Over the past few years we have seen rapid shifts in consumer trends which have impacted the automotive industry. In order to keep up with the competition, it’s important to look for new ways to improve your business. Google’s Dealer Guidebook is a great resource for best practices and strategies that help automotive dealerships get the most out of their paid search campaigns. The Moran Group is proud to have a few of our clients featured in the Dealer Guidebook’s case studies. In this blog post, we will take a look at some of the key takeaways from the case studies. Keep reading to learn more!

Automation Is Key

Automotive paid search is all about delivering the right message to the right customer. Automated bidding strategies can help you do just that by using machine learning to optimize your campaigns for maximum performance. Machine learning can help tailor ad content based on Google’s signals to deliver the right message at the right time. Automation is key to success in the automotive paid search space. By leaning into automation, dealers can stay ahead of the curve and maximize performance.

The Moran Group created a digital strategy for a Louisiana based Toyota dealer that needed to increase leads despite losing visibility from construction. Our Performance Marketing team created a paid search strategy that utilizes an automated bidding strategy to maximize conversions to drive in-market shoppers to their website with relevant messaging. This resulted in a 42% increase in leads on their website and a 33% increase in phone call leads.

“By using the Maximize Conversions strategy, we continued to reach the right customers with the right message while building our new, state of the art dealership. ” - Keith Hanks, Vice President, Lakeside Toyota

Audience Alignment

Another key takeaway is targeting high-intent users yields a more efficient and effective paid search spend. It is important to maintain your momentum by aligning your ad spend strategy to the audiences most likely to convert to a sale. This involves taking a data-driven approach to your campaigns by continuously measuring and optimizing your performance to keep your business growing.

Our Performance Marketing team at The Moran Group created a digital marketing strategy to maintain market share despite decreased inventory for a family-owned Toyota dealership in North Carolina. Our strategy allowed us to drive leads by identifying and prioritizing high-potential auto shoppers to advertise in-stock inventory and flexible buying options. As a result, this dealer gained a 47% increase in leads on-site and a 29% decrease in cost per lead.

“Shifting to the Maximize Conversions strategy during unprecedented times allowed us to reach shoppers who were interested in the vehicles we had in stock.” - Aaron Hudson, VP of Marketing and Technology, Anderson Automotive Group

‍Relevant Results

The key to any successful marketing campaign is understanding the impact of your efforts. Without relevant results, it's impossible to know what's working and what isn't. By having goal-based measurements we can truly understand the impact of our campaigns and drive elements that produce the most optimal results. That's why a crucial part of any measurement strategy is choosing the right key performance indicator (KPI)  to align with your goals. 

A Texas based dealer sought to increase foot traffic to their new location. We identified their  KPI as store visits, which we then used to measure the results of our marketing campaigns. Focusing on store visits allowed us to identify what was driving the most in-person traffic and optimize bids on high-performing elements such as keywords and devices. As a result, we increased store visits by 129% and decreased their cost per visit by 31%.

“Using Store Visits was crucial to evaluating campaign performance and increasing sales during a pandemic.” - Todd Crabtree, General Manager, Jeff Haas Mazda 

Prep For What’s Next

The automotive industry is moving toward a more digital and automated future. With car shoppers more willing to buy online, we must prepare for the future by leaning into automation and online retailing. The Moran Group is prepared for this shift by utilizing new strategies and technologies. Our Performance Marketing team has adopted several new tools including Vehicle listing Ads and Performance Max Campaigns which are goal-based campaign types that are designed to find more converting customers across all of Google's channels. By doing so, we stay ahead of the competition and our clients continue to thrive.

Google’s Dealer Guidebook covers topics such as bidding strategies, aligning ad spend strategy to maximize conversions, and leaning into automation and online retailing in order to prepare for shifts in consumer behavior. Additionally, it features case studies on how our team at the Moran Group were able to drive results. If you're looking for more tips on how to succeed with digital marketing and improve your business, be sure to check out our other blog posts or contact us today.

Call The Moran Group at 225-769-1059 or schedule a meeting online!

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SOURCES:

• ‍https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/new-car-buyer-research/‍
• https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/auto-industry-impact-during-coronavirus/‍
• https://www.moranadvertising.com/blog/googles-2021-dealer-guidebook-and-4-key-takeaways‍
• https://www.moranadvertising.com/blog/how-to-maximize-googles-new-vehicle-listing-ads‍
• https://www.moranadvertising.com/blog/performance-max-drives-leads-for-gmc-dealer

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