Here’s Your Automotive Digital Marketing Guide to Stay Ahead of Competitors in 2018

The digital marketing realm is constantly evolving hence, naturally making it difficult to keep pace with all recent developments. Also, simply keeping up with the trends isn’t enough, auto dealers have to make the best use of the new technology to stay ahead in the game. 

This guide will help auto dealers and digital marketers utilize their time and effort in automotive digital marketing services that reap results. From SEO and web design to social media and content marketing, this extensive guide touches upon all these important factors.

SEO

The way people research about cars is changing and voice search is the new big thing in 2018. With technology like Google voice search, Amazon Echo and Siri, talking to gadgets is becoming a part of daily life.  According to studies, nearly 20% searches are done through voice recognition. Hence, car advertising agencies need to leverage this new trend in their campaigns.

Keywords here continue to hold prominent position. Instead of short keywords, people are asking real questions and conversing with their gadgets, hence, conversational and natural keywords need to have a place in your keyword strategy.

The second major trend is mobile indexing. Mobile first indexing basically means that desktop versions of a website will no longer be indexed, instead search engines (Google) will give preference to mobile versions of the website instead. This means making mobile search friendly websites is more important today than ever.

Social Media

Micro influencers are playing an active and valuable part in social media marketing. A micro influencer is the one who has a relatively smaller follower base, yet high engagement and genuine followers. These influencers post genuine content which their followers appreciate, hence, marketing through them allow a more targeted approach and cost effectiveness.

Content

This year, car advertising agencies must mostly focus on video and mobile content. Studies reveal that people are four times more likely to watch a video over text content regarding the same subject. And, live video streaming is such a trend these days, its importance has heightened in 2018. Live streaming is also very affordable; hence, small auto dealers can take advantage of this in creative ways. Rather than writing a blog describing a service or features of a car, auto dealers can host a live stream and give out details while also answering questions along with it.

Hence, automotive digital marketing services in 2018 should focus on real time marketing and relation building. Text content here plays the role of supporting videos. Video captions, social media posts and introductions to vlogs still require appealing text content to make users hit play on your video. In a way, content, whether video or text content, continue to remain the top influencer.

Lastly, personalized auto advertisements need attention in 2018.  Ad technology has helped publishers in targeting potential customers, what is needed now is leveraging personalized content and the data on which personalization depends on, for better and more relevant auto ads.

How Facebook has Become The Key Player in Automotive Digital Marketing

It's a well-known fact that Facebook is the world's most popular social media site and the second most visited site. What started as a simple socializing platform has grown into becoming the most sought after, well connected and the best digital platform for advertising and marketing products or services.

As the world's most popular social media website, it has now 2.07 billion monthly users active worldwide - offering a promising marketplace for automotive advertising.

A study conducted by Dealer.com reveals that almost twenty percent of buying population feels that social media greatly influences the narrowing of their brand or model consideration. Twenty-seven percent said social media greatly influences their identification of a dealership from which to purchase.

Though Facebook offers great opportunities for auto dealers, leveraging its benefits to the maximum extent is elusive. Its important to keep pace with the latest updates, trends and learn how to use them in your favor to reap maximum benefits!

Let's look at the ways with which you can leverage the benefits of Facebook.

Make your auto advertisements more appealing with Video Marketing

Videos have the ability to influence and convince people as it gives the car buyers an opportunity to take a look at the car they fancy without actually visiting a car dealership. Data from AutoTrader.com also shows that shoppers are 20% more likely to click on a specific vehicle listing if it has video.

With features like geo-targeting and audience data on Facebook, car dealers can make a real impact. FB is not only helpful in reaching out to customers, but it also gives an opportunity to build a relationship with them. By including customer testimonials, feedback, "know us" clips and walk around videos, dealers can make automotive advertising a reciprocal association.

Detailed Behavioral Targeting

In today's world where online website visits are more than showroom visits, finding and inbounding the right audience has never been more important for marketers. FB provides a more nuanced way to do this through behavioral targeting. With this feature you can narrow down your audience by adding several layers of behavioral categories, thus, making it easier to target new and existing customers alike. For instance, if your dealership has an extensive collection of new SUVs for sale, you can target those people who are looking to buy a new SUV. Similarly, all the people who visit your site and look at the SUVs, you can re-target these people through auto advertisements, offering a special offer.

Reaching out to Millennial shoppers

Millennials are far more likely to turn to social media and ask their friend's advice before heading into a dealership or finalizing a car. More than 9 out of 10 Millennials now turn to the Internet when shopping for a new car or truck, according to research conducted on behalf of eBay Motors.

Here's where customer reviews on Facebook play a crucial role. Since, Millennials are greatly influenced by the reviews given by the social peer's, dealerships must encourage their customers to post reviews and formulate an independent customer review strategy for FB. On an average, a Facebook user has approximately 350 friends, so even if one out of ten customers post a positive testimonial on his feed, this can add up to a lot of great testimonials for your dealership.

2018 is just around the corner and Facebook is already working on new ways to boost FB Ads. Hence, this is a good time to work with your automotive marketing agency, take a fresh look at your FB marketing strategies and make the most of this dynamic platform!

5 Reasons Which Make PPC The Best Marketing Channel for Auto Dealers

The competition for visibility in the search engine results is fierce. Auto dealers are opting for different and innovative strategies to improve their search engine visibility. Free promotion strategies, if planned and executed properly, do bring good results. But, in order to maintain profitability in this fierce competition, companies should back their free promotion strategies with paid online advertising methods like Pay-Per-Click.

PPC is a powerful advertising tool that influences your auto website's position in the search engine results, drives traffic to your website and increases ROI. Because of its favorable results in the recent times, many dealerships today have turned towards automotive PPC agencies to develop and oversee their PPC campaigns.

So, if you're on the fence about PPC for your dealership, read along to know the amazing benefits that PPC and automotive PPC agencies can bring.
 

Why PPC marketing?

1. You pay only when a person clicks
The best feature about PPC is that it is straightforward and you know exactly where your money is going because you only pay when an interested person clicks on your ad.

2. You can get website traffic almost instantly
If you adopt a sound PPC campaign, you can expect people clicking your ad and visiting your website almost instantly because PPC uses targeted keywords that your prospective customers are typing in the search engines. To put it in simple words, your ads will be shown to people looking for vehicles online and not everyone in general like in the case of traditional advertising. However, it is important to invest your money in the right automotive PPC marketing agency who knows exactly how to tailor the campaign according to your needs.

3. You can reach your potential customer at the correct time
With PPC, you can target a specific person at a specific place with the right ad and at the right time. With PPC's location targeting mechanism along with device-specific preferences, you can deliver specific messages to your potential customers.

4. You can keep track of the results
The problem with traditional marketing is that it is difficult to track whether your ads are reaching your targeted audience or not and whether the ads are bringing in any customers. With PPC, you can constantly track your results. You can find out whether a particular ad or campaign has been effective and know exactly where your money has gone. This means you can determine ROI faster with a PPC campaign. A specialized automotive PPC marketing agency can even let you know an accurate figure of the website visits, phone leads, or e-mail leads that your ads are getting.

5. It allows you to use geo-targeted ads
This aspect is especially useful for local car dealers. If your dealership is located in Austin, for example, and you only deliver your vehicles within the city area, then it is futile to show your ads to people outside Austin. With PPC, you get to decide where your ads will be shown and at what time. You can select single or multiple cities where you want your ads to be displayed and exclude those which seem unnecessary.

So, are you beginning to see why PPC should be a major recipient of your automotive marketing strategy? Traditional advertising and SEO are important channels, but if you are targeting a wholesome marketing strategy that touches upon all key factors, then PPC ought to be included.