[Alex Jefferson]

Has anyone gotten involved heavily in display advertising or re-targeting. I know there are several companies out there that offer these services. In my opinion one obstacle is the fact that no-one seems to tell you all the places you are advertising on. They only give you a few sites they use and then tell you that you will be in a network of 50 to 100 sites. (These could be garbage sites)

Ad spend in newspaper is on the steady decline and if done correctly I think display advertising may be of benefit in some markets. I have only dipped a little into this arena and I'm not real interested in throwing money away so it would be nice to get everyone's perspective on this.

[Jeff Kershner]

Alex, I think I could write a book on this. I have been DEEP into display advertising for over a year now. I have been wanting to write a post about Display Advertising on the blog but have not gotten around to it.

In my opinion one obstacle is the fact that no-one seems to tell you all the places you are advertising on.

This can be true. We were sworn too, our ads would not show up on MySpace but guess what..I have screen shots to prove that was not true.

Due to the lack of response, I think it's safe to assume that very little dealers are getting into display advertising.

I'll do my best to get working on that post... OR start asking away and I will answer. Ask me about cost, how they charge, creative, networks...anything you want. I feel confident I can answer it for you.

[NickCybela]

Many networks will give you a partial list of the major sites they're on. There are a few (select) networks that will list each individual site, optimize based off site performance and provide you specific analytics and while their cost may be higher on a CPC or CPM basis, if that's something of interest that may be preferred.

One of the interesting emerging items (at least on the agency side) is a cost per sale purchase model. We're finding that more and more networks are willing to sell display placements based off a CPS model instead of the CPM, CPC, or even CPL one.

If there's anything else I can help with send me a message.

[Alex Jefferson]

Thanks for your response Jeff! I thought that my post was so boring that nobody cared.
I think the most challenging part is how to obtain an ROI. I would be interested to hear more about CPS models that Nick references. I'm not sure how that would work out.
Also, Jeff do you have any networks that you recommend and how much share of voice you need to have before your ads become effective?

[DogbertBH]

We did some remarketing for a one month stint at my old place and the site traffic boosted by almost double.

The downside was that the message stunk and we had a 50% bounce rate, too.

I think if you have the right message it would work well.

-Bobby

[Jeff Kershner]

Originally Posted by Alex Jefferson

Thanks for your response Jeff! I thought that my post was so boring that nobody cared.
I think the most challenging part is how to obtain an ROI. I would be interested to hear more about CPS models that Nick references. I'm not sure how that would work out.
Also, Jeff do you have any networks that you recommend and how much share of voice you need to have before your ads become effective?

Not at all Alex, truth is..not a lot of dealers are playing in the Display Advertising arena.

There are NOT a lot of Agency's offering CPS on Display Ads though there are a few... Advertising.com were the pioneers in CPS model (proving CPS can work). AOL bought out Advertising.com several years back. Believe it or not but I think Cobalt is offering Display Advertising at a CPA model ?!?

Your right..tracking the ROI can be tricky. Display Advertising can no doubt be tracked through the click but so many studies show (and I can attest to) that your display advertising does have a branding affect that (when done right) causes consumers to later type in your URL or perform a keyword search for your dealer or dealers message (if you properly market the message in your display ad). This is where site-retargeting becomes a crucial element of tracking your display advertising ROI.

You asked about networks...

As of now..there are only a few vendors in the Automotive industry offering Display Advertising. The ones that I know of are...

Jumpstart Automotive Media

Cobalt | Online Automotive Advertising & Online Car Advertising

Home - Specific Media

Of course you don't need to go with vendors specific to the Automotive industry though you might get an edge when it comes to statistics and understanding the automotive shopper.

Alex...keep asking questions and I will do my best to answer.

Originally Posted by DogbertBH

We did some remarketing for a one month stint at my old place and the site traffic boosted by almost double.

The downside was that the message stunk and we had a 50% bounce rate, too.

I think if you have the right message it would work well.

-Bobby

Bobby, did you mean Site Retargeting?

[Alex Jefferson]

Jeff - What are your thoughts on display advertising on your local networks like newspaper or television station (websites) vs. national networks that companies like Jumpstart offer?

Although I am sure the national networks are able to "geo target" (to a certain degree) we have currently focused on our local networks because of the branding effect that you spoke about in an earlier post. I don't have to worry about showing up on My Space to a random person 2,000 miles away from me.

I have considered looking into display advertising on a larger scale. With all the factors taken into consideration this is why the CPS model is intriguing to me. However, I have my doubts about this. I’m sure any vendor could setup a proxy on my website to track form submissions but then they would also have to be able to dial into my DMS system and match it with the original lead source. I see many ways this could be a mess if this is how it is done. Your insight would be of great benefit.

[NickCybela]

Alex,

CPL is typically the way you'll want to go within automotive. Because you're not selling products online and the ad network wouldn't have the ability to hone your sales processes (or even begin to understand them) it would be difficult to sell them on it. Alternatively, anything is possible these days.

Naturally, I'd strongly recommend you let an agency like Cuneo help you with display. We get more aggressive rates than you would individually and can help review your analytics to ensure the bounce rates stay at reasonable levels, and help you tie your own intelligent to a CPS basis. One of the best things you can do to get into any media is find some expert guidance along the way.

Keep in mind that display plays nicely with other media. Research generally shows that search receives a 20% lift with a strong display campaign. When partnered with a product like Omniture Test&Target or Google Website Optimizer you can start doing A/B tests on landing pages or even multivariate depending on your site traffic.

Jeff had some good suggestions on networks to start with, but remember there's dozens out there to choose from. In my opinions, average dealers should focus on the goals they want to accomplish and let experts offer them choice suggestions. And remember, both the network and ad serving platform will define what information you'll get in return. Also be sure you've defined what a conversion and qualified action is as well as how you'll specifically measure the success of the campaign.

Per your question to Jeff, consider that retargeting works best on a larger scale where you can actually track a visitor during their normal browsing. Only being in one place eliminates a vast potential audience. However, you may experience a higher CTR with a conquest area on a home page... but is that the audience you want to reach?

I truly believe that dealers should focus on the demographic they want to reach, and their goals and leverage the media buying resources and people that live and die by interactive that are available. But, I'm biased.

[Jeff Kershner]

Alex, you're usually limited when you go with the local newspaper and cable station websites. Not saying they don't have their place but from my experience they usually under perform.

Yes, your larger Display Ad Agencies can geo target..some by DMA while others can break it down by region and zip. However, it will never be 100% accurate do to floating IP's and homebase IP's being located in another state (AOL).

Yeah, I have never heard nor seen a CPS model for display advertising in our industry. I doubt that will ever happen. As I said before..there is a play for CPA (cost per action) and off the top of my head the only ones in our industry offering this is Cobalt, though not sure how they are pricing it.

I would work with a company that will give you the ability to track every action on your site (KPI's - Key Performance Indicators). This will allow you to identify values per action from your display advertising efforts and help determine an ROI.

Track Track and Track everything you can on your site. If your using "plug-ins" like a Credit App, Virtual Inventory or an Online Trade appraisal tool, be sure to get them on board with installing the tracking code as well, otherwise you can be loosing a lot of conversion tracking. Take it another step and track your phone calls as well....humm, this is still a challenge.

Keep in mind that display plays nicely with other media. Research generally shows that search receives a 20% lift with a strong display campaign.

As Nick said above..this is an element of tracking you can't "always" accredit back to your display advertising but if done correctly it is possible to track a lift in traffic to your dealer website from natural search. For me, this is the more important part of display advertising - the branding piece. Remember, in 2008, the average CTR for banner ads was round 0.25%.

Side note: Some companies tracking codes are very HEAVY and can really tax your website load time. Can you say..Code Bloat? I would find out who else is using their services and before signing on, visit their site and keep eye on the load time and your web browser status bar (lower right corner) to see how many servers they are pinging up against.

Another side note: I personally would NOT do Display Advertising without Retargeting. If you do a lot of email marketing I would be a good idea to work with a company that offers the ability for you to place a retargeting pixel in your marketing emails.

[terrencegordon]

We have been offering Display to our dealers for about 6 months. Back in 1998, Display advertising is how I made a living, and we used to sell CPM's site-based for up to $40 CPM. I am blow away with the technologies that some of these networks are able to deliver. We use one of the largest networks (holding back on the name for now), but it comes down to Behavioral targeting. We aren't targeting websites, but people who have been proven to qualify as an "in-market" shopper for a specific brand - even down to specific models. Then there's the retargeting where we serve up ads to a visitor who has visited the dealer's site. I've seen our clients on FoxNews.com, Yahoo Autos and tons of social network sites. BTW, NOT PLUGGING HERE - just explaining.

We are the agency of sort, in that we build the creatives and the landing pages and place the ad buy through our network partner....for MUCH less CPM that what I used to get prior to the bubble bursting.

All in all, it's refreshing to see dealers pulling money from Traditional and combining Display with Search, which have been proven to compliment each other.