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SEM - determining budget

Jarrett

Boss
Nov 24, 2009
144
5
First Name
Jarrett
I am trying to develop an SEM strategy that will tangibly justify expense. In years past I would spend thousands of dollars a month buying clicks to custom forms and landing pages. The pages would be specific to new vehicle models, for example the GT 500 Mustang, or the Challenger. I never really got the local consumer engaged, moving them from a competitor to my brands.

So to the community I post this question; Who among us has a SEM campaign that works? That works well enough that the are happy to write that check each month.

I have looked at products by Dealer.com, and outside the industry. There is no shortage of resources to get this done.

What kind of success or failures have you had?
 
Jarrett,

I run a PPC campaign in-house. I run it very aggressively. Over 10,000 keywords. It accounts for 20% of our overall traffic yet costs about 7% of our budget. I am in the middle of optimizing it now.

More as it comes...
 

✨ AI Highlights

Jarrett questions whether SEM/PPC campaigns actually deliver ROI for dealerships, noting his past spending on model-specific landing pages failed to convert local consumers. Joe Pistell provides the most concrete response, sharing that his in-house PPC campaign of 10,000+ keywords drives 20% of traffic while consuming only 7% of budget, suggesting that aggressive, well-optimized campaigns can be cost-effective—though the thread remains relatively short on detailed success metrics or best practices.

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