News

Are you planning on going to the 10th Digital Dealer Conference in Orlando in April? Consider booking the Dynamic Duo of automotive conferences in the Spring of 2011.

The 2011 Automotive Marketing Boot Camp, hosted by PCG Digital Marketing, is scheduled from April 16th – 18th in Orlando Florida.

We are encouraging attendees to fly into Orlando on Saturday April 16th in the afternoon to participate in the evening kick-off reception on Saturday night.

The Automotive Marketing Boot Camp will feature two full days of classes on Sunday and Monday to provide the strongest educational experience for all that attend.

The Automotive Marketing Boot Camp (#AMBC) will provide and early breakfast on Tuesday morning April 19th. After breakfast, attendees who will be going to the 10th Digital Dealer Conference can shoot over for opening day activities.

The conference centers will be less than 5 minutes away from each other so jump over the DD10 will be very easy.

More details on the Boot Camp will be posted in January as we finalize the roster of speakers, educators, and sponsors. Last year the Boot Camp attendees posted rave reviews of their investment of time for this event. Don’t miss out on this dynamic due of automotive conferences in April.

Booking Flights to Orlando?

So if you are booking your flights to the 10th Digital Dealer Conference early to save money, keep the Boot Camp opportunity mind. The Automotive Marketing Boot Camp is $795 per person for the 3 day event and will be the best investment in education you can make in April.

Visit: http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com for more details. See you in Orlando!

Business owners are spending thousands of dollars each month on Google Adwords and few have tested the impact of different “landing page” designs on conversion.

The landing page is the first page where a consumer is taken when they click on your paid advertisement.

Conversion testing is CRITICAL for anyone using Google Adwords or any pay-per-click advertising solution.

If you could increase conversion by 5% on all your PPC traffic, what would that be worth to you each month? What about 10% or 15%?

Conversion Testing is The Holy Grail

The premise behind A/B testing is that you don’t know if your landing page is setup to achieve optimal conversion unless you test the design. Changes in the design can include colors, photos, videos, and physical page layout.

Small businesses have Pay-Per-Click budgets between $1,000 – $3,000 a month. Yet these same business owners have not created a series of tests to determine which landing page designs will produce the best results.

Many third-party PPC vendors do not offer individualized A/B testing since they claim to know which landing page design work best. If it was my money, I would want to see the test results from my local market.

Google provides a tool called Website Optimizer to give Adwords users TOOLS to test the impact of landing page designs. The problem with this tool is that it takes knowledge and time to setup and foresight on how to decide what to test. This is normally not an internal skill set inside a dealership.

The Automotive SEM Study, announced on December 27, 2010, will test landing page design on automotive dealership Adwords campaigns in a controlled environment. PCG Digital Marketing will share the results of the A/B testing so that everyone can benefit from the knowledge that is collected.

Google Website Optimizer

Google Website Optimizer has two modes: Simple A/B Testing and Multivariate Testing. Today I will focus on the easiest testing which is A/B testing.

One of the learning objectives in the Automotive SEM Study will be to take active users of Google Adwords and create a series of A/B or A/B/C testing on different landing pages to see which variations increase/decrease response rates.

The A/B testing in Google Website Optimizer is the “easiest” testing business owners can do because it requires you to create different landing pages for the test. Most website platforms will allow you to create pages on the fly, which could be these alternative landing pages. The more advanced forms of testing in Google Website Optimizer call “multivariate testing” will be discussed in a follow-up article.

The potential roadblock with Google Website Optimizer on some website platforms is that some vendors will limit “Java Code” can be placed on user generated website pages. As you can see from the diagram above, you need to place two pieces of code on the original page and then footer code on the alternative pages and the thank you page if someone submits a lead.

So What’s The Big Deal?

Well, the code that you have the place on these pages are simple; Google provide it. The problem is that some website platforms don’t allow you to insert Java Script code on website pages. If you are using open source microsites like WordPress, you have to make sure that WordPress doesn’t rewrite/format the code.

For the Automotive SEM Study we will be using open source WordPress websites and we will show you how to use a free plugin called “Hana Code Insert” to drop in the needed code to your testing pages. If you would like to use your PRIMARY website for the SEM A/B testing, ask your vendor if they support Google Website Optimizer code.

We will also be looking into other website testing platforms that may simplify the study member experience; details will follow when the study officially starts on February 15th. Industry veteran Larry Bruce has offered his PPC testing platform to study members, so we will look into the latest version of his software and see if it matches with our study goals.

What Can We Get From A/B Testing?

If you have a budget that is large enough to generate enough traffic to your landing pages, you can start to see the impact of design, colors, phone number ,forms, or ANY on page element on conversion. For many car dealers this topic may be new but their instincts will tell them that they have NOT testing their landing pages.

If you are spending money on Google Adwords, isn’t it time to start improving CONVERSION by testing different design layouts and call-to-action messages?

In the above example, Google will distribute clicks over all THREE pages and keep track of all statistics on these pages. You may find that Alternative B, which a lower down payment created higher conversion. Or you may find that Alternative A which featured the featured car with a lower monthly payment increased conversion. STOP GUESSING. START TESTING.

Understanding Google Adwords and PPC Testing Is Important

This is one of the many reasons why you should have your dealer peers register for the Automotive SEM Study. Isn’t it time that our industry raises the bar on automotive PPC spending and refine our campaigns to increase CONVERSION?

Sign-up at: http://www.automotivesemstudy.com

The eight week study is free to the first 100 dealership employees that register with a dealership email address.

Does the automotive industry need another acronym?

The automotive community relies heavily on third party websites to advertise their car inventory. I will argue that a dealer’s inventory is their currency for business along with its brand reputation and customer service.

Since their inventory is their primary eCommerce asset, it is surprising to see that many dealers have not objectively inspected where and how their cars are being merchandised.

In the past two years a number of new inventory advertising platforms have been created which has given dealers new choices for automotive advertising. I have been involved on the creation of one of those new choices with the release of the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN).

However, this article is not self promotional, rather I want to start a dialogue on advertising design and how that impacts leads and conversion.

For some car dealers, their inventory is being syndicated by their inventory management companies. For other car dealers they subscribe to inventory advertising solutions directly.  Inventory syndication is part of all car dealer budgets but little has been written to help car dealers differentiate these many choices.

Dealer Centricity Score (DCS)

PCG Digital Marketing has created the Dealer Centricity Score (DCS) to start a discussion on the options dealers have to advertise their car inventory.  The DSC is a measure of which inventory advertising platforms are dealer centric and which platforms are more self serving. As competition increases, I believe that dealers will gravitate toward those platforms that are dealer centric and that have a strong return on investment (ROI).

Currently, millions of dollars of profits are being generated by advertisements that run on Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP) which showcase a car for sale at a local dealer. The search results, organic, pay-per-click, or through a menu search, are enabled by local dealer inventory. Dealer inventory is the actual “content” that powers the most popular automotive advertising platforms. Not many people have addressed this model but car dealers do not share in the revenue generated off their own Vehicle Detail Pages.

In fact, car dealers send their eCommerce currency (their cars) to companies that charge them for the opportunity to list their cars.  As a result of that relationship, the advertising platforms make millions of dollars in advertising dollars and commission fees that are not shared with the dealer.

This advertising model is not new. However when you ask a dealer which platforms are more dealer centric (less ads) vs. more vendor centric (more ads) they are hard pressed to know the difference. With more choices coming on the market that are providing calls, leads, and floor traffic I believe that the DCS rating will start to educate dealers on which platforms make the most sense and “cents” for their brand.

Looking a Advertising Leaks

The home page design or vehicle search pages vary on each advertising platform. The number of ads that show on these pages give an indication on the overall design and revenue goals of the advertiser. I have no issue with these pages however I do have an opinion on the design of the Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP).

When you get down to a specific car sold at a paid advertising dealer, my belief is that the platform should not cross sell or create brand leaks for the paying advertiser.

In Part One of this article, I will show you a number of Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP) from various advertising platforms.  I will point out the number of advertising regions that are displayed on a dealer’s VDP. I contend that the more ads and brand leaks on a VDP, the less leads, calls, and showroom traffic a dealer will receive.

This is based on the fact that many of their advertising distractions encourage consumers to look at a different car or a competing local dealer’s’ inventory.

Calculating Dealer Centricity Scores

In part two of this article I will publish the Dealer Centricity Scores (DSC) for a number of popular automotive advertising platforms. The list will rank the automotive advertising platforms based on their dealer centric advertising practices.  The less advertisements on the VDP will receive higher Dealer Centricity Scores.

I would like your feedback on the Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP)  from popular inventory advertising platforms listed below. There is nothing unethical with any of the practices shown in the screen shots.  I challenge car dealers to ask themselves, if they have other options, is this the best way to advertise your cars?  Is this what an advertising partner relationship should be like?  If the net results of your monthly advertising investments are providing a strong ROI, then you may very well keep things unchanged.

Advertising Questions To Consider

There are many questions that come to mind when you look objectively at the Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP) on third party advertising platforms:

• If you are paying for your cars to be listed on third party advertising platforms, that your competitors ads should not be displayed on your VDP?
• Does cross-selling on your Vehicle Detail Pages by OEM ads is reducing your conversion?
• Should dealers share revenue generated from offering insurance quotes or paid CARFAX reports on their Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP)?

Please take a moment to add your thoughts about the current state of our industry.  Keep in mind that dealers have the freedom to NOT advertise on any automotive inventory listing website.  Freedom of choice is increasing for car retailers so the DCS rating may become the way in which car dealers can measure the alignment of their advertising partners.

Autotrader VDP

Cars.Com VDP

KBB.COM VDP

EveryCarListed.com VDP

UsedCars.com VDP

CarGurus.Com VDP

CarDealerSale.com VDP

Automotive Advertising Choices

Do you agree that car dealers should have a third party measurement of the concentration of advertising and third party leaks on their Vehicle Detail Pages?  The Dealer Centricity Score (DCS) will create a standard to measure and compare the advertising designs of car inventory platforms.  I look forward to your feedback and I will be posting the second part of this article shortly.