THE CHALLENGE
A large auto dealership partnered with our digital experts to grow their business while remaining trustworthy and strengthening their brand.
The campaign goals:
- Drive new users to the site and increase site traffic
- Increase new and used VDP page views, trade-in page views
- Encourage more clicks on links to hours and directions
- Increase “Contact Us” submissions
- Strategic reach of auto intenders
- Drive foot traffic into the dealership
THE STRATEGY
Our team developed a comprehensive multi-solution digital strategy that included digital display, targeted email, search engine marketing (SEM), and paid social media.
Digital Display
The digital awareness campaign consisted of display ads targeted to auto intenders on both owned & operated (O&O) sites and the extended reach network. These also included InStory videos that reach a much more engaged audience, appearing in the middle of content that readers are consuming on the O&O sites.
Targeted Email
Targeted e-mail campaigns were sent out to auto intenders who have opted in to receive marketing e-mails. These e-mails included persuasive subject lines to increase the open rate and CTR.
Each month, the dealership picks a certain car, truck, or SUV to focus on and the e-mail is sent out with custom creative to the target audience – an example would be a new SUV targeted to moms or those with families.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Our search team launched an SEM campaign across the top search engines: Google, Bing, and Yahoo! to increase the dealership’s visibility in search results as consumers make major automotive purchase decisions. They run separate campaigns for each make that the dealership sells: Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Buick.
The team closely tracked performance indicators and optimized the campaign accordingly through ad copy and bidding adjustments.
This ongoing optimization process resulted in increased inbound web traffic through paid search.
Dynamic search engine marketing is a unique tool that allows the search team to pull in inventory from the dealership’s used cars. The search engine keywords are automatically updated based off the inventory – when that car is sold, the keyword is removed, thus the client is only paying for clicks relative to the cars currently in inventory. We prove performance by showing what cars were sold and what keywords we removed as they were sold.
Paid Social Media
Since social media channels are a platform where customers share their experiences and show support for brands and services they enjoy, the campaign utilized paid social media to engage with customers and build the client’s social presence. The Facebook ads were done through the Ads Manager platform, where the ads would be sponsored and show up directly in the news feed of the target audience.
With behavior and geo-targeted, sponsored posts of inventory, deals, and specials, the dealership has increased its digital reach of auto intenders to where they are most engaged online – in social media and on their own news feed.
THE RESULTS
Through constant monitoring, ongoing campaign optimization, and regular face-to-face meetings to discuss campaign performance and evolving short-term and long-term goals, the team was able to increase the client’s bottom line.
Campaign Highlights:
- Paid Search traffic increased by 9% YOY
- Display traffic increased by 26% YOY
- Traffic from targeted e-mail campaigns increased by 37% YOY
- Average time on page increased by 15% YOY
- Contact Submission Form fills increased by 28% YOY
- Implemented Facebook Paid Social ads to target users on their news feed
- Consistent YOY growth in website traffic