To me the crackdown by OEM's is being done at the behest of their dealers. They get the calls from dealers saying that another dealer is infringing on their AOI through both paid and organic search, and something needs to be done. The easiest solution is to go through the sites/vendors and give them a list of what is approved and what is not.
As to this question: My questions is this:
If a dealer can buy a TV spot or a Radio spot that covers their major Metro, then why can't they do the same with their Search Engine Marketing? Because it's more transparent? Or am I missing something here?
You can't buy spot or radio at a geo-specific area, it's sold by the metro, hence the same rules can't apply. Since you can go down to the zip-code level with SEM, stricter rules apply.
Steve,
I place TV buys all the time. Comcast is the Gorilla (and just announced they will be driving the advertising platform for At&t Uverse and Direct TV) and offers very targeted buys. I can buy/target geo specific all the way down to ZIP - just as accurate, if not maybe more accurate than Paid Search.
I'll walk out to the main Route from my dealership and take photos of 3 different Billboards for dealers that are 2 towns away - advertising WAY outside of their AOI.
"The easiest solution is to go through the sites/vendors and give them a list of what is approved and what is not." With all do respect, I have to disagree with you on this Steve. This is the lazy way IMO. The truth is, since most dealers are clueless to SEO as are the manufactures, this is the "lazy" way out of it.
I can submit my website to compliance and have it disapproved. Make ZERO changes, resubmit and get an approval. This happens with just about every manufacturer including Mercedes, Honda, Toyota, Ford etc. The compliance departments are filled with mostly young interns that are not properly trained. One will try and knock me for SEO and the next hasn't a clue.
If we the dealers don't saturate the search engines then the 3rd party listing sites will. Only to try and sell the leads to 3 dealers at a time. BAD experience for the consumer overall.
What's next? Tell a dealer what they can and can't post on Facebook?
What if my Dealership website has a blog and we write articles that are geo specific?
What if I have a social media tool like GoSO or SocialDealer that allows me the ability to engage on twitter with a consumer in the next town based on a Keyword search?
The list can go on... where do we draw the line.