News

PCG Digital Marketing today announced a follow up study to their widely popular Automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) study going on now.  The new study, Automotive Search Engine Marketing (SEM), will guide 100 dealers through creating, managing, and analyzing paid digital marketing campaigns.

Automotive Internet sales and marketing professionals who are currently working at car dealerships and want to master powerful SEM tools and strategies to improve the search visibility of their website are invited to participate in the Automotive Search Engine Marketing study. The study is open to employees of car dealers only.

The Automotive SEM Study will be limited to 100 automotive dealers. Enrollment is free and is now open.  Dealers who wish to participate in the 8-week program will need to devote 2-3 hours per week to the study as well as a minimum of $1,000 per month to go directly to their dealer’s paid digital marketing campaigns.

For more information about enrolling in the study, please visit http://www.automotivesemstudy.com/ and sign up using the link on the right.

Study members will be trained and coached on the proper setup, execution, and measurement of paid advertising campaigns.  The primary focus will be on Google and Facebook marketing with a secondary focus on Yahoo and Bing advertising.

The 100 participating dealers will have access to winning digital marketing strategies, marketing outlines, tutorials, and websites managed by PCG Digital Marketing that will enhance the results of their work. In return, members in the study will share the results of their work and be included in a whitepaper being prepared by PCG Digital Marketing.

The first webinar of the study kicks off on February 15^th 2011.

Automotive SEM Study Requirements

The requirements to participate in the study are:

1. Participants must be an employee of a car dealership, proof will be required.
2. Participants must have written permission to setup a PPC campaign and have a budget to run the campaigns.
3. Participants must have an email address from an active dealership domain.
4. Members in the study will be required to dedicate up to 3 hours a week to complete the tasks required for success.
5. Participants must be willing to share the results of their work to allow the data to be summarized* in the final study whitepaper.

* No confidential data or specific dealership website results will be published in the whitepaper or made public without written permission from participant.

Register For Automotive SEM Study

Dealers interested in participating should register online at http://www.automotivesemstudy.com . PCG Digital Marketing retains the right to decline dealer participation in the Automotive SEM Study based on conflicts of interest with current clients.

About PCG Digital Marketing

PCG Digital Marketing (www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com) is a full service digital marketing agency that serves the Automotive Industry.  PCG is nationally recognized as a leader in Automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and automotive digital marketing.

Brian Pasch, CEO and founder of PCG Digital Marketing is an active blogger, writer and speaker at automotive conferences, 20 Groups and digital marketing forums.  PCG Digital Marketing is also the sponsor of the 2010 AWA awards, which recognizes the best automotive websites platforms based on their search marketing effectiveness.  (www.automotivewebsiteawards.com)

Automotive dealers need to invest in SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click advertising in Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook) to get their brand message in front of researching consumers or ready to buy consumers. 

Yes I said both SEO and PPC are needed for a successful digital marketing strategy.

My friend JD Rucker posted on his blog a great InfoGraphic which I wanted to share with you. 

The Infographic below was created by diyseo.com and I think does a great job of showing the data patterns and consumer click-through rates on SEO and PPC. 

Broad Search Phrases Need PPC

Car dealers need to INVEST in PPC to capture broad terms like “Toyota Dealer”, “Toyota Camry”, “Used Toyota” or “Used Cars”. It is near impossible for a single dealer to rank organically on Google Page One for these broad phrases. 

If you now understand that PPC is your best way to capture “broad” or “national” search phrases, then Automotive SEO is your fly-paper to catch longer tail search phrases and more importantly, searches on YOUR DEALERSHIP NAME. 

Google Page One Management  (GPOM)

I am an evangelist on “Google Page One Management” .   Car dealers should check to see what search results appear in Google when they search their own business name. You can also download my whitepaper on this topic on SlideShare.

It is my recommendation that NO review sites, lead collectors or competitors show on Google Page One for a search on your dealership name. The #1 organic search phrase that drives traffic to a car dealer website is their dealership name. This is because of the brand awareness that is created by radio, TV and print. So protect your most valuable search phrase with an SEO strategy that improves direct consumer leads. 

Automotive SEO strategies for car dealers vary from market to market but one fact that is true nationwide: it is more difficult for car dealers to achieve successful results on their own. Car dealers should partner with leaders in the field of Automotive SEO to leverage their expertise, years of testing, network of digital assets and link building strategies. 

I’ll let the data speak for itself. 

SEO vs PPC Infographic