I saw that the article states
but where does the article back that statement up? Is that just accepted fact?
but where does the article back that statement up? Is that just accepted fact?
- Jul 15, 2013
- 47
- 17
- First Name
- Alexandre
I recently did a study on the effect that buying your own name in PPC has on a small dealer budget.
Over the period of a month, I went ahead and listened to every phone call that came in through PPC channels.
I was surprised to see that only 20% of the calls were actual sales inquiries. 80% of the calls were to book a service appointment or personal phone calls made by employee friends and spouse.
The problem: A good chunk of our budget goes to our brand name and Geo location. (which can easily be found in organic)
The Solution: Stop paying for clicks on our own name and primary location, because we are easily found on organic search and google map, & put that budget towards make model geo campaign or competitor campaign.
The problem within the solution: more than 50% of traffic comes from mobile users. Since Google recently updated their PPC strategy, the ads are taking a huge chunk of real estate on a mobile device ( you have to scroll through 4 ads, before seeing the first organic position)
General users and lazy and dumb and also don't know how search engine work, they will call the first number on the list without even knowing that it is an add. Some of them don't even read the text!
So basically, stopping to bid on our own name and main location isn't an option we would run the risk to loose clicks and conversion to the competition. even people actively looking for our dealership would call someone else because it is the first option presented to them. It sucks but this is becoming a sad reality.
Ford probably knows that most users click on the first link, they click on the ad and before you know it, they are on a ford page being marketed to.
Over the period of a month, I went ahead and listened to every phone call that came in through PPC channels.
I was surprised to see that only 20% of the calls were actual sales inquiries. 80% of the calls were to book a service appointment or personal phone calls made by employee friends and spouse.
The problem: A good chunk of our budget goes to our brand name and Geo location. (which can easily be found in organic)
The Solution: Stop paying for clicks on our own name and primary location, because we are easily found on organic search and google map, & put that budget towards make model geo campaign or competitor campaign.
The problem within the solution: more than 50% of traffic comes from mobile users. Since Google recently updated their PPC strategy, the ads are taking a huge chunk of real estate on a mobile device ( you have to scroll through 4 ads, before seeing the first organic position)
General users and lazy and dumb and also don't know how search engine work, they will call the first number on the list without even knowing that it is an add. Some of them don't even read the text!
So basically, stopping to bid on our own name and main location isn't an option we would run the risk to loose clicks and conversion to the competition. even people actively looking for our dealership would call someone else because it is the first option presented to them. It sucks but this is becoming a sad reality.
Ford probably knows that most users click on the first link, they click on the ad and before you know it, they are on a ford page being marketed to.
I did the same experiment with 2 clients when trying to convince them to leave their terrible local SEM company.
I was shocked how many calls were wives calling to speak with the husbands, using a paid tracking number that only shows up if you click on an AdWord. Burn money.
I was shocked how many calls were wives calling to speak with the husbands, using a paid tracking number that only shows up if you click on an AdWord. Burn money.
- Jul 15, 2013
- 47
- 17
- First Name
- Alexandre
So how did you fix that Craig? Isn't it pretty much un fixable unless you stop buying clicks for your own name? that would leave the door wide open for the competition. I thought about doing a mobile only campaign but I don't know if that is the solution..
We stopped buying their name entirely.
Say what you will, but spending that money elsewhere resulted in more leads and site visitors and we certainly didn't see a drop in their sales. Did we maybe lose a deal or two to a customer who looked for us and changed their mind because of AdWords? Maybe. But that has always seemed like a stretch to me.
Say what you will, but spending that money elsewhere resulted in more leads and site visitors and we certainly didn't see a drop in their sales. Did we maybe lose a deal or two to a customer who looked for us and changed their mind because of AdWords? Maybe. But that has always seemed like a stretch to me.
I don't think any dealer has to feel like they're drawing a line in the sand with buying their name or not, it's just a strategy choice. For some dealers it might not be needed, for others maybe there's more competition in their market so they need to do it. Every dealer is different.
With all the 3rd party advertising we do it just makes sense for what we receive in return and the cost. Biggest problem I have is when our OEMs bid on our name as well and send traffic to one of their landing pages that potentially could link back to a competitor. Drives my bid up to be #1, plus if I don't get the click it's a guessing game if they make it back to my site or not. I need the "why you do dis meme" here.
