With that kia com. We ial with Obama. Now I know I will NEVER SHOP THERE!! Keep
On
TRUMPIN

excellent job of advertising-almost as good as the Credit pimp in philiadelphia

lol -- wow.. I hadn't seen this one before! Thanks for sharing!

Once again KIA is leading the way to success. We must give credit where it is do.

Eh, actually the ad itself doesn't strike me as out-of-the-box or over-the-top at all... I've seen the same exact thing done before, using the current President at the time. The dealer lucked out big time here, getting this much exposure for something only mildly creative.

And of course, the Ad Agency was even luckier, because now they can run around touting their "Viral Marketing" capabilities. I'm sure there are a handful of dealers calling them up right now... "I want you to gimme something like that Obama thing - you know, something that will get Daily Show exposure."

Funny...lol

Simonizing - "Free at last, free at last!" - there goes my gross!! Lol, that was a great way to start the week... Kevin Frye/eCommerce Director/Jeff Wyler Automotive Family/ http://wyler.com

First time checking out this blog, but I got to say I'll probably be here more often

Great topic....PS Jeff Kershner can you add a search function to your blog? or am I just totally overlooking it?

Regarding PPC advertising. Most dealers are quick to spend a certain budget on PPC advertising but do not get involved in getting better results. You can bid on a general keyword like "Chevy" as long as you create the right text ad (remember this is advertising so you set the message) to go along with it, so you weed out people that are not looking for what you have to offer. Same goes for the landing page for that specific keyword, you need to create content that fits that keyword and your actual ad. This will obviously lowers the amount of clicks, but the great thing is you still get branding for your site with the right message and you only pay for traffic that is relevant.

Tell me how many of you guys create different campaigns for different keywords with different messages in the ads and different landing pages? I doubt more than 10% does this. Partly because we are too lazy to do this, partly because we have a third company doing it and they have just as little knowledge as us or they are too lazy, and/or our website provider does not give us the means to create a different landing page per keyword or campaign.

I am guilty of the same, because I simply do not have the time (although by the number of posts on this site, I should question myself on this ?) so I chose to use a third party provider.

Regarding the use of SEM vs SEO. SEM is not only for new websites until their website starts ranking. There is research out there that shows that a certain percentage of search engine traffic clicks on sponsored ads, so you should have your company's website in both sponsored and organic results.

Now one thing that I think you should avoid is the following. Yahoo allows sponsored listings in organic results. Yep, scary thought huh. So if you are already on top of SE listings, you have to make sure that your SEM campaigns do not list in the organic results, because it will replace your organic listings and you are paying for clicks that you would get for free.

This creates an extra load of work, because now you have to create different campaigns for different marketing messages and have to worry about whether you rank high for the keywords in the campaign organically. If you are not, have Yahoo place you in the organics, if you are, then leave that campaign out of the organics.

On top of this, you need to think whether all this is worth the hassle having to worry about. Our site is not getting enough traffic to worry about it, but some larger dealer groups should definately look at this.

Again this points to the problem I have with the inflexibility of most (probably all - just do not want to make a claim that is not true) dealer website providers.

I am just ramping up the 1st PPC campaign for this store. I cannot believe all the idiot dealers out here.

I am in NY and just 2 hours into the keyword research and I am seeing dealers from Montana, Colorado, TX, N. Carolina... good God, these idiots are everywhere.

Word to Mark Bonfigli or Dean Evans.
Is your PPC management tool a stand alone platform? If so, these PPC newbies really need your help. What better way to validate value than documenting "self managed waste".

CONCEPT:
Create "PPC Crisis" call list using GOOG's new "Ads Preview Tool". Try it for yourself. Goto: Adwords> Campaign Management> Tools> Ads Preview Tool

Toss in a quality short tail keyword, then look into each State or regional Market to find the "lost children".

EXAMPLE:
state: ALABAMA
keyword: chevrolet avalanche
www.BillCrispin.com Maine
www.CourtesyChev.net Arizona

state: ALASKA
keyword: Chevrolet SSR (gulp!)
www.RosenthalChevrolet.com Virginia (none in stock!)

state: ALASKA
keyword: Chevrolet equinox
www.arizona-chevy.com (I can't believe Chapman would make this error!!)
www.BillCrispin.com Maine (oh oh, someone’s in trouble and doesn’t know it yet)

Gents, You get the idea.
Have your team feed this GOOG interface a list of quality short tail keywords then harvest the PPC URLS that are out of their geo area. Chances are that these fellas are making PPC 101 mistakes so they're in Alaska and don't know it.

WIFM?
What's In it For Me?
I'd bet there is are 50 to 100 dealers RIGHT NOW committing PPC hari kari. I am upto my armpits in a zillion PPC variables. I'd really like a free year of your TotalControl DOMINATOR to put this PPC effort on auto-pilot. I'll sweeten the offer with a tasty testimonial to boot!

Joe
p.s. Please disregard this bird-dog request if your PPC mngt. platform requires your site, I have a totally new site in the cooker.

Some people believe it makes more sense to run SEM on your own vs. hiring a company. By my research there seems to be companies out there that have computer programs that generate the best key words or phrases. Also, it would be tough to set up and to continue to monitor an ad words campaign from a time standpoint.
What do you all think about this and what have you experienced?

@alex Of Checkered Flag: I guess you missed the sarcasm.

Good Article,
My 2 or 3 cents:
I can see how if you decide to build a search campaign and let auto pilot take over this can lead to a wasted internet budget and a burned dealer. I personally would prefer to pay a marketing agency with a set monthly fee to build a custom automotive search campaign, monitor it and can offer accountable results when ever I so desire to see them. I would definitely stay away from any company offering multiple sales rep BS stories on how they can do anything without a fee.

The upside to using a automotive focused marketing agney allows the people or person in the dealership to assist with providing the correct information about what the dealership wants to place in text ads and allow them to do what they do best. Sell cars, in case you're wondering, instead of looking at numbers and keywords.

As for Search Marketing being the savior of your dealership well it definitely won't do this or kill the third party providers but one thing that is certain is search marketing is here to stay. I also must add that dealerships must realize people are like water and will always look for the fastest route to find what it is they are looking for whether it's a car or a quick trip to the grocery store if you don't provide the consumer a quick avenue to find their next vehicle, compare prices, or allow them to do research during the buying process I can guarantee your competitor across the street is, and if you're spending 10k a month on full page newspaper ads why not shrink the news ad to a half or 3/4 page and use the remaining portion on search marketing to provide this quick link and offer the searching consumer the details needed to make an educated buying decision. Just a thought...

B-Man...where are the clicks?

Good comments Joe!

Setting up a quality SEM campaign can been done without hiring a vendor. It takes about 6-10 hours total if you do it right. I haven't touched mine in 6 months and regularily get $.68 / click. My only limit is what my owner is willing to pay.

And I agree with Mitch, SEO & SEM are very 2000ish. We need to look beyond. But like Joe says, the basics are so important.

On a side note, I was looking at Suzuki of Wichita and got to say I'm highly impressed with everything they do. Their owner's passion bleeds through the pages. I'm envious.

@alex From Proctor: Reach Local does not buy clicks in bulk and sell them back to you. They put a ~20% surcharge on the click before they report it back to you in their reporting system so you never SEE the fees. It is absolutely impossible to buy clicks from Google in bulk and resell them. There are too many variables at any given time to even know what a click costs. Time of day, competition, quality score all impact the cost of a click.

Jamie,
Thanks for calling me personally.
Great information and it all makes much more sense now.
I will be in touch.

"They get at least 3 clicks a month from me - it is my favorite way to check their sites out! They get a few more from people I've trained to also click on them each month...our GM's love spending their money too!" -Alex of Checkered Flag

@alex: I'm glad you and your GM's have such high moral standing. I'm off to go click a couple of your ads.

"Meaning, Reach Local has patented technology that is supposed to be more advanced than anything else out there." - regarding this line, I don't want to bore you with too many facts, but therre are over 40 companies claiming this and they all have somewhat of a case. The technologies range from outdated, to moderately performing to spectacular. There are industry experts that just evaluate the vendors of these systems and rate their overall performance.

If you find a good platform to work with (I'm not advocating one over the other - you need to do your own research and come to your own conclusions), you will easily outperform someone doing their program themselves. I now this last statement will upset some, but it is a fact. The ad systems and variables have gotten complicated and these sophisticated systems really deliver improved performance and results.

As fas as Reach Local's pricing model, it seems readily apparent to me that they are building their service fee into the cost of a campaign by building out the costs for the adwords based on a percentage. The question is what is the mark-up percentage they are using? Hopefully, they'll be able to tell us so we can use the information in assessing thier service.

Jamie,
I have been contacted several times by a Reach Local representative and I assure you I understand the basics of SEO and SEM. The reason for looking at an outside SEM company was from a time standpoint like Joe stated.
However, I think there was some misunderstand in part by your representative and how the program was initially presented to me. This actually prompted them to call me and re-explain the program after I submitted my first post.
Since you’re on here, let me verify something else. I was updated and told that Reach Local does not get a bulk discount but they do have a "special relationship" with Google because they bring them so much business. Meaning, Reach Local has patented technology that is supposed to be more advanced than anything else out there.
Here is my basic understanding of the program. You (Reach Local) have a patented technology that allows a computer generated system to determine the best keywords to use and automatically adjust and learn as time goes on. You (Reach Local) would buy a keyword for 92 cents and resell it to us for 94 cents and so on. This is the part that continues to confuse me if you don't charge any monthly management fees because in that example that would only be $40.00. Unless you are jacking up the keywords prices a huge amount. I must say that is not the way it is being presented.

IMO, the Internet Manager is too busy to learn and execute SEO and PPC.

List all the tasks that an Internet Manager (IM) has. Lil' dealer IM does all tasks, mega dealer IM has teams that execute tasks.

I say... Back to Basics.
Our photos suck.
Our options lists are rarely complete.
Our Veh. description writeups are empty, or, the same for all units.

Sexy, high quailty Photos sell cars, not the dark, inconsistant, fuzzy crap I see everywhere (my store included)

VIN driven options lists are only 60% of the option data. Bullet lists of options are rarely complete. If you have a used unit with a 6disc changer and rear DVD and no one knows about it, thats like cutting your phone lines and flushing gross down the toilet (when you finally do get a phone up).

Colorful, personal writeups sell cars, not not bullet lists.

IMO, 98% of all IM's need to focus on the basics of Internet Marketing before they move on and conquer PPC and SEO. Hire it out if you don't have the basics down perfectly.

Just my $0.02
Joe

Alex,

I run the automotive division of ReachLocal and as Umer pointed out - there is no bulk discount from Google, Yahoo, MSN - or any other publisher we may work with - although we do have a reseller agreement. If you would like more information and a visual walk-through of our technology platform, please feel free to give me a call or drop me an email.

Just a couple of comments on the article. I'm not of the opinion that SEM should only be targeted to "in market" buyers, or necessarily as a substitute to buying 3rd party leads. At the end of the day it is simply very targeted advertising that if utilized efficiently, will yield a much higher ROI than other forms of advertising. If you set realistic goals and have the right expectations about how paid search will impact your business - along with a solid understanding of SEM that will allow you to do it yourself, or select a respectable vendor - then you will get plenty of ROI from your SEM spend.

Every dealer principal, GM, BDC Manager, Internet Manager/Director should absolutely be educated on how the Internet (search/display/social networking) is impacting their business. I can't say I agree that every Internet Manager's job responsibilities should include managing SEM - say what you will, but to do this efficiently and effectively can be fairly time and labor intensive and isn't simply a matter of selecting keywords, bid prices, then rolling the dice. Most would probably agree that the automotive industry (as a whole) is experiencing tough times right now - and there aren't many dealers I talk to who compensate their IM's on how effective their SEM campaigns are on the bottom line.

Whether or not you do it yourself, or you choose a vendor to do it - 9 dealers out of 10 need to be doing some level of paid search. They key to a successful campaign/strategy is understanding how to best measure results - and having the data by which to measure those results.

Jamie Adams
Director - ReachLocal Auto

Hmm... you can still do broad keywords and Geo Target. Why shouldn't my dealership come up when someone types in "Honda Accord" in my area...

Alex reach local is just a PPC consulting company... there is no bulk purchase option from Google. They do have reseller option... though.

Personally, I'm of opinion if your title is internet manager then it is part of your job description to manage PPC and work on Organic optimization.

@alex

Never heard of Reach Local, but they sound like another company I spoke with on behalf of a client last year. Dealers really need to be careful who they trust for campaign management. I documented my personal experience with one company at

search-engine-marketing-companies-for.html

Dealers seem to be targeted by a lot of these companies because lets face it, there are a lot of dealers who will throw money at something based on promises. Become better-educated on the subject and you'll spend more wisely.