fear that it might not come around again. Promote a sale that is running for a three-day weekend or announce that you have a limited inventory of a particular model. Provoking fear of missing out in your CTA is sure to drive traffic to your site; it’s tough to ignore a time-sensitive prompt.

  1. Customize CTA for Mobile Ads

Consumers using mobile devices exhibit different behavior and search intent than desktop users. Users searching for something on their smartphones are often looking for a quick answer, so tailor your CTA to meet their need. Mobile searches are often spur of the moment and will also likely result in a phone call. For mobile CTAs, focus on generating more phone calls. You could try something like “call now to learn more” or add a call extension so they can easily click-to-call. Google allows you to set a mobile preference for your ads so you can designate certain ads to only appear for searches completed on mobile devices.

  1. Think Outside the Box

Keep your CTAs fresh and don’t be afraid to experiment with some creative content. Use A/B testing to identify which CTAs bring you clicks and which ones don’t generate traffic. You never really know how certain messages will perform until you try them. Test and refine your CTAs to see what brings the most success.

Did you find this blog post interesting? Comment below with your thoughts or questions. 

Personalized Digital Ads Deliver 3X Car Buyer Engagement

Posted on by Andrew

shutterstock_337763546

When a consumer sees an ad for something they’ve expressed interest in previously, they’ll be more likely to click on it. It is no surprise that consumers respond better to ads that are uniquely tailored to their needs. A new study quantifies just how important it is to personalize ads to improve engagement.

The 2016 Jivox Benchmark Report finds that consumer engagement with online advertising increases by three times when ads are personalized versus standard display ads. The study analyzed performance data drawn from over a billion ad impressions looking to measure the impact of personalization on digital ad performance.

The report examined ad engagement on three key performance indicators (KPIs): click-through rate (CTR), engagement rate, and average length of time spent on your website. The ads Jivox evaluated performed higher than traditional ads on all three KPIs. On average, the personalized digital ads from the study delivered a CTR that was 230% higher than the Google display ad benchmark. The personalized ads from the study achieved an engagement rate 84% higher than the Google display ad benchmark. You can make this data work to your advantage by launching your own personalized campaign with dynamic ads.

Launch your own personalized campaign

We can help you experience this same high engagement and higher revenue streams by serving personalized ads to active, in-market car buyers. We serve ads with your inventory to qualified prospects who are already searching for a new car. With these dynamic ads, we drive traffic directly to vehicle description pages (VDPs) for cars at your dealership.

We identify the best audience with data from your customers and our own data segments, and deliver then the ad to your customer. Ads pull real-time inventory from your website’s data feed and we optimize the bid to bring the most possible traffic back to your site. A dynamic ad served to your target audience generates the maximum amount of VDP views. The ad is highly relevant, prompting users to click through to the website, right to VDPs for cars on your lot.

Personalization has the power to deliver campaigns that are three times as effective, maximizing your ad spend and reaching in-market consumers who are actively searching for the cars you are selling.