Why Digital Advertising?
In short, advertise where consumers are shopping. Traditionally, consumers shopped for cars on the lot. In turn, advertising was all about driving them to your lot by promoting your brand and why the consumer should buy from you via TV, Radio, and Print. Today consumers shop very differently; consumers are armed with data. Before they ever step on a lot or even go to a dealer’s website, they have researched multiple brands and models on a combination of OEM websites, video platforms, and 3rd-party research websites. As a result, your approach to marketing to consumers needs to change with their changing behaviors.
Consumers are now shopping primarily online, and how they are shopping is constantly changing with new technology and mediums. The automotive industry’s advertising mix is not in line with the consumers’ advertising consumption. In fact, simply talking about digital or “the internet” compared to TV, radio, and print isn’t detailed enough. With 75% of consumption of advertising happening online and access to over 90% of consumers online, digital advertising needs to be considered standard and broken out into the details to determine how to utilize it most effectively.
Digital advertising has some key benefits compared to traditional advertising, but both have their role in supporting each other. One way to look at it is to apply today’s digital marketing strategies to more traditional approaches. If you were walking through your dealership and the phone was ringing unanswered, someone is going to hear about it, right? In your mind, that phone call is probably someone calling to say they want to know more about the new Outlander. Maybe how much it costs, maybe if you have any in stock, etc. In reality, it might just be to see if your service drive is open yet, but either way, that phone must be answered quickly every time. You aren’t going to sit there and wonder if it’s worth the cost of the phone call to even answer the call.
Think of digital advertising similarly. When a consumer gets on their phone, instead of calling your store directly, they are asking their question to Google, Bing, etc. The beauty of digital advertising is not only can you decide which of these consumer inquiries you think are worth paying for instead of answering all of them, you can also ensure your response is exactly what you want it to be, which you know you can’t say for certain with whoever is answering the phone.
So if your expectation is that the phone is answered every time in hopes that it might be an opportunity, why wouldn’t you answer today’s version of a phone call every time knowing that it is an opportunity and that it is going to be handled correctly?
Traditional media still has its place in advertising. There is value in cross-media consistency, reach, and frequency, but the mindset needs to be shifted to realize those mediums are now the add-on to where the bulk of the eyeballs are today, online digital advertising provides reach to over 90% of all consumers. Google alone reaches more consumers than all of the networks combined. That reach can then be filtered down to only target the consumers who show signs of being in-market now rather than paying to push your message to the people who just bought a car 3 months ago. The results are measurable and are not nearly as costly to produce as that one-time TV ad being blasted to everyone that only advertises your “core models.”
Digital advertising isn’t as simple as just throwing money at it and turning it on, though. If not done right, you can very quickly burn money without seeing results and walk away with a mindset of “I’ve tried digital and it doesn’t work.” This handbook will guide you through what you need to know to successfully advertise in today’s digital environment.
What is Digital Advertising?
Digital advertising simplifies the shopping process for consumers, allowing them to shop from anywhere, anytime. For dealers, digital advertising generates brand awareness and lead generation and comes in all shapes and sizes. The most common mediums include search (both paid and organic), video, social media, and display advertising, each of which have their own strengths and weaknesses.
The key to success in digital advertising is relevance. Digital advertising allows you to reach the right people, with the right message, at the right time. Relevance is rewarded in digital advertising with less expensive media and higher consumer engagement. If not done right, digital advertising can be a very costly, low-performing strategy. And “the right way” is different for every dealer. This handbook will help you navigate what can be a complex world of digital advertising and arm you with the knowledge needed to find what works best for your dealership.
It is important to note that digital advertising is just one part of the sales process. It can help lead the horse to water, but at the end of the day, you, the dealer, still need to price your products well, treat the customer the right way, and close the deal.
Digital advertising allows you to have both a push and pull marketing strategy. This means you are working to pull consumers who are already in-market into your dealership while simultaneously attempting to push consumers into the market who were not previously considering buying a car.
- Pull Marketing: To use a fishing analogy, “fish where the fish are biting.” Search marketing is the best example in digital advertising. The consumer knows (or thinks they know at that time) what they are looking for. You just need to be there to tell them you have what they are looking for and provide them with relevant information so that they look to you instead of the dealer down the street.
- Push Marketing: This is where we increase the size of the market by pushing consumers into consideration who are not currently shopping. Mediums like video, social media, and display can be effective strategies to generate brand and product awareness. This is where you can quickly rack up a big bill without seeing a lot of results, and it comes back to relevance. Going back to the fishing analogy, these “fish” are often bigger and in deeper waters, meaning they require a “fishfinder” to locate, but they can often yield a higher return. We will go into more detail about these types of audience strategies later in this handbook.
A proper digital marketing strategy includes an in-depth strategy on the market, the message, the mediums, and the metrics. This handbook provides a basic description, advanced concepts and keys to success for each.