Automotive Internet Media

Websites

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

by

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.

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

by

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.

AIM Wins a Davey Award for New Dealership Website

by

Automotive Internet Media (AIM) won a Silver 2016 Davey Award for their English-Spanish website for automotive dealerships within the website category.

The Davey Awards honors the best in Web, Design, Video, Advertising, Mobile & Social from small agencies worldwide. The Davey Awards are awarded to the best in various industries across many different categories. AIM along with General Motors and Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures were a few of the Davey Award winners in 2016. The Davey Awards is overseen and sanctioned by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts. AIM’s multilingual website platform was judged on merit and a standard of excellence.

The new website was nominated because it’s the first English-Spanish automotive website built to fully convert to either language with one click of the mouse. AIM built their new responsive platform from the ground up to eliminate the need for two different websites and so any shopper, regardless of the language can shop with ease. The site provides the auto shopper easy functionality to view inventory, images, original content and easy ways to contact the dealership without the confusing widgets and clutter of other automotive sites.

AIM recognized that many dealership websites have plug-ins that can do rough English-Spanish translations but that is not speaking directly to Hispanic auto shoppers.  Translation services for websites only switch out words which is clunky translation and is not written for a specific audience.

Marketing to Hispanic car buyers is becoming an important part of new-vehicle OEM advertising campaigns. AIM’s responsive website platform allows dealerships to align part of their marketing budget to drive Hispanic shoppers to their website to increase car sales. Speaking directly to the Hispanic market builds credibility and communicates directly the dealership wants to earn their business.

“As we saw the emerging market for Hispanic auto shoppers, we decided to build a website platform that offers the same shopping experience to Hispanic consumers,” said Tony French, President of Automotive Internet Media. “It was important for us to develop a platform that was easy to use and allowed any auto shopper to learn about inventory, services or specials all on one site.”

AIM built their multilingual platform to provide a great shopping experience for both English and Hispanic shoppers, however the site has proven to increase site conversion, improve site performance and has many benefits for SEO and SEM.

“It’s an accomplishment to create the first true English-Spanish site in the automotive industry and we are happy to provide our dealer clients the ability to serve the Hispanic community with dependable translations that will permit a hassle-free car buying experience,” added French.

For more information, contact Tony French, President of Automotive Internet Media, at 312.473.0024 or tony@www.aimyes.com

3 Reasons Why Classified Sites Still Matter

by

3 Reasons Why Classified Sites Still Matter

If I want to check airline ticket prices for a trip I usually start my search on Expedia. I compare flights and prices then go to the airline site and buy the ticket direct. If I’m shopping for some obscure product I usually start at Amazon. Sometimes I buy the product from Amazon. Other times I just use Amazon as a search tool and buy direct from the company’s website.
Multiple studies and stock prices indicate that I’m not alone.
The same is true for car shopping. Today’s sales funnel has arguably evolved over the years but one thing is constant. When the typical auto shopper gets low in the funnel and ready to buy, they shop automotive classified sites.
Automotive classified sites provide consumers a place to shop and compare thousands of vehicles, models, equipment and price. It’s just easier for the consumer.
Many car dealers and their team members believe Autotrader.com and Cars.com are the only sites consumers shop. Sure these two sites have built good brands in the automotive industry but they are by far not the only sites consumers shop. Actually, because of Google’s constant algorithm changes, other sites are becoming increasingly important and relevant.
Advertising only on Autotrader.com or Cars.com is like only advertising on ABC or NBC and ignoring the other 500 plus television channels. The other channels have solid audiences as well. Same with many other automotive classified sites.
Actually, there are a number of automotive classified sites that perform great.
Here are three key reasons that classified sites should be a part of every dealer’s online marketing efforts:
1. Be Everywhere
Inventory distribution to multiple automotive shopping sites allows your vehicles to be promoted to millions of more auto shoppers. Limiting your exposure to only a couple classified sites reduces the chances of a shopper finding the exact vehicle you have on your lot that meets their needs. As long as the site is sending your traffic and/or leads that are interested in your inventory there is no downside, all upside. Only more exposure.
2. Affordable
OK, I understand the escalating costs of a couple of the more well-known classified sites. However, that shouldn’t stop you from having a dedicated budget for classified advertising. It’s important to just manage your budget wisely. After getting your inventory listed in a category that actually gets it viewed, do you need to spend more? In most cases I don’t believe you do. The law of diminishing returns kicks in when you devote too much budget to one site. Spread the love. Get more sites working for you. CarClicks inventory marketing program distributes your inventory to many automotive sites and only charges you when a customer is interested in your car. You only get charged when a client is sent to your vehicle detail page on your website. This gets your inventory
3. Inventory Turn
Increasing inventory turn is just a fancy way of saying more sales. Three pillars of increasing sales are having the right inventory, at the right price, with the right exposure. Automotive classified sites provide dealers the ability to promote their inventory to millions of monthly online shoppers. The average vehicle is in stock for 53 days and gets looked at online less than 20 times but if you can get your inventory viewed online between 20 to 30 times it will turn 29% faster. And, if you can get your inventory viewed over 30 times it will turn 44% faster. Getting more visibility on your inventory is the single most important factor in making a sale.
Now for the pitch. CarClicks marketing program will pull your inventory from your website daily and promote your vehicles to a network of automotive sites that get over 20 million monthly auto shoppers. Dealerships are only charged when we link a shopper from an automotive classified site directly to your website.
I encourage dealerships to determine if their advertising budget is being leveraged properly to get the most exposure without spending more budget.

AIM One-Stop Shop

by

A Look Under the Hood
We are better than your average digital marketing company.  We know how to market your dealership with some of the best, fresh digital content and social presence while keeping your overall goals in mind: more traffic, engaged users and increased sales.
The Best Mix of Marketing Services
Full Service:  Let us take the driver’s seat and drive more traffic to your dealership.  Our full service option lets us help you achieve your over-arching goals using some of the best digital marketing practices including, original website content, social media, SEO, display and retargeting ads, pay per click advertising and more!
Conquest Email Marketing:  You might want to make a U-turn if your dealership isn’t currently utilizing email marketing.  But AIM’s email marketing is not something you’ll find using standard email marketing services.  Our Supercharged email marketing services offer data to dominate your market and increase sales.
Email Newsletters: Living in a digital age, it is important to make sure you are in your customer’s eyes consistently.  AIM’s email marketing allows you to send all your specials and information without having to do the work—we take care of it all!  You’ll expect to have a quick turnaround, a flexible design and high ROI.
Pay Per Click (PPC): Paid search advertising is a great way to drive more traffic to your dealership.  This service allows customers to find your inventory and dealership.  Market your dealership and inventory with AIM’s PPC services.
Retargeting: Leverage your traffic coming to your website and capture those visitors who have expressed an interest in your inventory but didn’t make it to check out.  The consumer will then receive online ads for your dealership with our placement of code.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is an investment and it’s an investment a dealership should highly consider.  It will increase your customer base, your sales, your dealership’s reviews and your visibility on the web.
Social Media: Today it is important and a necessity to have a social presence.  Join the conversation with your customers!  We’re ready to do the work for you by managing your social presence while you sell and service cars.
Video Production:  Expand your brand today with video.  Use video to promote your vehicles, sales and services with YouTube pre-roll.  Let us turn your vision into a reality while we represent you and your dealership.
Web Design: Let us set your business apart from others in the automotive market with a customized, responsive website.  To top it off, we offer a one-stop dealership website experience with a dual language site.  With the click of one button your English site can switch to Spanish.

A Better Search with JSON-LD

by

What JSON-LD Can Do for Your Marketing

If you have heard of Schema, then you have probably heard of the new format, JSON-LD or should we say the much, much easier format of Schema. We can help you figure out what it is, how it helps and how Google uses it.  Get a better search with JSON-LD.

How it works:

If you have sat and added Schema to your website pages, blogs, etc. you know how time consuming it can be. However, rest assured that the new Java Script Object Notation for Linked Data (JSON-LD), is here to cut down on the time spent optimizing your web content. Basically, JSON-LD is an easy way to give your pages rich snippets by adding the basic JSON-LD code to your page. Literally, it is a copy, paste and insert process. If you think of linking within content, it is the same process when linking data with JSON-LD.

Rich Snippets:

Here’s an example: as we type in a certain make or model car into our Google search bar, results appear which are populated snippets. These snippets are generated by Schema or the new simple format, JSON-LD and are considered “rich snippets”. Some of these rich snippets that appear may even have images included.

Don’t Wait to Get Started:

Need help getting started with JSON-LD or don’t know where to start when optimizing your content or products on your website? We can help! See how we can take your dealership’s marketing to the next level with full-service marketing including the new JSON-LD format.

Why It Is Important to Drive Traffic to Your Own Website

by

There are many tools on the Internet to provide visibility for your dealership, but the key outlet is your website. Therefore, driving traffic to it is very important. No visitors mean no sales from that channel. And with so many people using the Internet every day you could be missing out on countless potential buyers.

Visitors directed to your own site, rather than another website you are listed on, are more valuable. These people have the opportunity to look through multiple pages, submit their information, or click-to-chat with a salesperson. Once you get their information, you can market to them long term either through retargeting ads or directly via email or phone call, raising the probability of closing a sale.

One great way to direct a large quantity of targeted traffic is through the CarClicks program. CarClicks drives traffic from various portal sites directly to your inventory. Generally, 75% or more sessions through the system are new shoppers, or customers who have never been to your site before. This gives you the opportunity to market to many new potential customers using the tools on your own site.

So, if you’ve spent a lot of time and money on your website and are thinking “what’s next?” – driving valuable traffic is the answer. One great way to do that for dealers is with CarClicks. To learn more about the CarClicks program and Automotive Internet Media, contact us today.

4 Things to Know When Developing a Website

by

 

1. Purpose

When creating a website, the most important thing that must be distinguished from day one is the purpose behind creating the website. For example, if the website is for displaying car inventory, then the website should be designed with that in mind. If the website is being created to serve as a blog, then the website should be built differently than a car inventory website would, such as the type of platforms or how the navigation is laid out.

2. Navigation

Every website should be using the three click method. The three click method means that a user should be able to get to any page on the website in three clicks or less. Also, the website should flow all together so when the user is clicking through the site they don’t get lost and leave the website.

3. Usability

Usability is important because if a customer is on your site and wants to get more information about a specific vehicle, the idea would be to have a quick and easy way to find the contact form. With a contact form that is easily found on the website, the dealer will be able to get the information that they need and you won’t lose a potential sale because the customer couldn’t find the form.

4. Responsiveness

In today’s world, customers use many different ways to access the internet, with the most common being computers, phones, and tablets. Because of this, every website has to have the ability to be viewed on different screen sizes without being dis-proportioned.  In order to get the message across on all platforms, a website must be responsive. What this means is that the website knows what type of screen is being used and what design should be used on a certain display.
At AIM, we are knowledgeable on the process of creating great, functional websites for any industry’s needs.  Give us a call today to see how we can transform your website and increase your traffic as a result.

Written by: Kyle Paetschow, Front End Engineer