MDP EP027 | College or Car Biz? Plus... Year in Review Part 2 w/Special Guest

#ModernDealerPodcast #YearInReview #CarBiz # College #Seattle 

Join David & David for a Special Episode of The Modern Dealer Podcast  - Year in Review Part 2 - Episode 015 to Episode 025 - Plus we talk Career Choices with Lloyd Trushel

Learn why it is a must for dealerships to optimize their website for the online buyer.

In this pre-recorded presentation by David Farmer, CEO of intice, you will learn 3 compelling reasons why now is the time to optimize your dealership website for online buying.

We discuss how you can create improve your online sales experience, key benefits of digital retailing and how to prepare your in-store dealership sales process for the transition from analog retailing to digital retailing.

by David Farmer on May 24, 2018

Google has the ability to identify people as In-Market based on a ton of signals.  Now you can target only customers that are in-market and ready to buy in Search.

A challenge for many SEM providers for Car Dealers have been how to identify searchers that are interested in purchasing a vehicle vs. looking for directions to get an oil change appointment.  Where Costs Per Click can be very high for Car Dealers, spending $5, $6 or sometime much more for a customer to get to your website just to get your location can be problematic and provide for a unappealing ROAS. 

In-Market Audiences: Target Prospects Who Are Ready to Buy

Here is how you can use them

In-Market Audience is only available inside of the new user interface by selecting a campaign > audiences > pencil icon.

It is recommended that we use observation so that we do not limit our targeting.

From here, we click the down arrow in the in-market box to give us a list of audiences. By checking the box next to Autos & Vehicles, we can add that audience to the list.

By clicking the down arrow next to Auto & Vehicles, we can get more refine options for our lists.

Once we've added all of the audiences that we would need, click save to add to the campaign.

After saving we can add bid adjustments to each list we've selected.

This can be done at the campaign or the ad group level depending on how granular you'd want to be.

3 Steps to Evolve Auto Industry Marketing

by David Farmer on May 24, 2018

Adam Stewart from Google recently published a great article about how brands should be thinking about the customer journey in new ways.  Specifically with the goal to organize their infrastructure  from multiple sources to generate consistency across marketing messages.

While there is no question that this is a worthy goal, Dealer's need to start with this type of thinking and acting for their own marketing efforts and not wait for the manufacture to do it for them.

The 3 Steps that this article speaks about are, Organize Your Infrastructure, Activate Your Data and Improve Your Measurements.

Organize Your Infrastructure

Dealers can start doing this right now and you don't have to have access to Analytics 360 to do it.  Google Analytics is Free and can be set up in a matter of minutes.   Where some time and expertise is needed is to identify, define and organize Key Events, Goals, Channel Groupings as well as other relevant measurement solutions that are important to dealership managers.  We can help you create a New Analytics View with a custom dashboard that utilize these elements and make it accessible to the dealer.  Read this article to discover more about our ongoing Google Analytics Project: 

Activate Your Data

Here are 3 ways you can use your data to connect with potential buyers.

1.) Set up a Retargeting Campaign using unconverted site visitors to create an audience to present Display ads and Videos to encourage them to re-visit your website.

2.) Use Customer Match and match your database to targetable cookies in the Google Display and Search Network.  We can also help you extend the match by using our matching partner to expand your targetable Audience.

3.) Using your Matched Audience and Retargeting Audience; use Google's Look-a-Like targeting to expand your audience to others that share similar traits - for use with marketing with Display and Video.

Improve Your Measurements

Working with your Agency you have the ability to connect all Display, Video, Search, Social and Website activity inside your Google Analytics Account.  Using UTM Codes, Referral Sources and linking your AdWords Account in addition to Events and Goals you have the ability to create full visibility into all of your digital marketing.  You don't need to have a third party dashboard to show you what you can see inside of GA.  Using built in features like Content Grouping, Custom Channel Groupings with Top Conversion Paths or Assisted Conversions provide visibility into the effectiveness of your digital marketing channels.

For more information read Adam's full Google Article Here:

3 steps to evolve auto industry marketing

Topics: Incentive Marketing, Google Analytics, Events,, retargeting, lead conversion, digital retailing, car dealer marketing, dealmaker

Car buying behavior is changing in ways that will disrupt the existing dealer model.  Amazon-like buying experiences have conditioned buyer's expectations.  To prepare for this change, automakers and dealers alike need to have a deep understanding of the evolving customer behavior.  Bain's recent study of more than 5,000 car buyers offers a comprehensive view into these new behaviors and identifies how car dealers must adapt to build a customer-centric ecosystem.

Here is a great infographic about the study, also follow the link below to the full research paper.

READ THE FULL RESEARCH PAPER HERE:

http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/the-future-of-car-sales-is-omnichannel.aspx

“I’m just looking” is equal to a SRP View.

by David Farmer on May 03, 2018

inspired by and featuring content from Alex Veal,  VP of Ops, intice.

“I’m not buying today” is a customer who views a few vehicles and leaves your site without converting to a lead.

Installment Number One of the intice Google Analytics Project for the Dealership Manager Series:

To have a strong working knowledge of marketing today, it is important to understand the role that data analytics play in it.   Specifically an understanding what constitutes success is paramount to navigating today's world of digital marketing.  Many of the marketing gurus may not have the personal experience with selling cars in the real world and lack the insights that are important when defining the success of Automotive Digital Marketing for Dealership Managers.  In this series; Google Analytics for the Dealership Manager, we aim to demystify Google Analytics, educate Dealership Managers and create useful ways to gain insights from GA and apply them to daily decision making.

The purpose of Analytics is to describe, predict and improve business performance.  Given how marketing has evolved over the years from a creative-centric process into a data-centric process, as marketers, we have an obligation to our clients to develop insights from the data we are receiving and recommend actions or guide decision making in a context that can be impactful to the dealership managers.

Key Performance Indicators or KPI's are subjective, especially, when identifying conversions, goals & events on a car dealer website. The methodology used when declaring what is and what is not a conversion, goal or event can differ widely from agency to agency.   Creating a set of standards inside of Google AdWords and Analytics that have meaning to dealership managers is an important first step in leveraging the data in decision making for where and how to spend marketing budgets.

Let's start at the beginning:

Google AdWords & Analytics are a tools that can used in as many and as diverse ways as there are dealerships in the world.  To better help our dealers we  have dedicated ourselves to create a New Standard that a dealership can use to clearly identify and measure important metrics inside Google Adwords and Google Analytics and then teach them how to read these new standards to impact real change.

Agree or disagree.  Every metric that is set up in Analytics is meaningless unless we understand and develop ways to gain insights from them and apply them to make decisions.

Looking at metrics in AdWords such as Cost Per Click (CPC), Click Through Rate (CTR), Number of Clicks, Number of Impressions, and so on, I'm sure everyone would agree are important pieces of information, but understanding these in context is where the real value can be found.  So, where can you find and understand the context?  The answer is Google Analytics.

For General Knowledge:

Number One: Google Adwords* is for Search Engine Marketing (SEM), meaning paid marketing or advertising on the Google Search Engine.  *AdWords does allow for managing marketing of many types including Display and Video, for this series, for this series, we are going to focus on just SEM.

Number Two: Google Analytics is the platform that can measure many different types of data from a website.  Including Behavior, Audience, Conversions and Acquisition.   In basic terms, who visited your website, what did the do when the were there and how did they find you.

Google Analytics continues to evolve as technology continues to become more pervasive in our day to day lives, and we, as marketers are leveraging these transformations for the means of attracting attention and generate new business for our clients.  In our goal to create a New Standard for Google Analytics for Car Dealers, we've done a deep dive into these tools to uncover useful data points. 

Useful Features for Google Analytics for Car Dealers:
• Content Grouping
• Custom Channel Grouping
• Multi-Channel Funnels
• Attribution
• Sankey Diagrams

Stay Tuned for more installments of our Google Analytics for the Dealership Manager Series.  Each episode in this series will focus on one small chunk of actionable information that you can apply to your digital marketing strategy.

If you would to notified when new episodes are released in this series, please sign up by clicking below.

http://www.intice.com/intice-google-analytics-project-for-the-dealership-manager-series

“Cars” and “dealership” are probably not the best keywords for you.  When it comes to getting the most out of search engine optimization, a key aspect in the process is to carefully analyze and think through what keywords you should be using.  One of the first points to ponder is whether or not the keywords that you are selecting or currently using are too broad.  This is a very common mistake for all kind of companies and businesses, as they opt for very broad keywords hoping to capture large amounts of traffic only to find that they are buried on page 27 of search engine results.  Of course, as a result they may receive very little organic search engine traffic.  

Does this mean that you should be depressed and “throw in the towel?” The answer to this question is no, but you do need to have a coherent and well thought out keyword strategy and put that strategy into action.  The alternative is to give away the SEO high ground to your competitors.  Trust us, that is not the right approach.  Let’s dive deeper into what you can do to ensure that your keywords are right for you and will lead to lots of new traffic and keep your competitors at bay!

Keyword Factor One-Understand Who You Are and Where You Are

This factor may seem a bit odd, but it is important that you stop and carefully think through what geographic area you should be targeting.  Why spend money trying to lure in customers that are just too far away to realistically travel to your dealership.  For example, how often are you really going to get a prospective car buyer that lives two or three hours away?  

There may be some geographical exceptions to this rule, but most of the time potential car buyers will not travel too far out of their general area.  This means that you absolutely must focus on the area where your dealership is located.  Your keywords should be as focused as possible on capturing the search engine results that are most geographically relevant to you.  Google is now automatically customizing results based on where people are located.  However, you don't want to miss out on including your region(s) in your keywords.  The end result of adopting this strategy is that you can expect a much greater return on your SEO and web advertising investment.

Keyword Factor Two-What Makes You Unique and Special?

Just as it is important to think very carefully about your geographical location and how you should move forward, the same is true for thinking about what makes you special and unique.  What are your strengths?  What makes you special in your region or area?  What incentives can you offer that help you stand out?  By pausing to answer these questions, much of your keyword strategy will come into sharper focus.

“Cars” and “dealership” are probably not the best keywords for you.  When it comes to getting the most out of search engine optimization, a key aspect in the process is to carefully analyze and think through what keywords you should be using.  One of the first points to ponder is whether or not the keywords that you are selecting or currently using are too broad.  This is a very common mistake for all kind of companies and businesses, as they opt for very broad keywords hoping to capture large amounts of traffic only to find that they are buried on page 27 of search engine results.  Of course, as a result they may receive very little organic search engine traffic.  

Does this mean that you should be depressed and “throw in the towel?” The answer to this question is no, but you do need to have a coherent and well thought out keyword strategy and put that strategy into action.  The alternative is to give away the SEO high ground to your competitors.  Trust us, that is not the right approach.  Let’s dive deeper into what you can do to ensure that your keywords are right for you and will lead to lots of new traffic and keep your competitors at bay!

Keyword Factor One-Understand Who You Are and Where You Are

This factor may seem a bit odd, but it is important that you stop and carefully think through what geographic area you should be targeting.  Why spend money trying to lure in customers that are just too far away to realistically travel to your dealership.  For example, how often are you really going to get a prospective car buyer that lives two or three hours away?  

There may be some geographical exceptions to this rule, but most of the time potential car buyers will not travel too far out of their general area.  This means that you absolutely must focus on the area where your dealership is located.  Your keywords should be as focused as possible on capturing the search engine results that are most geographically relevant to you.  Google is now automatically customizing results based on where people are located.  However, you don't want to miss out on including your region(s) in your keywords.  The end result of adopting this strategy is that you can expect a much greater return on your SEO and web advertising investment.

Keyword Factor Two-What Makes You Unique and Special?

Just as it is important to think very carefully about your geographical location and how you should move forward, the same is true for thinking about what makes you special and unique.  What are your strengths?  What makes you special in your region or area?  What incentives can you offer that help you stand out?  By pausing to answer these questions, much of your keyword strategy will come into sharper focus.