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incentives

Dealer Survey Points to Three Ways to Combat Inventory Shortage Problems

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Exploring recent survey data from the Urban Science® COVID-19 Dealer Survey

This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Urban Science to understand the impact of the pandemic on dealers and how they are evolving to fulfill the changing needs of consumers while remaining a successful business. Survey responses were evaluated for margin of error at a 90% confidence level.

While it is no secret that inventory shortages have become a common struggle for many U.S. dealerships, our recent survey data indicates opportunities can be found in an otherwise disadvantageous situation. Overall, dealers are recognizing that ongoing vehicle shortages are influencing consumers to increasingly use dealer website inventory to inform their decisions on which retailer(s) they will visit before making a purchase.

Below are three critical implications of the pandemic and actions dealers can take to turn them into opportunities:

1. 80% of dealers report consumers are submitting leads from further distances based on inventory

As consumers become more willing to take a drive for the car they want, they become less likely to be loyal to their nearest dealership. This means dealers in strong inventory positions should expand their media and test drive incentive campaigns to reach further-out geographies. On the contrary, dealers with limited inventory should deliver test drive incentives to all consumers visiting their digital inventory pages to entice them into their showroom, even if they don’t have the specific model that in-market consumers are looking for.

2. 82% of dealers say inventory views have increased during the pandemic

The world may be upside down, but the fact than an increase in VDP views still correlates directly to an increase in vehicles sold is a good sign for dealers. Current industry trends indicate tight marketing budgets would be well spent on things like test drive or purchase incentives to help you convert active, in-market consumers by encouraging them to come in and test drive the exact vehicle they could be taking home. Test drive incentives continue to be a surefire tactic to getting more of your VDP viewers into your showroom, where you have a higher chance of closing the sale.

3. 76% of dealers agree that consumers are more likely to buy the vehicle they submitted a lead for

Increasing lead close rates should give dealers reassurance to work their leads persistently and confidently. If there is a greater likelihood for people to purchase what they say they want, dealers should be mindful to not allow their competitors to steal a sale due to insufficient follow-up. They should follow up with their leads for as long as it takes to get in-market consumers into the showroom and into the vehicle. More specifically, this means salespeople shouldn’t call it quits after seven days and should prevent leads from defecting during that critical 8-14-day period. If you get a customer on the phone, don’t let them hang up without setting up an appointment to come in and take a test drive. If they’re on the fence, lock in the appointment by issuing an instant test drive offer over the phone or in a follow-up email, such as a $25-$75 Visa e-Gift card as a thank you for coming in. For elderly, at risk, or just nervous customers, offer to bring the vehicle to them!

As we settle into the fourth quarter, supply concerns don’t seem to be dissipating. While demand is certainly rebounding from the two months of production lost to the pandemic, pent up demand can contribute to even more of a scarcity of vehicles as automakers struggle to keep up and replenish outputs. More than ever, dealers need to continue to make the most of what they have by keeping the right mix of vehicles in stock to the best of their ability and taking advantage of incentive programs that they can control based on their own unique inventory situation.

As of last month, 2021 models accounted for only 3% of dealership inventory, according to Cox Automotive, compared to a quarter of dealer stocks being new models at this time last year. Therefore, OEM-sponsored clearance deals and incentive programs have been slower to materialize, calling for individual dealerships to take matters into their own hands and work with vendors that can help them convert more of their growing website visitors to actual showroom visits, test drives, and ultimately sales with more targeted and personalized incentives.

 

© 2020 Urban Science. All Rights Reserved.

A UNIFYING CALL FOR DEALERS & OEMs: On the Dealer Front Lines (Part 3)

OEMs are stepping up to the plate with aggressive incentive programs to help out consumers impacted by COVID-19, and they’re putting strong media weight behind these campaigns. As a result, impressions are up and if dealers want to capture this traffic, they need to align with these programs. People still need cars and the data shows they are actively looking to take advantage of these OEM initiatives. Dealers have a great opportunity to gain market share by engaging the traffic generated by their brands (even if that means working leads from home)!

Brands like Ford, Hyundai, FCA, GM, Volkswagen, and more are all offering progressive purchase incentives right now and as a result, impression counts are through the roof. Furthermore, it’s not just about brand awareness activity. Consumers are actively searching retail terms like “incentives” and “auto dealer near me.” Dealers should definitely align with this activity if they want to capture the retail traffic that’s being generated by their brands and gain market share in a down market. This means not canceling your digital ad spend, as we discussed in Part 2.

As an example, we interviewed a digital marketing manager of a large dealer group yesterday and in their market, in March, they were up nearly 70% and they absolutely did not cancel their digital advertising spend.

If you can’t get the eyeballs on the traffic, you certainly can’t get the leads. And you won’t get the showroom visits or the at-home appointments and ultimately, this will lead to less sales. Dealers need to leverage what the OEMs are doing right now, during this time of need, when these opportunities are available. In the wise words of Lewis Carroll, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

Next time, we’ll talk about sales definitely being down, but they’re not gone. Dealers need to keep working leads, even if that means finding new and innovative ways to do so because if not, your competition will.

Stay tuned for On the Dealer Front Lines Part 4: WHO’S WORKING YOUR LEADS?

INTRODUCING: AutoHook® + ServiceSmarts® Integration for KIA

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THE WAIT IS FINALLY OVER...

AUTOHOOK® + SERVICE SMARTS®

LAUNCHES AUGUST 1, 2017

What is AutoHook?

AutoHook specializes in proving sales attribution combined with their untouched ability to increase showroom and service drive traffic. Through their 100% DAS-Eligible incentive solutions, AutoHook supplies true, incremental sales, new to brand buyers, and service appointments to KIA Dealers. Powered by Urban Science, AutoHook proves ROI with the fastest, most accurate sales and service data in existence. 

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What is ServiceSmarts®?

ServiceSmarts® is an online tool that allows all KIA Dealers to identify and target their best Service opportunities. 

What Happens When Two Superpowers Combine?

After establishing a proven track record for driving sales and new to brand buyers to KIA stores, it was only a matter of time before AutoHook brought our high-converting incentive solutions to the service drive! With the all-new AutoHook + ServiceSmarts integration, KIA dealers can improve the effectiveness of every service campaign and TAKE BACK service revenue by isolating, targeting, and incentivizing the customers with the highest level of opportunity. ServiceSmarts data identifies any potential missed opportunities and AutoHook incentives allow you to create campaigns to convert those opportunities into service appointments.

Program Overview

  • Target inactive or at-risk customers using your ServiceSmarts data.

  • Identify and incentivize your greatest areas of service revenue opportunity.

  • Deploy AutoHook's custom email incentive campaigns to secure more service appointments without compromising your price integrity.

How Does it Work?

STEP 1: Service Manager selects a target audience within the ServiceSmarts tool (active customers, inactive customers, first service appointment, or at risk service customers).

STEP 1: Service Manager selects a target audience within the ServiceSmarts tool (active customers, inactive customers, first service appointment, or at risk service customers).

STEP 2: After selecting a list of customers to target, select AutoHook as your Fulfillment Vendor. This will enable you to create targeted service campaigns using strategic email incentives offers. The email creative has already been done for y…

STEP 2: After selecting a list of customers to target, select AutoHook as your Fulfillment Vendor. This will enable you to create targeted service campaigns using strategic email incentives offers. The email creative has already been done for you.

STEP 3: Select your campaign details including the name of your campaign, duration, email template, the dollar amount of incentives you'd like to offer, etc. Don’t forget to click to preview your service URL to make sure your customers can sche…

STEP 3: Select your campaign details including the name of your campaign, duration, email template, the dollar amount of incentives you'd like to offer, etc. Don’t forget to click to preview your service URL to make sure your customers can schedule an appointment online.

STEP 4: Preview and confirm your campaign and hit submit. 

STEP 4: Preview and confirm your campaign and hit submit. 

STEP 5: Customers visit your service department to redeem their incentive. A Service Advisor activates the customer's incentive using a unique 9 digit coupon code and AutoHook's easy 30-second redemption process. The customer instantly receives thei…

STEP 5: Customers visit your service department to redeem their incentive. A Service Advisor activates the customer's incentive using a unique 9 digit coupon code and AutoHook's easy 30-second redemption process. The customer instantly receives their Visa e-gift card while their vehicle is being serviced.

SIGNING UP IS 100% FREE.

YOU ONLY PAY IF A CUSTOMER SHOWS UP IN YOUR SERVICE DRIVE TO REDEEM THEIR EMAIL INCENTIVE.

SIGN UP NOW TO START TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THIS PROGRAM!

*CAUTION: Dealers using AutoHook Incentives have been known to experience outrageously high levels of ROI. 

INTRODUCING: THE ALL-NEW SALES MATCH REPORT

AutoHook Releases Purchase Analysis Reports for Current Clients

As of May 2017, AutoHook released an all-new dealer sales match report, further solidifying their place in the industry as the true definition of automotive attribution. Current clients will now have a 360-degree view of their dealership’s sales, conquest, and defection trends based on data only hours old, as opposed to 90-day old registration data used in previous reporting.

REPORT ENHANCEMENTS

The Closest to Real-Time Data in Existence

This is no joke. Urban Science has the only Shared Sales Database that allows our clients to see sales effectiveness across multiple car brands in near-real time. Thus, we can report back on the numbers faster than the OEMs themselves, giving dealers:

  • First-time visibility into sales and defection to other dealerships and brands.
  • The knowledge required to take control of your dealership’s marketing and operations.
  • Names of defectors to like-brand dealers as well as competitive brands.

AutoHook’s current dealer and OEM clients will have a significantly more actionable snapshot of their market conditions. Urban Science’s new vehicle sales matching data is now being directly pulled into AutoHook’s private offer and redemption platform for the generation of weekly reports. 

Your Total Lost Sales by Competitor

This is a big one! Prior to this release, dealers could only see how many total sales they lost to competitors. Now, you have complete visibility into competing dealerships in your market (by name) that you lost sales to. This is what is known as “actionable data.” If you are a Hyundai Dealer and you’re losing the most sales to Hometown Hyundai down the street, you can then work with AutoHook to deploy a targeted conquest incentive campaign to reduce pump-in sales. OEM clients receive even more in-depth reporting on the number of new to brand buyers AutoHook delivered to their stores.  

Customize Your Report View

Your AutoHook Client Service Specialist (CSS) can also generate a custom Purchase Analysis Report to show sales match data from any date range of your choice.

Weekly Updates

Each dealer’s Purchase Analysis Report will include their previous three full months of sales data in addition to their metrics through the current month to date. Reports are updated and reran each week, guaranteeing the most current metrics as well as sales lost to other brands or dealers in the market. Your CSS will review these reports with you on a one-on-one basis and offer recommendations as to how AutoHook can help you grow your market share and reclaim lost sales from competing stores.

REAL PURCHASE ANALYSIS REPORT EXAMPLE

An example of the new Purchase Analysis Report from an actual dealer is shown below. (The dealership’s name and competing dealer names have been changed to protect their privacy).

Starting Summer 2017, AutoHook Purchase Analysis Reports will be automatically sent out weekly to all dealer clients. In the mean time, please reach out to your CSS or DealerSupport@UrbanScience to access your sales report based on your AutoHook test drive incentive redemptions. Or please contact us with any questions. Enjoy!

10 WAYS TO BOOST SOCIAL CONVERSION WITH AUTOHOOK INCENTIVES

A How to Guide for Dealers

Why Social? Marketing 101 says if you want to effectively reach your customers you have to be where they are, or “in the right place at the right time.” Social media represents the most widely utilized communication channel in existence. Salesforce reported 66% of all Internet usage occurs on social sites. Facebook takes the cake as the most widely used platform with 80% of Americans using it on a regular basis (talk about being where your customers are).

Why AutoHook Incentives? That’s an easy one. In order for a customer to redeem an AutoHook incentive, they have to physically walk into a dealership. We all know the chances of selling a vehicle drastically increase when you’re able to get shoppers off the Internet and into your store. But what AutoHook does that’s even more important than driving more showroom visits (yes there are more important things), is we use the most up-to-date sales match reporting to prove exactly which incentive offers resulted in a sale.  

Below are 10 ways to boost the revenue driving opportunities already available to you as an AutoHook customer. Simply reach out to your AutoHook Client Service Specialist (CSS) to implement any of the examples listed below. They will help you set up campaigns and make sure these efforts convert into sales or service appointments.

1. PLUG INCENTIVES INTO YOUR EXISTING SOCIAL CAMPAIGNS

Plugging in an incentive into any social campaign is very simple to do. All AutoHook needs to know is the URL of the landing page you want to drive traffic to - whether it’s a specific vehicle, model, service offer, or special. We then provide you with a trackable link you can drop into any Facebook or social campaign. We attach a unique identifier to every offer so we can prove sales attribution for your store. Furthermore, we source out every link separately so that you can differentiate which specific AutoHook campaign converted into a showroom visit or sale in your CRM.

  • Customize Time Frame & Offer Amount: All we need from you is the landing page you’d like to promote, the value of the incentive you’d like to offer and the time frame in which you’d like the campaign to run.
  • Ex: Boost your new vehicle specials with a $50 offer.

2. USE YOUR CRM DATA TO CREATE CUSTOM AUDIENCES

We know no two dealers and no two markets are the same. Therefore, we don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. Despite what vendors try to tell you, no one knows your pain points better than you. The most valuable data you have at your fingertips is your own customer data. Use this to pull targeted lists that address your unique needs and then work with a Client Service Specialist (CSS) to implement the campaign on social.

Here are a few examples to get the wheels turning:

  • Pull a list of customers who are in equity and provide an incentive for them to get into a new vehicle for the same monthly cost.
  • Consolidate a list of all active leads across all your 3rd party sources and retarget those individuals all in one place.
  • Use equity-mining software such as AutoAlert to identify all customers in your market who have upcoming contracts ending on a lease or purchase.
  • Target customers who visited your service drive but did not purchase from you.

3. ELIMINATE WASTED TIME & MONEY

Wouldn’t it help to know which leads in your CRM have already purchased so you don’t waste time and money trying to sell them? A high percentage of car buyers are only in market for a relatively short period of time. Through near real time sales data from Urban Science, AutoHook can help you identify which customers are no longer in market for a vehicle. No one (not even the OEMs) has access to this data within DAYS after sales transactions occur (rather weeks or months). Work with your CSS to create a suppression list of all the customers currently in your CRM that have already purchased a vehicle elsewhere.   

4. INCREASE CUSTOMER RETENTION

This is a HUGE and often undervalued aspect of the car business. Retention is half the battle. We know 30% of people will defect to a different brand after their lease is up. Use an incentive to ensure they come back to your store to test drive the newest model or any other vehicle they might be interested in. Mine your CRM data to find consumers who are “in equity” or who have a lease coming to term in the next 3-6 months.

5. TARGET UNDERPERFORMING MODELS

Real Dealer Case Study: Germain Ford of Beavercreek

  • Using the data found within the MarketMaster tool and Urban Science’s shared sales database, AutoHook identified specific areas of opportunity for Germain Ford of Beavercreek to grow their market share by targeting the top three models they were losing to competitors (including the Ford Focus, Fusion, and Edge). We then implemented a $50 test-drive incentive on all Focus, Fusion and Edge VDPs and SRPs, while running social campaigns to drive traffic to those pages. The result was a 47% reduction in overall lost sales (pump-in). Click here to see the complete case study.

Can’t move a VIN off your lot? Try increasing the dollar amount of the test-drive incentive.

6. TARGET UNDERPERFORMING AREAS

Utilizing Market Master, AutoHook can help you identify the zip codes in which you’re losing the most sales opportunities. We can also show you the areas with the highest levels of pump-in sales and increase the incentive offer to come in for a test-drive in those underperforming areas. This will help you take back market share from the top brand competitors in your market.

Never heard of Market Master? A lot of dealers don’t know this powerful revenue driver exists. Market Master is an Urban Science tool that uses near real-time sales data to identify the biggest areas of opportunity within your market. It’s typically located within your dealer portal through your OEM (currently available for Ford, FCA, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, and Nissan). 

7. CONQUEST TOP COMPETING BRANDS

Go after the models you know you’re losing to competitive brands in your market. Tailor the creative and messaging in your social ads to express why your brand is the better choice. For example, “Before you go back into a new Ford F150 here’s a $50 Visa Gift Card to come in and test drive the Dodge Ram at Hometown Chrysler.”

8. PLUG INTO VIDEO PRE-ROLL

Custom links can be embedded directly into your video ads on Facebook. Need to move more of a certain model, try offering $25-50 just for coming in to test-drive the featured vehicle. Chances are, if they’re watching the video, they’re already interested.

9. SECURE MORE FIXED OPS APPOINTMENTS

Running service specials? Why not promote them on social to get more exposure? Use incentives in your service and parts campaigns on social sites. Here are a few examples:

  • Schedule a service appointment and get a $25 Visa gift card.
  • Buy 4 tires get a $50 Visa Gift Card.
  • Get a $10 Amazon Gift Card just for getting your oil changed with us.

10. BOOST HOLIDAY SPECIALS

Memorial Day is coming up! Lift the performance of your limited time holiday offers with a $25 gift incentive (or an amount of your choice). Dealers spend countless amounts of money to get customers in the door. Why not spend another $25 to ensure the sale? This same idea can be deployed throughout the year to increase sales around the holidays and give wings to your current specials and holiday sales events. 

To conclude, the opportunities in which you can leverage AutoHook to boost the performance of your social campaigns are limitless. Plus you have the attribution reporting that goes along with it, so you know we’re delivering results in the form of sales and service revenue.

In January of 2017, AutoHook opened up our API so that other best in class technology vendors could tie in our incentive offers to their own existing solutions. SOCIALDEALER is the latest partner to join in our open API initiative. Current and future clients of SOCIALDEALER will see even higher form fill conversion rates on social due to their integration with AutoHook’s API. To learn more about the new capabilities of this partnership, click here.

IS VENDOR INTEGRATION THE NEW INNOVATION?

A Tale That Proves 2 Technology Leaders are Better Than 1

By David Metter

Too many companies these days suffer as a result of being close-minded. They think innovation means constantly developing new solutions to better service dealers and OEMs. I’d like to challenge that mindset. What happened to sticking with what you’re best at? I’m not saying don’t dream big, but I am recommending you dream a little smarter. Too often vendors attempt to do things they’re never going to be good at. For example, I know AutoHook will never be great at social advertising. We could do it, and we could do a decent job, but what’s the point of doing anything if you don’t do it right?

Great solutions are a result of knowing what you’re best at and holding on tight to that. In my opinion, strategic partnerships might just be the new and improved form of innovation within the automotive space – and here’s why. AutoHook’s core competency is securing our private offer and incentive rail system within dealerships and directly proving the source that led to a sale or a new to brand buyer. We’re great at attribution reporting because of the data we have access to through Urban Science. We’re never going to be great at Facebook ads, but we know SOCIALDEALER is.

To provide some color, AutoHook opened up our API in January of 2017 so that reputable partners could access our redemption platform and proven attribution engine at no cost to them or their dealer clients. SOCIALDEALER is the latest company to join in our open API initiative to advance actionable data and simply deliver a higher ROI through these types of technology integrations.

SOCIALDEALER’s core competency is in converting customers through social media advertising. Now that they have tied into the redemption rail system AutoHook has already put into place, they can prove exactly which social campaigns resulted in an incremental sale or service appointment. Having the ability to tie in what we’re best at with what another vendor is best at and execute on that to sell and service more cars (and prove it)…now that, that is innovation.

By integrating with our private offer and attribution API, SOCIALDEALER can do more than just show conversions from their solutions to more showroom traffic. They can validate to their dealer clients if a vehicle was purchased as a direct result of their own existing ad platform. This open and unified approach presents countless opportunities for innovation that benefits all parties involved. Most importantly, it benefits the dealers and OEMs that no longer have to pay the integration fees vendors typically charge to work with other vendors.

Here’s a breakdown of how this whole open API thing works. SOCIALDEALER can now use AutoHook’s redemption rail system to serve inventory-specific test drive offers to highly targeted audiences on Facebook. For example, if a customer views a vehicle details page on a dealer’s website and later goes on Facebook to post a picture of their cat, SOCIALDEALER will then retarget that shopper and strategically plug in an AutoHook incentive to visit XYZ dealer to test-drive the vehicle they previously viewed or showed interest in. Through a vast network of data partners (yes more vendor integration) SOCIALDEALER will plug a test drive incentive offer directly into their Facebook ads AND with prepopulated form fields. All the customer has to do to redeem their incentive is hit submit and show up at the dealership. No one else in the space can do that.

We know conversion rates decrease when a customer is asked to fill out an online form with several fields of their personal information. Adding incentives to forms absolutely lifts conversion, but having the form already filled out with the customer's name and contact information, that’s just a no-brainer. That’s why this partnership defines innovation (along with all the other vendors in our API Partner Program).

Think about Salesforce and what happened after they decided to open up their interface and allow third party providers to integrate, for free. Their revenue grew exponentially and their adoption rates blew up. Now you can have video conference calls, send emails, post to social sites, and sign contracts all within Salesforce. Their AppExchange literally has 1,000 different apps available to their customers. That’s beyond valuable, and that’s exactly what being a little more open-minded can do for automotive. I mean heck, look what it did for Apple!

 

To learn more about AutoHook’s API Partner Program visit DriveAutoHook.com/Partners.

 

10 Ways to Boost Service Campaigns with AutoHook

Here are 10 different ways to use AutoHook incentive offers to boost your service campaigns. A July 2016 client survey revealed some interesting insights from AutoHook’s dealer and OEM subscribers. The study’s strongest finding confirmed: What AutoHook customers want, AutoHook customers get.

Is Your Paid Search Paying Off?

By David Metter

It’s time for a reality check. I’d like to begin with pointing out the fact that more often than we realize, the correct solution to a problem is both obvious and simple. We live in a common sense world, but I think people forget that sometimes. From a young age, we’re programed to be “critical thinkers” and to look at a situation from all vantage points. Our encoded mental paradigms tell us we should analyze, overanalyze, and overcomplicate every possible variable that may contribute to a desired outcome. On the contrary, according to Ockham’s Razor, a scientific theory dating back to the 14th century, “the simplest solution is usually the correct one.” Spending my entire career in the auto industry, with much of it in a dealership, we skip most of this (thankfully) but there should be a happy medium. It’s where common sense meets analyzed data. 

Paid search, or pay-per-click, while it may appear to be an affordable form of advertising, there is a significant breakdown in the attribution no matter how transparent and detailed the reporting. Plain and simple, paid search is complicated. As one of the first automotive marketers to use paid search over 10 years ago, I have “complicated” scars. Yes, you can see the amount of clicks your campaign received. You can see the impressions. You can see the engagements. But can you see, validate, and know that a paid click led directly to a showroom visit without any other factors involved? Absolutely not. People looking for information doesn’t in any way translate to a sale. So, how do you measure the true ROI?

Think about how much you spend driving people to your website each month. Thousands upon thousands of dollars are devoted to driving potential customers to your site in hopes of converting a click to a sale. As of today, the vast majority of customers cannot and will not purchase a car on your website. Therefore, dealers depend on leads to attempt to convert web traffic into showroom traffic.

The stats speak for themselves. There is no arguing that well under 5% of website visitors will complete the standard dealership lead form. Specifically, WardsAuto, DealerRefresh, and other industry leaders report 3-7% of automotive shoppers actually submit leads. CDK’s Digital Business Intelligence study shows only 1% of auto shoppers submit email leads from dealer websites.

It’s time we stop chasing imaginary attribution lines. If something isn’t working 95%-99% of the time, we need to do something about it. We need to direct our attention towards something we can quantify without a shadow of a doubt that led to a sale. We need to change the game – or more specifically, change the average lead form.

Let me provide you with a real life example. Just a few weeks ago, in February, 2016 (with only five days left in the month), a leading OEM came to my team asking what we could do to help push them to a stronger close. Typically, OEMs will rush to spend more money on search or display to increase traffic and then hope and pray that web traffic will convert to leads and showroom visits before the month ends. Unfortunately, that’s tough to do in five days. Its tough to do in 10 days, but manufacturers and dealers chase this same avenue month after month. But this particular OEM knew they had sufficient site traffic. What they needed was to see it convert in the showroom. AutoHook’s incentives generated more than 1,800 showroom visits in just five days and these customers were directly attributed to nearly 800 sales in the same time period - something I would challenge any digital effort to perform and validate.

In the Bounce Exchange’s latest Guide to PPC they acknowledge the tremendous waste potential of paid search. “Whether you’re a do-it-yourself small business or an agency managing hundreds of thousands of PPC dollars, you are leaving money on the table right now. Guaranteed.” Even worse, you could unknowingly be creating more opportunities for your competitors or just tossing money straight to Google. Their advice? “Move your budget into something that works.” More importantly, make sure that you have better and bigger nets to catch the fish. 

Let’s be clear. I am not saying don’t do paid search. It can be a great tool for driving traffic to your website, however it’s not ideal for converting actual sales or showroom visits. The reality is, paid search is not simple, and you can’t draw a straight line from your search campaign to a vehicle sold. A smart PPC provider, and more importantly a smart marketer, knows the difference between “researcher” and “buyer” search terms and online actions. Which do your campaigns target? What about your inventory? Are your search efforts boosting aging units or wasting ad dollars on high demand vehicles that will sell on their own?

Buyer search terms are specific and measurable. Buyers know what they want down to the year, make, model, and color. Most will not contact you before coming in for a test drive, UNLESS your website provides an experience that gives them something in return for submitting their personal information. Yes, I’m referring to offering incentives just for coming in for a test drive. It’s so simple. Give something to get something. If you are willing to pay for a click, why wouldn’t you be willing to pay for a showroom visit? Heck, they probably would have clicked anyway.

At the end of the day, you can empty your pockets in attempt to drive the world to your website. But the real question is, does your website convert once they arrive?