Archive for the ‘Auto Dealers Search Engine Marketing (PPC)’ Category

Last week I wrote about ways auto dealerships looking to have their pay-per-click ad campaign managed by a vendor can find the best partner that best fits their goals.  I realize that not every auto dealership will decide to go that route, so I’ve found some tips for car dealers looking to manage their own PPC accounts.

You have to have some knowledge of the pay per click process.  This can be found in books, conferences, online articles or auto industry blogs, or by talking to other dealers that are running their own ad campaigns.  “Knowledge is Power” may be a bit of a cliché, but it holds true; before you begin, educated yourself on at least the very basics of PPC.  Make sure you continue to research and learn throughout your time as a PPC ad campaign manager.

Start slowly.  Get your feet wet with a few keywords to help you understand the process and the amount of time a full PPC campaign will take to manage. Diversify your ad campaign only when you feel comfortable doing so.

Test often and consistently.  Test which keywords are performing the best, the cost-per-click of these keywords, and which positions result in the best ROI for your auto dealership.  Only through testing will you be able to determine if you are successfully managing your PPC accounts, or if it might be time to partner with an auto dealership PPC vendor that can get better results.

Car dealers that use pay-per-click advertising for their dealership website often turn to a managed service.  If your car dealership is ready to turn your PPC campaign over, or you’re just looking to get started with PPC, here are some things you should look for when determining which car dealer PPC manager is best for your dealership.

It’s so important that you know what is important to your dealership.  There is no PPC managing program that has everything for everyone.  When you know what your dealership’s needs and wants are for your PPC ad campaigns, you’ll be better able to find the PPC manager that fits your car dealership best.

Ask the vendors you are considering what is coming down the pipeline.  What new features are they working on?  Where is the company headed?  You’ll want a company that is continually moving forward and constantly innovating.  You should also ask vendors what their strong points and weaknesses are.  This will help you make sure the vendor can deliver on the needs you’ve established your dealership has.

Ask around.  There are tons of forums, blogs, and 20 groups that have a lot of information your auto dealership can use.  See which vendors have been successful, which are lacking, and which are recommended.  Just like your customers use dealership reviews to evaluate which car dealer to buy from, testimonials and first-hand experience can be very telling.

There are so many aspects to managing your pay per click ad campaign, especially if you’re managing it on your own on a dealership level.  Like they say, knowledge is power, and breaking that learning into smaller pieces can be extremely helpful.  One place to start is with determining the text in your ad copy.

First, make sure everything is spelled correctly, words are used in the right context, and all the punctuation is right.  In other words, use good grammar.  Web visitors are looking for any reason not to convert, so make sure you don’t give them an easy one.  Earning the trust of potential customers begins with proper grammar.  A simple misspelling could be the difference between a buyer clicking onto your site or your competitors.  Make sure the text in your ad is clear, concise, and brief. Having an ad that is easy to read and understand just gives you another leg up on your competitors.

Use the keywords that are being searched for in your ad copy.  Google bolds these words, so searchers will notice that your ad contains the same words they used, increasing the chances they will click onto your ad.  Google even offers a tool (Dynamic Keyword Insertion) that will automatically plug these words into your ad.

Use a call to action in the text.  By using simple phrases like buy, test-drive, call, or sign-up in the body of your ad could be what makes searchers click on your ad.  Sometimes you have to tell viewers what you want them to do, and adding a call to action to your ad copy could be the push needed.

Keep testing and rewriting.  Even when you find a version of the ad copy that is converting well, it’s important to keep measuring and reworking that text.  What might be optimal one day may not be the same the next.  Make sure you have the proper analytics tools (or partner with a PPC ad campaign vendor who does) to measure the necessary metrics.

Many auto dealerships that run their own pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns only place paid ads on Google, since it is the biggest, most used search engine.  However, a study by ad network Chikita finds that while Google may see the most search engine traffic, both Bing and Yahoo see a higher percentage of their traffic click onto the paid ads that are shown on the search results pages.  The study finds that the click thru rates on PPC ads are:

• Google: 0.97 %
• Yahoo: 1.24%
• Bing: 1.5%

This information highlights why it is important for your auto dealership to run PPC campaigns on all three major search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo).  Although Google sees more searches on a daily basis, a smaller percentage of those searchers actually click on paid advertisements.  Diversifying your PPC ad campaign means that your ads will reach the most amount of people, as well as have the highest chance of actually being clicked on.

Managing one PPC campaign on your own is difficult enough; finding the most effective balance between all of the search engines, keyword choices, and bid amounts seems near impossible.  The only way to do it effectively is to track, compare, and measure each campaign both separately and together.  Since each search engine has their own reporting platform, this is incredibly difficult to do on a dealership level.

If you haven’t already, your auto dealership needs to explore the option of running a PPC campaign managed by an expert.  It can be much less expensive than you may think, and the results are typically better than you’d see on your own.  In addition to all of the automation and simplification this will bring to your PPC campaign, there are PPC vendors who have the ability to track the things you need in order to really optimize your PPC campaigns across all three major search engines.

There is a new business model in the online paid advertising world—pay-for-call (PFC).  Similar to pay-per-click (PPC), these ad systems can target search engines, directories, online yellow pages or mobile sources (cell phones or mobile websites) to direct traffic landing pages using tracking phone numbers, just as PPC uses tracking URL’s to measure effectiveness.  Each campaign can have a different phone number so that businesses can track them uniquely and measure ROI appropriately, even though the calls all lead to the business’ actual offices.  This type of tracking is extremely powerful and particularly relevant to “offline” business models like the auto industry, and

…It’s possible to achieve directly through your pay-per-click ad campaigns.  When your PPC ads direct searchers to a landing page designed with proxy server technology, your dealership can track each phone call just as you do Internet  leads.  Since each ad campaign has it’s own telephone number (all leading back to your actual dealership number), your dealership has the ability to determine which PPC ads are the most effective.  If you’re not using this technology, you probably have no idea of the actual benefit you’re receiving from your PPC campaigns.

If you’re doing your PPC ad campaigns on your own, it might be time to partner with a vendor that can actually measure the full power and reach of your PPC spending.  If you do use a PPC management firm, make sure you ask about their ability to track each and every phone call that is a direct result of your pay-per-click advertising.  Your dealership needs to be able to track the ROI as accurately as possible.