Behavioral Targeting Campaign

[kevinfrye]

If you read this article by JD Power, you can see some of the excitement around Behavioral Targeting, Retargeting, and Contextual targeting and how you can use this to identify car buyers who are "low in the sales funnel".

I am curious as to what input anyone has that has tried any of these types of campaigns. We are 30 days into a behavioral and contextual marketing campaign and are averaging a 0.03 click through rate (national average is 0.02), BUT our average cost per click is $41. I realize this is a short period of time (we are running this 90 days), but with that type of cost, why would we not just stick with traditional pay per click marketing at around $1-$2 per click, and with someone definitely interested in a new vehicle. Thoughts? Input? (btw - no reports back yet on our retargeting efforts...)

 

[CFrentzen]

I have a vendor who's attempting to get us on Behavioral Targeting and I'm a little skeptical of that versus typical PPC-campaigns. I understand the logic behind it but I'm curious to see if it works - keep us (me ) posted please.

 

[CAORYAN]

Kevin did you mean .41? My God bro please tell me you didn't mean $41. If that is the case your conversion rate would have to be through the roof to make sense of that. I run a PPC campaign and have a custom landing page with chat, phone, and email (Form) and I find it very successful. Why would you pay $41 when you can buy the same lead from someone else for $15 to $20? I think carsdirect.com does this. They have a network of sites (Research, car enthusiast, etc...).

 

[kevinfrye]

This is not a ppc campaign. Behavioral and contextual targeting campaign where the online behavior of the shopper indicates they are "low in the funnel" and therefore our online ad is then flashed on the pages they are browsing, from which we then measure click-through. However, I am comparing it to a ppc campaign and its cost/return...

 

[CAORYAN]

I guess what I am saying is you are billed at $41 per click. To me that is a pay per click campaign. Please keep us posted. I am interested to see your ROI.

 

[kevinfrye]

Point taken, lol. I am comparing this to a traditional SEM campaign - and as you can see, it does not match up well so far...

 

[ejyoder]

We've been doing a BT campaign through ADP Digital Marketing for about 6 months now. Last month my Ford store was at .03 and my Toyota store was at .04. If you figure a cost per click, it would be around $15, but I will say that that was a good month. I've seen it as high as $26.

Part of the pitch for BT ads is the branding aspect in that even if the consumer doesn't click on the ad, hopefully the see it as it keeps appearing on the sites they visit.

 

[CAORYAN]

And I get cost as an issue when I pitch chat. Maybe I need to change my pitch!

 

[Jeff Kershner]

A Display advertising campaign can not be compared to a PPC campaign. The KPI's of a display ad are much different.

A strong PPC campaign only compliments a strong display ad campaign and should be run hand in hand.

If your ads are stretching the boundaries of engagement then you want to measure how your customers are interacting with your ads. There is also the branding factor that you need to consider as well.

Display advertising unfortunately is not always black and white as we ISM's are so used to tracking with other avenues of online marketing.

Kevin, keep a close eye on your site re-targeting conversions, from my experience this is where you will start to be impressed with your numbers. Set it up so you can track your important conversions.

Lead Submit
Video Play
Brochure Print
Send to a friend .. etc (whatever you decide has value)

Depending "what" you are branding in your display ads, look for an increased spike in traffic to your website for the corresponding keyword phrase.

The problem dealers face with display advertising is producing the creative (banner ad) that is engaging and cost effective (interactive ads are not cheap). And as the manufactures become more and more strict, you have to figure out how to do it within the guidelines of compliance, which becomes very difficult and might eventually (IMO) result in display advertising not making much sense for dealers.

We were running a display ad for one of our Ford dealers and Ford OEM actually wanted screen shots of each and every site the display ads was going to b show on. SERIOUSLY?? ...and Ford is the "progressive" manufacture that "gets" online/social advertising. Obviously it doesn't trickle down to their dealer compliance department.

Honda...I won't even want to go there.

Display advertising is tricky...CAN be effective but if you're not taking advantage of each and every component, then chances are you will quickly find there are other areas to spend your money.

 

[LarryBruce]

Kevin,
The cost per click it relative, if you are getting a 25% to 35% conversion ratio (leads to clicks) and that ratio is equating to a 40% plus sale ratio then $41 per click aint bad. My sense is that you are not or there would be more to this post.
A couple of things I am wondering about your campaign.
1. Are you using an Affiliate Marketing company or did you create and post the banners yourself.
2. Are you paying by the impression or the click?
3. What is the conversion rate (leads to clicks)?
Jeff is absolutely correct banner advertising is very tricky and takes constant supervision especially if you are doing it yourself, but can be very effective and there are better ways of banner advertising than doing it yourself.