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Automotive Internet Media Partners with the 2025 Chicago Auto Show

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Automotive Internet Media Partners with the 2025 Chicago Auto Show

by automotiveinternetmedia | February 7, 2025 | Digital Marketing, Chicago Auto Show

Automotive Internet Media and Chocago Auto Show Partnership

Automotive Internet Media (AIM) is pleased to continue our valued partnership with the renowned Chicago Auto Show, taking place from February 8-17, 2025. As one of the premier automotive events in the United States, the Chicago Auto Show provides an exceptional platform for showcasing the latest vehicles, innovations, and industry trends. We are proud to support their digital initiatives for the 2025 show and help power their local vehicle shopping portal, DriveChicago.com.

Driving Results with Digital Marketing

AIM plays a key role in amplifying the Chicago Auto Show’s reach by supporting its digital marketing initiatives and ensuring the event’s presence extends far beyond the convention center. By leveraging our industry expertise and digital platforms, AIM ensures that the Chicago Auto Show’s messaging reaches its target audience, driving excitement and attendance.

CarClicks and DriveChicago.com

In addition to our continued partnership with the Chicago Auto Show, AIM is proud to support the Chicago Automobile Trade Association (CATA) in powering DriveChicago.com. CATA, the organization responsible for producing the Chicago Auto Show, also oversees DriveChicago.com, a key digital platform designed to connect car shoppers with local inventory and dealerships across Chicagoland. AIM plays a key role behind the scenes, contributing to the development of the website. AIM’s CarClicks inventory marketing product also helps DriveChicago.com reach in-market auto shoppers with strategically placed and personalized digital ads.  

Automotive Partnership Supporting Chicagoland

Automotive Internet Media is honored to be associated with the Chicago Auto Show, DriveChicago.com and the automotive industry in Chicago. We greatly value our local partnerships and are happy to support the impactful initiatives the CATA provides to both automotive dealers and the broader community.

Recent Posts

How to Navigate Inventory Issues Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic

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The impact that coronavirus is having on businesses unfortunately comes as no surprise. Auto dealers are seeing the negative impact of this pandemic even though they are considered essential businesses. The current environment is especially affecting independent dealers.

One issue that has arisen is a lack of vehicle inventory. Since many OEMs converted their manufacturing plants to produce ventilators, they are now trying to make up for lost time and dealers are asking how can I sell cars I don’t have? 

USA Today is reporting what many dealers are feeling, popular pickup trucks are getting hard to find. Big truck brands like Ford, Chevy, GMC and Ram dealers are the most seriously impacted. And with these models being typically higher priced inventory, it is hurting dealers’ bottom lines even more.

So how can your dealership navigate through inventory issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic?

Try Out New Strategies

One way your dealership can get past inventory issues is to strategically promote the inventory you do have. Focus on cars that have been on your lot for a long time. AIM’s CarClicks Inventory Marketing can connect auto shoppers to your oldest inventory to help increase turn.

Another strategy is to pivot and get creative with your marketing of the models that you do have. Since pickup trucks are scarce right now, shift your advertising efforts to vehicles that are not. Try out eye-catching yet cost effective marketing. Promote smaller sized models to millennials using video promoted on connected devices.

Having trouble driving sales to your dealership because of the pandemic? Today more than ever, it is especially important to have a strong online presence. When shoppers don’t want to come to the dealership themselves, you have to be able to get your vehicles in front of their eyes. 

Expanding your online retailing can help you win more customers, making it easier for auto shoppers to browse your inventory online. Setting up video appointments and dropping off the vehicle to their driveway are all steps in the right direction for conquering the negative impact of COVID-19 on your dealership’s business. 

Ready to combat COVID-19 related inventory issues? Talk to us at (312) 473-0024 today.

 

4 Ways to Effectively Utilize Paid Social Media Ads to Promote Black Friday Events

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If you have an exciting sale going on for Black Friday an effective way to help spread the word to in-market auto shoppers is through paid social media advertising. Keep reading to learn keys to setting up successful paid social campaigns for events.

1. Identify Your Target Audience(s)

Social Media has become a powerful way to reach consumers because of its abundance of targeting options. Most platforms have the ability to segment by geo, gender, age, interests and more. Many (such as Facebook) will let you upload your own custom audience lists to reach specific platform users. Identifying a key target audience and potentially even a couple sub-audiences will help you use these targeting options efficiently.

2. Make Sure Your Creative is Formatted Properly

You may have a professionally designed poster or newspaper spread for your event that look spectacular. However, on the web that same pieces will appear completely different. It is important to have alternate sizes made for social media in the correct pixel sizes. Also it is ideal to have 20% or less text to be optimized for Facebook. Properly sizing images by placement will prevent logos and text from being cut off and present your event in a professional manner, which will ultimately increase your level of engagement.

3. Consider the Customer Journey

What path will consumers take before they show up at your dealership’s sales event? They may be exposed to some of your other marketing efforts such as print or TV. At what stage of their decision making will they be touched by your social ad? Considering external factors while you are setting up social ad campaigns can help you be strategic. 

4. Don’t Set It and Forget It

Once you have your ad campaigns set up it is important to keep monitoring them. If you leave them running without checking you may miss post comments asking you a question about the sale or the opportunity to reallocate funds from one campaign to a better performing one. Conducting extra optimization and management post-launch will make the campaigns as successful as possible, thus bringing in as many leads and as much foot traffic to you as possible. 

 

A solid paid social media strategy can bring your Black Friday event marketing to the next level. Need social media help? Learn more about our automotive social media services.

Are You Sitting on a Treasure Trove of Data?

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Smart dealers are taking advantage of new tools to better utilize the data they gather each and every day. Implementing the right programs and strategies can take all of the information your dealership has (and may not even realize it) and use it to deliver personalized experiences to shoppers.

Personalization Before Lead Submission

When an auto shopper submits a lead, many times through your website, you know some basic information such as their name, phone number and email address. Then the BDC follows up with them getting to know more details with the ultimate goal to convert them into an appointment. What if you could deliver personalization to your potential leads before they officially contact you? By utilizing technology to gather insights from website visitors you can do just that.

Data Driven Targeting

CarClick’s Data Driven Targeting helps dealers show personalized ads highlighting their inventory to in-market auto shoppers even before they ever submit a lead. Here’s how it works:

 

  1. Your entire website is mapped out and every single visitor is analyzed to determine which individuals are actually in-market and what they are interested in.
  2. Ads are dynamically built for each consumer based off of key insights.
  3. Personalized ads are shown to each consumer across a premium network of publishers.
  4. Consumers are driven right back to your site to convert.

 

Most dealerships have an abundance of data however at the end of the day it is all about what you do with it. Take a step forward by choosing a marketing partner who can get the most out of your data. Contact AIM today for a short demo to see how Data Driven Targeting can work for your dealership.

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

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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.

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

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CPO Sales

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!