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Re-targeting and Cars.com version of Re-targeting

isales

Rust & Dust
Mar 23, 2013
28
2
First Name
Chris
Hello,

I'm wondering how much money everyone spends on re-targeting Some of you may be paying for it and don't know that you are. Especially if you market with Cobalt. Re-targeting seems to be the new big thing, and Cars.com is coming out with there version of this package on June 3rd. The second question I have is how many of you have heard about this program?

I know they have made test runs in bigger markets like Atlanta. I would love to hear from someone in one of these markets. For those who don't know about this program I will give you some details so you can give me your feedback.

First, there are different types of re-targeting The basic type is when someone goes to your dealer website a cookie placed on there computer and your online ad's will start popping up on that computer when the online shopper is on other various websites. One can even push Silverado ad's to an online shopper that was looking at Silverado's on your website.

Cars.com is coming out with a re-targeting package that goes something like this. When a local shopper in your local market searches for the make you carry then your dealers "cookie" is locked into that customer for 60 days. That customer will see your dealers ad's across various websites that cars.com is affiliated with which is in the millions, from what they are telling me. For example: we are a Chevrolet dealership. If a customer that is local to us, the program is based off of zip codes goes on cars.com and searches for any Chevrolet then that customer will now start seeing my dealer ad's on many other websites.

Here is where it gets interesting. This varies by market, but in my market, New Orleans LMA, they are only allowing two Chevrolet dealers to participate. One Chevrolet dealer can buy both spots if they choose. The cost varies by market and it's actually fairly reasonable if you ask me. Supposedly the spots in Atlanta have already sold out according to the cars.com rep, but of course that's what they would say.

What is everyone's opinion on this, and have you heard about it yet?
 
1. Re-Marketing is not new. It's actually about 3 years old. Now available: Reach the right audience through remarketing - Inside AdWords

2. Spots are only limited by budget, sure if you have unlimited funds and can spend $300 per click on google to muscle everyone out then you will be the only advertiser, barring that there is no such thing as only one or two spots, that is entirely a sales pitch.

3. Online Remarketing is a weapon in your toolkit. In the same way studies have shown Display to complement Search, Remarketing is a complement to existing efforts. It's no silver bullet.
 
The formal press release about Cars360

Cars.com Launches Cars360 to Help Automotive Dealers Influence Local Car Shoppers Throughout Their Online Journey

CHICAGO – Cars.com, the premier online resource for buying and selling new and used cars, launched Cars360, an audience extension solution designed to help automotive dealerships extend their reach and influence Cars.com shoppers even after they have left the site. As consumers spend more time online and longer periods of time in-market, Cars360 keeps a dealer’s brand top-of-mind throughout the consumer’s online journey by targeting relevant, local car shoppers across a network of hundreds of thousands of websites.

“Car shoppers spend as long as 19 weeks in market to purchase a vehicle, and during that process, they spend over 20 hours a week online. They’re browsing auto websites, but they’re also reading news sites, checking sports scores, planning out their weekends, shopping online or checking email,” said Rock Irvin, Manager of Data & Partnerships, Cars.com. “Cars360 offers additional exposure to a highly targeted audience of local in-market shoppers who have expressed interest in a dealership’s make on Cars.com. The dealership’s brand will be seen by those shoppers across the web, providing dealers with a unique branding opportunity to influence potential customers even when they are not shopping on Cars.com.”

Cars360 does not require manual setup and regular maintenance; dealers simply select their vehicle make and market, then either work with Cars.com’s graphic design team to create their ads* or supply their own creative. Cars.com then manages the process for them by tracking the vehicle searches completed by more than 12 million monthly unique visitors to Cars.com, driving awareness via display ads linking to either a dealership’s website or to their Dealer Profile on Cars.com.

While retargeting solutions can be effective in helping dealers re-engage shoppers who have already visited their dealership website, Cars360 draws upon Cars.com’s vast, high-quality audience of in-market car shoppers to drive new traffic to a dealership’s website or Cars.com Dealer Profile. And unlike behavioral targeting, which targets individuals based on inferred shopping behavior, Cars360 reaches consumers who have explicitly demonstrated in-market shopping behavior by searching for a particular make on Cars.com.

For more information on Cars360 - visit Dealers.Cars.com/Cars360
 
Hello,

I'm wondering how much money everyone spends on re-targeting Some of you may be paying for it and don't know that you are. Especially if you market with Cobalt. Re-targeting seems to be the new big thing, and Cars.com is coming out with there version of this package on June 3rd. The second question I have is how many of you have heard about this program?

I know they have made test runs in bigger markets like Atlanta. I would love to hear from someone in one of these markets. For those who don't know about this program I will give you some details so you can give me your feedback.

First, there are different types of re-targeting The basic type is when someone goes to your dealer website a cookie placed on there computer and your online ad's will start popping up on that computer when the online shopper is on other various websites. One can even push Silverado ad's to an online shopper that was looking at Silverado's on your website.

Cars.com is coming out with a re-targeting package that goes something like this. When a local shopper in your local market searches for the make you carry then your dealers "cookie" is locked into that customer for 60 days. That customer will see your dealers ad's across various websites that cars.com is affiliated with which is in the millions, from what they are telling me. For example: we are a Chevrolet dealership. If a customer that is local to us, the program is based off of zip codes goes on cars.com and searches for any Chevrolet then that customer will now start seeing my dealer ad's on many other websites.

Here is where it gets interesting. This varies by market, but in my market, New Orleans LMA, they are only allowing two Chevrolet dealers to participate. One Chevrolet dealer can buy both spots if they choose. The cost varies by market and it's actually fairly reasonable if you ask me. Supposedly the spots in Atlanta have already sold out according to the cars.com rep, but of course that's what they would say.

What is everyone's opinion on this, and have you heard about it yet?

This could be a strong program for dealers. From what I gather, the customer is tagged on the SRP. That's some nice potential to remarket to a nice volume of in market shoppers.

We've had a few conversations around display re-marketing..
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/behavioral-targeting-campaign-576.html
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/display-advertising-retargeting-276.html
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/banner-advertising-campaigns-650.html


..but I'm always surprised to learn how few dealers have a re-marketing campaign in place or even understand it for that matter.

The challenge most dealers will have with re-marketing and/or display advertising is tracking the performance and measuring the overall value of the campaign. Too often dealers will want to measure their display re-marketing as they do paid search - the click.

It's good to hear Cars.com is helping out with the creative. Most dealers don't have the resources or budget to create the degree of ad it takes to engage the customer to the level it needs to, in order to be effective.

I would also encourage Cars.com to have a few stricht templates based on performance for dealers to choose from. I can see dealers trying to stuff their Sunday paper ad in a 300x250 display ad.

Anyone know how Cars.com is charging for this?
 
I met with them the other day and they bundling this with their "Power Drive" product, which I can only assume has had low sales and is in a downward spiral. They are asking for a 12 month commitment at $2,060/mo, this includes "Power Drive" which was originally priced at $1,300/mo and gives you 1 block of 50,000 impressions.

I've experienced re-targeting rates via Google around $4CPM, this is upwards around $14 so there is some hefty markup in there. I tried to get specifics and they would not officially verify but I believe they are setup to use Yahoo's network to serve your 50k.

It will not be available until tomorrow from what I am told.

It's a very tempting opportunity having the ability to re-target cars.com customers in the market for of a specific brand and not dealer. The re-targeting portion of 360 is a solid product, whether it will be worth the money bundled with Power Drive, only time and testing will tell.
 
I am sure it depends by market and brand. They are charging 2k here in Indy and not all brands are available. Brand availability is based on local search volume for each respective one. CPM looks to be around $25-$35 which is pretty steep, but creative is included and you are getting your ads in front of a relatively qualified audience.

I see it as good for big / medium dealers
 
Thank you everyone for your comments. It seems that this may be a good program. However, I am a little skeptical about the ads only appearing on the Yahoo network as Jason mentioned. I would hope that the ads get published on the Google ad network as well. All one has to do is look at their website analytics to confirm that the majority of their traffic comes from Google. At least that's the case for our website and many other dealer sites that I've handled. Maybe impressions are impressions no matter which network they are being displayed... hmmm... not sure about that.

Can anyone confirm whether the ads will only be placed on the Yahoo network?
 
I actually prefer that they are using the Yahoo Network and not Google's. Yahoo is partnered with Bing for their advertising network, so the reach and coverage is definitely there. Also getting approved as a publisher on the Yahoo network is much more difficult than it is Google, this means the possibility of your ads showing on much higher quality sites and less bloggy sites designed specifically for ads and not content. (ex the sites that have 10 300x250 banners per page load.)

Realistically though in this case, impressions are impressions, you're tracking the user so as long as you get your 50k you're good to go. I would love to see an example report of the results they provide and the details