Content is dead. Long live Content? (Video Content)

[Alexander Lau]

https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/07/10/google-marketing-live

#5: Lead Ads On YouTube?!
For my money, this is the coolest thing that was mentioned in the entire keynote, yet it inexplicably received little more than lip service. Advertisers have been slaying with Facebook lead ads for some time now, but Google hasn’t had a comparable offering.

Until now…

Lead ads on YouTube will combine the unfathomable reach of the world’s most popular video platform with robust audience targeting and the ability to capture the contact information of valuable top of funnel prospects without asking them to go allllll the way to your website before forking it over.

 

[Dan Sayer]

Ok.. so there are two different types of videos - ones which highlight the dealership and staff, which typically only serve to enhance the dealers own feelings of being awesome. Most people do not care who your GM is or how nice your showroom is, unfortunately, they are really interested in two things - product knowledge and benefits of purchasing from you. I get that you're working to humanize the dealership, and I love that, I wonder though if your money would be better spent by churning out videos that SOLVE A PROBLEM for the viewer and publishing them on YouTube.. for example.. at Checkered Flag we did "Meet the Team" videos which garnered anywhere from 50 to 100 views - conversely, we published "How to Use Navigation System in BMW 3 Series" and earned 156,000 views.

By positioning your dealership as a problem solver and source of information for owners, you become top of mind when they consider recommending or purchasing again in the future. Ironically, the better performing "how to" videos are easier to produce and require zero video editing skills (unless you just wanna be fancy.) Here's an example of how to keep the intro short and sweet and focus on the education:

@Matt Lasher I think @Christine Plunkett makes a great point here when she says "Most people don't care who your GM is...". We just finished reading "Building a Story Brand" by Donald Miller as well as went through their brand building sessions face-to-face (mind blown). As much as we would like to humanize our dealerships, I think that we are only going to be able to do that, ironically, by making the shopper the hero, not us or our GMs or our salespeople, etc. No one cares that we are family owned, been in business since 1983, and all the other things we are proud of. There is a place for those items but it isn't in how you convey your brand initially. I would highly recommend the book and going through the StoryBrand framework. Our next steps are partnering with an agency that can put our StoryBrand script (it's a thing) into deliverables to the shopper which will be video. I'm sure there are other thoughts out there but this is the first one I've seen that doesn't pump up our own ego.

 

[Dane Saville]

@Matt Lasher I think @Christine Plunkett makes a great point here when she says "Most people don't care who your GM is...". We just finished reading "Building a Story Brand" by Donald Miller as well as went through their brand building sessions face-to-face (mind blown). As much as we would like to humanize our dealerships, I think that we are only going to be able to do that, ironically, by making the shopper the hero, not us or our GMs or our salespeople, etc. No one cares that we are family owned, been in business since 1983, and all the other things we are proud of. There is a place for those items but it isn't in how you convey your brand initially. I would highly recommend the book and going through the StoryBrand framework. Our next steps are partnering with an agency that can put our StoryBrand script (it's a thing) into deliverables to the shopper which will be video. I'm sure there are other thoughts out there but this is the first one I've seen that doesn't pump up our own ego.

Dan, I just finished the same book a few weeks ago. I'm building our agency's StoryBrand roadmap (on step 3 of 5). I'm definitely going to read it again, but only after I dive into Seth Godin's Tribes. Excellent recommendation here.

 

[Dan Sayer]

Dan, I just finished the same book a few weeks ago. I'm building our agency's StoryBrand roadmap (on step 3 of 5). I'm definitely going to read it again, but only after I dive into Seth Godin's Tribes. Excellent recommendation here.

It was way harder than I thought it would be. I would highly recommend spending the money and time to have a StoryBrand expert come in. We partnered with three other local businesses, non-auto, to share the cost. Well worth it. I have not read "Tribes". Thanks for the recommend.

 

[Alexander Lau]

It was way harder than I thought it would be. I would highly recommend spending the money and time to have a StoryBrand expert come in. We partnered with three other local businesses, non-auto, to share the cost. Well worth it. I have not read "Tribes". Thanks for the recommend.

Check out https://www.skyword.com/content-marketing-platform/

 

[joe.pistell]

It was way harder than I thought it would be. I would highly recommend spending the money and time to have a StoryBrand expert come in....

Ck out the Agency work of https://www.congruentstory.com/

Your dealership's brand is a manufacturer.
Your dealership's brand is a logo.
Your dealership's brand is how people feel when they hear your name.​

Here's the work they did for UsedCarKing.com

 

[Alexander Lau]

I really like what http://unityworks.us/video-publishing and https://lesautomotive.com/ are doing in video publishing and in-video lead grabs.

 

[NickCybela]

I think the biggest opportunity for dealers around video is to convince customers to put down their devices and come take a test drive.

A lot of video content on dealer websites puts customers back into the research phase, after the dealership spent all that money to get them to their website. Or simply shows the same 12+ photos and text they literally just clicked through, with slightly harder to read text overlays.

I'm not sure if you've fallen asleep before picking a Netflix movie for the night, but I definitely have. More information and "digital engagement" is not always a good thing in making a final decision.

Google said customers use 24 sources of research before coming to the store. According to Google trends, statistically nobody is looking for a video or virtual walkaround.

Is it valuable? Absolutely! But not in finding new customers to sell cars to. Only to better convert customers already on the site itself.

Video has been used for decades for raising awareness on TV, but many savvy dealers (like Used Car King) have identified ways to turn it into a reason to buy from them earlier in the research process-- bringing more of their consumer experience directly to people's phones and then giving them a reason to trust the dealer enough to come take a real test drive.

One really cool experiment is to test "take a virtual test drive" in your Google Ads sitelinks or social media ads. We show about 8x more traffic beating price, availability and digital retailing messages when driven to 360 video content (something a customer has never seen before).

The store itself would define what to show within the test drive, but the features and story they might not get during the showroom experience is best. Launch mode, collision avoidance, clear "why buys" for the dealership.

Video is a spectacular tool to turn shoppers into buyers... but to beat the "price and availability" shopper takes some creativity.

 

[DavidRozek]

I would have to agree with @Christine Plunkett since we get lots of engagement with video ads on FB, IG, and Youtube, but overall our organic How to Video's or Product overview videos do the best for us.

Below is a better paid ad that we did, but we posted it on our website, youtube, fb, and IG. We spent $800 on production, $500 on FB/IG and $1000 on Youtube over 3 months. Produced 90k viewers on Youtube, and 200k on FB/IG. Our sales staff shares it with customers to let them know about our White Glove Service and it has a Banner in our Homepage to promote it.



Outside of the one above, the video below is a walk around video of a BMW 5 series, which received 9k organic views and was a video our staff shared with customers. We view this as a success because we shared it with customers and watched them come in to test drive the vehicle after we sent it out.



Since then we have encourage our staff to email and text videos to our clients on a regular basis.

We do Pre-roll with Dealer Inspire (BMW/MINI/JLR), Unity Works (Land Rover/ Jaguar), and Constellation (at our VW store only). We still have mixed results as to what really works for us, but we feel it is important to have a message out there on both social media and Youtube.

 

[Alexander Lau]

I would have to agree with @Christine Plunkett since we get lots of engagement with video ads on FB, IG, and Youtube, but overall our organic How to Video's or Product overview videos do the best for us.

Below is a better paid ad that we did, but we posted it on our website, youtube, fb, and IG. We spend $800 on production, $500 on FB/IG and $1000 on Youtube over 3 months. Produced 90k viewers on Youtube, and 200k on FB/IG. Our sales staff shares it with customers to let them know about our White Glove Service and it has a Banner in our Homepage to promote it.



Outside of the one above, the video below is a walk around video of a BMW 5 series, which received 9k organic views and was a video our staff shared with customers. We view this as a success because we shared it with customers and watched them come in to test drive the vehicle after we sent it out.



Since then we have encourage our staff to email and text videos to our clients on a regular basis.

We do Pre-roll with Dealer Inspire (BMW/MINI/JLR), Unity Works (Land Rover/ Jaguar), and Constellation (at our VW store only). We still have mixed results as to what really works for us, but we feel it is important to have a message out there on both social media and Youtube.

Good stuff, but how many cars did you sell from it?