Brian Pasch

Company: PCG Consulting Inc

Brian Pasch Blog
Total Posts: 325    

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

Aug 8, 2013

The Six Horsemen Of Automotive Marketing Platforms

Look for the article to be posted on DrivingSales.com exclusively on Monday August 12th.

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

CEO

3344

No Comments

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

Aug 8, 2013

The Six Horsemen Of Automotive Marketing Platforms

Look for the article to be posted on DrivingSales.com exclusively on Monday August 12th.

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

CEO

3344

No Comments

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

Jul 7, 2013

VinSolutions Steps Forward To Address Website Bloat in Their SEO Strategy

By Brian Pasch

 

If you have been a student of Automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies over the past 5+ years, you have witnessed a number of changes in how Google rewards and/or penalizes efforts to rank on Google Page One for specific keywords.

A few years ago, it was about focusing on the quantity of inbound links and the quantity of website pages, which resulted in some creative efforts by website vendors and consultants to sway the search engines, especially Google.  

Today, the relevancy of quality over quantity could not be more clear.  Specifically, if you want your website pages to show in Google's index the content should be available on all device types (desktop, mobile, tablet) and it should be written to "connect" with local consumers.

What Constitutes Quality Content

Some website providers found that creating pages for completed service repair orders generated additional organic listings even though the content was not engaging.  Other website providers decided to keep sold car Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP) in the website sitemap for Google to index.  That "old" thought process was favoring quantity and not quality.

This brings me to a recent post that VinSolutions customers have been seeing when they log into their website dashboard.  Here is the message:

Valid concerns over the continued indexing of sold vehicle pages by search engines have been heard, an enhancement just released will address this by returning a 404 response for sold vehicles that directs site visitors to a custom 404 page that includes content from the sold vehicle page and links to existing inventory.
Until recently, we returned a 302 response, directing users to a “Sold Not Found” page with links to additional vehicles. This type of response code indicates that the page change is temporary, and search engines continued to treat these pages as valid site pages for indexing. Ultimately, this can become problematic as hundreds to thousands of sold vehicle pages begin to rank highly in search results, leading to increased clicks by users but high bounce rates as potential leads are directed to pages where vehicle content is no longer available.
Many times, these pages outrank vehicle description pages for vehicles that are still available in inventory. For site users, this can be a poor user experience, as the user may be directed to pages that are irrelevant to their searches online. The 302 redirects also do not pass on critical page rank data to Google, so any clicks on links on the “vehicle not found” page or continued navigation to other site pages was lost and not counted by Google for ranking purposes.
With the new enhancement, when a vehicle description page becomes a “vehicle not found” page, a 404 response will be returned and the user will be directed to a customized 404 “vehicle not sold” page that retains links to inventory for similar vehicles.
The change to a 404 error page sends a message to Google and other search engines to stop indexing these pages, so they will no longer outrank or outperform pages for available inventory in user searches. The custom 404 pages will be designed to reduce bounce rate for users who stumble upon these pages so they will be encouraged to click through the inventory links to continue to your site and to viewing other inventory. Also, this click-through behavior to other site content will be tracked by Google and included in their PageRank algorithm for these page links unlike before when a 302 response was utilized.
Google’s recent Penguin updates reinforce the emphasis of quality content over quantity, and a high number of error responses (302 and 404) for pages that continue to be indexed can negatively impact SEO over time. This change may substantially reduce a dealer’s total indexed pages, but simultaneously, it will dramatically improve their SEO value and overall site rankings for key search terms as Google removes penalties for error handling and an overabundance of error-response content being indexed.

Without getting into the technical aspects of this message, VinSolutions has stepped up and made a very smart decision.  They have decided to stop allowing Google to index sold vehicle pages.   I commend them for recognizing this issue and being transparent about the steps they are taking to address the matter.  

At one time, this may have been a good idea for SEO, but in light of recent Google index updates, VinSolutions customers had "run-away" counts of indexed pages.  This bloat was dangerous. These pages had very low quality for the end consumer and in some cases were outranking vehicles in stock.

I once again commend the VinSolutions team for addressing this matter and being upfront about the changes, but this is NOT just a VinSolutions issue.  The practice of inflated website pages in the Google index is an industrywide concern.   There are many other "in production" situations where automated pages are being generated to bloat dealership websites.

This is a trend that I am very concerned about because it may be viewed as content spamming.  It looks likes  quantity instead of quality.   I am not saying that all automatically generated website pages are bad; many are necessary for normal merchandising and thoughtful SEO.  However, at some point the shear number of pages becomes ridiculous if the only thing that has changed on the page is the name of a city, a stock#, or a repair order#. 

Is Your Website Bloated?

Every dealer who cares about their organic search traffic needs to honestly asses the quality of their website content.  They need to ask themselves what is the purpose of each website page.  Dealers need to ask if these pages align with our current understanding of what Google is looking to index in order to match consumer search results. 

So, let's do some basic math on how many pages are in a typical dealership website.  Let's say that you have 150 new cars in stock and 100 used cars in stock.  Each vehicle has a Vehicle Details Page (VDP) which would generate 250 pages in this case.   Each month new cars come into the dealership and the addition and substraction of cars each month, over their lifecycle could generate over 1,500 indexed VDP in Google.  

Every vehicle can show up in some combination of a Search Result Page (SRP) which can be listed by price, styling, color, features, etc.   Depending on the dealer's website platform, every combination of search results can generate an indexed page in Google.  

This matrix of combinations can generate thousands of SRP combinations in Google which could be good or bad.  In some cases this practice is bad because these SRP pages have duplicate Page Title and META Descriptions, which can cause indexing penalties.   If you have not check Google Webmaster Tools for duplicate page titles, do that today and it will look something like this:

In addition to inventory pages there are some standard pages for hours, directions, staff, specials, product showcases, etc.  These are often no more than a few dozen pages but for some dealers can add up to over 100 pages.  So, the range should be a few hundred pages to ten thousand pages, if my math is correct. 

So, how do some dealership website have hundreds of thousands of websites pages showing in the Google index?  More importantly, Is it really good to have that many pages? 

Please make that a priority to ask your website provider today! 

The answer to extreme page bloat is something that every dealer must understand based on their website platform.  There are some very "poor" decisions being made to bloat website indexed pages, which I feel will eventually hurt dealership organic results.

There are also good reasons to have higher than normal indexed pages, you just have to understand what the website platform is trying to present.  Is it relevant content and engagement for consumers or are they trying to work a hole in Google's index, which we all know gets plugged at some time?

How Many Pages Are Indexed For Your Website?

To see how many pages are in the Google index for your website, use the "site:" command as shown below.  I have provided three examples:

You can see that the variations on the number indexed pages will vary based on which website platform you use and of course the number of cars in stock. But when a dealer has over 100,000 indexed pages in Google you have to start to wonder what kind of bloat is causing the inflated numbers.  

Bloat can also be caused by the website vendor's decision NOT TO block certain internal indexing pages from the Google bot.   Again, I call on all dealers to have an active discussion with your website vendor on eliminating bloat regardless of the cause. 

Watch For Page Indexing Trends

Once you calculate how many pages are indexed in Google for your website, you then have to check at the indexing "trend" for your website.  This is found in Google Webmaster Tools.    You need to know if Google in dropping pages from your website form their index.  

Also, keep in mind that there will be some dealers that have bloated sites that are on the rise, in regards to indexed pages.  DO NOT ignore my warnings about bloat and content generation schemes; it normally will come back to bite you in the ass.

In the example below, this website is losing indexed pages at a rapid rate, (down 50%) which must be addressed.  This drop could be a good thing if the bloat pages were eliminated by the website provider. 

Likewise, if you are seeing your indexed pages skyrocket for no good reason, it is very likely that the platform you are using is generating website "bloat".

Bloat I am defining as automatically generated website pages that may not offer any real value to consumer and very well may trigger Google to suspect your website of content spamming or sloppy programming.  

Take The Test and Share Your Results on DrivingSales

Take a minute to see how many website pages are indexed for your website.  Share your results as well as how many cars you have in stock so we can see some trends by vendor platform.  Also share if your indexed pages are on the rise or falling.  This is an important discussion if your dealership is focused on quality website enagement.

Your comments can be formatted like this:

Platform: (Cobalt, VinSolutions, Dealer.com etc) 

# New & Used Cars In Stock:

Indexed Pages In Google:

Webmaster Tools Trend: (Up/Down)

 

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Consulting
732.672.2356
Google

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

CEO

7454

9 Comments

william cosgrove

One Big Broadcast

Jul 7, 2013  

Thanks for sharing

Eric Miltsch

DealerTeamwork LLC

Jul 7, 2013  

Brian, Great info - I also commend you for sharing this with the community - as well as VIN Solutions for addressing this issue with their users. You've mentioned the indexing issue before and this example should help readers understand that this is not about having 250k pages indexed, it's about having quality pages indexed. Run the site test and check your WMT to see the trends in your indexing data. Nice job Brian.

Eric Miltsch

DealerTeamwork LLC

Jul 7, 2013  

Also, I believe VIN could make this explanation even more helpful by providing a graphic to go along with this "bloated" description. Just as users don't read website copy - they scan it. I can see many VIN customers scanning the full explanation and asking themselves, "What did I just read and what does this mean?!"

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

Jul 7, 2013  

Good point Eric, the wording is a bit too technical to completely understand. Maybe VinSolutions staff will share this post to their customer base. Of course DrivingSales members can also tweet and share it to their 20 Groups. I am hoping that VinSolutions proactive stance will trigger other website providers to inspect their website architecture and make sure than bloat, if found, will be eliminated.

Alan Krutsch

Apple Autos

Jul 7, 2013  

Brian, Platform: VIN Solutions site: applevalleyford.com=97,700 pages Webmaster Tools: on 3/31/13 90,000+ pages were indexed. On 7/28/13 there were 4,075 pages indexed. Alan

Aaron Schinke

DealerFire

Jul 7, 2013  

Great post Brian. This is something we tackled about a year ago or so here at DealerFire. Here's another piece I put together explaining this back in March too: http://www.dealerfire.com/blog/indexed-pages-for-car-dealer-website/

Cory Hosch

McGrath Automotive Group

Jul 7, 2013  

Platform: VinSolutions patmcgrathchevyland.com # New & Used Cars In Stock: 1340 vehicles listed on this site. Indexed Pages In Google:127,000 Webmaster Tools Trend: Down 55%. High was 6/2/13 and have dropped to nearly our lowest level in the past 12 months. We have dropped over 100K Total Indexed since 6/2/13.

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

Jul 7, 2013  

Cory This drop is most likely normal because of the changes VinSolutions is making so let's watch the trend over the next few months and it should stabilize. Thank you for read the posting and sharing your data. Hopefully others will as well if they know how to get into Google Webmaster Tools! :)

Cory Hosch

McGrath Automotive Group

Aug 8, 2013  

Brian Yeah, that pattern seems consistent on all of our sites and the metrics for the site mentioned are the most severe. We will keep and eye on it and watch it. Thanks for posting this and for the feedback. Vinsoultions had one of their specialists call last week to explain what is happening so they really seem to be trying to get ahead of it and educate dealers so that is great to see as well.

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

Jul 7, 2013

VinSolutions Steps Forward To Address Website Bloat in Their SEO Strategy

By Brian Pasch

 

If you have been a student of Automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies over the past 5+ years, you have witnessed a number of changes in how Google rewards and/or penalizes efforts to rank on Google Page One for specific keywords.

A few years ago, it was about focusing on the quantity of inbound links and the quantity of website pages, which resulted in some creative efforts by website vendors and consultants to sway the search engines, especially Google.  

Today, the relevancy of quality over quantity could not be more clear.  Specifically, if you want your website pages to show in Google's index the content should be available on all device types (desktop, mobile, tablet) and it should be written to "connect" with local consumers.

What Constitutes Quality Content

Some website providers found that creating pages for completed service repair orders generated additional organic listings even though the content was not engaging.  Other website providers decided to keep sold car Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP) in the website sitemap for Google to index.  That "old" thought process was favoring quantity and not quality.

This brings me to a recent post that VinSolutions customers have been seeing when they log into their website dashboard.  Here is the message:

Valid concerns over the continued indexing of sold vehicle pages by search engines have been heard, an enhancement just released will address this by returning a 404 response for sold vehicles that directs site visitors to a custom 404 page that includes content from the sold vehicle page and links to existing inventory.
Until recently, we returned a 302 response, directing users to a “Sold Not Found” page with links to additional vehicles. This type of response code indicates that the page change is temporary, and search engines continued to treat these pages as valid site pages for indexing. Ultimately, this can become problematic as hundreds to thousands of sold vehicle pages begin to rank highly in search results, leading to increased clicks by users but high bounce rates as potential leads are directed to pages where vehicle content is no longer available.
Many times, these pages outrank vehicle description pages for vehicles that are still available in inventory. For site users, this can be a poor user experience, as the user may be directed to pages that are irrelevant to their searches online. The 302 redirects also do not pass on critical page rank data to Google, so any clicks on links on the “vehicle not found” page or continued navigation to other site pages was lost and not counted by Google for ranking purposes.
With the new enhancement, when a vehicle description page becomes a “vehicle not found” page, a 404 response will be returned and the user will be directed to a customized 404 “vehicle not sold” page that retains links to inventory for similar vehicles.
The change to a 404 error page sends a message to Google and other search engines to stop indexing these pages, so they will no longer outrank or outperform pages for available inventory in user searches. The custom 404 pages will be designed to reduce bounce rate for users who stumble upon these pages so they will be encouraged to click through the inventory links to continue to your site and to viewing other inventory. Also, this click-through behavior to other site content will be tracked by Google and included in their PageRank algorithm for these page links unlike before when a 302 response was utilized.
Google’s recent Penguin updates reinforce the emphasis of quality content over quantity, and a high number of error responses (302 and 404) for pages that continue to be indexed can negatively impact SEO over time. This change may substantially reduce a dealer’s total indexed pages, but simultaneously, it will dramatically improve their SEO value and overall site rankings for key search terms as Google removes penalties for error handling and an overabundance of error-response content being indexed.

Without getting into the technical aspects of this message, VinSolutions has stepped up and made a very smart decision.  They have decided to stop allowing Google to index sold vehicle pages.   I commend them for recognizing this issue and being transparent about the steps they are taking to address the matter.  

At one time, this may have been a good idea for SEO, but in light of recent Google index updates, VinSolutions customers had "run-away" counts of indexed pages.  This bloat was dangerous. These pages had very low quality for the end consumer and in some cases were outranking vehicles in stock.

I once again commend the VinSolutions team for addressing this matter and being upfront about the changes, but this is NOT just a VinSolutions issue.  The practice of inflated website pages in the Google index is an industrywide concern.   There are many other "in production" situations where automated pages are being generated to bloat dealership websites.

This is a trend that I am very concerned about because it may be viewed as content spamming.  It looks likes  quantity instead of quality.   I am not saying that all automatically generated website pages are bad; many are necessary for normal merchandising and thoughtful SEO.  However, at some point the shear number of pages becomes ridiculous if the only thing that has changed on the page is the name of a city, a stock#, or a repair order#. 

Is Your Website Bloated?

Every dealer who cares about their organic search traffic needs to honestly asses the quality of their website content.  They need to ask themselves what is the purpose of each website page.  Dealers need to ask if these pages align with our current understanding of what Google is looking to index in order to match consumer search results. 

So, let's do some basic math on how many pages are in a typical dealership website.  Let's say that you have 150 new cars in stock and 100 used cars in stock.  Each vehicle has a Vehicle Details Page (VDP) which would generate 250 pages in this case.   Each month new cars come into the dealership and the addition and substraction of cars each month, over their lifecycle could generate over 1,500 indexed VDP in Google.  

Every vehicle can show up in some combination of a Search Result Page (SRP) which can be listed by price, styling, color, features, etc.   Depending on the dealer's website platform, every combination of search results can generate an indexed page in Google.  

This matrix of combinations can generate thousands of SRP combinations in Google which could be good or bad.  In some cases this practice is bad because these SRP pages have duplicate Page Title and META Descriptions, which can cause indexing penalties.   If you have not check Google Webmaster Tools for duplicate page titles, do that today and it will look something like this:

In addition to inventory pages there are some standard pages for hours, directions, staff, specials, product showcases, etc.  These are often no more than a few dozen pages but for some dealers can add up to over 100 pages.  So, the range should be a few hundred pages to ten thousand pages, if my math is correct. 

So, how do some dealership website have hundreds of thousands of websites pages showing in the Google index?  More importantly, Is it really good to have that many pages? 

Please make that a priority to ask your website provider today! 

The answer to extreme page bloat is something that every dealer must understand based on their website platform.  There are some very "poor" decisions being made to bloat website indexed pages, which I feel will eventually hurt dealership organic results.

There are also good reasons to have higher than normal indexed pages, you just have to understand what the website platform is trying to present.  Is it relevant content and engagement for consumers or are they trying to work a hole in Google's index, which we all know gets plugged at some time?

How Many Pages Are Indexed For Your Website?

To see how many pages are in the Google index for your website, use the "site:" command as shown below.  I have provided three examples:

You can see that the variations on the number indexed pages will vary based on which website platform you use and of course the number of cars in stock. But when a dealer has over 100,000 indexed pages in Google you have to start to wonder what kind of bloat is causing the inflated numbers.  

Bloat can also be caused by the website vendor's decision NOT TO block certain internal indexing pages from the Google bot.   Again, I call on all dealers to have an active discussion with your website vendor on eliminating bloat regardless of the cause. 

Watch For Page Indexing Trends

Once you calculate how many pages are indexed in Google for your website, you then have to check at the indexing "trend" for your website.  This is found in Google Webmaster Tools.    You need to know if Google in dropping pages from your website form their index.  

Also, keep in mind that there will be some dealers that have bloated sites that are on the rise, in regards to indexed pages.  DO NOT ignore my warnings about bloat and content generation schemes; it normally will come back to bite you in the ass.

In the example below, this website is losing indexed pages at a rapid rate, (down 50%) which must be addressed.  This drop could be a good thing if the bloat pages were eliminated by the website provider. 

Likewise, if you are seeing your indexed pages skyrocket for no good reason, it is very likely that the platform you are using is generating website "bloat".

Bloat I am defining as automatically generated website pages that may not offer any real value to consumer and very well may trigger Google to suspect your website of content spamming or sloppy programming.  

Take The Test and Share Your Results on DrivingSales

Take a minute to see how many website pages are indexed for your website.  Share your results as well as how many cars you have in stock so we can see some trends by vendor platform.  Also share if your indexed pages are on the rise or falling.  This is an important discussion if your dealership is focused on quality website enagement.

Your comments can be formatted like this:

Platform: (Cobalt, VinSolutions, Dealer.com etc) 

# New & Used Cars In Stock:

Indexed Pages In Google:

Webmaster Tools Trend: (Up/Down)

 

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Consulting
732.672.2356
Google

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

CEO

7454

9 Comments

william cosgrove

One Big Broadcast

Jul 7, 2013  

Thanks for sharing

Eric Miltsch

DealerTeamwork LLC

Jul 7, 2013  

Brian, Great info - I also commend you for sharing this with the community - as well as VIN Solutions for addressing this issue with their users. You've mentioned the indexing issue before and this example should help readers understand that this is not about having 250k pages indexed, it's about having quality pages indexed. Run the site test and check your WMT to see the trends in your indexing data. Nice job Brian.

Eric Miltsch

DealerTeamwork LLC

Jul 7, 2013  

Also, I believe VIN could make this explanation even more helpful by providing a graphic to go along with this "bloated" description. Just as users don't read website copy - they scan it. I can see many VIN customers scanning the full explanation and asking themselves, "What did I just read and what does this mean?!"

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

Jul 7, 2013  

Good point Eric, the wording is a bit too technical to completely understand. Maybe VinSolutions staff will share this post to their customer base. Of course DrivingSales members can also tweet and share it to their 20 Groups. I am hoping that VinSolutions proactive stance will trigger other website providers to inspect their website architecture and make sure than bloat, if found, will be eliminated.

Alan Krutsch

Apple Autos

Jul 7, 2013  

Brian, Platform: VIN Solutions site: applevalleyford.com=97,700 pages Webmaster Tools: on 3/31/13 90,000+ pages were indexed. On 7/28/13 there were 4,075 pages indexed. Alan

Aaron Schinke

DealerFire

Jul 7, 2013  

Great post Brian. This is something we tackled about a year ago or so here at DealerFire. Here's another piece I put together explaining this back in March too: http://www.dealerfire.com/blog/indexed-pages-for-car-dealer-website/

Cory Hosch

McGrath Automotive Group

Jul 7, 2013  

Platform: VinSolutions patmcgrathchevyland.com # New & Used Cars In Stock: 1340 vehicles listed on this site. Indexed Pages In Google:127,000 Webmaster Tools Trend: Down 55%. High was 6/2/13 and have dropped to nearly our lowest level in the past 12 months. We have dropped over 100K Total Indexed since 6/2/13.

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

Jul 7, 2013  

Cory This drop is most likely normal because of the changes VinSolutions is making so let's watch the trend over the next few months and it should stabilize. Thank you for read the posting and sharing your data. Hopefully others will as well if they know how to get into Google Webmaster Tools! :)

Cory Hosch

McGrath Automotive Group

Aug 8, 2013  

Brian Yeah, that pattern seems consistent on all of our sites and the metrics for the site mentioned are the most severe. We will keep and eye on it and watch it. Thanks for posting this and for the feedback. Vinsoultions had one of their specialists call last week to explain what is happening so they really seem to be trying to get ahead of it and educate dealers so that is great to see as well.

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

Jul 7, 2013

Start Writing Better Content Quicker. Join Two PCG Writers for a Free Webinar Today on Quick Content Writing.

Writing great content can take a long time, and writing quick content can lead to poor posts if you are not properly trained.  Two of our senior Content Writers, Mike Forgie and Brian Lutz, are going to show you where to get inspiration for your next blog post or social media update, and how to write about these topics quickly and with a purpose.

Register for the Quick Quality Content webinar now, and save plenty of time to convert your site visitors and social media followers into customer later. The webinar starts at 1pm, so make sure to get back from lunch in time! 

 

REGISTER HERE

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

CEO

1973

No Comments

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

Jul 7, 2013

Start Writing Better Content Quicker. Join Two PCG Writers for a Free Webinar Today on Quick Content Writing.

Writing great content can take a long time, and writing quick content can lead to poor posts if you are not properly trained.  Two of our senior Content Writers, Mike Forgie and Brian Lutz, are going to show you where to get inspiration for your next blog post or social media update, and how to write about these topics quickly and with a purpose.

Register for the Quick Quality Content webinar now, and save plenty of time to convert your site visitors and social media followers into customer later. The webinar starts at 1pm, so make sure to get back from lunch in time! 

 

REGISTER HERE

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

CEO

1973

No Comments

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

May 5, 2013

VinSolutions Purchases Haystak Digital Marketing

Haystak Purchased By Autotrader

By Brian Pasch

Haystak Digital Marketing is now part of the Autotrader family of companies serving car dealers.  The announcement further enhances the products that Autotrader can offer dealers to merchandise and advertise their inventory and dealership services.  In recent years other acquisitions have included Kelley Blue Book, vAuto, and VinSolutions.  

Haystak Digital Marketing was spun out of Moore & Scarry a few years ago.  Moore & Scarry is an full service advertising agency with headquarters in Ft Myers Florida.   According to the official press release, VinSolutions is the purchaser.

The search engine market place is crowded with well established providers, so what’s different?  Haystak Digital Marketing in recent years has stormed the automotive marketplace offering car dealers VIN level pay-per-click advertising, regardless of website platform dealers use to run their business.

Automated Adwords campaigns based on in-stock inventory is not a new concept.  Dealer.com and Cobalt have been offering this service to dealers for years however both companies only offer this integration for dealers on their website platform. VIN-level advertising allows car dealers to more effectively advertise their used cars on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. 

For example, a Ford dealer who has a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado in stock, can make sure local shoppers searching for a 2011 Silverado know that their local Ford dealer has a pristine truck in stock and priced to sell.  The secret sauce is knowing how to bundle vehicles into campaigns and using intelligence to adjust bid management strategies. 

These capabilities are outside the realm of individuals that manage their own search budgets. Google Adwords recently announced that VIN-LEVEL advertising is available directly from Adwords but it does not have the same level of sophistication offered by the Haystak platform.

Transparency In Digital Advertising ROI

What has made Haystak a household name is that their advertising services are platform independent and that they offer a higher level of transparency on how the dealer’s budget is spent.  Haystak has partnered with many automotive website platform companies to integrate Adwords campaigns with replaceable phone numbers to track calls generated by Adwords investments.

Dealers using the Haystak platform have their own login which can show them their advertising investments and the performance of their ad groups.   In the example below, an executive level report will show the basic ROI of their investments for the past 30 days.  

This type of report is perfect for dealership executives who do not want to get into the details of ad management.  Detailed reports are also available from the backend tools provided by dealers, in addition to monthly reports emailed to Haystak clients. Haystak Digital Advertising Report

Cobalt is the only major website platform that has decided not to allow Haystak to integrate their campaigns with Cobalt website phone tracking.  Dealer.com, who normally does not allow third parties to leverage their replaceable phone number technology, was obliged to allow Haystak to run on their platform because of the Chrysler PAP program. Both Haystak and Dealer.com are certified to offer Chrysler dealers co-op funded advertising solutions.

The Haystak Digital Marketing platform competes with Dealer.com’s Total Control Dominator (TCD) platform, which was first to market for VIN-Level advertising for dealers.  The TCD platform and Haystak Digital Marketing are both winners of  the 2012 Automotive Website Award for digital advertising.

Haystak Is A Strategic Investment For VinSolutions Customers

The purchase of Haystak is a strategic investment for a number of reasons.  First, Haystak is one of a handful of companies awarded Google SMB designation.  As an SMB partner, Haystak benefits from high-level access to Google, which means that new product innovations are normally first disclosed with their best clients.

The second reason why Haystak is a strategic investment is that it gives VinSolutions customers a stronger digital advertising platform.  Today, Haystak is a completely stand-alone product. In the future, I could see tighter integration into the VinSolutions platform on the product roadmap.

Currently, the VinSolutions platform has integrated direct marketing campaigns allowing dealers to design direct mail pieces and send mailers to targeted lists.  Adding integrated Google Adwords, Bing, and Facebook campaigns would be a logical step allowing dealers to control their marketing strategies from within a single interface.

The Haystak platform will fall under VinSolutions product management teams. VinSolutions will benefit from having an integrated advertising dashboard similar to ones offered by Cobalt and Dealer.com.  The integration would also help VinSolutions be more competitive for new OEM website endorsements.

What Is Next For Autotrader?

Is the acquisition spree for Autotrader.com coming to and end? Who do you think they should acquire next?

 

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Consulting

732.672.2356

Google

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

CEO

6393

No Comments

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

May 5, 2013

VinSolutions Purchases Haystak Digital Marketing

Haystak Purchased By Autotrader

By Brian Pasch

Haystak Digital Marketing is now part of the Autotrader family of companies serving car dealers.  The announcement further enhances the products that Autotrader can offer dealers to merchandise and advertise their inventory and dealership services.  In recent years other acquisitions have included Kelley Blue Book, vAuto, and VinSolutions.  

Haystak Digital Marketing was spun out of Moore & Scarry a few years ago.  Moore & Scarry is an full service advertising agency with headquarters in Ft Myers Florida.   According to the official press release, VinSolutions is the purchaser.

The search engine market place is crowded with well established providers, so what’s different?  Haystak Digital Marketing in recent years has stormed the automotive marketplace offering car dealers VIN level pay-per-click advertising, regardless of website platform dealers use to run their business.

Automated Adwords campaigns based on in-stock inventory is not a new concept.  Dealer.com and Cobalt have been offering this service to dealers for years however both companies only offer this integration for dealers on their website platform. VIN-level advertising allows car dealers to more effectively advertise their used cars on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. 

For example, a Ford dealer who has a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado in stock, can make sure local shoppers searching for a 2011 Silverado know that their local Ford dealer has a pristine truck in stock and priced to sell.  The secret sauce is knowing how to bundle vehicles into campaigns and using intelligence to adjust bid management strategies. 

These capabilities are outside the realm of individuals that manage their own search budgets. Google Adwords recently announced that VIN-LEVEL advertising is available directly from Adwords but it does not have the same level of sophistication offered by the Haystak platform.

Transparency In Digital Advertising ROI

What has made Haystak a household name is that their advertising services are platform independent and that they offer a higher level of transparency on how the dealer’s budget is spent.  Haystak has partnered with many automotive website platform companies to integrate Adwords campaigns with replaceable phone numbers to track calls generated by Adwords investments.

Dealers using the Haystak platform have their own login which can show them their advertising investments and the performance of their ad groups.   In the example below, an executive level report will show the basic ROI of their investments for the past 30 days.  

This type of report is perfect for dealership executives who do not want to get into the details of ad management.  Detailed reports are also available from the backend tools provided by dealers, in addition to monthly reports emailed to Haystak clients. Haystak Digital Advertising Report

Cobalt is the only major website platform that has decided not to allow Haystak to integrate their campaigns with Cobalt website phone tracking.  Dealer.com, who normally does not allow third parties to leverage their replaceable phone number technology, was obliged to allow Haystak to run on their platform because of the Chrysler PAP program. Both Haystak and Dealer.com are certified to offer Chrysler dealers co-op funded advertising solutions.

The Haystak Digital Marketing platform competes with Dealer.com’s Total Control Dominator (TCD) platform, which was first to market for VIN-Level advertising for dealers.  The TCD platform and Haystak Digital Marketing are both winners of  the 2012 Automotive Website Award for digital advertising.

Haystak Is A Strategic Investment For VinSolutions Customers

The purchase of Haystak is a strategic investment for a number of reasons.  First, Haystak is one of a handful of companies awarded Google SMB designation.  As an SMB partner, Haystak benefits from high-level access to Google, which means that new product innovations are normally first disclosed with their best clients.

The second reason why Haystak is a strategic investment is that it gives VinSolutions customers a stronger digital advertising platform.  Today, Haystak is a completely stand-alone product. In the future, I could see tighter integration into the VinSolutions platform on the product roadmap.

Currently, the VinSolutions platform has integrated direct marketing campaigns allowing dealers to design direct mail pieces and send mailers to targeted lists.  Adding integrated Google Adwords, Bing, and Facebook campaigns would be a logical step allowing dealers to control their marketing strategies from within a single interface.

The Haystak platform will fall under VinSolutions product management teams. VinSolutions will benefit from having an integrated advertising dashboard similar to ones offered by Cobalt and Dealer.com.  The integration would also help VinSolutions be more competitive for new OEM website endorsements.

What Is Next For Autotrader?

Is the acquisition spree for Autotrader.com coming to and end? Who do you think they should acquire next?

 

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Consulting

732.672.2356

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Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

CEO

6393

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Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

Apr 4, 2013

Improve Your Digital Marketing Campaigns TODAY At 1PM EST

How confident are you that your digital marketing campaigns are delivering incremental sales each month?  Are you aware of the most common mistakes dealers make when using Google Adwords?  

What is new in digital marketing that is helping dealers jump to the next level in monthly sales?

If you would like sneak peak from leaders who will be sharing their insights and training at the upcoming 4th Annual Boot Camp, register for this free webinar today.

The webinar will be held at 1pm on Monday April 15th 2013.  The webinar will last for one hour.   Q&A from the audience will be allowed for another 30 minutes.
Brian Pasch, CEO of PCG Consulting will be moderating the webinar.  We are pleased to have three digital advertising educators on this webinar:

- Dmitriy Gamarnik - PCG Digital Marketing
- Chris Deringer - DealerOn
- Jason Wiley - Haystak Digital Marketing

As part of a new series of educational presentations leading up to Automotive Bootcamp on May 14 - 16 in Philadelphia, we've designed these webinars, called Training Exercises.

Training Exercise Webinars will be held on brief topics, which will be expanded upon by speakers at Bootcamp. To learn more about the full event in Philadelphia, visit http://www.automotivebootcamp.com

Don't miss this opportunity to ask specific questions about your marketing investments on this webinar!

Register here!

 

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

CEO

2246

No Comments

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

Apr 4, 2013

Improve Your Digital Marketing Campaigns TODAY At 1PM EST

How confident are you that your digital marketing campaigns are delivering incremental sales each month?  Are you aware of the most common mistakes dealers make when using Google Adwords?  

What is new in digital marketing that is helping dealers jump to the next level in monthly sales?

If you would like sneak peak from leaders who will be sharing their insights and training at the upcoming 4th Annual Boot Camp, register for this free webinar today.

The webinar will be held at 1pm on Monday April 15th 2013.  The webinar will last for one hour.   Q&A from the audience will be allowed for another 30 minutes.
Brian Pasch, CEO of PCG Consulting will be moderating the webinar.  We are pleased to have three digital advertising educators on this webinar:

- Dmitriy Gamarnik - PCG Digital Marketing
- Chris Deringer - DealerOn
- Jason Wiley - Haystak Digital Marketing

As part of a new series of educational presentations leading up to Automotive Bootcamp on May 14 - 16 in Philadelphia, we've designed these webinars, called Training Exercises.

Training Exercise Webinars will be held on brief topics, which will be expanded upon by speakers at Bootcamp. To learn more about the full event in Philadelphia, visit http://www.automotivebootcamp.com

Don't miss this opportunity to ask specific questions about your marketing investments on this webinar!

Register here!

 

Brian Pasch

PCG Consulting Inc

CEO

2246

No Comments

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