News

Today the Information Week website posted an article by Eric Zeman that shared a statement by Andy Rubin, SVP of mobile and digital content for Google, stating that today over 850,000 Android devices are activated PER DAY.

This is up from 550,000 activations a day just 4 months ago.  The pace at which Google Android devices are being activated is breathtaking.

Each Android device activation comes with a Gmail account.   Please keep this in mind as you read this article.

Car Dealers Need To Take Action

So what does this mean for car dealers?  The immediate action items are numerous.  The number of opportunities even greater, but let me share three strategies publicly.

First, it means you need to check your Google Analytics reports to confirm the percentage of visitors to your website that are using mobile devices.  You may be surprised, but that number should now be over 20% of total website traffic.  The action item here is to make sure that your mobile website does not suck.

Please test your website from a mobile device and see if the mobile experience is excellent.  If you don’t have a mobile website, stop reading this article and get on the phone with a reputable vendor.  (Check the 2011 Automotive Website Awards for suggestions.)

Mobile PPC

Secondly, it should be a wakeup call to make sure that your Pay-Per-Click strategy includes mobile device targeting as well as mobile banner advertising.

If you are not showing up on mobile devices in the paid search areas, you are missing a great opportunity.  Snooze you lose on this one.

Take a look at the example on the right.  I’m using an iPhone in New Jersey to look for a Ford Dealer.  There are TWO paid spots at the top of search results.  The field is very narrow.

Bravo to Franklin Ford for being in the game but they missed a big opportunity.  They DID NOT use a mobile ad format that allowed a “click to call” as an action from the ad.  Mobile ads format should be tested to include click to call features.

Take a minute to conduct a search on your smart phone.  Does your dealership show up in mobile PPC?

In-Store Google Identification

Thirdly, do you have a in-store process to identify which customers have a Google Gmail account?

Those customers are very valuable to both your online CSI score and your local search optimization strategy.

Consumers that have a Gmail account can post a review on Google Places which appears EVERY time a consumer searches for your dealership name.  Consumers with a Gmail account can click the “+1″ button on your website pages.  These same consumers can also join your Google+ social community which can greatly influence their local search results.

Googlized consumers are an increasingly IMPORTANT  part of a strong search marketing strategy.  If you don’t understand why these consumers are so valuable to your digital marketing strategy, give me a call.

Mobile Consumers Are Important

The significant increase in mobile traffic combined with the exponential increase in devices that are associated with Google Gmail accounts should trigger alarm bells with dealers.  Do you have a marketing strategy that includes mobile shoppers?  Do you have a “Google” and “Google Mobile”  strategy?

It’s not too late to engage but there is no excuse to delay any longer.  Need Help?  Just Call.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing

732.450.8200 ext 1
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

Google’s use of cookies to track consumer behavior on the web has been front and center in the news this past week.

According to The Christian Science Monitor article Jeff Ward-Bailey:

Google spent much of last week dodging criticism from Apple users about its online privacy practices. But when Microsoft got involved this week, that’s when things got really interesting.

Users of Apple’s Safari browser recently claimed that Google was violating their privacy by circumventing a mechanism the browser uses to disable tracking.

Here’s what’s (apparently) going on under the hood: by default, Safari disables third-party cookies, nuggets of code that companies can use to identify users returning to a site they’ve visited before, or to track what other sites they visit. Safari can accept cookies if a user explicitly gives permission, but Google’s ad platform reportedly used a workaround to mimic approval of its cookies.

Will ReTargeting Campaigns Be Impacted?

Just like the Do Not Call law had dramatic impact on the telemarketing industry, will new browser cookie privacy laws but a huge dent in the ability to build retargeting audiences?

There will be an impact for sure but how the privacy filters will be implemented are just no clear.  If all web browsers ship with cookies blocked, this could change the landscape on behavioral targeting.

If websites start requiring consumers to turn on cookie tracking to use their website, the benefits must be very strong.  In any case, business owners should be tracking this privacy issue carefully because it will have a significant impact on digital marketing strategies.

Privacy Laws May Expedite Mobile Apps

With this recent uproar, I would think that dealers would expedite the roll-out of dealer branded mobile apps.  The apps provide a direct communication channel with customers.

With email delivery rates low and privacy concerns on the rise, mobile apps are a strong way to have two-way communications with your customers.

As part of the delivery process or service process dealers can encourage smartphone owners to download the dealership’s custom app right in the store.

Recently, PCG awarded the Spotlight Award to one such customizable app from Dominion Dealer Solutions called “Be Back App“.  There are many new dealership apps coming on market that dealers should investigate and implement as part of their sales and service processes.

The digital landscape continues to change, and I’ll do my best to keep you ahead of your competitors!    I hope to see many of my readers at the 2012 Automotive Boot Camp, May 15-17th in Las Vegas.  I’ll remind you about the conference through retargeting!

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Consulting
brian@pcgmailer.com
732.672.2356
 

A Mazda commercial posted on YouTube has been generating dozens of negative comments.  You can watch the Mazda CX-5 Commercial for yourself.

Did this cross some sacred line? I would love to hear what readers have to say about this.

What Consumers Are Saying

Here are three of highlights of the comments shared on this video:

“This is a terrible example of greenwashing and it makes me sick. I pity Dr. Seuss who must be rolling over and over and over in his grave.”

“You do understand how they’re using a story about the importance of environmental awareness to sell a fossil fuel car, right? This ad is laughing in the face of Seuss and everything he stood for by writing The Lorax.”

“are you people fucking serious

ITS CALLED ADVERTISEMENT

this is sure as hell not the first car company to utilize a movie to advertise their new car and vice verse

honestly you people acting like its the ending of the mother fucking world just because its a dr. seuss movie

just like calm this shit down all of it”

Are consumers over reacting?

American Express and Twitter announced a new pilot program starting in March for 10,000 Amex small business owners.  Car dealers looking for new tools in their Automotive Advertising strategy, should take note of this limited trial.

The Amex program will allow business owners to fund sponsored Tweets, similar to how Pay-Per-Click advertising works. It is performance based so the dealer would only be charged if a consumer decided to  ”Follow” your Twitter account or click through to your linked page.

Could this be a new powerful way to drive traffic to your website? This may be another tactic in a powerful Automotive Advertising strategy.

I will be testing this new program and I think that this is very worthwhile to test and measure the best ways to create Sponsored Tweets that attract qualified traffic and local car buyers.

Sign-up For Twitter Pilot With American Express

To sign-up for the pilot, you need to visit this registration page:  https://ads.twitter.com/amex.  After you login with your Twitter Account, you need to verify that you are an American Express cardholder or merchant.

You are asked a few basic questions, like shown below:

And when you are done, you will get a confirmation message that your account has been submitted to the pilot, as shown below:

If you sign-up for the program, let me know what your strategy and success is with the new program.  I will follow-up with another post once I have some data to share.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

The 23,000 NADA Convention attendees in Las Vegas had over 1,000 booths to visit in the exhibitor hall.  The 2012 Convention broke all attendance records according to Stephen Wade, NADA Chairman.  The automotive industry is healthy and the diversity of exhibitors and products on display this year has never been greater.

At the NADA Convention I take time to visit the leaders in our industry as well as new comers to see what dealers will be offered in the coming year by their vendor partners.   There were five products that made my Top Pick list, and I will be writing about each product separately.

This year there was one clear winner for my annual BEST OF SHOW Award.  This product will be a major game changer for automotive advertising because it brings the power of display advertising and remarketing to the masses.  Formerly, the level of sophistication and labor needed to create a powerful display advertising campaign was out of the hands of a dealer.

Dealer.com hit the ball out of the park with their Display Advertising Platform which will revolutionize paid search marketing for car dealers.   The product will be officially released on March 1, 2012.

Any existing Dealer.com customer should be advised to request a demonstration of this powerful automotive advertising platform.  In fact, I would uniformly state that ALL Dealer.com dealers should increase their paid search budget and turn on display advertising immediately.

What Is Display Advertising

Display advertising, also known as banner advertising, has two aspects: Acquisition and Retargeting.  In the example above, you can see that there are “grey” boxes that represent where ads can show on a website.  You can also see how this Toyota display banner advertisement would look on a live website page.  Millions of websites are in the Google Display Network that offer banner advertising.

For acquisition, Dealer.com has preloaded ad campaigns that can be activated with a click of a button.  For example, if you wanted to target luxury car buyers, Dealer.com has already selected the thousands of websites in the Google Network that would match that criteria and that offer banner ad space.  Just drop in your ad, and your banners will appear on those websites.

How easy is it to create a Banner Ad?

This feature is what made this product an award winner.  In seconds, dealers can create customized banners using thousands of images preloaded by Dealer.com.  They have also included all appropriate OEM artwork for all brands, so creating CONSISTENT ads that match national advertising can be accomplished without a graphic artist’s.

If you work with an advertising agency, custom banners can easily be uploaded and used with the existing ad formats.   In fact, this product is an advertising agencies dream product!

Want animated banners? No problem, they are included.  Want to create banners of various sizes? No problem, all Google ad sizes are supported.   Need to run banners for a limited amount of time?  No problem, each banner has a start and stop date.

Increasing The ROI Of Existing Web Visitors

Once a customer visits your website, re-targeting will allow you to follow them around the Internet with your banners.  Re-targeting gives dealers MULTIPLE opportunities to get visitors back to their website as well as creating considerable brand awareness.

For example, if your dealership website gets 5,000 visitors a month, by activating re-targeting you can have over 60,000 local car buyers seeing your banner ads by the end of the year.

What is revolutionary for dealers, is that the Dealer.com Display Advertising product has very granular re-targeting groups.  If a customer visits your 2012 Toyota Camry vehicle detail page, you can follow them after they leave with Toyota Camry banners without ANY manual setup.

One question you may be asking, what about Fixed Ops? Imagine with a click of a button, following local consumers who visited ANY service related page with banners that offer them service specials or reminders about seasonal maintenace.  The consumers will think that you are spending LOTS of money on advertyising when in fact, you are only charged if they CLICK on the banner and come back to your website.

Slick User Interface

The Display Advertising dashboard is well designed and graphically shows the current inventory and activity for all campaigns using display advertising.  This is a super powerful advertising strategy for car dealers that has just been made affordable.

When you really understand this product and the potential for your dealership’s digital advertising strategy, you will thank Eric Mayhew and his team at Dealer.com for their innovation.  This product is a game changer and if you need any help understanding the power of this tool, just give me a call.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences

Brian Pasch