It's really easy to point out the obvious need in our industry relative to what we now call digital marketing. EVERY ONE that reads the articles and comments here at DealerRefresh should be in agreement that education and commitment to continued training should be a top priority for dealers. Internet training, education and preparedness should have been a top priority for dealers for the last 10 years. It's a true reality, but it's far from a new reality. So, why are most dealers still in neutral?

Brian, if I'm understanding your response correctly, there is no dispute. Dealers SHOULD educate themselves and understand enough about all aspects of marketing (online and offiline) so that they can have a constructive dialogue with their agency. There is no argument there...nor should there be. The more the dealer knows, the better the working relationship with the Vendor.

What I will argue is the granularity of involvement from the Dealer. I personally don't think any dealer (the Joe Pistells of the world aside) should be hiring staff to actively MANAGE their online marketing - meaning the actual media buying, reporting and maintenance of those programs. And by hiring an intern, you are assuming there's someone at the dealership to monitor their performance.

If I was hired at a dealership tomorrow, with all my online marketing experience I would still hire a 3rd party agency / vendor / consultant to buy and manage my media. At the end of the day, I just need the bottom line ROI report and the ability to decipher it.

Want new blood on the sales floor? Change the pay plan, change the hours worked.

A Pioneers that I follow:
Auction Direct USA: Your Trusted Source for Quality Used Cars in Raleigh, NC. CarShop | Home Subaru Dealer Wichita KS | Subaru of Wichita Toyota Dealer in Littleton MA Near Acton and Westford | Acton Toyota of Littleton

Bottom line.
Change starts at the top. No bandaid solutions to the existing model.

......I was at a recient meeting with about 60 dealers who were there to learn how to change there business model. 80% were 55 years and older. The most common question was ; "OK , I know I need to change , but who is going to do it for me "? "I'm not tech savy". Frankly these guys have missed the boat that left 9 years ago. With the rapid, almost quarterly changes happening I see almost no help of even getting the DP's , Managers and 55 and older sales dude to learn the new skills to adapt to todays car biz.. Interns ? Maybe. A new Dealer School focused on todays car biz.. On-line education and training ? What would be the most effective ? What is the most urgent priority ?

I work with 50 New Car and Independant Dealers monthly. I was a dealer for 20 years and earned my Automotive Marketing degree from Northwood University in 1985. Lots has changed since than and equiping the next generation for DP , manager and sales pro for 2011 and beyond is a huge issue . Here is what I see. I see second and third generation DP's who have little or know understanding of how consumer behavior has changed in the last 5 years. They have hired managers to get results who are just as uneducated as them in these changes and I see a gray haired population of old school sales folks still hanging out at the front door waiting for the "UP's" to return. Where is the next generation going to come from ? Consumer behavior has changed so fast and will continue to do so that most dealer's and their managment team know the business has changed, they just don't quite know what to do about it or the steps to take to fix it.

Terrance

As a service provider my business is built on doing work for dealers but my point is that dealers must have the ability and knowledge to lead and inspect their marketing strategy. Dealers and their staff also have an important role to play that cannot be outsourced.

I have heard many times from vendors that dealers should outsource their phone calls into a third party BDC and they make the same argument you make about costs. Their claim that the efficiencies are a no brainer.

The fact that very few dealers outsource their BDC says to me that its not just about the money. Dealers want to mold, coach, inspect, and challenge real people in their dealership to listen to those that call for cars, service, or assistance. They want brand advocates. A third party call center with round robin agent calling does match that experience.

Digital Marketing is not a simple 15% calculation on spend. Dealers need to be a part of their third party marketing solutions. There is a give and take to get the information, message, and experiences out to market each month. That means that dealership staff need to prioritize this task, and see the importance of communicating with their digital agency.

In your example, a dealer who spends $1,300 a month or $15,000 a year would be misled if someone sold them that they could have a comprehensive digital marketing solution delivered by a third party at that price.

Third parties can't film customer testimonials. Third parties can't work with customers in the showroom to create awareness of the important of online reviews. Third parties can't deliver the same impact of passionate internal employees that know every detail about their dealership.

So my point is that dealers have to invest in their people to handle their part of the equation. Most likely they will need the services of third parties, but it's not a 100% outsourced solution.

Dealers have been pushing off understanding how Google works, why Google Places is key for local marketing, why online reviews are important, and how online advertising works.

My goal is to challenge dealers, executives, and ecommerce staff to lead their dealership. They will need education to achieve that. Once they have the knowledge, then they can decide who does the work.

For many now, its just a blind step of faith. You stated that

"As forward-thinking as our dealers are, I will say 95% of them are not interested in managing any portion of their online marketing including PPC, SEO and Social. Even our dealers with Marketing Directors, "eCommerce" managers in place are busy managing the process...not the front-end."

I actually find that dealers, given the opportunity, want to learn more about digital marketing. Dealers manage their service departments, parts departments, inspect leases, negate contracts. They are more likely unable to manage these areas because they lack the knowledge. They don't know the questions to ask.

Regardless of where they are today, ignorance can no longer be an excuse. Digital marketing is too core to their business to not want to understand and lean how to inspect these critical pieces of there business.

January, 2011 news articles state that Facebook overtook Google in visitors in 2010, both in the U.S. and the U. K. That doesn't sound like a bursting bubble or decline in usage. Agreed they are both just a part of an overall strategy, but not sure about your relegating them to has-been status.

Interesting post and stats but my big concern is giving digital marketing and social media equal weight. Digital marketing is the future of dealerships, social media is one very, very small slice of digital marketing.

The impact of Facebook and Twitter cannot be underestimated - they will never be more than a niche play in customer acquisition, loyalty or retention. The bubble has burst on both in the U.S. and they are in decline in usage. Think of your own personal experience with either service - are you using it more and more to communicate with friends and colleagues over time, or has your usage decreased over time after an initial rush of usage?

The danger for companies with limited resources is wasting too much time on useless, yet shiny, programs like Twitter and Facebook when they should be focused on true digital marketing opportunities.

The dealer that takes the risk to hire and invest this "digital player" enjoys an enormous lead over their competitors.

Today's Thought for the Day:
"Hire" and "Invest".
Easy to say... hard to do.

Great post Brian. I appreciate someone trying to quantify what many of us already know or at least suspected. Put simply, dealers are not just being left behind, they were left behind five years ago and the prospect of catching back up is just too daunting or scary for many to even attempt. So what do they do? Terrence (who's ideas are always worth more than $0.02) provides one way to make up ground quickly and without mortgaging the dealerships bottom line to do it. I don't disagree with him either. For all but the most advanced dealerships, hiring a full time employee or growing one from within is just too full of risk and unknowns. With that said, Brian's statement, "dealers need to consider the implications of not investing in the skills development that their employees need to be successful" is still right on point. It is vital that dealerships educate themselves and ensure that they have someone in house who is able to speak the language, QA any paid services, and proactively manage the agency. It is a digital game and dealerships better make sure they have the players and the tools to compete.

Brian, you bring up a highly disputable topic. Well done!

I'll make this as to-the-point as possible. Let me start by saying that many dealers don't have the resources, personell or time to take their own photos or even write great descriptions on their vehicles...let alone take aboard their Online Marketing.

As forward-thinking as our dealers are, I will say 95% of them are not interested in managing any portion of their online marketing including PPC, SEO and Social. Even our dealers with Marketing Directors, "eCommerce" managers in place are busy managing the process...not the front-end.

Additionally, it has been proven time after time that the COST of managing your Online Marketing in-house vs. hiring a 3rd party simply doesn't make sense to take it in-house.

To make things simple, let's look at some basic numbers and use the traditional 15% agency fee on a $100,000 annual online marketing budget:

Agency = $15,000 + $100,000 ad budget
In-House = Cost of Labor + $100,000 ad budget

In order for a dealership to match the quality and attention of an agency, they would need to hire at minimum a Campaign Manager (hands-on) and an Account Supervisor ("eCommerce Director") to oversee the marketing. I'll let the dealers do the math on hiring, but I assure you it's going to be at least triple or quadruple the cost of an agency....plus you have to deal with all the employee woes including turnover.

I find that when you poll a dealer, they are too embarrassed to say they AREN'T interested or putting initiatives in place to manage it themselves. So you end up with skewed answers.

Just my $0.02.

Listen and learn or be left behind -- that works for me! Of course that plan relies on friends like Brian who are willing to teach so remember to share his wisdoms -- including this post -- with your clients and friends. After all, what are friends for!

Like most humans, car dealers will not break away from the status quo because change involves an element of fear. We can educate and enlighten (kudos to DealerRefreshers for doing this!) to remove some of that fear but it ultimately comes down to the dealer making a commitment to learn. Those that don't make that commitment will be the ones truly left behind.

A few weeks ago I was asked to meet with a management company affiliated with our dealerships. They wanted to "Pick my brain" to try to gain some insight into how we did things and what made our stores successful on the digital front.

After a couple of hours of discussion I was asked "in a nutshell, where do you think dealerships are missing the mark" My answer; training and participation in events such as DD, NADA, and internet boot camps by the staff that are actually doing the job.

Alex, I went in 2009 when I was working on my own and plan to be there this year as I am working on my own. But in 2010 (last year) I was the eCommerce Director of a dealership. My owners went and did not bring me. They would not even listen to my reasoning. They had a problem with my attending Digital Dealer. The common remark was, "you learned so much over the years why don't you start to implement it?" and my response was "I have implemented Mr. Dealer, how else did my department become successful so fast?"

It is amazing how many people just don't get it. Why? They think they know everything and they do not want to change. They say they want to sell more cars using the internet. They say they want to get involved in Social Media. But as soon as you give them just that they are never satisfied. The other problem with these dealers sending "future managers" to these events is the thought that they will lose them to a vendor given the right opportunity. We all know how many of us that has happened to.

First off, good job on establishing the importance of a well run PPC campaign. Being Google Adwords Certified Partners ourselves, I can appreciate a good PPC campaign any day of the week. That said, I'm all for sensationalism, but it's a little irresponsible to say 'forget about SEO unless your website is in transition, or to call it wiz-bang nonsense'. 

This especially when SEO drives 8.5X as many clicks as a PPC ad does (source Via Enquisite: PPC Agencies Make 45X What SEOs Do for the Same Value) 

Furthermore, with Landing Page Quality Score being the second most important factor (after CTR) http://bit.ly/j0JJHt it's important to make sure your LP has basic on-page SEO implemented. Let me play devil's advocate to some of the PPC-isms you talk about:Control - No one can guarantee placement. While that is true, you can control a number of other very important things.

- Meta Descriptions 
- Integrated Listing Rich Name, Address, Phone #, Ratings Data. 

Timing - It's important to tie non-branded organic search traffic to conversion data the same way you'd tie PPC traffic to conversion data. An analysis should be done around the 3 month mark to see how cost per lead via SEO is far lower than the cost per lead via PPC.

Traffic - We've got clients in every major vertical (think Yellow Pages verticals) and the theme I see repeated on every analytics account is that about 50%+ of their traffic is mid-tail or long tail organic traffic. This is 'non-branded' traffic as well by the way. Focusing on your top 3-5 money keywords is a good start, but it's also what the competition is gunning for. Play it smart by uncovering keywords that have low traffic and low competition, then generate content that hits different keyword variations for easy ranking wins.

ROI - You're on the money about how the ROI between SEO and PPC pans out. As more dealers get into online marketing, average bid prices will go up at a more liquid/elastic rate than the average price for SEO services (which everyone charges a different rate for). 

Terence, all in all a great post on the merits of PPC. Just had to make sure the sensationalism of the "SEO is Dead" type commentary was presented with a grain of salt.

First off, good job on establishing the importance of a well run PPC campaign. Being Google Adwords Certified Partners ourselves, I can appreciate a good PPC campaign any day of the week. That said, I'm all for sensationalism, but it's a little irresponsible to say 'forget about SEO unless your website is in transition, or to call it wiz-bang nonsense'. 

This especially when SEO drives 8.5X as many clicks as a PPC ad does (source Via Enquisite: PPC Agencies Make 45X What SEOs Do for the Same Value) 

Furthermore, with Landing Page Quality Score being the second most important factor (after CTR) http://bit.ly/j0JJHt it's important to make sure your LP has basic on-page SEO implemented. Let me play devil's advocate to some of the PPC-isms you talk about:Control - No one can guarantee placement. While that is true, you can control a number of other very important things.

- Meta Descriptions 
- Integrated Listing Rich Name, Address, Phone #, Ratings Data. 

Timing - It's important to tie non-branded organic search traffic to conversion data the same way you'd tie PPC traffic to conversion data. An analysis should be done around the 3 month mark to see how cost per lead via SEO is far lower than the cost per lead via PPC.

Traffic - We've got clients in every major vertical (think Yellow Pages verticals) and the theme I see repeated on every analytics account is that about 50%+ of their traffic is mid-tail or long tail organic traffic. This is 'non-branded' traffic as well by the way. Focusing on your top 3-5 money keywords is a good start, but it's also what the competition is gunning for. Play it smart by uncovering keywords that have low traffic and low competition, then generate content that hits different keyword variations for easy ranking wins.

ROI - You're on the money about how the ROI between SEO and PPC pans out. As more dealers get into online marketing, average bid prices will go up at a more liquid/elastic rate than the average price for SEO services (which everyone charges a different rate for). 

Terence, all in all a great post on the merits of PPC. Just had to make sure the sensationalism of the "SEO is Dead" type commentary was presented with a grain of salt.

The comments above are critical read read as you build your Internet Marketing strategy for your site.

If a dealer just jumps into PPC without any idea on how they are going to convert their traffic, PPC will just result in a lot of money spent with limited success.

The first thing a dealer must do is develop their overall marketing strategy including how to market to their prospects and customers online. This strategy should include their site, social (facebook and twitter) and search. After that, a dealer can decide what Internet Marketing strategies to leverage to drive the BEST search traffic not the most traffic to their site. A dealer should think about traffic that converts not just how many visitors they get.

How many dealers are still just creating AdWords campaigns that are not tied to goals in analytics? Can a dealer say if a term is profitable? If a dealer does not know if PPC is working, they need to either pause their campaign(s) and figure out what is happening or at least quickly analyze their results and start investing their money in the right places. AND that might be PPC and SEO! SEO is still important as a way to drive good traffic if its done the right way!

T. Gordon;

A line waiting to issue commendation that the intellect of this industry follows your lead on this subject matter.

As it relates to Google Adwords, there was a Byron White who was at NADA that is Google's Automotive Marketing Strategist. I would like to humbly suggest that you reach out to Byron and make your introduction.

One thing you accurately relay at the end of your article is the FACT that dealers and dealership personnel should excel at SELLING THE CARS! Marketing, whether online or traditionally is best left to the pros who are able to remain on the front of the blade, the cutting edge of these approaches and technologies.

To that point, if and when you determine to host a web conference on "PPC vs. SEO and How to Profit from Each", I will be first to sign up! And, do remember to contact Google. They, too, can benefit from your apparent expertise on these tools and their application in auto retail sectors.

Your able professional,

D. Rawls
Auto Buyer Consultants

Ouch. Google hammers another nail in the Organic SEO coffin. See the Brian Pasch post:

Google Changes Automotive Adwords Strategy http://www.internetsalesmanager.org/profiles/blog...

Jeffery T, I found another error for you to address. You wrote:

"...anything more then a dozen or two keywords in a group is a waste and is not structured right... "

Google doesn't follow your advice and I haven't found any reference to this, can you supply a link to back your findings?

Here's my findings. A Google real life example:

We're using Google's new ad service call "Google Boost". It's a Google Places service, but its keyword driven and it's 100% built and managed via adwords.

At the center of the new Google Boost is a system that automatically builds adwords for you based on your Google Places account.

It has the common adwords hierarchy we all know (Campaign >> Ad Group). Google automatically populates the adgroups and fill up the folders with LOTS OF KEYWORDS (aka Google doesn't follow your advice).

If you look below, I've listed the 77 KEYWORDS that Google has placed in the adgroup Google labeled: basic_cardealer.

Keyword:
used auto
usedcars
used cars for sale by owner
used car search
used car classifieds
sell used car
used car finder
used cars
used cars for sale
japanese used cars
japanese used car dealers
used sports cars
used car values
second hand cars
used cars dealerships
find used car dealer
used auto dealers
used cars dealers
used cars dealership
find a used car dealer
used car dealers
best used cars to buy
used car dealer
find used cars
affordable used cars
pre owned cars
used cars online
used trucks for sale
used cars and trucks
used car listings
buy used car online
used car dealerships
used car dealership
used car shopping
used car auctions
second hand cars for sale
certified used cars
used car trader
private used car sales
used car lots
cheapest used cars
used sports cars for sale
local used cars
used cars sale
used car deals
auto used cars
new and used cars for sale
used cars by owner
car lots
used car auto for sale
used car search engines
used car lot
pre owned used cars
discount used cars
used car websites
find used cars online
cheap used cars for sale
local used cars for sale
local used car dealers
local used car dealerships
buy cheap used cars
buying a used car from a dealer
online used car dealers
pre owned car dealers
used cars vans
new and used car dealers
car dealers used cars
find used cars in my area
used cars for sale by dealers
find a used car dealership
used cars by dealer
used car dearer

Jeffery, Right now, Google is telling me that your statement is wrong, but, Google has been known to make inter-department errors and this could easily be another example!! Please send along your research and references to support your claim.

It would be interesting to see click through data for a few result pages with the following variables:

1. Organic only
2. Organic and ppc placement
3. PPC placement only

I understand the importance of owning % of page using seo/ppc, however, I am not sold on having ppc only for terms you should organically rank for.

Have there been studies on user behavior regarding chances of grabbing the click with ppc and no organic?

I imagine a study on this would get dicey as the search engines would naturally want to boost ppc revenue as would SEM providers.

From a personal standpoint, I rarely click on ppc results. The only time I would is when there are organic results to re-enforce the ppc. I'm your "average" consumer.

Love the topic. If anyone would like to discuss offline I would love it. I'm always looking to learn more about this. Email me.