Adword Agencies - Why are Dealers SO UNTRUSTING?

[Mike Snellenberger]

Thanks Ed. While I was referring to getting to know the key indicators to watch in Adwords, I was ultimately referring to all digital marketing. Whether that is SEO, SEM, Social media, etc. having someone at the dealership level who knows what KPI's to watch will make a big difference.

To go along with Crystal: Rare is the agency, in any market, who will know your company as well as you do.

 

[joe.pistell]

... auto dealers will decrease their paid search spend by 62% by 2018...[SNIP]... Paid search for U.S. auto manufacturers ... a 53% decrease."

Very interesting. If all PPC spending drops by about 50%, then it'll be interesting to see how 'dynamic' googles auction based bidding system becomes. Will a drop in budget cause a CPC drop by an equal amount (50%)? Should a drop in CPC happen, will this lower CPC cause the more aggressive advertisers to step in?

Thoughts: When SAAR drops, it hurts the weakest stores 1st (& hurts the most). Advertising cuts will roll in from the bottom up. IOW, look for smaller stores to feel the pain 1st.

 

[joe.webb]

There are countless reasons dealers don't trust the SEM providers. (Or other vendors, for that matter).
I'll just share 10 that my dealer clients most often see.
Starting at the top:
1) Reporting is suspect from many SEM providers.
2) Lack of ability to attach Adwords to Analytics
3) Inability to review Adwords account of vendor
4) Lack of understanding regarding the tech/algorithms making the keyword bids/buys
5) Lack of explanation by vendor as to why certain keywords are chosen
6) Lack of understanding by vendors as to what keywords they honestly should be going for
7) Unwillingness to track clicks down to conversions for some SEM vendors
8) Lack of exclusivity for OEM-approved SEM campaigns cause bidding against local competitor with similar designed/written ads, not helping with awareness
9) Unwillingness to show causation based upon PPC vs web traffic
10) Overcharging for retargeting (even if it is an great buy), DealerKnows sees far too many vendors charging exorbitant flat fees for the service.

This is all in addition to the fact that SEM vendors rarely show up in store to meet and explain all strategies associated with the accounts. Sometimes, something as complicated as a great PPC plan needs to be laid out to dealership ownership face to face. It is also too easy to find one small issue with a dealers' current provider to poke holes in strategy. "Look, if I type in Honda Civics in Saratoga Falls, no ad pops up. Do you have Honda Civics in stock? Well then why aren't you there?!! You need us instead of them" (Those type of BS dealer acquisition tactics hurt the credibility of all.)

 

[ed.brooks]

Thanks Ed. While I was referring to getting to know the key indicators to watch in Adwords, I was ultimately referring to all digital marketing. Whether that is SEO, SEM, Social media, etc. having someone at the dealership level who knows what KPI's to watch will make a big difference.

To go along with Crystal: Rare is the agency, in any market, who will know your company as well as you do.

I'm in complete agreement @Mike Snellenberger. In fact, I think part of the predicted decrease in Paid Search spending is precisely because of Dealers, Ad Associations and OEMs becoming more knowledgeable about the key performance indicators to watch and taking a more active role in their search marking spend. Let's face it, many General Managers know as much about voodoo as they know about buying paid search -- and both seem equally exotic!

 

[Chubbard]

The projected drop in PPC spend by 2018 is interesting, but if Google continues to bump organic search results for PPC listings, then I think there's still going to be a lot of $$$$ spent on basic pay-to-play. Blech.

 

[craigh]

Anyone else see Alex Vetter from Cars.com comment on AdWords at Driving Sales?
Something along the lines of "why spend your ad budget somewhere customers spend an average of 20 seconds"?
#disconnected

 

[JenSchrader]

@Joe Webb you hit the nail on the head. LACK OF UNDERSTANDING...! A majority of dealers are not educated as they should be on this.

 

[Tallcool1]

Anyone else see Alex Vetter from Cars.com comment on AdWords at Driving Sales?
Something along the lines of "why spend your ad budget somewhere customers spend an average of 20 seconds"?
#disconnected

I did not see this comment. I tried to search for it and struck out. That is a very interesting comment.

 

[mikesayre]

There are countless reasons dealers don't trust the SEM providers. (Or other vendors, for that matter).
I'll just share 10 that my dealer clients most often see.
Starting at the top:
1) Reporting is suspect from many SEM providers.
2) Lack of ability to attach Adwords to Analytics
3) Inability to review Adwords account of vendor
4) Lack of understanding regarding the tech/algorithms making the keyword bids/buys
5) Lack of explanation by vendor as to why certain keywords are chosen
6) Lack of understanding by vendors as to what keywords they honestly should be going for
7) Unwillingness to track clicks down to conversions for some SEM vendors
8) Lack of exclusivity for OEM-approved SEM campaigns cause bidding against local competitor with similar designed/written ads, not helping with awareness
9) Unwillingness to show causation based upon PPC vs web traffic
10) Overcharging for retargeting (even if it is an great buy), DealerKnows sees far too many vendors charging exorbitant flat fees for the service.

This is all in addition to the fact that SEM vendors rarely show up in store to meet and explain all strategies associated with the accounts. Sometimes, something as complicated as a great PPC plan needs to be laid out to dealership ownership face to face. It is also too easy to find one small issue with a dealers' current provider to poke holes in strategy. "Look, if I type in Honda Civics in Saratoga Falls, no ad pops up. Do you have Honda Civics in stock? Well then why aren't you there?!! You need us instead of them" (Those type of BS dealer acquisition tactics hurt the credibility of all.)

Earlier this year our group made a decision to pull our SEM in-house, some of the reasons @Joe Webb has on the list. I think it really came down to aligning a strategy with SEM that matched our entire online advertising focus, and not having to worry about making sure the vendor always had our best interests in mind.

Too many vendors in the SEM space have a hard time managing the overall spend effectively for dealers, (I won't even mention when OEM's get involved) and SEM isn't the same for every business. I think @umer.autojini had great points as well, more often than not dealership's don't have a solid online advertising plan or strategy that is consistent, or worked into their customer communication and engagement. Most dealership's feel change is always better with their online vendors when sales aren't going well, so it's a endless loop of fail. How important is the sales floor/desk in that equation? What if we're really dropping the ball in the showroom?

 

[craigh]

I did not see this comment. I tried to search for it and struck out. That is a very interesting comment.

He was at Driving Sales doing a keynote/interview and he made this point.
Doesn't remotely make sense.