Google's use of cookies to track consumer behavior on the web has been front and center in the news this past week.

According to The Christian Science Monitor article Jeff Ward-Bailey:

"Google spent much of last week dodging criticism from Apple users about its online privacy practices. But when Microsoft got involved this week, that's when things got really interesting.

Users of Apple's Safari browser recently claimed that Google was violating their privacy by circumventing a mechanism the browser uses to disable tracking.

Here's what's (apparently) going on under the hood: by default, Safari disables third-party cookies, nuggets of code that companies can use to identify users returning to a site they've visited before, or to track what other sites they visit. Safari can accept cookies if a user explicitly gives permission, but Google's ad platform reportedly used a workaround to mimic approval of its cookies."

Will ReTargeting Campaigns Be Impacted?

Just like the Do Not Call law had dramatic impact on the telemarketing industry, will new browser cookie privacy laws but a huge dent in the ability to build retargeting audiences?

There will be an impact for sure but how the privacy filters will be implemented are just no clear.  If all web browsers ship with cookies blocked, this could change the landscape on behavioral targeting.

If websites start requiring consumers to turn on cookie tracking to use their website, the benefits must be very strong.  In any case, business owners should be tracking this privacy issue carefully because it will have a significant impact on digital marketing strategies.

Privacy Laws May Expedite Mobile Apps

With this recent uproar, I would think that dealers would expedite the roll-out of dealer branded mobile apps.  

The apps provide a direct communication channel with customers. With email delivery rates low and privacy concerns on the rise, custom mobile apps are a strong way to have two-way communications with your customers.

As part of the delivery process or service process dealers can encourage smartphone owners to download the dealership's custom app right in the store.

Recently, PCG awarded the Spotlight Award to one such customizable app from Dominion Dealer Solutions called "Be Back App".  

There are many new dealership apps coming on market that dealers should investigate and implement as part of their sales and service processes.

The digital landscape continues to change, and I'll do my best to keep you ahead of your competitors on DrivingSales.com!    

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO 

PCG Consulting

brian@pcgmailer.com

732.672.2356  

Google's use of cookies to track consumer behavior on the web has been front and center in the news this past week.

According to The Christian Science Monitor article Jeff Ward-Bailey:

"Google spent much of last week dodging criticism from Apple users about its online privacy practices. But when Microsoft got involved this week, that's when things got really interesting.

Users of Apple's Safari browser recently claimed that Google was violating their privacy by circumventing a mechanism the browser uses to disable tracking.

Here's what's (apparently) going on under the hood: by default, Safari disables third-party cookies, nuggets of code that companies can use to identify users returning to a site they've visited before, or to track what other sites they visit. Safari can accept cookies if a user explicitly gives permission, but Google's ad platform reportedly used a workaround to mimic approval of its cookies."

Will ReTargeting Campaigns Be Impacted?

Just like the Do Not Call law had dramatic impact on the telemarketing industry, will new browser cookie privacy laws but a huge dent in the ability to build retargeting audiences?

There will be an impact for sure but how the privacy filters will be implemented are just no clear.  If all web browsers ship with cookies blocked, this could change the landscape on behavioral targeting.

If websites start requiring consumers to turn on cookie tracking to use their website, the benefits must be very strong.  In any case, business owners should be tracking this privacy issue carefully because it will have a significant impact on digital marketing strategies.

Privacy Laws May Expedite Mobile Apps

With this recent uproar, I would think that dealers would expedite the roll-out of dealer branded mobile apps.  

The apps provide a direct communication channel with customers. With email delivery rates low and privacy concerns on the rise, custom mobile apps are a strong way to have two-way communications with your customers.

As part of the delivery process or service process dealers can encourage smartphone owners to download the dealership's custom app right in the store.

Recently, PCG awarded the Spotlight Award to one such customizable app from Dominion Dealer Solutions called "Be Back App".  

There are many new dealership apps coming on market that dealers should investigate and implement as part of their sales and service processes.

The digital landscape continues to change, and I'll do my best to keep you ahead of your competitors on DrivingSales.com!    

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO 

PCG Consulting

brian@pcgmailer.com

732.672.2356  

There are many reasons why your dealership should be using Google+.  

Content on the portal is being indexed well in Google search if you have the right strategy in place.

One thing that you may not know is how to create a Title for your Google+ post when it only have ONE open box for content.

The trick is to start your article off with a one line title.  

Then surround the First Line of your post with an asterisk at each end,  

The title of the blog post I created here in Google+ would look like:

*Create Title Tags in Google+*

When you save the post, Google+ will make what is BETWEEN the asterisks the title and use it as the title for search engines result pages.  

This of course makes the Title part of your Google+ SEO strategy so think on the best balance between social and search.

I hope you enjoyed the tip!

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

 Brian Pasch

There are many reasons why your dealership should be using Google+.  

Content on the portal is being indexed well in Google search if you have the right strategy in place.

One thing that you may not know is how to create a Title for your Google+ post when it only have ONE open box for content.

The trick is to start your article off with a one line title.  

Then surround the First Line of your post with an asterisk at each end,  

The title of the blog post I created here in Google+ would look like:

*Create Title Tags in Google+*

When you save the post, Google+ will make what is BETWEEN the asterisks the title and use it as the title for search engines result pages.  

This of course makes the Title part of your Google+ SEO strategy so think on the best balance between social and search.

I hope you enjoyed the tip!

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

 Brian Pasch

American Express and Twitter announced a new pilot program starting in March for 10,000 Amex small business owners.  

Car dealers looking for new tools in their Automotive Advertising strategy, should take note of this limited trial. The Amex program will allow business owners to fund sponsored Tweets, similar to how Pay-Per-Click advertising works.

It is performance based so the dealer would only be charged if a consumer decided to  "Follow" your Twitter account or click through to your linked page.

Could this be a new powerful way to drive traffic to your website?

This may be another tactic in a powerful Automotive Advertising strategy. I will be testing this new program and I think that this is very worthwhile to test and measure the best ways to create Sponsored Tweets that attract qualified traffic and local car buyers.

Sign-up For Twitter Pilot With American Express

To sign-up for the pilot, you need to visit this registration page:  https://ads.twitter.com/amex.  After you login with your Twitter Account, you need to verify that you are an American Express cardholder or merchant.

You are asked a few basic questions, like shown below:

And when you are done, you will get a confirmation message that your account has been submitted to the pilot, as shown below:

If you sign-up for the program, let me know what your strategy and success is with the new program.  

I will follow-up with another post once I have some data to share.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing 

Brian Pasch

American Express and Twitter announced a new pilot program starting in March for 10,000 Amex small business owners.  

Car dealers looking for new tools in their Automotive Advertising strategy, should take note of this limited trial. The Amex program will allow business owners to fund sponsored Tweets, similar to how Pay-Per-Click advertising works.

It is performance based so the dealer would only be charged if a consumer decided to  "Follow" your Twitter account or click through to your linked page.

Could this be a new powerful way to drive traffic to your website?

This may be another tactic in a powerful Automotive Advertising strategy. I will be testing this new program and I think that this is very worthwhile to test and measure the best ways to create Sponsored Tweets that attract qualified traffic and local car buyers.

Sign-up For Twitter Pilot With American Express

To sign-up for the pilot, you need to visit this registration page:  https://ads.twitter.com/amex.  After you login with your Twitter Account, you need to verify that you are an American Express cardholder or merchant.

You are asked a few basic questions, like shown below:

And when you are done, you will get a confirmation message that your account has been submitted to the pilot, as shown below:

If you sign-up for the program, let me know what your strategy and success is with the new program.  

I will follow-up with another post once I have some data to share.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing 

Brian Pasch

When I started working with car dealers in 2005 on their SEO strategies, there was little a dealer needed to do in order to influence their search rankings.  

Most dealer websites did not have blogs so secondary blog sites (microsites) had to be created.  Dealers were not setup to create content let alone maintain a blog. 

Dealers needed outside consultants to optimize their website pages, since most website platforms came un-optimized out of the box.  

In 2005, the Wild West of SEO was taking dealers by storm.  They just didn't know if this "SEO Stuff" had any value. 

Social What?

Back in 2005 Google Places, Social Relevance, +1 Buttons, or Google+ did not exist and were NOT in the SEO equation.  In the early days I was focused on quality content, microsites, off-site links, and creating strong flows of qualified traffic.  SEO Consultants did a majority of the SEO work for dealers.

Back then, the SEO tactics were the responsibility of the SEO Consultant.  SEO "experts" were tasked to create "magic" and get dealers on Google Page One.  

Those days are gone.

Automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become a shared responsibility.  It is critical that dealers know that the cheese has moved.

Automotive SEO Is Maximized As A Team 

Today the "organic" search results consist of Google Places, videos, blogs, social media, and of course website pages.  The SEO strategist today needs the cooperation and participation of the dealer to influence local search rankings.

If a dealer chooses not to engage their customers to post an online reviews, the work of an SEO consultant can be easily undermined if the reviews on Google Page One are horrible.  

If dealers do not identify customers that have Gmail accounts, they lose the opportunity to leverage the Google +1 button or connect with their customers on Google+.  Both of these marketing tools greatly influence local search results.

If dealers do not create customer testimonial videos or educational walk-around videos, the SEO strategist has little to work with to create ENGAGING Video SEO strategies.

Google Has Leveled The Field

In some ways, Google has leveled the playing field.  They have pushed some of the SEO responsibilities back to the business owner.  This is good if the dealership understands their role and executes effectively with the guidance of their SEO partner.  

It's bad if dealers believes that their SEO company can operate independently of their engagement.  If dealers want the strongest local SEO strategy to work for their brand, they have to lend a hand.

If you have an SEO vendor partner, make sure you ask them what your contribution must be to ensure success. If they tell you that you have to do nothing, this should be a warning flag.

Maximizing your search visibility during the Zero Moment of Truth is critical.  The point of this post is that you can't outsource 100% of the work and expect market dominating success.

Is content, links, and a comprehensive strategy still relevant?  Yes.  Just don't be surprised when that strategy has some homework for your dealership staff!

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Consulting Services

brian@pcgmailer.com

When I started working with car dealers in 2005 on their SEO strategies, there was little a dealer needed to do in order to influence their search rankings.  

Most dealer websites did not have blogs so secondary blog sites (microsites) had to be created.  Dealers were not setup to create content let alone maintain a blog. 

Dealers needed outside consultants to optimize their website pages, since most website platforms came un-optimized out of the box.  

In 2005, the Wild West of SEO was taking dealers by storm.  They just didn't know if this "SEO Stuff" had any value. 

Social What?

Back in 2005 Google Places, Social Relevance, +1 Buttons, or Google+ did not exist and were NOT in the SEO equation.  In the early days I was focused on quality content, microsites, off-site links, and creating strong flows of qualified traffic.  SEO Consultants did a majority of the SEO work for dealers.

Back then, the SEO tactics were the responsibility of the SEO Consultant.  SEO "experts" were tasked to create "magic" and get dealers on Google Page One.  

Those days are gone.

Automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become a shared responsibility.  It is critical that dealers know that the cheese has moved.

Automotive SEO Is Maximized As A Team 

Today the "organic" search results consist of Google Places, videos, blogs, social media, and of course website pages.  The SEO strategist today needs the cooperation and participation of the dealer to influence local search rankings.

If a dealer chooses not to engage their customers to post an online reviews, the work of an SEO consultant can be easily undermined if the reviews on Google Page One are horrible.  

If dealers do not identify customers that have Gmail accounts, they lose the opportunity to leverage the Google +1 button or connect with their customers on Google+.  Both of these marketing tools greatly influence local search results.

If dealers do not create customer testimonial videos or educational walk-around videos, the SEO strategist has little to work with to create ENGAGING Video SEO strategies.

Google Has Leveled The Field

In some ways, Google has leveled the playing field.  They have pushed some of the SEO responsibilities back to the business owner.  This is good if the dealership understands their role and executes effectively with the guidance of their SEO partner.  

It's bad if dealers believes that their SEO company can operate independently of their engagement.  If dealers want the strongest local SEO strategy to work for their brand, they have to lend a hand.

If you have an SEO vendor partner, make sure you ask them what your contribution must be to ensure success. If they tell you that you have to do nothing, this should be a warning flag.

Maximizing your search visibility during the Zero Moment of Truth is critical.  The point of this post is that you can't outsource 100% of the work and expect market dominating success.

Is content, links, and a comprehensive strategy still relevant?  Yes.  Just don't be surprised when that strategy has some homework for your dealership staff!

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Consulting Services

brian@pcgmailer.com

Working with many dealers across the United States and Canada has allowed me to tinker with over 40 different website platforms designed for the automotive industry.

Being part of the Automotive Website Awards (AWA) review committee has also allowed me to get to know the developers of many fine website platforms.

So here we are in 2012 and there are some website features that are not universally provided by website companies that I think should be a part of their core platform.  

You may have more things you want to add on my Automotive Website Wish List below. My requests are based on marketing and analytical needs.  Members of Internet/BDC or Fixed Ops departments will have a different perspective for sure, but here is my top 5.  

(Some providers deliver a few of these items, but none that I am aware of provide all.)

Automotive Website Wish List

1. Ability for a dealer or advertising agency to use their own Adwords account to setup ads that pass tracking phone numbers to website (on a click) so that all phone numbers dynamically change on the website during the PPC session.
2. Ability for dealer to setup multiple Adwords retargeting audiences based on types of pages.  For example, a backend menu choice that allows retargeting code fields that are applied to specific groups of pages; (i.e  Used Car VDP's, New Car VDP's, Service Pages, Parts Pages).
3. Ability to have a editable and distinct thank you pages (new URL) that are displayed after a lead is submitted.  Ideally, you would want a thank you page for new car, used car, service, parts, and finance leads.  This allows you to setup "Goals" in Google Analytics for lead submissions.
4. Website forms that submit data to a ILM/CRM system, include the referring URL or search keyword that was used to drive the consumer to the website.  The data can be added into the comments field automatically since it is not supported in the current ADF specification.
5. Website management reports that pull all important data from Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools.  Webmaster Tools is often omitted and has valuable insights that would benefit dealers.

So, that's what I would like to see being standardized on all website platforms.  

What would you add to this wishlist?

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO 

PCG Consulting 

Join me on LinkedIn

Brian Pasch

Working with many dealers across the United States and Canada has allowed me to tinker with over 40 different website platforms designed for the automotive industry.

Being part of the Automotive Website Awards (AWA) review committee has also allowed me to get to know the developers of many fine website platforms.

So here we are in 2012 and there are some website features that are not universally provided by website companies that I think should be a part of their core platform.  

You may have more things you want to add on my Automotive Website Wish List below. My requests are based on marketing and analytical needs.  Members of Internet/BDC or Fixed Ops departments will have a different perspective for sure, but here is my top 5.  

(Some providers deliver a few of these items, but none that I am aware of provide all.)

Automotive Website Wish List

1. Ability for a dealer or advertising agency to use their own Adwords account to setup ads that pass tracking phone numbers to website (on a click) so that all phone numbers dynamically change on the website during the PPC session.
2. Ability for dealer to setup multiple Adwords retargeting audiences based on types of pages.  For example, a backend menu choice that allows retargeting code fields that are applied to specific groups of pages; (i.e  Used Car VDP's, New Car VDP's, Service Pages, Parts Pages).
3. Ability to have a editable and distinct thank you pages (new URL) that are displayed after a lead is submitted.  Ideally, you would want a thank you page for new car, used car, service, parts, and finance leads.  This allows you to setup "Goals" in Google Analytics for lead submissions.
4. Website forms that submit data to a ILM/CRM system, include the referring URL or search keyword that was used to drive the consumer to the website.  The data can be added into the comments field automatically since it is not supported in the current ADF specification.
5. Website management reports that pull all important data from Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools.  Webmaster Tools is often omitted and has valuable insights that would benefit dealers.

So, that's what I would like to see being standardized on all website platforms.  

What would you add to this wishlist?

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO 

PCG Consulting 

Join me on LinkedIn

Brian Pasch