Automotive search marketing and pay per click

There is a new niche of search marketing specifically tailored to automotive dealers called automotive search marketing. How is this different that regular Search Engine Marketing? Well for the most part it is not different at all. You buy some ad space and get some clicks and drive traffic to a destination. On the other hand, automotive search marketing is a horse of a different color.

Automotive dealers are typically very aggressive, and like to not only protect their DMA, but they also like to let’s say, reach out and grab some market share from a neighboring automotive dealer. This has been happening since they put two Ford dealerships in a state. Competition at it’s finest.

Automotive search marketing done by some other providers out there, who do not know the search arena, and do not know dealers, is usually done improperly. They don’t know what motivates a car buyer and often do not know that the automotive dealer is already #1 for their own name in the organic listings. So, they will buy the clients name and make them pay for it. (There are times when you need to buy your own name, but it’s infrequent) It’s also common in the automotive search engine marketing to buy your competitors names. Most dealers are not trademarked so it’s somewhat of a free market out there, although unethical as can be.

How else does automotive search marketing differ from other markets? The competition is fierce. Lead providers, dealers, manufacturers are all bidding on one phrase. This brings the cost up, and in some cases makes it untouchable.

Does this make Automotive search optimazation more attractive? Sometimes it does, and often it’s neccessary to combine a good automotive PPC campaign with a good automotive SEO campaign to make sure you are dominating the engines.

Automotive landing pages for search engine marketing

We’ve been lucky enough to have a very dedicated group of car dealers to work with that allow us to try different things. From print ads to radio commercials, and now to landing pages and other social networking sites. Out of all of the “early adopters” of the Internet, car dealers have always been on the forefront of trying new things. Sometimes, these new methods work well, and sometimes they push the limit too far to see how far the balloon can grow before it bursts.

All in all, car dealers want to reach out to their prospective customers, and drive them into the showroom so they can get them into a new or preowned vehicle. The premise of “price sells cars” has always been the driving force behind much of what these retailers push. A better deal gets more phone calls for many car dealers, so why not try that idea out on the Internet?

Search engines, search engine marketing, SEO, and other Internet marketing efforts can drive a customer to an array of different choices. Competition is fierce, and car dealers cannot afford to land customers on the wrong page.

For example, do a search on Google for Honda Accord price. Keep in mind, that I am looking for a price on a Honda Accord. Yes, a Honda accord price. Show me your best deal, I’m ready to buy. Here is an example of a dealer that came up in the search:

OK, I asked for a Honda Accord price and your automotive landing page brought me to everything; Service, Finance, oh wow a Ridgeline picture thanks for listening. (sarcasm) You are making me click, why are you making me click Madison Honda? I asked for a price on Accord and this is how you treat me? Imagine walking into a dealerships showroom, asking about a Honda Accord, and they walk you back to the service department, pull out a picture of a truck, and the first phone number you show me is your fax number (see above, top left). I’d turn around, and walk right out that door which is what I presume happens a lot on this site.

Take another example of an auto landing page. Again, another “Honda Accord price” and here is what I get:

Again, “Honda Accord price”, where’s it at? Why are you showing me this? Why did I have to click more to find an Accord price and why are they all at MSRP? If I wanted MSRP I could have gone to the factory site. Give me your best deal so I can move on. You have 20 seconds of my time, and you lost me at hello.

OK, take the final example:

Oh, no you didn’t! You gave me what I asked for. Your best deal (I presume) on a Honda Accord. You put a pleasant spokesperson on the site, telling me about the deal and where to go for more info. Your automotive landing page on the Honda Accord price actually brought me to something relevant. You gave me an additional coupon on top of the deal. You gave me links to view the inventory, or a map. Is this too much to ask for?

Of course, we are biased since we make automotive landing pages all day long, and test different layouts, look and feels, and deeply analyze the data to see which perform the best. We will get more into analytics on another day, but for right now, it’s back to getting more results for our clients.

Who owns Who? Map of Automaker Ownership

automotive family tree shows who really owns major car companies.

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What is a Landing Page?

According to guru Seth Godin:

Vocabulary: “Landing page”

I first started talking about landing pages in <gasp> 1991, but there’s probably someone out there who can pre-date me. Sometimes when you’ve been riffing on an idea for so long, it’s easy to believe that everyone gets it, but my mail says otherwise.

A landing page is the first page a visitor to your site sees.

Landing pages were important back in the day of email marketing, because if you included a link in your email, that was the page the permission marketee would land on if he clicked through.

Landing pages are even more important today because they are the page that someone clicking on a Google Adwords ad sees.

A landing page (in fact, every page) can only cause one of five actions:

• Get a visitor to click (to go to another page, on your site or someone else’s)
  
• Get a visitor to buy
  
• Get a visitor to give permission for you to follow up (by email, phone, etc.). This includes registration of course.
  
• Get a visitor to tell a friend
  
• (and the more subtle) Get a visitor to learn something, which could even include posting a comment or giving you some sort of feedback
  

I think that’s the entire list of options

So, if you build a landing page, and you’re going to invest time and money to get people to visit it, it makes sense to optimize that page to accomplish just one of the things above. Perhaps two, but no more.

When you review a landing page, the thing to ask yourself is, “What does the person who built this page want me to do?” If you can optimize for that, you should. If there are two versions of a landing page and one performs better than the other, use that one! This sounds obvious, but how often are you doing the test? How long does a landing page last in your shop before it gets toppled by a better one? And do you have a different landing page for every single ad, every single offer? Why not?

Landing pages are not wandering generalities. They are specific, measurable offers. You can tell if they’re working or not. You can improve the metrics and make them work better. Landing pages are the new direct marketing, and everyone with a website is a direct marketer.

If you are not already receiving Seths feeds or have not read any (all) of his books, then hurry on over to his blog and immerse yourself in some of his posts.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/04/vocabulary_land.html

Advertisers versus Consumers

Is this how it really is?

The Best Landing Pages ever?

InsidersPrice.com is your source for landing pages, destination pages, and gateway pages. Our conversion pages help customers convert into a lead via our aggressive attractive retail oriented landing pages. Interested in using our services? Send an email to insidersprice@gmail.com

Here are some samples of our landing page sites. Please let me know what you think or if there is anything you feel we can do to improve upon them.

http://HondaAccordCoast.insidersprice.com

 http://HondaCivicCoast.insidersprice.com

http://HondaNewCoast.insidersprice.com

http://HondaOdysseyCoast.insidersprice.com

 http://HondaPilotCoast.insidersprice.com

http://HondaRlineCoast.insidersprice.com

http://HondaUsedCoast.insidersprice.com

The above links are a few we made for a car dealer.

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