If you are collecting American Express points for your summer vacation and already advertise on Facebook, you might as well get 3X the points until April 22, 2012.  

Today I received an email from Amex outlining the Facebook 3x Advertising promotion which you can read below or visit their website page.

If you have decided to test Facebook pay-per-click advertising in 2012, this may get you moving a little faster! 

Many dealers are testing Facebook advertising so if you have been having success with Facebook, take a minute to share your results with the DrivingSales Community.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences

Brian Pasch

If you are collecting American Express points for your summer vacation and already advertise on Facebook, you might as well get 3X the points until April 22, 2012.  

Today I received an email from Amex outlining the Facebook 3x Advertising promotion which you can read below or visit their website page.

If you have decided to test Facebook pay-per-click advertising in 2012, this may get you moving a little faster! 

Many dealers are testing Facebook advertising so if you have been having success with Facebook, take a minute to share your results with the DrivingSales Community.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences

Brian Pasch

To kick off the new year, I would like to start a discussion on automotive advertising and dealer messaging strategies.

This blog post was inspired by the PCG Pit Stop Conferences where DrivingSales' own  Dennis Galbraith was as one of the featured speakers.

Dennis challenged car dealers to evaluate the messaging of their traditional media investments.  

Dennis asked dealers who focused on "price" or "payment" advertising what the ROI of their investment yielded once the "limited time" sale was over.  

That was a very bold challenge by Dennis knowing that dealers often turn to payment and price advertising strategies on a 30-day window, rather than focusing on branding or creating a unique value proposition.  

The later takes more thought and a comprehensive/patient strategy that spans more than 30-60-90 days.

Looking In The Mirror

So, dealers in the DrivingSales community, I would like to ask you: "Are your Radio, TV, and newspaper advertisements focused on price and payment?  

Do you think advertising a car with a payment like $199 a month on radio is effective?

Could your "payment" based advertisements really be white noise?  

How many OEM's and local dealers are advertising "payments" that sound very similar to your ads?

Can you really be objective?

I think payment advertising is WHITE NOISE.  

•  - Consumers KNOW that every month a SALE is going on at dealerships in their market.  
• - Consumers have come to KNOW that ADVERTISED payments may not reflect their true financial obligations.  
• - Consumers have EXPERIENCED bait and switch marketing in many industries.
• - Price/Payment does not gives consumers a REASON to choose your dealership.

So, the question for dealers today is whether they feel that they need to be part of the herd or is their marketing and advertising message getting away from payments and discounts?

If your OEM is advertising lease payments nationally, should you follow their strategy or build a strategy that focuses on your own Unique Value Proposition (UVP)?  

Do you have a UVP?

What are you finding effective in your market?

What Is An Alternative

I say let everyone beat each other up on Radio, TV, and Print that wants to fight the "My Payment Is Lower Than Your Payment" war.   Your traditional marketing should make you stand out, so think out of the box.

Then use paid search to buy keywords that include the words "price", "payment", "lease", "sale" that surround your brand and also to conquest others.  Jason Ezell from Dataium shared that consumers who use the word "price" in their search phrases are significantly more likely to call or submit a lead.

With that said, have you tested your search visibility for phrases that include "price", "lease", or "payment"?  If you are a Honda dealer, go to Google and type search phrases like:

• Honda Accord Lease
• Honda Accord Prices
• 2012 Honda Accord Lease
• Honda Accord Sale
• 2012 Honda Accord

Are you on page one organicially?  For 99% of dealers the answer will be NO because there is no localized search word in these examples.   These are "national" searches but consumers type these in anyway. 

So you need Adwords to be on Page One. If you are using Adwords, are you on Page One? What does your ad say?  Where does it take you?   Are you pleased with what you found?

Attracting "Price" Conscience Consumers Online Is 5x Cheaper

Don't miss the opportunity to capture consumers who are focused on price during the Zero Moment of Truth.  It's much easier to catch them online then to pay large sums of money for the battle of "white noise".  

Let your OEM and other dealers generate "payment" awareness and capture the low hanging fruit with targeted search strategies for consumers who are payment focused.  

Share you thoughts with the DrivingSales community and Happy New Year!

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

To kick off the new year, I would like to start a discussion on automotive advertising and dealer messaging strategies.

This blog post was inspired by the PCG Pit Stop Conferences where DrivingSales' own  Dennis Galbraith was as one of the featured speakers.

Dennis challenged car dealers to evaluate the messaging of their traditional media investments.  

Dennis asked dealers who focused on "price" or "payment" advertising what the ROI of their investment yielded once the "limited time" sale was over.  

That was a very bold challenge by Dennis knowing that dealers often turn to payment and price advertising strategies on a 30-day window, rather than focusing on branding or creating a unique value proposition.  

The later takes more thought and a comprehensive/patient strategy that spans more than 30-60-90 days.

Looking In The Mirror

So, dealers in the DrivingSales community, I would like to ask you: "Are your Radio, TV, and newspaper advertisements focused on price and payment?  

Do you think advertising a car with a payment like $199 a month on radio is effective?

Could your "payment" based advertisements really be white noise?  

How many OEM's and local dealers are advertising "payments" that sound very similar to your ads?

Can you really be objective?

I think payment advertising is WHITE NOISE.  

•  - Consumers KNOW that every month a SALE is going on at dealerships in their market.  
• - Consumers have come to KNOW that ADVERTISED payments may not reflect their true financial obligations.  
• - Consumers have EXPERIENCED bait and switch marketing in many industries.
• - Price/Payment does not gives consumers a REASON to choose your dealership.

So, the question for dealers today is whether they feel that they need to be part of the herd or is their marketing and advertising message getting away from payments and discounts?

If your OEM is advertising lease payments nationally, should you follow their strategy or build a strategy that focuses on your own Unique Value Proposition (UVP)?  

Do you have a UVP?

What are you finding effective in your market?

What Is An Alternative

I say let everyone beat each other up on Radio, TV, and Print that wants to fight the "My Payment Is Lower Than Your Payment" war.   Your traditional marketing should make you stand out, so think out of the box.

Then use paid search to buy keywords that include the words "price", "payment", "lease", "sale" that surround your brand and also to conquest others.  Jason Ezell from Dataium shared that consumers who use the word "price" in their search phrases are significantly more likely to call or submit a lead.

With that said, have you tested your search visibility for phrases that include "price", "lease", or "payment"?  If you are a Honda dealer, go to Google and type search phrases like:

• Honda Accord Lease
• Honda Accord Prices
• 2012 Honda Accord Lease
• Honda Accord Sale
• 2012 Honda Accord

Are you on page one organicially?  For 99% of dealers the answer will be NO because there is no localized search word in these examples.   These are "national" searches but consumers type these in anyway. 

So you need Adwords to be on Page One. If you are using Adwords, are you on Page One? What does your ad say?  Where does it take you?   Are you pleased with what you found?

Attracting "Price" Conscience Consumers Online Is 5x Cheaper

Don't miss the opportunity to capture consumers who are focused on price during the Zero Moment of Truth.  It's much easier to catch them online then to pay large sums of money for the battle of "white noise".  

Let your OEM and other dealers generate "payment" awareness and capture the low hanging fruit with targeted search strategies for consumers who are payment focused.  

Share you thoughts with the DrivingSales community and Happy New Year!

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

Have you been able to quantify how much Autotrader, Cars.com, or other third party classified websites contribute to your dealership's ability to sell more cars?  

Have you questioned the importance of alternative classified websites like Craigslist or Ebay?  

I started off with these questions because if you are a car dealer using any of these services, you most likely have been frustrated getting answers on the ROI of third party classified websites.  

Industry leaders like Dennis Galbraith have rightly suggested that dealers should look at Vehicle Detail Page (VDP) views per month and SRP's as one benchmark of value.  (Read Article)

Dealers frankly, wanted more confirmation and I'll let you decide if this is another way to confirm your digital marketing investments.

Your Best Kept Secret

Today, we have some other ways to look at your best kept secrets!  Why do I use the term secret to describe your digital investments that everyone knows about?  For years, dealers have only had a partial understanding regarding the source of their website traffic.   

What I have found out is that there are Secret Santas bearing gifts to dealers that they did not know about!  Would you like to find our who your Secret Santas are?  I'll show you, but let's see why dealers didn't know this is the past.

Dealers were told to look at "referring" website statistics, which is the LAST website that brought a consumer to your website.  What we did not see is what other websites influenced their behavior during the Zero Moment of Truth.

Autotrader Assisted Conversions

Consider this flow diagram below:

This diagram illustrates a consumer who was first exposed to dealer inventory on Autotrader and then did a Google search and then typed into the dealers website address.  Traditionally, Google Analytics would show this consumer is a "direct visitor" and Autotrader would not get any credit.  

It is clear now that Autotrader did influence this visit.  In this example, it is not unreasonable to consider that the consumer got the dealer's name from the VDP listing, did a search and went to their main website.  In this example, Autotrader is the dealer's Secret Santa.

Autotrader in this shopping funnel example is part of a group of steps called Assisted Conversions.  Multi-Channel Funnel conversions are linked to "goals".  Google Analytics goals can be set to represent a lead being submitted.  

Goals can also be created for any other behavior you want to measure.  Goals can be set to trigger when a consumer views your used car inventory listing page, which could give you insights to what sources are driving traffic to view your inventory.

Finding Your Best Kept Secrets

Take a look at a section of the Google Multi Channel Sales Funnel reports for a Mazda dealer and you can see how much richer the consumer shopping experience can be documented.  Your best kept secret may just be the service that you were considering canceling.  For this dealer, it is obvious that Craiglist is also one of their Secret Santas!

Create A Robust Set of Channel Rules

Taking a look at how I setup these "Channel Rules" below, you will see that I included rules for the OEM website, Group Website, and you can make rules for all your digital investments.    This is just a small snapshot of data from the larger dataset so not all Assisting Conversion websites were displayed in the report above.    

I'll be presenting a complete report of insights that I have discovered at 2012 DMSC, but here is an example of the rules that I setup for this dealer:

Are You Using Multi Channel Sales Funnels?

I've been writing about Google Multi-Channel Sales Funnels for the past few months and I am preparing to share my findings at the 2012 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) in Las Vegas, February 1-3rd.  I wanted to give you a sneak peek on what this new tool is showing car dealers and how this impacts their marketing investments.

I believe that data provided from free tools like this and richer data sets provided by Dataium, will make 2012 the year of dealership analytics.  I believe that progressive dealers, when presented with opportunities like show above, will want to look into how their marketing investments are truly paying off.

Don't miss this opportunity to gain better insights into your existing website traffic and your chance to find your Secret Santa!

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

Have you been able to quantify how much Autotrader, Cars.com, or other third party classified websites contribute to your dealership's ability to sell more cars?  

Have you questioned the importance of alternative classified websites like Craigslist or Ebay?  

I started off with these questions because if you are a car dealer using any of these services, you most likely have been frustrated getting answers on the ROI of third party classified websites.  

Industry leaders like Dennis Galbraith have rightly suggested that dealers should look at Vehicle Detail Page (VDP) views per month and SRP's as one benchmark of value.  (Read Article)

Dealers frankly, wanted more confirmation and I'll let you decide if this is another way to confirm your digital marketing investments.

Your Best Kept Secret

Today, we have some other ways to look at your best kept secrets!  Why do I use the term secret to describe your digital investments that everyone knows about?  For years, dealers have only had a partial understanding regarding the source of their website traffic.   

What I have found out is that there are Secret Santas bearing gifts to dealers that they did not know about!  Would you like to find our who your Secret Santas are?  I'll show you, but let's see why dealers didn't know this is the past.

Dealers were told to look at "referring" website statistics, which is the LAST website that brought a consumer to your website.  What we did not see is what other websites influenced their behavior during the Zero Moment of Truth.

Autotrader Assisted Conversions

Consider this flow diagram below:

This diagram illustrates a consumer who was first exposed to dealer inventory on Autotrader and then did a Google search and then typed into the dealers website address.  Traditionally, Google Analytics would show this consumer is a "direct visitor" and Autotrader would not get any credit.  

It is clear now that Autotrader did influence this visit.  In this example, it is not unreasonable to consider that the consumer got the dealer's name from the VDP listing, did a search and went to their main website.  In this example, Autotrader is the dealer's Secret Santa.

Autotrader in this shopping funnel example is part of a group of steps called Assisted Conversions.  Multi-Channel Funnel conversions are linked to "goals".  Google Analytics goals can be set to represent a lead being submitted.  

Goals can also be created for any other behavior you want to measure.  Goals can be set to trigger when a consumer views your used car inventory listing page, which could give you insights to what sources are driving traffic to view your inventory.

Finding Your Best Kept Secrets

Take a look at a section of the Google Multi Channel Sales Funnel reports for a Mazda dealer and you can see how much richer the consumer shopping experience can be documented.  Your best kept secret may just be the service that you were considering canceling.  For this dealer, it is obvious that Craiglist is also one of their Secret Santas!

Create A Robust Set of Channel Rules

Taking a look at how I setup these "Channel Rules" below, you will see that I included rules for the OEM website, Group Website, and you can make rules for all your digital investments.    This is just a small snapshot of data from the larger dataset so not all Assisting Conversion websites were displayed in the report above.    

I'll be presenting a complete report of insights that I have discovered at 2012 DMSC, but here is an example of the rules that I setup for this dealer:

Are You Using Multi Channel Sales Funnels?

I've been writing about Google Multi-Channel Sales Funnels for the past few months and I am preparing to share my findings at the 2012 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) in Las Vegas, February 1-3rd.  I wanted to give you a sneak peek on what this new tool is showing car dealers and how this impacts their marketing investments.

I believe that data provided from free tools like this and richer data sets provided by Dataium, will make 2012 the year of dealership analytics.  I believe that progressive dealers, when presented with opportunities like show above, will want to look into how their marketing investments are truly paying off.

Don't miss this opportunity to gain better insights into your existing website traffic and your chance to find your Secret Santa!

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

Have you ever wanted to see which websites and influences during the Zero Moment of Truth resulted in the highest conversions or achieved goals set by your marketing strategy?  

Do you want more information on which websites are "assisting" conversion so you can properly give them credit?

I wrote about Google Analytics Multi-Channel Sales Funnels in the past, but as I have been tinkering with the setup, it is clear that dealers should take action for better visibility in 2012.

So If you want to have greater visibility of the ROI on your 2012 Digital Marketing Investments, follow these 4 steps:

1. Make Sure Analytics and Adwords Are Linked

In order to fully leverage the Google Analytics data which will show the digital influences that result in the most conversions, you need to link Google Analytics and Adwords. If you are NOT using Adwords, then add that as a fifth step for 2012 action items.  

You can read how to Link Google Adwords to Analytics on the Google support forum. The linking allows conversions (lead forms) from Adwords to be tracked in the Multi Channel Sales Funnel reports.  Google Analytics "goals" can also be imported into Adwords for additional insights into your Adwords ROI.

2. Make Sure Conversion Tracking Is Setup in Adwords

You will want to be make sure that when a consumer submits a lead on your website from Adwords, that that conversion is tracked.  Google Adwords provides the tracking website "code" which your website provider must install.  If your website provider has technology that can't support conversion tracking, get a new website platform.

Oddly, many Adwords accounts that I view do not have conversion code installed.  Without conversion code, you are shooting blindly with your Adwords dollars.

3. Setup Google Analytics Goals

Leads are only one aspect of website traffic that you will want to track.  There are many reasons why you would like to see which influences create a more engaged visitor.  That engagement level can be measured in time on site or by the number of pages viewed.   You may be also interested to see which influences drive consumers to specific landing pages that have value to your marketing strategy.

4. Setup Channel Rules To Track Specific Influencers

In the graphic above, you can see that Google preloads a number of rules that can help identify that types of websites that can assist in a conversion. Those are rules 1-7 shown above.

I am suggesting that dealers add a number of rules that specifically apply to the automotive business.  You can setup a rule for your classified partners, blogs, social media sites, charitable endeavors, etc.

If you use a third party email services, you can create a rule to identify visitors from your email vendor.  This will allow you to see what email blast visitors look like in the sales funnel compared to organic visitors or PPC visitors.

By setting up these rules, you can see graphically which websites in the ZMOT are assisting the most with conversions that you predefine.  Google will display consumer interaction with these sites only for the last 30 days.

Setup A Stronger Digital Strategy for 2012

I hope you found this Analytics feature helpful in defining a better set of reports and processes to inspect your marketing investments in 2012.  Don't snooze on this great opportunity for better visibility into your existing website traffic.

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

Have you ever wanted to see which websites and influences during the Zero Moment of Truth resulted in the highest conversions or achieved goals set by your marketing strategy?  

Do you want more information on which websites are "assisting" conversion so you can properly give them credit?

I wrote about Google Analytics Multi-Channel Sales Funnels in the past, but as I have been tinkering with the setup, it is clear that dealers should take action for better visibility in 2012.

So If you want to have greater visibility of the ROI on your 2012 Digital Marketing Investments, follow these 4 steps:

1. Make Sure Analytics and Adwords Are Linked

In order to fully leverage the Google Analytics data which will show the digital influences that result in the most conversions, you need to link Google Analytics and Adwords. If you are NOT using Adwords, then add that as a fifth step for 2012 action items.  

You can read how to Link Google Adwords to Analytics on the Google support forum. The linking allows conversions (lead forms) from Adwords to be tracked in the Multi Channel Sales Funnel reports.  Google Analytics "goals" can also be imported into Adwords for additional insights into your Adwords ROI.

2. Make Sure Conversion Tracking Is Setup in Adwords

You will want to be make sure that when a consumer submits a lead on your website from Adwords, that that conversion is tracked.  Google Adwords provides the tracking website "code" which your website provider must install.  If your website provider has technology that can't support conversion tracking, get a new website platform.

Oddly, many Adwords accounts that I view do not have conversion code installed.  Without conversion code, you are shooting blindly with your Adwords dollars.

3. Setup Google Analytics Goals

Leads are only one aspect of website traffic that you will want to track.  There are many reasons why you would like to see which influences create a more engaged visitor.  That engagement level can be measured in time on site or by the number of pages viewed.   You may be also interested to see which influences drive consumers to specific landing pages that have value to your marketing strategy.

4. Setup Channel Rules To Track Specific Influencers

In the graphic above, you can see that Google preloads a number of rules that can help identify that types of websites that can assist in a conversion. Those are rules 1-7 shown above.

I am suggesting that dealers add a number of rules that specifically apply to the automotive business.  You can setup a rule for your classified partners, blogs, social media sites, charitable endeavors, etc.

If you use a third party email services, you can create a rule to identify visitors from your email vendor.  This will allow you to see what email blast visitors look like in the sales funnel compared to organic visitors or PPC visitors.

By setting up these rules, you can see graphically which websites in the ZMOT are assisting the most with conversions that you predefine.  Google will display consumer interaction with these sites only for the last 30 days.

Setup A Stronger Digital Strategy for 2012

I hope you found this Analytics feature helpful in defining a better set of reports and processes to inspect your marketing investments in 2012.  Don't snooze on this great opportunity for better visibility into your existing website traffic.

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

The automotive industry is buzzing about TrueCar^© and their business model.  Critics say that the customer sales data and transaction prices, pulled from their DMS by TrueCar.com, are being used against dealers.  Advocates claim that TrueCar arms consumers with data and pricing that will get them the best deal.

Dealers who have decided to continue using TrueCar^© that I interviewed remarked "Close your eyes Brian, it's just a numbers game!".  Should I be surprised at this response when OEM goals are focused on volume and not dealership profits?  

Other current users who are selling cars through the program remarked, "I want to get off the drug (TrueCar^©/ZAG^©) but I'm afraid."  

I have also heard a similar comment referring to TV, Radio, and Newspaper investments that dealers have used for years. 

This fear based comment is what sparked this article.

This post is not designed to continue the heated discussion about TrueCar^© on a different thread.  I wanted to challenge dealers that there are alternatives to generating leads if they decide not to participate with third party agents.  

There is a bigger problem at play that is supporting the existence of TrueCar^© that needs to be addressed.

Before You Kick The Dog

A majority of dealership marketing budgets are allocated to radio, TV, and newspaper, in some combination, despite research that shows that most car buyers will visit the dealership website and 18 other Internet sites before calling submitting a lead, or coming into the showroom.  (Zero Moment of Truth)

This behavior is the real story behind the TrueCar^© dilemma.  If dealers had a strong digital marketing strategy that they owned, they would be less reliant on any third party solution.  They would be generating more first party leads and not reliant on leads distributed to multiple dealers in their market.

Should I Cancel Autotrader?

No, I have not lost focus on the main story!  I want to connect a predictable behavior at 20 Group meetings across the US with this story.  It is inevitable when I give a workshop of digital marketing strategy that I am asked:

"If I do the things you are recommending, can I cancel  Autotrader and Cars.com?"

After years of not having a great answer to this question, I believe I now have an educated response.  Autotrader and Cars.com are not the big problem in car dealer budgets.  In fact, they are probably the LAST thing a typical dealer should consider eliminating.

For thousands of dealers AutoTrader and Cars.com represent the majority of the digital marketing strategy.  If you include a few dollars for Google Adwords spending, many dealers think they have maximized their online strategy.  This is the crux of the problem.  This is not a winning strategy.

Dealers love to hate Autotrader and Cars.com but fail to see that their own addiction to drugs (traditional media) is the bigger problem.   They say that Autotrader.com does not generate enough leads, making it expensive.  After looking at hundreds of budgets during our Automotive ZMOT Study that was started in September, dealers should be more mad at their own investments in Radio, TV, and Print.

Before dealers kick their third party digital vendors, they should take a hard look at the actions, or lack of action,  that have created their dependency.   This is why this applies to TrueCar^© regardless if you don't like their business model.  

Traditional Advertising Costs To Generate a Visitor

Take a minute to follow me on a calculation to approximate marketing costs and website traffic.

Let's first start with one building block:  Most of your customers who purchase a car will visit your website BEFORE they purchase a car.

Not all, I said most.

If you can agree on this point, we can look at Google Analytics and your call tracking logs as a proxy for marketing investments.

The second point of agreement we need to have is how to approximate the impact of traditional advertising.  Let's look at one example below.

I recently visited a dealer that invested heavily in radio and TV to comunicate their unique brand message and also to promote their website address.  They did not advertise price or payments.  Their unique selling proposition always included their website address and of course their dealership name.

If we were very generous in regards to their $50,000 a month traditional Radio and TV investment, we could take all the visitor traffic on Google Analytics that included a search on the Dealership Name as well as Direct Traffic.  

Direct traffic is when the consumer typed in the website address directly.  We could also count how many calls were generated by a tracking number assigned to traditional media.

The dealership was running a Google Adwords campaign at $2,500 a month which easily gives a cost per visitor.   The dealership also was investing in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), DealerRater.com, Cars.com, Autotrader.com, and 3rd Party Leads. 

• - The cost per visitor for their Adwords was: $1.50
• - The cost per visitor from their Traditional Media was: $18.65

Despite these numbers, the dealership budget was 63% Traditional Advertising.  The Dealer was also spending 25% of their budget on Third Party Classifieds and Leads.  88% of their budget was managed by generic advertising partners with little control on making their dealership unique in the Zero Moment of Truth. 

• - Looking at these numbers, wouldn't you think that the dealership would increase their Google Adwords spending to generate more first party leads at a lower cost?
• - Would you think the dealer would have invested in an IRM or Video Marketing Strategy?
• - Would you think that the dealer would look at their Cost per VDP view on Autotrader.com and Cars.com and compare how these investments merchandise their inventory compared to radio, TV, and print?

The Dealership Digital Strategy

This dealer really didn't have a digital strategy that differentiate themselves from other local dealers.  What they had was a traditional marketing strategy with a sprinkle of EASY digital expenses that they were "uncomfortable" with generating a good ROI.  

No one took the time to look at the cost to get interested shoppers to their website.  

It's too easy to avoid arguing with the dealer principal who may be addicted to traditional media drugs, right?

So, if this is the rule rather than the exception, it's easy to see why dealers use third party lead generations websites, including TrueCar^© to hit their sales goals.   They don't feel that they have an alternative.  Selling cars now is all that matters to dealers on the 30 day gerbil wheel. 

I go back to the one dealer comment "It's all about volume!".

If dealerships took more leadership in their online strategy, the third party partners remaining would be people who added value and not out of fear or obligation.  Dealers would be empowered to cut anyone who did not support their brand or delivered ROI.

That's the story behind the TrueCar^© story.  If dealers had the balls to change their marketing investments to connect with where consumers shop, they would have more first party leads and be more in control of their business.  They would be able to opt-out of TrueCar if they felt the company was a competitor because they had strong alternative digital strategies.

Dealers who hate the TrueCar^© model and stay with the program may do so because they feel that they have no alternatives.  The truth is that they have alternatives. 

It takes courage to get off drugs (traditional media over spending)  and focus on the investments that have the best ROI today.  

For this dealer, Cars.com and Autotrader.com had a better ROI than the radio and TV investments this dealer was making.  Is that a surprise?  Stop kicking the wrong dog.

Do You Need A Digital Strategy?

If this story reminds you of your dealership, isn't it time to roll-up your sleeves and create a First party lead strategy?  Isn't it time to have a stronger presence during the Zero Moment of Truth?

One place to start is to attend the 2012 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) on February 1-3rd just prior to NADA.

You can register online before tickets are sold out by visiting http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org.

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

* ZAG^© and TrueCar^© copyright True Car Inc.

The automotive industry is buzzing about TrueCar^© and their business model.  Critics say that the customer sales data and transaction prices, pulled from their DMS by TrueCar.com, are being used against dealers.  Advocates claim that TrueCar arms consumers with data and pricing that will get them the best deal.

Dealers who have decided to continue using TrueCar^© that I interviewed remarked "Close your eyes Brian, it's just a numbers game!".  Should I be surprised at this response when OEM goals are focused on volume and not dealership profits?  

Other current users who are selling cars through the program remarked, "I want to get off the drug (TrueCar^©/ZAG^©) but I'm afraid."  

I have also heard a similar comment referring to TV, Radio, and Newspaper investments that dealers have used for years. 

This fear based comment is what sparked this article.

This post is not designed to continue the heated discussion about TrueCar^© on a different thread.  I wanted to challenge dealers that there are alternatives to generating leads if they decide not to participate with third party agents.  

There is a bigger problem at play that is supporting the existence of TrueCar^© that needs to be addressed.

Before You Kick The Dog

A majority of dealership marketing budgets are allocated to radio, TV, and newspaper, in some combination, despite research that shows that most car buyers will visit the dealership website and 18 other Internet sites before calling submitting a lead, or coming into the showroom.  (Zero Moment of Truth)

This behavior is the real story behind the TrueCar^© dilemma.  If dealers had a strong digital marketing strategy that they owned, they would be less reliant on any third party solution.  They would be generating more first party leads and not reliant on leads distributed to multiple dealers in their market.

Should I Cancel Autotrader?

No, I have not lost focus on the main story!  I want to connect a predictable behavior at 20 Group meetings across the US with this story.  It is inevitable when I give a workshop of digital marketing strategy that I am asked:

"If I do the things you are recommending, can I cancel  Autotrader and Cars.com?"

After years of not having a great answer to this question, I believe I now have an educated response.  Autotrader and Cars.com are not the big problem in car dealer budgets.  In fact, they are probably the LAST thing a typical dealer should consider eliminating.

For thousands of dealers AutoTrader and Cars.com represent the majority of the digital marketing strategy.  If you include a few dollars for Google Adwords spending, many dealers think they have maximized their online strategy.  This is the crux of the problem.  This is not a winning strategy.

Dealers love to hate Autotrader and Cars.com but fail to see that their own addiction to drugs (traditional media) is the bigger problem.   They say that Autotrader.com does not generate enough leads, making it expensive.  After looking at hundreds of budgets during our Automotive ZMOT Study that was started in September, dealers should be more mad at their own investments in Radio, TV, and Print.

Before dealers kick their third party digital vendors, they should take a hard look at the actions, or lack of action,  that have created their dependency.   This is why this applies to TrueCar^© regardless if you don't like their business model.  

Traditional Advertising Costs To Generate a Visitor

Take a minute to follow me on a calculation to approximate marketing costs and website traffic.

Let's first start with one building block:  Most of your customers who purchase a car will visit your website BEFORE they purchase a car.

Not all, I said most.

If you can agree on this point, we can look at Google Analytics and your call tracking logs as a proxy for marketing investments.

The second point of agreement we need to have is how to approximate the impact of traditional advertising.  Let's look at one example below.

I recently visited a dealer that invested heavily in radio and TV to comunicate their unique brand message and also to promote their website address.  They did not advertise price or payments.  Their unique selling proposition always included their website address and of course their dealership name.

If we were very generous in regards to their $50,000 a month traditional Radio and TV investment, we could take all the visitor traffic on Google Analytics that included a search on the Dealership Name as well as Direct Traffic.  

Direct traffic is when the consumer typed in the website address directly.  We could also count how many calls were generated by a tracking number assigned to traditional media.

The dealership was running a Google Adwords campaign at $2,500 a month which easily gives a cost per visitor.   The dealership also was investing in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), DealerRater.com, Cars.com, Autotrader.com, and 3rd Party Leads. 

• - The cost per visitor for their Adwords was: $1.50
• - The cost per visitor from their Traditional Media was: $18.65

Despite these numbers, the dealership budget was 63% Traditional Advertising.  The Dealer was also spending 25% of their budget on Third Party Classifieds and Leads.  88% of their budget was managed by generic advertising partners with little control on making their dealership unique in the Zero Moment of Truth. 

• - Looking at these numbers, wouldn't you think that the dealership would increase their Google Adwords spending to generate more first party leads at a lower cost?
• - Would you think the dealer would have invested in an IRM or Video Marketing Strategy?
• - Would you think that the dealer would look at their Cost per VDP view on Autotrader.com and Cars.com and compare how these investments merchandise their inventory compared to radio, TV, and print?

The Dealership Digital Strategy

This dealer really didn't have a digital strategy that differentiate themselves from other local dealers.  What they had was a traditional marketing strategy with a sprinkle of EASY digital expenses that they were "uncomfortable" with generating a good ROI.  

No one took the time to look at the cost to get interested shoppers to their website.  

It's too easy to avoid arguing with the dealer principal who may be addicted to traditional media drugs, right?

So, if this is the rule rather than the exception, it's easy to see why dealers use third party lead generations websites, including TrueCar^© to hit their sales goals.   They don't feel that they have an alternative.  Selling cars now is all that matters to dealers on the 30 day gerbil wheel. 

I go back to the one dealer comment "It's all about volume!".

If dealerships took more leadership in their online strategy, the third party partners remaining would be people who added value and not out of fear or obligation.  Dealers would be empowered to cut anyone who did not support their brand or delivered ROI.

That's the story behind the TrueCar^© story.  If dealers had the balls to change their marketing investments to connect with where consumers shop, they would have more first party leads and be more in control of their business.  They would be able to opt-out of TrueCar if they felt the company was a competitor because they had strong alternative digital strategies.

Dealers who hate the TrueCar^© model and stay with the program may do so because they feel that they have no alternatives.  The truth is that they have alternatives. 

It takes courage to get off drugs (traditional media over spending)  and focus on the investments that have the best ROI today.  

For this dealer, Cars.com and Autotrader.com had a better ROI than the radio and TV investments this dealer was making.  Is that a surprise?  Stop kicking the wrong dog.

Do You Need A Digital Strategy?

If this story reminds you of your dealership, isn't it time to roll-up your sleeves and create a First party lead strategy?  Isn't it time to have a stronger presence during the Zero Moment of Truth?

One place to start is to attend the 2012 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) on February 1-3rd just prior to NADA.

You can register online before tickets are sold out by visiting http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org.

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

* ZAG^© and TrueCar^© copyright True Car Inc.