A couple weeks ago I wrote about why most dealers are failing with video ads. One of my points was that the targeting on video ads is often too broad.

What I mean is that your video ads try to deliver the same pitch to everyone who sees them. That’s like using the exact same selling points with a recent grad, a father of three, and a retiree.

“This truck is a real head-turner. It has plenty of power for…” oh what does this guy need… “PASSING! NO, NO… GETTING TO BASEBALL PRACTICE… NO, ERM…. HAULING YOUR TRAILER!”

That doesn’t cut it in your showroom and that doesn’t cut it in online advertising.

There are three basic steps to creating more relevant video ads.

1. Identify your audiences. You probably already know this from the market research your supplier gives you, but you still need to translate it into messaging for your local clientele. For most vehicles, that’s not a single message, it’s multiple messages for multiple target buyers.

2. Identify your channels. How will you reach out to each target buyer group?

• Look for local and national websites that target specific interests or ages. Don’t just target car nuts. Think about professional groups, sports websites, community pages. Where are your target customers already hanging out?
• Look into ad networks and platforms that allow for targeting, including Google Adwords and Facebook. You can specify specific demographic criteria (buyer is 35-45, male, within 15 miles of my dealership) and behaviorographic criteria (buyer likes pages related to hunting and to little league).
• Consider offline options like video billboards or video displays. Does the local café that caters to moms waiting to pick up their kids after school have a digital display? Maybe you can trade ads with them.

3. Create relevant ads. This step can be quite costly and time consuming if you try to make individual, scripted ads for each buyer group for each vehicle. Here are three tips to help you can make the ads more affordably:

• If you’re working with an agency, get the costs of creating multiple versions of ads up-front. This will give you more bargaining power and will ensure that the agency gets all the footage and still images they need.
• If you’re creating ads on your own, get all the video clips or still images of the vehicles all at once. Remember to take photos from multiple angles. This will save you from having to go back out to the lot. When you’re editing the videos, focus on the specific benefits and features that will appeal to each buyer group. But don't forget that EVERYONE cares about how the car looks.
• One other option for creating your own ads more quickly is using an online video creation service, where you drag and drop your photos or video clips into place, and change the text and featured benefits for each target segment. It’s not as cheap as editing the videos yourself, but it’s much faster, the results look more professional, and you don’t need any special software.

Have you tried making video ads for your dealership? What tips can you share with the rest of the readers?

Yesterday I wrote about the three reasons most dealers fail at online video advertising. Today I'd like to dig more deeply into the first reason:

Most Video Ads Play Muted

Traditionally, dealer advertising has made heavy use of voiceovers to drive the message. In most internet advertising formats that dealers will use, including sidebar ads placed through ad networks and Facebook ads, the ads start out sans sound.

Sound is enabled only after a viewer clicks on the video. Now put yourself in the shoes of your customer. Do you want to click the video and suddenly hear a loud, announcer-like voice in the middle of your office or living room?

Even if the baritone bloviation doesn’t turn your potential customer on his heels, the voiceover is half-finished by the time the click comes. That’s half your message unheard.

How to make better video ads

A better solution is to make your video ads less reliant on the audio track to properly present a message. Instead, provide all of the information with visuals. Images of the autos, special prices, dealer incentives and important specs should all be vividly splashed across the screen.

Sure, go ahead and include (licensed) music in the audio track. Just make sure it isn’t crucial to getting your message across.

Here’s a sample video I created to demonstrate this point.

The YouTube Pre-roll Exception (isn’t really an exception)

YouTube’s TruView pre-roll ads do play with audio from the very beginning, and you can use a voiceover here. But this doesn’t mean you should. The Voice of God works in TV ads because ads are hard to skip, even in the age of the DVR. Go in the kitchen to grab a glass of iced tea and you can still hear the booming voice.

On TV it’s OK to be a little bit annoying. On the internet, you have to be entertaining and informative. Otherwise people will eagerly wait, watching the 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… countdown to skip your video.

Most dealers are failing at online video advertising because they’re running the wrong kinds of ads for the wrong audiences.

Dealer ads have gotten more sophisticated

It used to be that when you wanted an ad, you called up your local TV affiliate, agreed to buy some airtime and they would send out a crew to film your owner or sales manager.