The reason that digital advertising is so important is that search engines are where almost every customer buying journey begins. For a sense of proportion, consider that every day Google gets 3.5-billion searches, Bing gets nearly 875-million, and Yahoo gets another 585-million search queries. That equates to a combined total of almost 5-billion daily searches. Yet despite the volume, the oldest joke in digital marketing is “The best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of Google” because 60% of traffic goes to the top three listings and less than 10% of all searchers will ever go to the second page. Research has also shown that if a user cannot find what they are looking for on the very top of the first page of search results they will actually enter a new, different set of search terms rather than drill down into the initial results. Most importantly, 97% of online users perform a search to find local businesses like yours.
Paid digital advertising is a marketing method where companies pay a “publisher” - such as a search engine provider or website owner or a social media platform - each time someone views or clicks on one of their ads. Essentially, companies use the paid ads or keywords to “buy” visits to their site rather than earning them organically over time. Different companies will bid for the ad space or a specific keyword in a search, the publisher accepts the highest bid, and then places the ad at the top of the page where it has maximum visibility and the greatest chance of being clicked on. Enough click-throughs and the resulting jump in traffic will help turn the purchaser’s website into a highly ranked destination by Google and the other big search engines. At the end of the day, it’s a pretty basic equation: Spend enough, place a solid ad, and you will get top placement on page one in a search.
That’s why you need to have a clear paid advertising strategy for your business and a solid approach is to develop one that covers the big three pillars of online ads: Search, social, and display. Although they are all similar in some ways, they all have different advantages and can reach different audiences, so let’s break them down.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) “organically” increases your platform visibility on search engines such as Google or Yahoo and drives more traffic to your dealership’s website. Organic (non-paid) search results are ranked by the quality and content of the web page and make up the majority of the content you see after a search. To rank at the top of this section, your landing page needs to be relevant for the searcher and needs to have a high click-through rate. SEO makes up around one-third of all traffic to company websites and accounts for more traffic than paid and social put together, but it takes time and expertise to build. Successful SEO requires extensive knowledge of how search engines work and takes time and practice to get right because it is a moving target. For example, search engine algorithms on Google alone are updated as many as 500 to 600 times a year and requires constant monitoring and modifications to be effective.
To accelerate the ability for your business to be quickly found in web searching, you’ll need to use paid Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEM is used to describe online searches that begin by clicking through on a paid ad. Some of the most common terms used to define to SEM activities include:
Paid Search Advertising: Short, text-based ads that are placed on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and appear at the top right-hand side of the page when search results are displayed
Pay-Per-Click (PPC): The pricing model for what you will pay if someone clicks on your ad and goes to your website or landing page. These ads appear in the top search engine slots and direct searchers directly to the page you want them to land on
Cost-Per-Click (CPC): The fee you pay when a user clicks on your ad to visit your website or landing page
Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions (CPM): Most search ads are sold on a CPC / PPC basis, but some advertising options may also be sold on a CPM basis
Display Ads: A step up from standard PPC text-based ads, this approach uses either static or dynamic images (e.g. banners, videos, audio, or polling formats) that offer a more engaging experience that helps capture the attention of your target audience and drive conversion
SEM effectively turbocharges your online marketing because paid search ads drive traffic directly to your website or straight to your service and inventory pages. The most common form of this is the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model. On one level, paid search ads are simple. If you are a tire dealer and a big winter storm is forecast for your area, you absolutely want to advertise your inventory on Google. When someone searches for keywords you bid on, like “studded tires” or “best winter tire,” their search term will trigger your text ad. Your ad will show up in the sponsored section of the search results at the top of the page just to the right of all the organic entries.
You can also use PPC to target searchers based on their geography with search ads, so it’s only shown to people in your local area. It’s a great way to compete in your industry and target local audiences and people who are already looking for your services. This is a cost-effective approach to getting visibility quickly and may not be as expensive as you’d think. A recent review of Google AdWords pricing shows that the minimum bid per keyword is only 5-cents, while the most expensive keywords (like “insurance” or “loans”) can range up to $670 per click!
Beyond text ads, you can also use PPC strategies with “Display” ads. Display advertising is a way to grow your brand’s awareness online and are targeted based on user activity. Display ads (often banner ads or “rich media” formats like video or audio) are shown to your target audience when they are browsing the Internet. With a 90% reach across all Internet users worldwide, Google’s display network is the largest in the world and reaches more than 2-million sites and more than 650,000 mobile apps.
Effective display formats include:
Static Banner Ads: A banner is a simple image ad that is served onto a web page. Static banner ads typically consist of a single image file with no audio, video or additional features
Animated Ads: Animated ads are a cut above static banner ads when it comes to capturing the attention of the target audience. Animation creates movement that naturally catches the eye and works against what is known as “banner blindness,” prompting target audiences to investigate your message
Video Ads: While video ads are primarily served through video content platforms like Netflix and YouTube, they can also be distributed through display ad networks like Google. The great thing about video advertising today is that almost everybody has access to a mobile phone with reasonably high-quality video capabilities and consumers love them!
Display ads are powerful tools, but require advanced audience targeting and the creative ability to actually build a dynamic web-based ad. To maximize your dealership’s success online, you need to develop a strategy that blends both PPC and Display formats
Facebook has a huge audience - a staggering 2.4 billion people use it every month! But beyond keeping connected with friends and family, people are increasingly using Facebook to connect with businesses of all sizes. The company recently reported that two-thirds of its users say they visit a local business’s Facebook Page at least once a week. Potential customers are already looking for businesses like your dealership on Facebook and having a clear, focused Facebook marketing strategy is the only way to tap into this existing audience.
Here are six ways you can significantly boost your dealership’s advertising reach through Facebook:
News Feed Ads: Cost-effective ads that target unique audiences and have the ability to track traffic and conversion on your website
Conversion Ads: Target and deliver certain actions such as “Request a demo” or “Take a test drive”
Carousel Ads: Feature several rotating images in a single ad to display different models and feature packages
Engagement Ads: Best used to drive “likes” and comments on your ads, increasing validation and visibility
Lead Generation Ads: Allow users to fill out lead forms on their own Facebook wall without going to your website
Remarketing Ads: Connect your website inventory feed to Facebook, then advertise to past visitors with ads customized to highlight the products and services they viewed
Facebook allows you to stay connected with prospects and customers throughout the day whether they are computers, phones, or tablets, at work or at home, or even watching TV. Its high traffic flow and wide range of ad mediums offer a number of ways to enhance your brand. It also allows you to promote products and services through social experiences that can drive loyalty and help create the most powerful type of marketing – word of mouth referrals.
Although Instagram is owned by Facebook, it’s a network of younger users. According to recent studies, more than half of the global Instagram user population is younger than 34 years old and the 18–24-year-old age group is the largest slice of that demographic. Overall, there’s a mostly even split between the genders with 51% female and 49% male users. Since this younger population is less likely to have a long-term relationship with a tire dealer or repair shop in place, Instagram is a potent tool for dealers seeking to attract new customers. With its easy-to-use visual interface, it’s also a great way to build your brand because Instagram puts a “face” on your dealership that encourages trust and engagement among potential customers. Having an Instagram account signals that your business is reputable, real, and transparent to this audience.
Instagram currently offers business users three formats for advertising:
Photo ads: These look like regular photo posts, but they have a “Sponsored” label above the photo. They also have a “Learn More” button in the bottom right corner under the photo.
Video ads: Like the photo ads, these look like regular video posts, but with a “Sponsored” label on top.
Carousel ads: These ads look identical to photo ads but feature multiple photos that users can swipe through.
You can promote your posts with ad dollars while also gaining access to key analytics on their performance. Advertising on Instagram absolutely makes sense because Instagram often has up to 10-times the engagement of Facebook, so you are likely to get far better results from your ads. Since Instagram uses the same Ad Manager platform as Facebook, it has all of the same great tracking capabilities that Facebook offers. That means you can create a post about a new product or special promotion and see everything from link clicks, to leads to conversions and the cost-per-result on any campaign you run. In addition, you can also break down the results you receive to see who or where they came from (i.e. gender, age range, location, device type, etc.).
As you can see, there are a lot of different choices when it comes to developing an effective online strategy for your dealership. The truth is all of these tactics work, but it’s also important to evaluate the success of each before continuing to invest your dollars in a particular bucket.
No matter what advertising mix you try, some of the key metrics you’ll want to watch include:
Clicks: Every conversion starts with a click, and the higher number of clicks are an early indicator of PPC success
Click-Through-Rate (CTR): CTR is measured by dividing the total number of clicks your campaign got in the month (or period being reported) by its total impressions. This equation tells you that out of 1,000 impressions, your ad was clicked 100 times and your CTR is 10% percent for example. Knowing what CTR is and how to measure it is key to being able to indicate your performance.
Cost-Per-Click (CPC): CPC measures exactly how much an advertiser has paid. You can measure CPC by dividing the total cost of a campaign by the number of times the ad was clicked in that campaign.
Conversion Rate (CVR): You can measure conversion rate by dividing the number of conversions the campaign received by the total clicks. Since conversion rate is expressed as a percentage, if the campaign had 100 clicks and 10 conversions, 10/100 means that the conversion rate would be 10 percent. Beyond being a key indicator of a successful campaign, CVR is the main reason why most businesses hire an outside PPC marketing firm!
Based on these and other metrics, you may want to start small across multiple channels to test the waters and then invest in the two or three strategies that are delivering the best results. But to have a strong paid advertising strategy, you need to have a strong understanding of your target audience. Where do they “live” online? What do they care about? What are they searching for, what kind of language do they use, and what do they buy? Remember that young customer who was searching for those studded tires? He or she may have clicked on your Instagram ad at the beginning of winter and might not make a purchase immediately, but your company made an impression. That means your brand stands a better chance of being remembered when they begin searching for local tire shops a few weeks later and your PPC ad pops up at the top of the page and they click through.
Understanding your target market, how they behave, and then measuring how they react to your content is key to the success of all your campaigns!
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