If you do it all the time, yes. If you keep it to a minimum, then no.
Minimums can be rather large.
Minimums can be rather large.
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Can Search Engine Marketing Destroy Your Dealers Budget?
- Thread starter Jeff Kershner
- Start date
With all the hype about SEM in nearly every publication I've read as of late, I have a few questions. What is a good percentage of budget to devote to SEO/SEM for a major metro dealer? Is it true that a good percentage, say 40%, of sem generates leads for fixed ops? I've heard that number thrown out before. Seems to me that more google searches for make specific dealers in a certain city would be hunting for fixed ops rather than a used car of that make.
Last thing, what about diminishing returns? What B-man alluded to is the more active this medium becomes the more costly it becomes for everybody and the harder it becomes to justify. I'd appreciate your thoughts.
Last thing, what about diminishing returns? What B-man alluded to is the more active this medium becomes the more costly it becomes for everybody and the harder it becomes to justify. I'd appreciate your thoughts.
I sincerely hope you guys that are so stuck in the SEO whirlpool are in my market area.
If you pay attention to your keyword and phrase click-throughs and conversions, dedicate yourself to being in the proper position in sponsored results (#1 is not necessarily #1), have the relevant content when that click becomes a visitor, have a mack-daddy presentation of your product, target the relevant demographic in relation to your ad/current promotion, know a smidgeon regarding internet statistics and trends, etc.... you shouldn't have a problem.
Having only been in the car business for 3 yrs (eCommerce 15 yrs) I'm simply amazed each and every day with the comments I hear from those in the car biz regarding SEM, SEO and eCommerce/eBusiness as a whole.
My opinion of most SEM and SEO companies are that they typically just throw up the keywords and phrases and set it on autorun. Paying no attention to the actual results but relying on stats spit out by software.
Look at your website statistics, referrals and keywords. Study, analyze and dissect each and every aspect of it. THAT is where you'll find out what's really going on (just before you fire your SEO/SEM vendor). You use autocount and others to determine your market areas and demographics for mailers, TV, radio and newspaper why not the internet?
SEM is exponentially more targetted than SEO or any of the traditional media options. You can highlight individual units or today's new incentives right away. Using landing pages you control in-house is critical to the use of SEM. If you decide to slash prices on old-age units you can let your market area know in moments, not months.
The bottom line is, unless you can find a legitimate SEM company to control this most critical cog of your advertising wheel, hire someone that understands it and train that person the automotive stuff.
We haven't done radio, TV or newspaper in 2 months now.
How much have you spent?
If you pay attention to your keyword and phrase click-throughs and conversions, dedicate yourself to being in the proper position in sponsored results (#1 is not necessarily #1), have the relevant content when that click becomes a visitor, have a mack-daddy presentation of your product, target the relevant demographic in relation to your ad/current promotion, know a smidgeon regarding internet statistics and trends, etc.... you shouldn't have a problem.
Having only been in the car business for 3 yrs (eCommerce 15 yrs) I'm simply amazed each and every day with the comments I hear from those in the car biz regarding SEM, SEO and eCommerce/eBusiness as a whole.
My opinion of most SEM and SEO companies are that they typically just throw up the keywords and phrases and set it on autorun. Paying no attention to the actual results but relying on stats spit out by software.
Look at your website statistics, referrals and keywords. Study, analyze and dissect each and every aspect of it. THAT is where you'll find out what's really going on (just before you fire your SEO/SEM vendor). You use autocount and others to determine your market areas and demographics for mailers, TV, radio and newspaper why not the internet?
SEM is exponentially more targetted than SEO or any of the traditional media options. You can highlight individual units or today's new incentives right away. Using landing pages you control in-house is critical to the use of SEM. If you decide to slash prices on old-age units you can let your market area know in moments, not months.
The bottom line is, unless you can find a legitimate SEM company to control this most critical cog of your advertising wheel, hire someone that understands it and train that person the automotive stuff.
We haven't done radio, TV or newspaper in 2 months now.
How much have you spent?
- Apr 7, 2009
- 118
- 1
- First Name
- Alex
Is anyone familiar with the company Reach Local. They claim not to charge any monthly management fees. They say they are able to buy keywords from Google in bulk and sell them back to the client at a price they would have paid anyway. This is how they supposedly make their money. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
- Apr 7, 2009
- 118
- 1
- First Name
- Alex
Is anyone familiar with the company Reach Local. They claim not to charge any monthly management fees. They say they are able to buy keywords from Google in bulk and sell them back to the client at a price they would have paid anyway. This is how they supposedly make their money. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Very interesting comments everyone. I am surprised to not hear too much about systems or solutions that are auto specific and that allow the dealer to run ads day to day and stop them on demand. After all you should be able to target your ads day by day if needed and control them with no monthly mgt fees all within a few easy clicks.
Additionally when it comes to tracking, with PPC you should not only know what you are spending and the cost per lead, you should also know the exact cost per sale. Ultimately this is the only number that matters.
With today's technology and tracking capabilities dealers can actually see the amount of leads they will generate in advance of spending any money! If you really think about what else could you ask for? Also, using the proper tools you should never "burn" through your budget as this can be automatically controlled day by day by bidding technology that staggers your spend equally throughout each day of the month. If you have a $3000/month budget then you will spend about $100/day on PPC and you can even target that spend to different vehicles, departments, and specific geographical areas. This is not guess work anymore it is 100% science and in general dealers should be generating leads at under $10 per lead. Launching PPC campaigns should take a dealer a minute or 2 not countless hours. Companies like ours have spent years studying the metrics, results and best practices to come up with software that automates the parts of the process that do not need to be humanly administered. One thing for sure is this, dealers are burning much more cash on Print, Radio and TV than they ever could on PPC.
Mark Bonfigli
President, CEO
Dealer.com, Inc
www.dealer.com
Additionally when it comes to tracking, with PPC you should not only know what you are spending and the cost per lead, you should also know the exact cost per sale. Ultimately this is the only number that matters.
With today's technology and tracking capabilities dealers can actually see the amount of leads they will generate in advance of spending any money! If you really think about what else could you ask for? Also, using the proper tools you should never "burn" through your budget as this can be automatically controlled day by day by bidding technology that staggers your spend equally throughout each day of the month. If you have a $3000/month budget then you will spend about $100/day on PPC and you can even target that spend to different vehicles, departments, and specific geographical areas. This is not guess work anymore it is 100% science and in general dealers should be generating leads at under $10 per lead. Launching PPC campaigns should take a dealer a minute or 2 not countless hours. Companies like ours have spent years studying the metrics, results and best practices to come up with software that automates the parts of the process that do not need to be humanly administered. One thing for sure is this, dealers are burning much more cash on Print, Radio and TV than they ever could on PPC.
Mark Bonfigli
President, CEO
Dealer.com, Inc
www.dealer.com
@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.
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
Loading…
onlineautodealer.blogspot.com
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.
- Apr 13, 2009
- 234
- 44
- Awards
- 3
- First Name
- U
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 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.
- May 1, 2005
- 5,999
- 1,914
- Awards
- 12
- First Name
- Jeff
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
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
