Search Engine Marketing (PPC)

It is almost hard to comprehend how fast mobile Internet usage is growing.  According to Google, more smartphones were sold last year than PCs.  It’s predicted that 50% of Americans will have a smartphone by the end of the year and that there will be 10 billion mobile Internet devices in 2012, up from the 2 billion that are activated today.  A child is more likely to own a cell phone than a book!

How is that going to impact the car buying experience and your online strategy?  With 51% of mobile car shoppers using search engines to research their next vehicle purchase, it’s extremely important that your dealership has a well-optimized mobile site and a well thought-out mobile marketing strategy.  One tactic your dealership may want to consider is using Google Mobile Ads to target mobile web users with pay per click (PPC) ads.

In addition to the regular PPC ads that you’re running (which can be viewed by mobile users on full-browser devices), you can use the Google Mobile Ads to target mobile phone customers who don’t have full-browsers on their smartphones.  Google has reported that advertisers using a mobile-only AdWords campaign, designed to target mobile customers who don’t have full-browser devices, can increase click-through rates by 11.5%.

Mobile Ads also allow you to have a separate keyword list than your normal AdWords campaigns, so you can tailor your keyword lists to the shorter keywords this type of mobile web searchers tend to use.  Remember that if you’re going to run mobile ads on Google, you have to use a mobile website landing page—it’s not just a best practice, it’s a requirement.

Has anyone adopted any mobile strategies that they’ve found to be particularly effective or any that have proven not to be?

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.

I recently found an interesting, informal study about search engine advertising (PPC) done by a self-proclaimed “marketing technologist” and wanted to share some of the results with you.  The entire study is available by clicking here.

What really caught my notice was the question:

“When you avoid the ads for a particular search, what are the reasons why?”

Over 40% of non-marketers (and almost 50% of those in the marketing industry) responded that it was because they didn’t trust the advertisers.

When searchers do click onto your pay-per-click search engine ads, increase their trust by showing them that they have reached the right place–use landing pages as a part of your PPC campaigns.  If someone searches for “Baltimore Nissan” and are then shown your dealership’s home page, they may not instantly recognize they are in the right place and could click off.  If you show them a page dedicated to finding a Nissan in Baltimore, they will trust your dealership more because they were given exactly what they asked the search engines for.

If your dealership’s pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaign doesn’t include landing pages, contact your search engine marketing provider to find out how to make sure it does.  Start building trust from the beginning by using landing pages and showing your future car buying customers exactly what they are looking.

According to the Google AdWords blog, Google will now show its AdWords users the number of searchers that saw your pay-per-click (PPC) ad, didn’t click on it, but bought from your dealership within 30 days.  Google calls these “View-through Conversions.”

This new reporting can be helpful when determining your return on investment (ROI) for your PPC ad campaigns.  By combining this data with the data of those who actually clicked on your dealership’s PPC ads, you should see a more accurate picture of how much your PPC campaign is earning for your dealership.

It can also be helpful when deciding which keywords your dealership should continue to pursue in your PPC campaign.  While customers may not be clicking on your ad when searching for a certain keyword, if they are seeing it and buying a car later, then it may make sense to continue to bid on it.

The down side to all of this…the view-through conversions report is only available to those dealerships that have conversion tracking implemented.

If having this type of insights into your dealership’s PPC campaign results is something you’d be interested in, consider having your auto dealer pay-per-click campaign managed by a PPC expert.  While it might be difficult to get the view-through conversions tracked, most will be able to track the phone calls your auto dealership receives, as well as all of the necessary web metrics and tracking.