PCG Consulting Inc
Yelp Survey on Relevance of Yellow Pages Books
Today I received an email from Yelp.com that disclosed a summary of a recent poll they conducted on the Relevance of Yellow Pages books. For those of you who grew up with that huge yellow doorstop delivered to your home twice a year, you can wax nostalgically.
It wasn't long ago that my friend told me that he was paying $250,000 a year to have his ad on the back cover the the county edition of the yellow pages. All I could think about was how much advertising using Google Adwords that would buy.
Does your automotive advertising strategy still include the printed Yellow Pages?
Yelp Survey Results
Here is what was contained in the email (in italics) and I thought I would share their findings with this community:
Last week, we presented a survey to gauge how business owners feel about yellow page phone books in the digital age. Only 24% of our 3,500+ respondents said "Yes" to the question, “Are yellow page phone books still relevant?”
That's quite a find. Here are some others:
1) Most business owners don't think yellow page phone books are useful to them:
“Yellow page phone books are useful to me as a business owner.”
Agree - 11%
Somewhat Agree - 17%
Somewhat Disagree - 19%
Disagree - 52%
2) Only about 10% of business owners use yellow page phone books more than once per month; 3 out of 4 don't use it at all:
How many times per month do you rely on a yellow page phone book to find a local business?
“Zero” - 75%
“Once” - 14%
“Between two and four times” - 8%
“Five or more times” - 3%
3) Very few business owners believe customers find them using a yellow page phone book.
Estimated percentage of customers who find me using a yellow page phone book.
“0%” - 43%
“1-25%” - 47%
“26-50%” - 5%
“51-75%” - 3%
“76-99%” - 1%
“100%” - 0.1%
The conclusion (according to Yelp): Business owners have clearly observed the shrinking relevance of yellow page phone books. As we continue to move away from printed phone books, online and mobile directories will continue to grow as the customer's choice for local business information.
My Thoughts
You may be laughing at those who still pay large sums of money to be in the printed Yellow Pages. Before you point the finger, consider what current advertising investments you are making that are in place because they are on auto-pilot?
Are there any advertising channels that are just being used because they worked in the past? Are you in TV, radio, and paper because you are continually testing those channels or is it because there would be a General Manager rebellion if you reduced those budgets.
Could reducing budgets in traditional media be better spent elsewhere? Retargeting? Facebook Advertising? Google Boost? Have you tested these three channels?
There are no simple answers to finding the perfect mix. Getting to the right balance requires a more thorough testing strategy that most dealers are not patient enough to see to the end. That's where I see a great opportunity for my company; helping dealers find that balance.
Innovative dealers are testing new strategies and if the three opportunities I listed above have never been tested at your dealership, your delay may be as silly as a full page ad in the Yellow Pages!
PCG Consulting Inc
Yelp Survey on Relevance of Yellow Pages Books
Today I received an email from Yelp.com that disclosed a summary of a recent poll they conducted on the Relevance of Yellow Pages books. For those of you who grew up with that huge yellow doorstop delivered to your home twice a year, you can wax nostalgically.
It wasn't long ago that my friend told me that he was paying $250,000 a year to have his ad on the back cover the the county edition of the yellow pages. All I could think about was how much advertising using Google Adwords that would buy.
Does your automotive advertising strategy still include the printed Yellow Pages?
Yelp Survey Results
Here is what was contained in the email (in italics) and I thought I would share their findings with this community:
Last week, we presented a survey to gauge how business owners feel about yellow page phone books in the digital age. Only 24% of our 3,500+ respondents said "Yes" to the question, “Are yellow page phone books still relevant?”
That's quite a find. Here are some others:
1) Most business owners don't think yellow page phone books are useful to them:
“Yellow page phone books are useful to me as a business owner.”
Agree - 11%
Somewhat Agree - 17%
Somewhat Disagree - 19%
Disagree - 52%
2) Only about 10% of business owners use yellow page phone books more than once per month; 3 out of 4 don't use it at all:
How many times per month do you rely on a yellow page phone book to find a local business?
“Zero” - 75%
“Once” - 14%
“Between two and four times” - 8%
“Five or more times” - 3%
3) Very few business owners believe customers find them using a yellow page phone book.
Estimated percentage of customers who find me using a yellow page phone book.
“0%” - 43%
“1-25%” - 47%
“26-50%” - 5%
“51-75%” - 3%
“76-99%” - 1%
“100%” - 0.1%
The conclusion (according to Yelp): Business owners have clearly observed the shrinking relevance of yellow page phone books. As we continue to move away from printed phone books, online and mobile directories will continue to grow as the customer's choice for local business information.
My Thoughts
You may be laughing at those who still pay large sums of money to be in the printed Yellow Pages. Before you point the finger, consider what current advertising investments you are making that are in place because they are on auto-pilot?
Are there any advertising channels that are just being used because they worked in the past? Are you in TV, radio, and paper because you are continually testing those channels or is it because there would be a General Manager rebellion if you reduced those budgets.
Could reducing budgets in traditional media be better spent elsewhere? Retargeting? Facebook Advertising? Google Boost? Have you tested these three channels?
There are no simple answers to finding the perfect mix. Getting to the right balance requires a more thorough testing strategy that most dealers are not patient enough to see to the end. That's where I see a great opportunity for my company; helping dealers find that balance.
Innovative dealers are testing new strategies and if the three opportunities I listed above have never been tested at your dealership, your delay may be as silly as a full page ad in the Yellow Pages!
No Comments
PCG Consulting Inc
Get Full Access to Google Webmaster Tools Data
Google doesn't always get things right the first time but eventually they do listen to their user community.
One of those "Amen!" moments came recently when Google decided to allow multiple users to share Google Webmaster Tools data for a single website.
This is a BIG opportunity for car dealers who often have been told by their web hosting company that Webmaster Tools Data was off limits to their staff. This data can be a GOLDMINE for dealers.
Being refused access to this data was common in the past since once a Webmaster Tools account was created, it could only be accessed by the company who setup the account. This is most cases was the dealer's website provider and their Google approved email address.
Today, dealers can call their website hosts and ask for their own Google account to be added to the site configuration so they can see ALL the valuable data Webmaster Tools provides.
Action Item: Call your website host TODAY and have your gmail account added to your Webmaster Tools profile!
It's Easy To Add Multiple Users to Webmaster Tools
From the images below, you can see that your website hosting company can easily click on the "Manage" link and select "Add or remove owners" to any website that is setup in their Webmaster tools account.
In this screen shot you can see that we have many websites in our account, so we just click on a "Manage" link and a menu pops up which now we can add their email account to share data.
Once you click on "Add or Remove Owners" you can add any number of Google email accounts that can see the Webmaster Tools data.
Once this is completed, it will show you the list of verified owners. Your dealership's email address will now be a valid user to see your Webmaster Tools data.
Why Review Webmaster Tools Data?
Dealers need to understand how their websites are performing based on Google search data. Webmaster Tools provides the most accurate data on links, traffic, and top performing keywords for your website.
Webmaster tools will also show important diagnostic data for your website's performance. Don't miss this opportunity to get another viewpoint and data source for your website.
If you need help understanding your Webmaster Tools data, drop me an email to: brian@pcgdigitalmarketing.com and we can setup a call to review the data.
No Comments
PCG Consulting Inc
Get Full Access to Google Webmaster Tools Data
Google doesn't always get things right the first time but eventually they do listen to their user community.
One of those "Amen!" moments came recently when Google decided to allow multiple users to share Google Webmaster Tools data for a single website.
This is a BIG opportunity for car dealers who often have been told by their web hosting company that Webmaster Tools Data was off limits to their staff. This data can be a GOLDMINE for dealers.
Being refused access to this data was common in the past since once a Webmaster Tools account was created, it could only be accessed by the company who setup the account. This is most cases was the dealer's website provider and their Google approved email address.
Today, dealers can call their website hosts and ask for their own Google account to be added to the site configuration so they can see ALL the valuable data Webmaster Tools provides.
Action Item: Call your website host TODAY and have your gmail account added to your Webmaster Tools profile!
It's Easy To Add Multiple Users to Webmaster Tools
From the images below, you can see that your website hosting company can easily click on the "Manage" link and select "Add or remove owners" to any website that is setup in their Webmaster tools account.
In this screen shot you can see that we have many websites in our account, so we just click on a "Manage" link and a menu pops up which now we can add their email account to share data.
Once you click on "Add or Remove Owners" you can add any number of Google email accounts that can see the Webmaster Tools data.
Once this is completed, it will show you the list of verified owners. Your dealership's email address will now be a valid user to see your Webmaster Tools data.
Why Review Webmaster Tools Data?
Dealers need to understand how their websites are performing based on Google search data. Webmaster Tools provides the most accurate data on links, traffic, and top performing keywords for your website.
Webmaster tools will also show important diagnostic data for your website's performance. Don't miss this opportunity to get another viewpoint and data source for your website.
If you need help understanding your Webmaster Tools data, drop me an email to: brian@pcgdigitalmarketing.com and we can setup a call to review the data.
No Comments
PCG Consulting Inc
Franchise Dealers Are Being Transformed Into Internet Eunuchs
As I recently posted, the OEM compliance officers are cracking down on franchise dealers and independent third parties from owning domain names that include OEM names. I think we have a case of Spring fever that is reaching epidemic proportions.
In the case of franchise dealers, the OEM's are holding back real money to force their franchise dealers to turn over "non-compliant" domain names.
For example, if ABC Toyota located in Dallas Texas purchased domains www.dallastoyota.com and www.usedtoyotadallas.com and hosted inventory websites on these domains, these dealers are being forced to take down these sites and turn over the domains to the OEM.
The compliance evangelists as I stated in a previous post are causing third party lead generators and independent websites to rejoice. Why? Because by binding the creative hands of franchise dealers, they must rely on third parties to increase the exposure for the cars the need to sell.
Franchise dealers are screwed unless the dealer advisory board gets united and forces an honest discussion with their OEM's. OEM's have to understand, as I started in my previous post, that dealers can purchase radio, TV, billboards, and print media across PMA lines to increase their visibility but they can't operate a domain www.trentontoyotadealer.com or www.trentontoyotaservice.com even if Trenton is in their PMA?
Am I the only one that sees this crazy double standard? The irony is that an independant service center CAN own www.trentontoyotaservice.com and show up on Page One in Google search as long as the site does not use the Toyota logo or confuse the public that it's a franchise service center!!
I will volunteer to visit any OEM marketing team to discuss their restrictions on multiple dealer owned websites that contain the OEM name. I would love to share my thoughts why current policies are fueling higher marketing costs, aiding their competition, and restricting healthy competition.
There is a balance that I have in mind, however the pendulum is swinging far right at the moment.
Are Independent Dealers Being Attacked?
The caffeine induced OEM lawyers are also going after independent car dealers, advertising portals, and third party lead collectors that use the OEM name in a domain. I just want to make members of this community aware of this attack on free trade and entrepreneurs.
The OEM lawyers are also sending out bullying letters without disclosing the case law I cite below.
For independent dealers and third party lead generation companies, there is good news. There is case law that shows that owning a domain name that includes an OEM word is not against the law.
The key is that the website should NOT have the OEM logo on the website. Also, the website design should NOT confuse the public that the OEM is endorsing the independent website. In simple terms, don't make the site look like the OEM's authorized template design.
Here is a summary of a famous case that made Toyota take a step back in their aggressive attacks on free trade on the Internet. The source of this article is on Traverse Legal's website.
Lexus Domain Lawsuit
In this recent trademark-infringement lawsuit, Plaintiff Toyota brought suit against Farzad and Lisa Tabari for using the Toyota’s mark ‘LEXUS’ in 2 domain names that advertised the Defendants’ auto brokerage services (buy-a-lexus.com and buyorleaselexus.com).
The court of appeals ruled in favor of Defendants’ and against the injunction preventing their use of ‘LEXUS’ anywhere in the domain names used for their auto brokerage service.
Procedural History;
The district court found trademark infringement and ordered the defendants to cease using the domain names (buy-a-lexus.com and buyorleaselexus.com) and enjoined them from future use of the ‘LEXUS’ trademark in connection with any other domain name.
On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated and remanded the district court’s decision. It held that the district court’s injunction was overbroad because the court failed to properly apply the nominative ‘fair use’ doctrine.
As an Internet Lawyer will tell you, the ‘fair use’ doctrine provides that any use of a third party’s trademark does not constitute infringement if; the plaintiff’s product or service is not readily identifiable without use of the mark, no more of the mark is used than is necessary, and the use of the mark does not falsely suggest a sponsorship or endorsement.
Holding;
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held, “at the very least, the injunction must be modified to allow some use of the Lexus mark in domain names by the Tabaris.”
The July 20, 2010 article “Use of another’s trademark in domain name may be permissible as a nominative fair use” provides a useful tip to Website owners wishing to employ the use of a third party trademark without incurring a trademark infringement lawsuit;
“TIP: When using a third party’s trademark to refer to the third party’s goods or describe your own goods, be sure that the goods are not readily identifiable without use of the mark, that you use no more of the mark than necessary, and that you do not falsely suggest a sponsorship or endorsement by the trademark holder.”
For important related articles on the fair use doctrine;
Trademark Fair Use: Some Guidelines When Making a Nominative Use of Another’s Trademark
What is The Takeaway?
If independent dealers and third parties can leverage organic search and test multiple website designs to increase conversion or visibility, why not franchise dealers? Why should franchise dealers not be allowed to own multiple domains that include the OEM name to promote sales, service, parts, and warranty plans that include town names in their PMA? Their state name? Their county name?
To be fair, a Lexus dealer called "ABC Lexus of Dallas" can own and operate "ABC Luxury Cars" but they can't use the OEM name or logo. They can't operate a website called "ABC Certified Preowned Lexus" only their approved name of "ABC Lexus of My Town".
It gets even crazier. Now OEM's are locking down what content dealers can create on their own sites.
This week there has been a flurry of odd activity. One OEM mandated website provider is telling dealers they can not add new content pages, like pages for upcoming 2012 models, because only OEM content can be used.
I thought they were joking but they were not! There was NO ETA on when the "new and approved" content was coming, but they were not going to assist the dealer to create more blank pages for their own website so the dealer's content writers could complete the page build. This is scary stuff.
It seems that unless franchise dealers start to wake up, every franchise dealer will have a cookie cutter online presence with no real creativity in content. I get the impression that OEM compliance teams think that franchise dealers are stupid and will screw up OEM branding so they have decided to clamp down on any online creativity.
I think we should consider calling franchise dealers by a more accurate term: "Internet Eunuch"
The case law suggests that independent dealers can create microsites using OEM names but franchise dealers can not. Go figure. This can really change the online landscape now that OEM's are hammering their eunuch's.
Since I didn't get much feedback from my previous post post, does this get anyone's interest???
No Comments
PCG Consulting Inc
Franchise Dealers Are Being Transformed Into Internet Eunuchs
As I recently posted, the OEM compliance officers are cracking down on franchise dealers and independent third parties from owning domain names that include OEM names. I think we have a case of Spring fever that is reaching epidemic proportions.
In the case of franchise dealers, the OEM's are holding back real money to force their franchise dealers to turn over "non-compliant" domain names.
For example, if ABC Toyota located in Dallas Texas purchased domains www.dallastoyota.com and www.usedtoyotadallas.com and hosted inventory websites on these domains, these dealers are being forced to take down these sites and turn over the domains to the OEM.
The compliance evangelists as I stated in a previous post are causing third party lead generators and independent websites to rejoice. Why? Because by binding the creative hands of franchise dealers, they must rely on third parties to increase the exposure for the cars the need to sell.
Franchise dealers are screwed unless the dealer advisory board gets united and forces an honest discussion with their OEM's. OEM's have to understand, as I started in my previous post, that dealers can purchase radio, TV, billboards, and print media across PMA lines to increase their visibility but they can't operate a domain www.trentontoyotadealer.com or www.trentontoyotaservice.com even if Trenton is in their PMA?
Am I the only one that sees this crazy double standard? The irony is that an independant service center CAN own www.trentontoyotaservice.com and show up on Page One in Google search as long as the site does not use the Toyota logo or confuse the public that it's a franchise service center!!
I will volunteer to visit any OEM marketing team to discuss their restrictions on multiple dealer owned websites that contain the OEM name. I would love to share my thoughts why current policies are fueling higher marketing costs, aiding their competition, and restricting healthy competition.
There is a balance that I have in mind, however the pendulum is swinging far right at the moment.
Are Independent Dealers Being Attacked?
The caffeine induced OEM lawyers are also going after independent car dealers, advertising portals, and third party lead collectors that use the OEM name in a domain. I just want to make members of this community aware of this attack on free trade and entrepreneurs.
The OEM lawyers are also sending out bullying letters without disclosing the case law I cite below.
For independent dealers and third party lead generation companies, there is good news. There is case law that shows that owning a domain name that includes an OEM word is not against the law.
The key is that the website should NOT have the OEM logo on the website. Also, the website design should NOT confuse the public that the OEM is endorsing the independent website. In simple terms, don't make the site look like the OEM's authorized template design.
Here is a summary of a famous case that made Toyota take a step back in their aggressive attacks on free trade on the Internet. The source of this article is on Traverse Legal's website.
Lexus Domain Lawsuit
In this recent trademark-infringement lawsuit, Plaintiff Toyota brought suit against Farzad and Lisa Tabari for using the Toyota’s mark ‘LEXUS’ in 2 domain names that advertised the Defendants’ auto brokerage services (buy-a-lexus.com and buyorleaselexus.com).
The court of appeals ruled in favor of Defendants’ and against the injunction preventing their use of ‘LEXUS’ anywhere in the domain names used for their auto brokerage service.
Procedural History;
The district court found trademark infringement and ordered the defendants to cease using the domain names (buy-a-lexus.com and buyorleaselexus.com) and enjoined them from future use of the ‘LEXUS’ trademark in connection with any other domain name.
On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated and remanded the district court’s decision. It held that the district court’s injunction was overbroad because the court failed to properly apply the nominative ‘fair use’ doctrine.
As an Internet Lawyer will tell you, the ‘fair use’ doctrine provides that any use of a third party’s trademark does not constitute infringement if; the plaintiff’s product or service is not readily identifiable without use of the mark, no more of the mark is used than is necessary, and the use of the mark does not falsely suggest a sponsorship or endorsement.
Holding;
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held, “at the very least, the injunction must be modified to allow some use of the Lexus mark in domain names by the Tabaris.”
The July 20, 2010 article “Use of another’s trademark in domain name may be permissible as a nominative fair use” provides a useful tip to Website owners wishing to employ the use of a third party trademark without incurring a trademark infringement lawsuit;
“TIP: When using a third party’s trademark to refer to the third party’s goods or describe your own goods, be sure that the goods are not readily identifiable without use of the mark, that you use no more of the mark than necessary, and that you do not falsely suggest a sponsorship or endorsement by the trademark holder.”
For important related articles on the fair use doctrine;
Trademark Fair Use: Some Guidelines When Making a Nominative Use of Another’s Trademark
What is The Takeaway?
If independent dealers and third parties can leverage organic search and test multiple website designs to increase conversion or visibility, why not franchise dealers? Why should franchise dealers not be allowed to own multiple domains that include the OEM name to promote sales, service, parts, and warranty plans that include town names in their PMA? Their state name? Their county name?
To be fair, a Lexus dealer called "ABC Lexus of Dallas" can own and operate "ABC Luxury Cars" but they can't use the OEM name or logo. They can't operate a website called "ABC Certified Preowned Lexus" only their approved name of "ABC Lexus of My Town".
It gets even crazier. Now OEM's are locking down what content dealers can create on their own sites.
This week there has been a flurry of odd activity. One OEM mandated website provider is telling dealers they can not add new content pages, like pages for upcoming 2012 models, because only OEM content can be used.
I thought they were joking but they were not! There was NO ETA on when the "new and approved" content was coming, but they were not going to assist the dealer to create more blank pages for their own website so the dealer's content writers could complete the page build. This is scary stuff.
It seems that unless franchise dealers start to wake up, every franchise dealer will have a cookie cutter online presence with no real creativity in content. I get the impression that OEM compliance teams think that franchise dealers are stupid and will screw up OEM branding so they have decided to clamp down on any online creativity.
I think we should consider calling franchise dealers by a more accurate term: "Internet Eunuch"
The case law suggests that independent dealers can create microsites using OEM names but franchise dealers can not. Go figure. This can really change the online landscape now that OEM's are hammering their eunuch's.
Since I didn't get much feedback from my previous post post, does this get anyone's interest???
No Comments
PCG Consulting Inc
The Golden Age of Automotive SEO Is Over
In the past 60 days, OEM compliance inspections of dealer blogs, microsites, and press releases have significantly increased. From the guideline documents that I have reviewed, it is clear that the OEM marketing teams have been poorly advised on how dealers should be leveraging all marketing opportunities on the Internet.
There is a double standard that OEM's have created in regards to advertising strategies. Let's look at the Boston Massachusetts market, where many dealers serve this large city, but where only one dealer has an actual Boston address. The other dealers are separated by 10-15 miles and physically located in a smaller suburb, with its own city name.
Dealers in the suburbs can take out print ads in the Boston Herald, which advertises their services to consumers well beyond their PMA. These ads can use the words "Boston" in the printed text. and can even show driving directions from Boston to their suburbia location.
These same dealers can also take out radio ads or television spots that cross all PMA lines and saturate the greater Boston market. Both of these communication channels are available for co-op funds and can mention the Boston metro area in the ad script.
Dealers can also create Google Adwords campaigns that have advertising radiuses outside their PMA, and these campaigns are also available for co-op money. These advertising campaigns can also use the word "Boston" as a keyword or any other city in a reasonable driving distance.
When Confused, Kick the SEO Dog
However, some dealers are now being restricted and penalized for implementing SEO strategies that use the same geo-targeting strategies that other approved channels can utilize. If dealers can appear on radio, television, and print in towns outside a dealer’s official PMA, why not in organic search as well?
Specifically, dealers are being penalized if any of their organic marketing strategies include:
- Including the name of ANY city outside of where their dealership is located in Title Tags, META descriptions, or in body text. This applies to any website page with their name on it.
- If dealers choose to use a city name outside of their physical location in a Title Tag or META Description, it has to be preceded by the word "Serving".
- Hyper-linking words in the body of any page that includes ANY city name outside of their physical location is prohibited. This means you can't hyperlink Boston Toyota Service if your dealership is in Worcester. You can't even hyperlink 'Serving Boston Toyota Owners" in a sentence.
- Some OEM's have policies that prevent dealers from owning domains that have ANY city name in it that is not your city. You can't own it even if there is NO competing dealer in that city.
- Some OEM's have policies that prevent dealers from owning microsites that don't have your official business name as part of the domain name.
And the list goes on. So, OEM's have created a virtual marketing wall for the Internet SEO strategies, which in fact only hurts their own franchise dealers. Someone has an agenda against Automotive SEO strategies at the OEM level and it's only hurting their own dealer base.
Great News For 3rd Party Lead Collectors
This is great news for third party advertising sites and independent used car dealers. Independents will so have unrestricted access to creating strong used car marketing platforms that are geo-targeted.
OEM's are forcing dealers to transfer all domains that don't comply into their ownership. The result of non-compliance is costly.
These OEM policies are GREAT news for third party lead collectors since they do not have any restrictions on domain names, content, or linking strategies. Third party lead collection vendors must be jumping for joy, and it's even possible that they are the ones advising their OEM community!
These Internet content policies also increases dealer's dependence on inventory advertising sites like Autotrader.com, Cars.com, or Everycarlisted.com or PPC strategies. These are all valid advertising strategies, but it looks like the OEM marketing teams are trying to limit competition, innovation, and free markets.
For many OEM's, dealers CAN NOT create a second used car inventory marketing site. They can send their cars to 3rd parties but they CAN NOT do it themselves. Interesting! For many dealers, they are told that they can only have one website. Period.
Since OEM's hold hundreds of thousands of dollars of dealers heads for compliance fines or bonus money, dealers have no choice but to comply.
Time to crank up those PPC budgets! Time to hire a few more inventory-advertising partners and increase your ad budgets. Your days of SEO innovation must move to another area of marketing.
P.S. SEO still works and dealers need an SEO strategy. SEO is not dead. Dealers need to have a compliant SEO strategy while we wait for OEM marketing executives to reach out to industry experts on this topic.
No Comments
PCG Consulting Inc
The Golden Age of Automotive SEO Is Over
In the past 60 days, OEM compliance inspections of dealer blogs, microsites, and press releases have significantly increased. From the guideline documents that I have reviewed, it is clear that the OEM marketing teams have been poorly advised on how dealers should be leveraging all marketing opportunities on the Internet.
There is a double standard that OEM's have created in regards to advertising strategies. Let's look at the Boston Massachusetts market, where many dealers serve this large city, but where only one dealer has an actual Boston address. The other dealers are separated by 10-15 miles and physically located in a smaller suburb, with its own city name.
Dealers in the suburbs can take out print ads in the Boston Herald, which advertises their services to consumers well beyond their PMA. These ads can use the words "Boston" in the printed text. and can even show driving directions from Boston to their suburbia location.
These same dealers can also take out radio ads or television spots that cross all PMA lines and saturate the greater Boston market. Both of these communication channels are available for co-op funds and can mention the Boston metro area in the ad script.
Dealers can also create Google Adwords campaigns that have advertising radiuses outside their PMA, and these campaigns are also available for co-op money. These advertising campaigns can also use the word "Boston" as a keyword or any other city in a reasonable driving distance.
When Confused, Kick the SEO Dog
However, some dealers are now being restricted and penalized for implementing SEO strategies that use the same geo-targeting strategies that other approved channels can utilize. If dealers can appear on radio, television, and print in towns outside a dealer’s official PMA, why not in organic search as well?
Specifically, dealers are being penalized if any of their organic marketing strategies include:
- Including the name of ANY city outside of where their dealership is located in Title Tags, META descriptions, or in body text. This applies to any website page with their name on it.
- If dealers choose to use a city name outside of their physical location in a Title Tag or META Description, it has to be preceded by the word "Serving".
- Hyper-linking words in the body of any page that includes ANY city name outside of their physical location is prohibited. This means you can't hyperlink Boston Toyota Service if your dealership is in Worcester. You can't even hyperlink 'Serving Boston Toyota Owners" in a sentence.
- Some OEM's have policies that prevent dealers from owning domains that have ANY city name in it that is not your city. You can't own it even if there is NO competing dealer in that city.
- Some OEM's have policies that prevent dealers from owning microsites that don't have your official business name as part of the domain name.
And the list goes on. So, OEM's have created a virtual marketing wall for the Internet SEO strategies, which in fact only hurts their own franchise dealers. Someone has an agenda against Automotive SEO strategies at the OEM level and it's only hurting their own dealer base.
Great News For 3rd Party Lead Collectors
This is great news for third party advertising sites and independent used car dealers. Independents will so have unrestricted access to creating strong used car marketing platforms that are geo-targeted.
OEM's are forcing dealers to transfer all domains that don't comply into their ownership. The result of non-compliance is costly.
These OEM policies are GREAT news for third party lead collectors since they do not have any restrictions on domain names, content, or linking strategies. Third party lead collection vendors must be jumping for joy, and it's even possible that they are the ones advising their OEM community!
These Internet content policies also increases dealer's dependence on inventory advertising sites like Autotrader.com, Cars.com, or Everycarlisted.com or PPC strategies. These are all valid advertising strategies, but it looks like the OEM marketing teams are trying to limit competition, innovation, and free markets.
For many OEM's, dealers CAN NOT create a second used car inventory marketing site. They can send their cars to 3rd parties but they CAN NOT do it themselves. Interesting! For many dealers, they are told that they can only have one website. Period.
Since OEM's hold hundreds of thousands of dollars of dealers heads for compliance fines or bonus money, dealers have no choice but to comply.
Time to crank up those PPC budgets! Time to hire a few more inventory-advertising partners and increase your ad budgets. Your days of SEO innovation must move to another area of marketing.
P.S. SEO still works and dealers need an SEO strategy. SEO is not dead. Dealers need to have a compliant SEO strategy while we wait for OEM marketing executives to reach out to industry experts on this topic.
No Comments
PCG Consulting Inc
Know Your Top Conversion Influencers
A promising new feature in Google Analytics will show which combination of websites influenced consumer behavior prior to a conversion action on your website. The feature is called Multi-Channel Funnels.
This new data-reporting tool inside of Google Analytics will give business owners tremendous insights into the top influencing websites or media platforms that yield a website conversion. This data will help dealers fine tune online marketing decisions based on which channels assisted and/or produced more conversions.
In the past, dealers using basic Google Analytics data would only know the last website a consumer visited prior to a website conversion. This is known in Google Analytics as “referring websites”.
Multiple consumer touch points and communication tools influence a conversion. With Multi-Channel Funnels, you will be able to see that your newsletter email was read, which encouraged your customer to click on a link to your blog, where they read an article which encouraged them to click on a link to your website where they decided to submit a lead.
With Multi-Channel Funnels you can see all the “players” that assisted with the conversion. Google has produced a video to describe this new feature. In their first video, they use the analogy of a basketball team. The players will assist the shooter who makes the final goal so when you find the right “team” that makes more goals, you will want to replicate that organization.
In the same way, once you see which communication channels (blogs, videos, press release, Facebook, etc.) are involved in producing the highest conversion paths, you can focus on enhancing that success funnel.
From the Google website:
"Multi-Channel Funnels in Google Analytics will show which channels your customers interacted with during the 30 days prior to converting or purchasing. Conversion path data includes interactions with many media channels, including clicks from paid and organic searches, affiliates, social networks, and display ads.
Multi-Channel Funnels reports are generated from conversion paths, the sequences of interactions (i.e. clicks/referrals from channels) during the 30 days that led up to each conversion and transaction. Conversion path data include interactions with virtually all digital channels. These channels include, but are not limited to:
- paid and organic search (on all search engines along with the specific keywords searched)
- referral sites
- affiliates
- social networks
- email newsletters
- display ads
- any custom campaigns that you’ve created. “
I'm very excited about this new opportunity because it will start to shed light on how your digital marketing investments are influencing your customers. For example, you would be able to see if consumer visited Cars.com or Autotrader.com which introduced your dealership name in the past 30 days prior to coming to your website and submitting a lead.
You would be able to see if consumers watched your videos, visited your Facebook page, or read a press release prior to coming to your website and submitting a lead. With Google Multi-Channel Funnel you will be able to start ranking and rating your top influencing mediums, websites, and advertising partners.
This new opportunity to analyze your website visitors and behavior is being rolled out on a limited basis. You can request early access to Multi-Channel Funnels by visiting: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/AnalyticsFunnelSignup/
Multi-Channel Funnels in Google Analytics Video
This first video is an easy overview:
This is a more detailed video on reports
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PCG Consulting Inc
Know Your Top Conversion Influencers
A promising new feature in Google Analytics will show which combination of websites influenced consumer behavior prior to a conversion action on your website. The feature is called Multi-Channel Funnels.
This new data-reporting tool inside of Google Analytics will give business owners tremendous insights into the top influencing websites or media platforms that yield a website conversion. This data will help dealers fine tune online marketing decisions based on which channels assisted and/or produced more conversions.
In the past, dealers using basic Google Analytics data would only know the last website a consumer visited prior to a website conversion. This is known in Google Analytics as “referring websites”.
Multiple consumer touch points and communication tools influence a conversion. With Multi-Channel Funnels, you will be able to see that your newsletter email was read, which encouraged your customer to click on a link to your blog, where they read an article which encouraged them to click on a link to your website where they decided to submit a lead.
With Multi-Channel Funnels you can see all the “players” that assisted with the conversion. Google has produced a video to describe this new feature. In their first video, they use the analogy of a basketball team. The players will assist the shooter who makes the final goal so when you find the right “team” that makes more goals, you will want to replicate that organization.
In the same way, once you see which communication channels (blogs, videos, press release, Facebook, etc.) are involved in producing the highest conversion paths, you can focus on enhancing that success funnel.
From the Google website:
"Multi-Channel Funnels in Google Analytics will show which channels your customers interacted with during the 30 days prior to converting or purchasing. Conversion path data includes interactions with many media channels, including clicks from paid and organic searches, affiliates, social networks, and display ads.
Multi-Channel Funnels reports are generated from conversion paths, the sequences of interactions (i.e. clicks/referrals from channels) during the 30 days that led up to each conversion and transaction. Conversion path data include interactions with virtually all digital channels. These channels include, but are not limited to:
- paid and organic search (on all search engines along with the specific keywords searched)
- referral sites
- affiliates
- social networks
- email newsletters
- display ads
- any custom campaigns that you’ve created. “
I'm very excited about this new opportunity because it will start to shed light on how your digital marketing investments are influencing your customers. For example, you would be able to see if consumer visited Cars.com or Autotrader.com which introduced your dealership name in the past 30 days prior to coming to your website and submitting a lead.
You would be able to see if consumers watched your videos, visited your Facebook page, or read a press release prior to coming to your website and submitting a lead. With Google Multi-Channel Funnel you will be able to start ranking and rating your top influencing mediums, websites, and advertising partners.
This new opportunity to analyze your website visitors and behavior is being rolled out on a limited basis. You can request early access to Multi-Channel Funnels by visiting: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/AnalyticsFunnelSignup/
Multi-Channel Funnels in Google Analytics Video
This first video is an easy overview:
This is a more detailed video on reports
No Comments
No Comments