Drive Traffic to Your Dealership with Strategic Advertising

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.


Dealership Sees Increased Sales After Going Digital

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.