Looking for an extremely good SEM company

[joe.pistell]

... my mind tends to think of ppc/seo/sem, etc etc like the stock market. You are not going to give all of your investments to a broker that is really good at investing only in pharmaceutical companys. You want the guy that finds the dog food company and stuffing peanuts company that is showing big returns. So you essentially are looking for the company that knows Digital marketing no matter the demo...

That's how my mind was thinking of it at least. But I'm open to see why that could be off.

I was a stock trader for a decade, so I can speak to your scenario well. If I want to find maximum profits from within the pharmaceuticals or dog food industries, I'd be an idiot if I hired a manager who's specialty is the 500 big cap stocks in the S&P 500 (i.e. GE, Lockeed Martin, Exxon, Appl, etc)

In the Automotive PPC space, if you bid on "Chevrolet Camaro", your PPC dude had better have several thousand negative keywords to make sure you not paying for "Chevrolet Camaro floor mats" "Chevrolet Camaro exaust" "Chevrolet Camaro owners manuals" "Chevrolet Camaro seat covers" etc... Also, an automotive specialist should give you great calls to action that work best in our industry. Don't forget your subtle conquest opportunities. A great automotive specialist should have you dialed in.

That's just the start, it goes on and on...

 

[joe.pistell]

Dealers are like snowflakes, no 2 are alike. Big dealers can carpet bomb Google, smaller dealers must be snipers (i.e. short tail vs long tail). PPC strategy done right, must factor in the the dealer's profile.

 

[DrewAment]

Big dealers can carpet bomb Google....

So you are saying big dealers are better at wasting money??

While I understand it really comes down to time vs. ROI....shouldn't they be snipers too???

 

[joe.pistell]

A great Automotive Ad system knows that Scarcity* matters.

Chevrolet Malibu vs Jeep Wrangler Rubicon.
Cast a wide net with the Rubicon, a far smaller one with the Malibu (unless you have truck loads of Malibus)

For example, when I use to DIY, I created 2 GEOs. #1 was "my market" and #2 was just outside my market (under 2hr drive). I'd put scarce or high-end units in bucket #2. Engagement from far away shoppers was lower, so, I'd adjust my spend as needed.

HTH
Joe
*Market Days Supply

 

[joe.pistell]

So you are saying big dealers are better at wasting money??

While I understand it really comes down to time vs. ROI....shouldn't they be snipers too???

Hell yea, Big Dealers can be sloppy and still win. With smaller stores, precision is needed to drive profits.


Here's an old PPC strategy table I posted here about 6-7 yrs ago.


It's says if you're a boutique dealer, your highest ROI comes from low volume, long tail ads. If you're a really big store, your competition is Autotrader.com

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Dealers are like snowflakes, no 2 are alike. Big dealers can carpet bomb Google, smaller dealers must be snipers (i.e. short tail vs long tail). PPC strategy done right, must factor in the the dealer's profile.

This is true to an extent. Large dealers have more flexibility due to a large budget. They can bid higher, deeper, and conquest with no problem. But, large dealers should also be snipers. Our large and small dealers ALL use a branch off traditional SEM which is the finest form of sniping. We have a fancy name for it, but it is dynamic inventory marketing. It requires only a small budget because the searches and clicks are less than your traditional branding and new car SEM campaigns. We really only use this for used cars and I would recommend EVERY dealer do it (even if it isn't through us) because it makes that much sense. Basically, someone googles "2007 Toyota Camry" and they get served an ad for the 2007 Toyota Camry in your inventory. The ad copy includes price, mileage (if mileage is a lower mileage car), etc. User clicks the ad and is taken directly to the VDP.

Have you ever done research and seen how much your average VDP view costs? It is a lot more than the cost of a sponsored click in google. Although it is a little dated (2012), Cobalt did a study and found that the cost to drive a VDP view via AdWords was $18.55. Alongside that, they also did a study showing the number of days a car stays on the lot in relation to the number of VDP views it gets. Results were 135 days for less than 20 VDP views. 96 days for 20-30 VDP views. Lastly, 76 days for greater than 30 VDP views. All that to say, VDPs are where it's at in terms of the lowest-funnel shopper. I'd highly recommend talking to your SEM account manager about doing this. One more thing...make sure they do it themselves as opposed to outsourcing it to a company that white-labels it. If that is the case, you're paying for two companies to make money.

 

[joe.pistell]

This is true to an extent. Large dealers have more flexibility due to a large budget. They can bid higher, deeper, and conquest with no problem. But, large dealers should also be snipers.

This table says it all:

 

[Bill Simmons]

Reach out to Jason Wiley with Haystak. We have had great service with them.

 

[Chris Leslie]

Joe, are you saying if target more long tail (6 words) I will see better ROI regardless of quality score, ad text and so on?

 

[joe.pistell]

Joe, are you saying if target more long tail (6 words) I will see better ROI regardless of quality score, ad text and so on?

Hi Chris.

Nope. I was speaking about why an automotive PPC specialist should out perform a non-Automotive PPC specialist.

The table speaks to how inventory counts at different dealerships should have different PPC strategies. IOW, what works for RaphsFord.com could be a complete fail for ArnoldsFord.com.