- May 1, 2005
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@Tallcool1 / Clint, were you able to post a shot of the ads you used and do you have ANYTHING else to add to this? Final results, final thoughts, etc?
Tangible ROI in Social Media
- Thread starter ryan.gerardi
- Start date
@Tallcool1 / Clint, were you able to post a shot of the ads you used and do you have ANYTHING else to add to this? Final results, final thoughts, etc?
Ryan - I disagree
Verifiable ROI has a huge place in dealership marketing, but everything a dealership does not need to have a verifiable ROI. Think sponsoring a little league baseball team; it is exposure and it's good for the community BUT it doesn't have verifiable ROI. But it's part of a dealerships ongoing branding efforts.
A dealership's paid Facebook advertising should be in one category and a dealership's Facebook community presence probably belongs in another.
Putting a hard dollar figure on "branding" ROI is almost impossible, but as a marketing professional, I would argue that branding is vital.
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- Feb 11, 2015
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- Alex
I thought I had replied to this.
Expectations. It comes down to understanding what dealers expect out of their social media (marketing). Are they focused on engaging the local community organically (potentially leading to sales) or are they attempting to convert through paid advertising / custom audience targeting or both? Granted, organic reach has basically bit the bullet. It's a pay-to-play game in SM.
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- Mar 17, 2011
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- Ryan
Ryan - I disagree
Verifiable ROI has a huge place in dealership marketing, but everything a dealership does not need to have a verifiable ROI. Think sponsoring a little league baseball team; it is exposure and it's good for the community BUT it doesn't have verifiable ROI. But it's part of a dealerships ongoing branding efforts.
A dealership's paid Facebook advertising should be in one category and a dealership's Facebook community presence probably belongs in another.
Putting a hard dollar figure on "branding" ROI is almost impossible, but as a marketing professional, I would argue that branding is vital.
Ryan - I disagree
Verifiable ROI has a huge place in dealership marketing, but everything a dealership does not need to have a verifiable ROI. Think sponsoring a little league baseball team; it is exposure and it's good for the community BUT it doesn't have verifiable ROI. But it's part of a dealerships ongoing branding efforts.
A dealership's paid Facebook advertising should be in one category and a dealership's Facebook community presence probably belongs in another.
Putting a hard dollar figure on "branding" ROI is almost impossible, but as a marketing professional, I would argue that branding is vital.
Facebook Ads are highly effective for top of the funnel branding and awareness marketing, and they also cause engagement around purchase/service consideration and intent to buy/service. And yes this is good, or "vital" as you say.
The metrics of these activities are based around reach, clicks, conversions, and website traffic. Measuring your return on investment to actual revenues and grosses is near impossible, at least accurately.
What if you could go deeper into the engagement funnel, e.g. schedule test drives, schedule service appointments, initiate the trade-in process and the finance process, with the people your ads are reaching and engaging in Facebook. What if you had the ability to see more "tangibly" how these consumer activities were impacting your revenue and grosses?
This is what I am referring to when I say "verifiable ROI."
- Feb 21, 2011
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- Emily
The problem that I have with social media is that by monetizing it, you HAVE to pay to play. If I post on Facebook and do not pay to boost the post, Facebook only shows it to a handful of people. Now, of course if I pay, then its displayed to thousands - which then turns it into "what's my ROI...". It is more beneficial for me to post something business related (not a hard-sell though) on a personal page than it is on a business page. A salesman can post a pic of a new model or a happy customer on his page and will get all kinds of interactions...I post the same thing to Facebook as a business and barely make a splash (unless I pay). I love Twitter for the immediate interaction with our customers. I hate Google+ and that's all that needs said about that.
I apologize for not getting back to the forums. We have been extremely busy. So, what we did was a very simple ad. Picture of 2015 Equinox with my overlay on the photo so even if it didn't get a click it still identified the store. There was a banner at the top in bright letters that said Expires At 10:00 pm Today! The click referred to a FB landing page with a lead form. The credit applications we receive are after we call and talk to the customers. We did not refer our clicks to my website.
During the time that I have been following this forum, I have learned that there is somewhat of a disconnect between dealers that want LEADS vs dealers that want Engagement. I want to remind or offer the notion that a LEAD is not a dirty word or a bad thing. Some seem to look down their nose at the idea that a dealer would want an actual lead, or would design a funnel with the goal to be a lead. To me, this is the goal! I want people to pick up their phone and call, or email for more information. If I didn't want this, I would have zero CTA type material on my website. Leads are the people we sell cars to. While I value UX and engagement, we can't sell a vehicle to our analytics. I want my site performance metrics to be phenomenal, but what I really want is a lead.
I understand @Ed Brooks point about verifiable ROI not always having to be evident. I just don't know that I agree. If there isn't some level of measurability, how do we know if it is of any value? At what point do I differentiate between ROI and just pissing money away? I am not running a Non Profit here. Guess what I'm going to do when 4 families on MY sponsored little league team buy from someone else? You guessed it. There just has to be some measure of success or I have no idea what to do or not do.
I like these type of threads. I learn a great deal from them.
During the time that I have been following this forum, I have learned that there is somewhat of a disconnect between dealers that want LEADS vs dealers that want Engagement. I want to remind or offer the notion that a LEAD is not a dirty word or a bad thing. Some seem to look down their nose at the idea that a dealer would want an actual lead, or would design a funnel with the goal to be a lead. To me, this is the goal! I want people to pick up their phone and call, or email for more information. If I didn't want this, I would have zero CTA type material on my website. Leads are the people we sell cars to. While I value UX and engagement, we can't sell a vehicle to our analytics. I want my site performance metrics to be phenomenal, but what I really want is a lead.
I understand @Ed Brooks point about verifiable ROI not always having to be evident. I just don't know that I agree. If there isn't some level of measurability, how do we know if it is of any value? At what point do I differentiate between ROI and just pissing money away? I am not running a Non Profit here. Guess what I'm going to do when 4 families on MY sponsored little league team buy from someone else? You guessed it. There just has to be some measure of success or I have no idea what to do or not do.
I like these type of threads. I learn a great deal from them.
- Apr 7, 2009
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Wow Clint, a great, heart felt reply. I spent a decade in stores as a marketing director. Like you, I had my team that built my own site. 2/3rds of my pay was on all deliveries (so I was paid to see the whole machine work, from ads, to site construction, to inventory management, to site traffic, to leads, to ups, to the sale) I hope I have some ideas for you to experiment with. HTH
1st, I'd like to learn about you and your store.
- Do you have a CRM system that automatically logs leads?
- If yes...
- What percent of your total sales come from automatically logged leads?
- What percent of sales came from fresh ups (where the rep had to key in the customer infront of them*)
- How many phone ups don't get logged? (in my stores, this was a big %)
- What percent of your total sales come from special finance?
Looking forward to your thoughts!
*Reps are famous for just guessing the "lead source" (e.g. autotrader, walkin, phone up, referral, etc), so I'd ignore what ever they did.
p.s. Me want!!!
Thanks for getting in on this post @JoePistell.
Today, I do not have a CRM that automatically logs leads. By this time next week I will. This whole CRM shopping experience has been much more challenging than I ever imagined. There are many truly amazing systems on the market. The tough part is matching a system to a budget, and then factoring in things such as man power. I have found that most CRM users have a favorite system, and many times that favorite is the system that they have in their store which consequently is often the ONLY CRM that they have ever used. I have finally come to the conclusion that ANY type of CRM is going to be better than no CRM. I have it narrowed down to a couple, and am going to focus on utilization rather than features. The old saying that an A+ execution of a C+ plan is much better than C+ execution of an A+ plan, is what I am going to go with.
Special finance accounts for 10%-15% of my business. That means 2-4 sales per month. I don't have a problem with subprime customers, but I do not actively pursue them. I have in the past, but find myself overwhelmed with applicants and very little sales from it. Subprime customers seem to have no problem submitting forms.
I sign up all of my customers, so I have the opportunity to do an "exit interview" while handling financing. I talk with customers a great deal regarding how they found the store or the car. I don't know if this is right or wrong, but if a customer tells me they have been on CarGurus, cars.com, and my website, I will give credit to both 3rd party sites. I know that our inventory is on both, so if the customer gives even a hint of doubt I just record both lead sources. Some customers know beyond any doubt how they found us, but most seem to be a little unsure.
My current system of logging customers is horrible. We do have a customer log, but there is nothing in that log or process that would give me the slightest bit of confidence to use the data for decision making. This is of course one of the reasons that I am committing to a CRM. I realize that having a CRM means nothing if we do not use it correctly and make a 100% effort to get data into it. All leads from all sources will automatically flow into the CRM, but that doesn't cover actual floor traffic. This will take significant effort. The percentage of phone ups that do not get logged is high. I can't tell you the number, but it is high!
I seem to remember checking out a website that you designed. In essence, customers must enter their contact information in order to view inventory. I have been giving a lot of thought to some variation of this type of system. I would allow shoppers to view SRP and VDP information without any type of lead form. However, to get pricing they would have to enter their information. This would be some type of "For the most up to date pricing, vehicle condition reports, and special offers CLICK HERE". I believe that a high number of shoppers that find my vehicles on Cars.com, CarGurus, CUDL, etc., simply open a new tab and search for my website. I believe this because of the fact that 40%+ of my website traffic is either a direct search or a search for some variation of my dealership name. Many of these customers have already seen the vehicle on another site, know what the price was on that site, and want to see if it is cheaper on my website than it is on the 3rd party sites. I don't know if this is a good idea or not. I can see a situation in which I just piss people off, and I can also see a situation in which these could be low funnel shoppers that are ready to make a purchase if someone would just reach out to them and show them the way. Opinions on this would be appreciated.
Site engagement stats in case this matters to you are as follows"
2000 sessions
1300 unique
3:31 average session duration (which is actually down about 00:35
20.92% bounce rate which is up about 1.5%
5.28 pages per session
Today, I do not have a CRM that automatically logs leads. By this time next week I will. This whole CRM shopping experience has been much more challenging than I ever imagined. There are many truly amazing systems on the market. The tough part is matching a system to a budget, and then factoring in things such as man power. I have found that most CRM users have a favorite system, and many times that favorite is the system that they have in their store which consequently is often the ONLY CRM that they have ever used. I have finally come to the conclusion that ANY type of CRM is going to be better than no CRM. I have it narrowed down to a couple, and am going to focus on utilization rather than features. The old saying that an A+ execution of a C+ plan is much better than C+ execution of an A+ plan, is what I am going to go with.
Special finance accounts for 10%-15% of my business. That means 2-4 sales per month. I don't have a problem with subprime customers, but I do not actively pursue them. I have in the past, but find myself overwhelmed with applicants and very little sales from it. Subprime customers seem to have no problem submitting forms.
I sign up all of my customers, so I have the opportunity to do an "exit interview" while handling financing. I talk with customers a great deal regarding how they found the store or the car. I don't know if this is right or wrong, but if a customer tells me they have been on CarGurus, cars.com, and my website, I will give credit to both 3rd party sites. I know that our inventory is on both, so if the customer gives even a hint of doubt I just record both lead sources. Some customers know beyond any doubt how they found us, but most seem to be a little unsure.
My current system of logging customers is horrible. We do have a customer log, but there is nothing in that log or process that would give me the slightest bit of confidence to use the data for decision making. This is of course one of the reasons that I am committing to a CRM. I realize that having a CRM means nothing if we do not use it correctly and make a 100% effort to get data into it. All leads from all sources will automatically flow into the CRM, but that doesn't cover actual floor traffic. This will take significant effort. The percentage of phone ups that do not get logged is high. I can't tell you the number, but it is high!
I seem to remember checking out a website that you designed. In essence, customers must enter their contact information in order to view inventory. I have been giving a lot of thought to some variation of this type of system. I would allow shoppers to view SRP and VDP information without any type of lead form. However, to get pricing they would have to enter their information. This would be some type of "For the most up to date pricing, vehicle condition reports, and special offers CLICK HERE". I believe that a high number of shoppers that find my vehicles on Cars.com, CarGurus, CUDL, etc., simply open a new tab and search for my website. I believe this because of the fact that 40%+ of my website traffic is either a direct search or a search for some variation of my dealership name. Many of these customers have already seen the vehicle on another site, know what the price was on that site, and want to see if it is cheaper on my website than it is on the 3rd party sites. I don't know if this is a good idea or not. I can see a situation in which I just piss people off, and I can also see a situation in which these could be low funnel shoppers that are ready to make a purchase if someone would just reach out to them and show them the way. Opinions on this would be appreciated.
Site engagement stats in case this matters to you are as follows"
2000 sessions
1300 unique
3:31 average session duration (which is actually down about 00:35
20.92% bounce rate which is up about 1.5%
5.28 pages per session
- Feb 11, 2015
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- Alex
Yes, this was always Zuckerberg's intention. He needed to collect data on the pleb nation, in order to create the ability for marketers to behavioral target (in other words, the organic popularity joke was on them). In reference to what works and doesn't and maybe I am overstating the obvious, but like anything else, it depends on the intention / purpose of the ad and whom you target with it. You seem like you know, keep testing it and once you know, stay the course.
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