Tips for a Winning Internet Search Program: Part 2

Last month, we began reporting on some of the best Internet search advice offered by Cobalt PowerSearch and PowerSearch Complete customers. This month, we bring you some more of their useful advice.

Tie a Realistic Budget to a Realistic Timeline
How much you should spend on Internet paid search depends on several factors:

• Monthly new unit sales per store
• Market (major metro/suburban/urban/rural)
• Franchise type (domestic/import, luxury/economy)

$2,000 a month proves to be a good starting point for many dealers. It will take about eight weeks to accumulate enough click-through data to make meaningful assessments. This may seem like a long time, but taking the time to understand what works in your local market is critical. Afterwards, you can adjust your search marketing spend incrementally, based on an understanding of the costs and benefits. Keep in mind that this is a really low entry cost for advertising. Most of our dealer customers told us they are gradually but consistently increasing their monthly search advertising spend, as they begin to realize the power and benefits of Internet search marketing.

Master the “Art of the Keyword”
Keyword bidding is complicated. Dealers often take a while to realize that they need to bid on thousands of keywords—that every combination of words represented a different keyword. They also reported the mistake of thinking like auto dealers when they needed to be thinking like auto shoppers. Consider these points:

• Does your dealership have well-known nicknames or acronyms? If so, use them.
• Different keywords attract consumers at different stages of the purchase funnel. Dealers should bid only on keywords that will attract ready-to-buy shoppers. For example, it’s pointless (and expensive) for a dealer to bid on “Honda Accord,” which is a “national” keyword that attracts consumers who are just beginning their vehicle research. “Cook County Honda” or “Dallas Metroplex Honda” are better keywords, because they’re specific to local markets, and the consumers who type them are more likely to be ready-to-buy shoppers. (For more on this topic, see our next article, “Dealers, OEMs and Keyword Bidding”.)
• Don’t be fooled by the lure of “position bidding.” Some search vendors will “guarantee” top placement of your dealer brand, if you purchase certain keywords. First, it’s almost impossible to guarantee top placement on the search engines. More importantly, this strategy ignores the actual costs / benefits of the keyword bid. For example, do those keywords deliver higher click-throughs? Are those click-throughs converting into actual buyers?
• Is the name of your dealership easy to misspell? Be sure to bid on common misspellings, so you capture all potential shoppers.
• Recognize that there is a lot of trial and error on the road to keyword mastery, and that over time, your analysis of keywords and associated click-throughs will help you refine your keyword bidding strategy.

Broaden Your View of Internet Leads
It’s common to think of an Internet lead as someone who fills out a form on your website. But car shoppers may find you online and even decide to buy from your dealership without ever formally submitting an online lead. Recognizing these leads when they call or walk into the store is important if you’re to have an accurate sense of the ROI you’re getting from your online budget.

A CRM system can help connect different points of entry to their true origin. But even if your dealership lacks such a system, your sales staff can and should get the information the old fashioned way—by asking for it. “Thanks for calling ABC Motors. Are you calling about one of our Internet specials?” This simple question will help you learn whether customers have come from your website.

Know How to Measure Success
Measurability is a large part of what makes Internet search so powerful. It’s easy to determine average cost per click and click-through rate for a given keyword. Likewise, you can identify the leads brought to you by a given keyword and track everything that happens with them. Dealers who get the most from Internet search campaigns are always asking new questions and sifting for answers. For example:

• How many vehicles were sold as a result of paid search and organic search, respectively?
• What’s the value of “brand impressions” represented by consumers who see the dealership on a search results page but don’t visit the website?
• How should Internet search change the overall advertising mix? (Most dealers are shifting dollars to the Internet, at the expense of local newspapers.)
• What results are Internet search generating, month by month?
• What’s improving and what’s declining in effectiveness?
• What search engine is right for the campaign? (Google may be biggest, but Yahoo! and MSN have special features of their own. The most successful dealers opt for a mix of all three.)

Internet search is still evolving, and there’s a lot to learn. Cobalt will keep checking in with its PowerSearch and PowerSearch Complete customers and reporting on their Internet search best practices. Stay tuned!