Regarding PPC advertising. Most dealers are quick to spend a certain budget on PPC advertising but do not get involved in getting better results. You can bid on a general keyword like “Chevy” as long as you create the right text ad (remember this is advertising so you set the message) to go along with it, so you weed out people that are not looking for what you have to offer. Same goes for the landing page for that specific keyword, you need to create content that fits that keyword and your actual ad. This will obviously lowers the amount of clicks, but the great thing is you still get branding for your site with the right message and you only pay for traffic that is relevant.

Tell me how many of you guys create different campaigns for different keywords with different messages in the ads and different landing pages? I doubt more than 10% does this. Partly because we are too lazy to do this, partly because we have a third company doing it and they have just as little knowledge as us or they are too lazy, and/or our website provider does not give us the means to create a different landing page per keyword or campaign.

I am guilty of the same, because I simply do not have the time (although by the number of posts on this site, I should question myself on this ?) so I chose to use a third party provider.

Regarding the use of SEM vs SEO. SEM is not only for new websites until their website starts ranking. There is research out there that shows that a certain percentage of search engine traffic clicks on sponsored ads, so you should have your company’s website in both sponsored and organic results.

Now one thing that I think you should avoid is the following. Yahoo allows sponsored listings in organic results. Yep, scary thought huh. So if you are already on top of SE listings, you have to make sure that your SEM campaigns do not list in the organic results, because it will replace your organic listings and you are paying for clicks that you would get for free.

This creates an extra load of work, because now you have to create different campaigns for different marketing messages and have to worry about whether you rank high for the keywords in the campaign organically. If you are not, have Yahoo place you in the organics, if you are, then leave that campaign out of the organics.

On top of this, you need to think whether all this is worth the hassle having to worry about. Our site is not getting enough traffic to worry about it, but some larger dealer groups should definately look at this.

Again this points to the problem I have with the inflexibility of most (probably all – just do not want to make a claim that is not true) dealer website providers.

I am in NY and just 2 hours into the keyword research and I am seeing dealers from Montana, Colorado, TX, N. Carolina… good God, these idiots are everywhere.

Word to Mark Bonfigli or Dean Evans.
Is your PPC management tool a stand alone platform? If so, these PPC newbies really need your help. What better way to validate value than documenting “self managed waste”.

CONCEPT:
Create “PPC Crisis” call list using GOOG’s new “Ads Preview Tool”. Try it for yourself. Goto: Adwords> Campaign Management> Tools> Ads Preview Tool

Toss in a quality short tail keyword, then look into each State or regional Market to find the “lost children”.

EXAMPLE:
state: ALABAMA
keyword: chevrolet avalanche
http://www.BillCrispin.com Maine
http://www.CourtesyChev.net Arizona

state: ALASKA
keyword: Chevrolet SSR (gulp!)
http://www.RosenthalChevrolet.com Virginia (none in stock!)

state: ALASKA
keyword: Chevrolet equinox
http://www.arizona-chevy.com (I can’t believe Chapman would make this error!!)
http://www.BillCrispin.com Maine (oh oh, someone’s in trouble and doesn’t know it yet)

Gents, You get the idea.
Have your team feed this GOOG interface a list of quality short tail keywords then harvest the PPC URLS that are out of their geo area. Chances are that these fellas are making PPC 101 mistakes so they’re in Alaska and don’t know it.

WIFM?
What’s In it For Me?
I’d bet there is are 50 to 100 dealers RIGHT NOW committing PPC hari kari. I am upto my armpits in a zillion PPC variables. I’d really like a free year of your TotalControl DOMINATOR to put this PPC effort on auto-pilot. I’ll sweeten the offer with a tasty testimonial to boot!

Joe
p.s. Please disregard this bird-dog request if your PPC mngt. platform requires your site, I have a totally new site in the cooker.

The upside to using a automotive focused marketing agney allows the people or person in the dealership to assist with providing the correct information about what the dealership wants to place in text ads and allow them to do what they do best. Sell cars, in case you’re wondering, instead of looking at numbers and keywords.

As for Search Marketing being the savior of your dealership well it definitely won’t do this or kill the third party providers but one thing that is certain is search marketing is here to stay. I also must add that dealerships must realize people are like water and will always look for the fastest route to find what it is they are looking for whether it’s a car or a quick trip to the grocery store if you don’t provide the consumer a quick avenue to find their next vehicle, compare prices, or allow them to do research during the buying process I can guarantee your competitor across the street is, and if you’re spending 10k a month on full page newspaper ads why not shrink the news ad to a half or 3/4 page and use the remaining portion on search marketing to provide this quick link and offer the searching consumer the details needed to make an educated buying decision. Just a thought…

Setting up a quality SEM campaign can been done without hiring a vendor. It takes about 6-10 hours total if you do it right. I haven’t touched mine in 6 months and regularily get $.68 / click. My only limit is what my owner is willing to pay.

And I agree with Mitch, SEO & SEM are very 2000ish. We need to look beyond. But like Joe says, the basics are so important.

On a side note, I was looking at Suzuki of Wichita and got to say I’m highly impressed with everything they do. Their owner’s passion bleeds through the pages. I’m envious.