Dealer.com and Performics both have an excellent service as well. ReachLocal is perfect for dealer’s that want to get started, but should be reconsidered when dealer’s are ready for the next step, and ready to be dominant.

“I am no longer relying on third-party lead providers, i.e. Dealix, Automotive.com, etc. Is this really a good idea, or should I still be buying those third-party leads? ”

Richard, I think this is a great idea if it’s working for you. I would also say with the way 3rd party leads have been looking lately, I doubt you”re missing much. Anyone else getting a flood of really bad leads over the last few months?

Getting back to the question; you have to decide what your marketing mix is going to be and what’s going to give your dealer the best ROI. Just because all the other dealers are buying 3rd party leads does not mean that you need to be as well.

“I’m looking to take this one step further and add some display advertising”

My dealer/s do a lot of display advertising, including site re-targeting and we do most of this with JumpStart automotive. Overall we have been very satisfied with JumpStart.

You really have to dial in on your market to know if display advertising is going to make sense. Like PPC, you really want to be sure you’re tracking everything and be sure that your message continues all the way through the click pattern.

@Alex “Can anyone give their insight on doing SEM with a provider that creates landing pages vs a provider that sends traffic directly to your website.”

Great question – I think this should be a separate posting all together. Initially I have seen both work and both fail. Most landing pages ask for the marriage before the date while the homepage can let you date the customer but too often the date is not a good one and the customer turns you down.

Jay,

Thanks for your stab at defining Online Advertising, but your answer seems tailored for a site like Amazon.com.

There is a Heirarchy of Effects (google it) when it comes to purchasing a vehicle. The first visit to a website is just that, a first visit. Hopefully we convert that visit to a lead, but that’s where this industry falls short. We get leads, but we sometimes loose site of the fact that buying a vehicle is still an emotional, complex purchase where the online visitor experiences the online buying process for several weeks.

I think to be successful, dealers need to go back to the basics and develop a plan for passing the ball back and forth with the visitor to keep their dealership top-of-mind.

Getting back to the lead within 1 minute is great. But in this era of ‘Attention Economy’ (where attention is the scarce resource), dealers need a plan to get back with the lead within 3 days, 7 days, 10 days, etc. Each customer touchpoint should advance the sell. This time, fill out this paperwork…then have them do this, then do this…keep passing the ball back and forth with the customer with the intent on doing some “deep branding” into that customer.

If these activities are performed, guess which dealership will be ‘top of mind’ when the customer decides to buy?

We should avoid adding new buzz words to the same old thing. Back to the basics in this economy. I’m talking 1960′s basics!!! (with a 21st century Internet flavor, of course)

Thanks,

Wayne

Online Display Advertising is essentially a “geo-targeted Banner Ad” on any website offering shoppers. A good example s would be Kbb.com’s Dealer Showcase Ad Solution. Because there is so much competition for digital ad dollars between Leads-PPC-SEO etc, many dealers are missing the pivotal “Online Branding” component.

In the very upper funnel auto buying conditions of the current climate, what could be better than placing your dealership front and center on the biggest automotive sites? And what if it was offered in an entirely exclusive fashion?

The problem created by the “Online Branding Component” is the inability of Dealers to measure the conversion of “100 Unique Visits”.

Let’s examine more closely:

100 Unique Visits to a Dealer Website converts to ____% of Leads

(“Leads” defined as –Phone Calls—Emails—Walk Ins—Landing page visits)

Due to the various limitations of web site tracking and click stream understanding, less than 10% of dealers could answer this question if posed:

For every 100 People who visit your site, what is the % who transact* and the average dollar amount per transaction minus/versus the cost of the 100 visits?

*Transaction defined as any spend between Front end Sales-and Fixed Ops

Once this ROI criteria is understood and measurable, Dealers will start gaining traction from the thousands and thousands website visits they receive from all their media every month.

Happy Selling!