Archives for July 2019

Dealers Will Shift 60% of Advertising Dollars to Digital in the Next Two Years

July 29, 2019 by AIM

Digital advertising in the automotive industry has increased tremendously over the last decade. Analysts are predicting that the growth will continue for the next two years stating that digital will be 60% of a dealer’s ad spend by 2021 (Maryann Keller & Associates, MK& A Franchise Dealer Advertising Study).

Why the Continued Increase?

A Mobile World
A huge driver causing this increase has been consumers higher usage of mobile devices. Dealership Websites continue to see the percentage of their mobile traffic on the rise. In turn they are allocating more ad dollars to match and dedicating more time to optimize their websites for better conversion on mobile. Mobile traffic will account for 65.1% of auto ad spend in 2019 and 68.1% in 2020 (eMarketer, Mobile Ad Spending by Industry, 2019).

Better Attribution
Another reason why many in the automotive industry continue to raise their digital budgets is that they can better pinpoint what channels are delivering real results. At the dealership level this is extremely beneficial since many owners are dealing with rising operating costs and narrowing profit margins. Dealers can use data to do more with the same or less ad spend and know that it is actually making an impact.

Where Should Budget Be Spent?

If You Are Thinking About a Marketing Budget Increase Consider:

Video
Auto dealers have historically always loved TV advertising however today’s consumers are watching more and more video through means other than traditional cable. If you are thinking of increasing your digital spend, important areas to consider are social media video, pre-roll, connected TV and over-the-top media services (OTT). Focusing on these video channels can get you more impressions, reaching a wider audience, with more tangible results. Learn more about AIM’s video services.

Inventory-Based Display
In addition to video, inventory based display advertising is a great option to maximize your digital marketing dollars. Inventory based ad creative can be served across a variety of platforms and the best part is it can be optimized for each individual consumer so they see your inventory that is most relevant to them. Learn more about our dynamic inventory ad solutions Data Driven Targeting (DDT) and Social Clicks.

CarClicks Case Study For Proven Results

July 25, 2019 by Tony French

Dealer Background

This Midwest Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram dealer was looking for a way to gain online market share to sell more vehicles, so they partnered with CarClicks to turn browsers into customers and increased their monthly sales by 15%.

THE CHALLENGE

The greatest challenge the dealership faced was breaking through the clutter online in the highly competitive automotive industry.

The dealership’s goal was to reach as many potential auto shoppers in their market as possible. In order to do this, they needed help growing their brand online. The dealership was already leveraging traditional advertising and conventional digital like search engine marketing and third-party automotive sites. They wanted to dramatically increase their visibility online and drive more serious automotive traffic to their website to increase vehicle sales.

THE SOLUTION

To reach their goals, the dealership partnered with CarClicks Inventory Marketing to promote their new and preowned inventory to in-market auto shoppers and CarClicks Data Driven Targeting to bring back serious, highly engaged auto shoppers who are ready to buy.

Before shoppers take a single step into your showroom, they must find your inventory online!

HOW IT WORKS

Deliver scalable inventory marketing campaigns to in-market buyers across a network of 3rd party automotive shopping sites and search engines.
Highly personalized ads showed vehicles that the shopper was most likely to be interested in, when they were most likely to buy.
Advanced bidding technology focuses bids on those who are most likely to convert. Inventory ads seamlessly connected with every auto shopper across devices, apps, and the web.
Machine-learning technology worked continuously to improve the campaign’s performance, based on specific goals.
Campaigns were continuously optimized to remove ineffective placements and focus on highpotential shoppers based on conversions, not just clicks.

THE RESULTS

The campaigns were able to dramatically drive more high-quality traffic to the dealership website. The dealership was extremely pleased with the cost effectiveness of CarClicks marketing.

ATTRACT The Right Auto Shoppers

July 17, 2019 by Tony French

Your Marketing

CarClicks Inventory Marketing

CarClicks Inventory Marketing Helps ATTRACT the Right In-Market Auto Shoppers to Your Dealership!

How you ask? We find the shoppers that are already ATTRACTED to the vehicles on your lot.

CarClicks has the TOTAL PACKAGE to make in-market shoppers TURN HEADS! Make your dealership stand out by adding CarClicks to your marketing strategy.

Take the CarClicks Challenge and allow your dealership to APPEAL to the right consumers.

Not sure exactly what the CarClicks Challenge is? Reach out to us for a FREE demo on how to increase your online leads ASAP!

Automotive Internet Media Interview with ACV Auctions

July 16, 2019 by Tony French

AIM’s President and Co-Founder, Tony French, talks with the Regional Director of Sales at @acvauction, Tony Dipanni. Both discuss how ACV’s 20 minute auctions on your dealership’s lot can help grow your sales during a Chicago Automobile Trade Association event. Check out more details here: www.acvauctions.com

More about AIM: Automotive Internet Media is a premier digital marketing agency serving the automotive industry. Our suite of products includes CarClicks, Data Driven Targeting and Social Clicks. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and check out our website for more information, at www.aimyes.com

Buckle Up!

July 15, 2019 by Tony French

YOU’LL NEED TO BUCKLE UP FOR THIS ONE….

Once you try CarClicks Inventory Marketing you’ll see FAST results!

Kick your marketing into FULL-THROTTLE with CarClicks today- what are you waiting for?

Take the CarClicks Challenge and allow your dealership to get up to SPEED with online digital sales.

FUEL your dealership with highly accurate and relevant advertising campaigns.

Take the challenge today and start seeing results!

Are you not sure exactly what the CarClicks challenge is? Go ahead, give it a TEST DRIVE and sign up for our free online demo.

Get AHEAD of the competition today!

Marketing Personalization Strategy

July 11, 2019 by Tony French

The Age of Relevancy and Personalization

We live in an age where we can customize virtually every aspect of our lives. Increasingly, we demand products and services that satisfy our specific needs, and we’re quick to dismiss anything we consider even slightly irrelevant.

So, why would people expect anything less when it comes to digital marketing?

Delivering Customized Ads to Viewers While most dealerships have traditionally relied on a “spray and pray” approach to marketing – treating consumers as one mass audience and using generic messaging to promote their inventory and brand. This method has quickly become obsolete. Dealerships looking to remain competitive must now find ways to address consumers as unique individuals with highly specific, personal ads.

This is the essence of Data Driven Targeting. By gathering rich, relevant data on auto shopper behavior, dealerships can target auto shoppers on a far more personal level, optimizing their engagement rates while ensuring a positive brand experience.

A Defense for Data

Evidence to support the effectiveness of Data Driven Targeting abounds, and more dealerships are beginning to catch on. Data Driven Targeting is three times more likely to achieve a competitive advantage in customer engagement than other marketing.

Keeping Things Personal

One of the key aspects of personalizing your marketing strategy is delivering ads that are unique to the individual auto shopper. People are far more likely to pay attention to an ad that’s custom to their interest.

Quality Over Quantity

Quality is everything when it comes to Data Driven Targeting. We all know what it looks like when a dealership uses poor-quality ads and disregards consumer data. Whether you’re receiving ads for a vehicle when you’re out of the market or ads for a model that you aren’t interested in, uninformed marketing is lousy marketing and a waste of your advertising budget.

Expanding Your Efforts

Data Driven Targeting, when used effectively, is a sure-fire way to increase revenue and minimize waste.

Keeping Ahead of the Competition

Throughout the course of conducting online research and shopping for vehicles, auto shoppers are visiting many dealership websites looking for local inventory, deals and specials – they’re also searching for good lease deals, different brands and models, reading online reviews, visiting third automotive shopping sites and more.

The lynchpin for any dealership is to capture the highly engaged shopper and continue to promote their inventory and brand to the consumer throughout their online shopping journey.

Dealerships that aren’t targeting those auto shoppers are hurting themselves and giving their competitors a strong advantage.

Tying It All Together

The number of platforms through which a dealership can market their inventory and brand is growing. However, it also presents some major challenges as dealerships struggle to sift through which products are delivering results.

One of the most powerful tools for addressing this issue is Google Analytics, which allows dealerships to easily determine which products are driving quality traffic to the dealership website. With the use of Google Analytics, you can discover remarkable information about the dealership website that can be used to improve your marketing and sales strategies. Dealerships can also implement Google Tag Manager which is a free tool that makes it easy for conversion tracking.

See How Your Marketing Efforts Work Google Analytics combined with Google Tag Manager has become an integral solution that gives dealerships the technical agility and the analytics power they need to measure the effectiveness of their marketing strategies.

Modern dealerships are turning towards digital marketing to grow their sales. It is critical that they have good web strategy and mechanism to measure their return on investment. Analytical tools help the dealership to achieve that objective. Google Analytics is the best choice due to its efficient features, open source advantages and free availability. Dealership General Mangers that learn how to leverage Google Analytics’ data to evaluate their marketing will make better decisions and sell more vehicles.

The Future of Data Driven Targeting

Today’s dealerships are under a lot of pressure to change the way they sell and market vehicles online. They are spending more time and resources than ever before, while margins continue to decline. When it comes to budget decisions, dealership management needs to review the effectiveness of traditional marketing platforms and strategies and prioritize which campaigns they can attribute providing the best results.

Because of the effectiveness and affordability, dealers have the empirical evidence that proves the importance of Data Driven Targeting.

The overall effect of Data Driven Targeting is virtually priceless. Not only can it improve your ROI and give you unprecedented traffic for the budget, but it can also optimize the relevance of your ads to individual auto shoppers- providing them with an exceptional customer experience and help you boost your brand’s reputation.

Get More Customers Online and In Your Dealership

With CPO Sales Rising, Does Your Dealership See the Same Trend?

July 9, 2019 by AIM

After what seems like a slower start to the year, certified pre-owned vehicle sales are on the rise in most recent months. This current trend in the automotive industry is great news for dealerships all across the United States.

With approximately 233,540 certified pre-owned (CPO) sales reported in April, the month was up 6% year-over-year. (Data Point Report) The year-to-date CPO sales are up about 2% according to the same report.

So why the sudden trend you might ask? With recent market trends like rising interest rates, credit tightening, and the recent discussions about tariffs, consumers are making a shift to pre-owned vehicles when they are looking for their next vehicle purchase.

Auto shoppers are being pushed toward the used vehicle market, and they like the value that a certified pre-owned vehicle can give them, as well as the price the vehicles are listed at. More dealerships are starting to see the rise in CPO sales this year.

According to an article in AutoRemarketing, “Cox Automotive is expecting to see the CPO sales gains continue to grow further this year with the certified market poised to reach its ninth straight record”. It appears that this trend is not slowing down anytime soon.

Is your dealership not selling as much certified pre-owned vehicles like the trend shows? Try out CarClicks today and see how we can help you sell more used vehicles. Promote your used inventory to more shoppers looking for a CPO and start increasing your sales.

CarClicks Inventory Marketing is a great way your dealership can drive in quality traffic to your website and help you get behind the CPO sales trend for 2019. Take the CarClicks Challenge and start seeing results!