Justin from C-4 Analytics here, again. I don’t want to stir the pot any further, but I would like to clarify a few points. First, since I don’t have as much time as I would like to lead discussions and really give back to this forum, I certainly didn’t want to come in—on my first post—and write a typical self-promoting “all the reasons why you should hire our company”-type response.
As far as the tone of my response, as a partner of an analytics agency, it is my job to distinguish the go-to-market strategies that work from the bullshit that doesn't. In a forum of automotive digital professionals where people rely on what they read, I simply expected more than an uninformed opinion, stated as fact, from someone who did no actual research and is unfamiliar with the company. So, Really-dan, I may have posted angry, but I stand by my position. You don’t have to like it or hire us, but no apology will be forthcoming, either.
Ewalraven, you bring up some interesting points, but also make some incorrect assumptions about our agency--actually, nearly all of your assumptions are incorrect. I'm going to try to respond to each of your critiques, but I also want to explain what we really do, rather than just what we don't do.
Let’s start with who we are, exactly. C-4 Analytics is a Boston-based, digital marketing agency that combines real-time market data (such as pump in/out, regional sales, sales by demo, sales by model, sales against other brands, sales against competitors, etc.) with enterprise-level web analytic tools (showing how people shop, how long it takes to make a decision, where do they go on the website, what keywords, what motivates them to take action, etc.) to develop and execute digital marketing strategies that identify and target customers so automotive professionals can make advertising decisions based on data and research rather than speculation or hearsay. We were founded on the need to determine which aspects of your advertising work, and fix or change what doesn’t.
Now, I know that not every automotive professional is ready to make data driven decisions. Some people like to do things based on what worked for them in the '70s—although I don’t think those people are reading this, while others make advertising decisions based on their gut or choose only believe what they want to believe. (In fact, here’s a great article here on becoming more data driven:
Become More Data-Driven by Breaking These Bad Habits - Thomas C. Redman - Harvard Business Review. See, I’m already giving back!) For the most part, I think people here understand the need for data, if not always exactly how to use it. That’s where we come in.
Unlike the companies you were referring to in your post, we don’t just give you a bunch of data—because unless you have a team of PPC experts, SEO experts, merchandising experts, writers, editors, graphic designers, and really smart analysts to make sense of it, all the data in the world probably won’t do you very much good. That’s why we do the work for you (or, depending on the capabilities of the dealer/group, with you)!
We crunch the data, make recommendations, devise strategies, discuss with the decision makers and then execute, test, report and review. We make changes daily, weekly or monthly depending on the campaign. We don’t always get it all 100% right, but what we always get is the data/business intelligence that shows what works, and contrary to Ewalraven's assumptions, we make changes to your strategies based on the results.
Conversion optimization means improving the performance of the website. Most dealer sites are not that great out of the box. We are constantly amazed at the extent to which some dealerships spend blindly on traditional media and throw good money after bad in digital trying to get more and more traffic. Surprised I would say that? I’m not a cheerleader for wasting money on online marketing any more than I am for wasting it in the newspaper. In many cases, dealers’ time and effort may be better spent making your websites stickier, your calls to action better, your merchandising and specials pages stronger, and testing pricing strategies, landing pages, etc. I know, I know, our website doesn't demonstrate our expertise. However, our business comes from referrals—not our website. And what does it say about a digital marketing agency that clients come from referrals rather than their website? I think the previous posters, customers, independent 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party vendors and even potential competitors familiar with us already answered that.
Let’s be honest, you are not here to learn about how we get customers, you’re here to learn about how
you can get more customers. And your customers play by their own rules, so you need to start paying very close attention to their decision-making and conversion process. I’m not saying not to spend money on paid search. I’m saying get your website cranking and then start thinking about bringing the traffic in.
Speaking of buying traffic, let’s talk about templated campaigns. The truth is, we love templated campaigns, and you should too! (
I can’t wait for this to be taken out of context.) You don’t want to have them, of course, but you want your competitors to have them. Templated campaigns don’t work because every dealership, every brand, every location and every customer is different. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut or easy way of creating a great converting paid search campaign for your dealership. So if you want custom, targeted, managed campaigns, you are going to need to pay for it.
Don’t want to pay someone to manage your campaigns? No problem. If your IT guy can manage your campaign better and cheaper than a team of trained analysts in between fixing network problems, supporting and managing your CRM systems, taking used car pictures, dusting off showroom cars and getting coffee then you don’t need an agency! Is your IT guy a Google AdWords-certified professional who trained at Google? Does he know how many negative keywords are in your account? Are you targeting your competitors, or are they targeting you? Are you A/B testing your ad copy? Do your landing pages convert? Are you running any beta programs? Sometimes you just get what you pay for.
We don’t just “set it and forget it" when it comes to paid search campaigns. We manage them actively, effectively and constantly. We control your messaging, your ads, your content, your landing pages, your calls to action and your merchandising. We test multiple landing pages and CTAs, as well as different messages, to increase conversion and make sure everything is working in unison. We constantly search for the most effective terms and maximize the value of every dollar spent, so you get the highest number of commercial-intent visitors from each campaign.
And that’s just step one. To really be successful in PPC, you need to recognize your market and your customers, as well as the connection between impression share, PPC costs and your site content. Depending on what state you live in and your brand, you might be able to bring in DMV registration data, competitor data and impression-share data to create hyper targeted strategies that allow you to outperform competitors by model, by location, by demographic. Of course, if your website doesn’t convert or half of your leads are emailed to your former Internet manager--who's now working for a competitor--at his personal email, none of that matters.
Did I mention we are Google partners and get to beta-test not-yet-released Google paid search programs and targeting options that you probably aren’t going to hear about for months, if ever? Look, this industry is constantly evolving and changes fast, and some of the strategies that are working best today didn’t even exist when this thread was initially started. I am really not here to have a prolonged forum discussion about our capabilities or strategies. If anyone is seriously interested in what we do and how we do it, there’s no need for continued speculation or conjecture. Give us a call, we will be happy to talk shop with you.
