Your Automotive Marketing Specialists

  • Call us toll free! 877-958-4524

Your Automotive Marketing Specialists

  • Call us toll free! 877-958-4524
Digital to Dealer Direct

Tag Archives: automotive marketing

Is Traditional Advertising Still Worth It?

2 min read

In today’s advertising, you may be asking yourself, “Is traditional advertising still effective?” We’re here to tell you it is and that traditional and digital advertising can be friends, even teammates! Read on for a few tips on how to make conventional media work for dealership and how to tie it into your existing digital marketing efforts.

What Works

Before the world of Facebook advertising and email marketing there were TV commercials, print ads, billboards, radio and postal mailers (just to name a few). We’re here to tell you that these methods are still effective and how!

 

⇒ Print

Newspaper ads can offer a high reach, for a low cost, and allows for immediate delivery of a message, whether it’s advertising for new and used vehicles or service specials, it’s a quick way to show what your dealership has to offer. Newspaper can also be a great way of reaching an older demographic that may not be involved in the digital world.

⇒ Television

Television also allows advertisers to reach large audience groups. The advantage to television is that it’s highly visual and can offer a high impact on a potential customer. This is great for both branding and special offers. Since television advertising has developed from what it once was, it’s now possible to be more selective in who sees a particular message using streaming devices or pre-roll advertising

⇒ Billboards

Billboards probably see the most traffic , especially if they are strategically placed. Today’s technology has also evolved the billboard, from what once had to be a message that would last as long as a vinyl, to now have the option of a digital billboard where messages can be changed on a regular basis. Digital billboards now enable you to instantly put up an offer and change it the next day, if need be.

⇒ Radio

Radio can be very useful when working with a tight budget. With its selective format, you can target a specific audience based on making a buy on particular stations.

⇒ Direct Mail

Direct mail is probably the method that can reach the most specific targeted audience based on lists from your CRM or conquest lists you can purchase. Choose which group of customers should receive this information and when they should receive it. You can also follow up direct mail pieces, to the same database, with an email that reiterates information in your mailer

 

Be Consistent In Your Messages

While you can do branding pieces with conventional media, you still want to tie ALL of your advertising together and make sure that you are putting out a consistent message. Whatever campaign creative you decide on for your digital creative, you’ll want to be sure that it also appears on your conventional media. Consistent messaging creates familiarity for a potential customer which can lead to more sales and you can see that traditional advertising is still effective.

Once your messaging is in place, you can add a method of tracking to your traditional campaigns as well. To learn more about tracking traditional and bridging the gap between traditional and digital advertising, download our guide. We hope that after reading this, you’ll be ready to create a more synchronized marketing approach with your traditional and digital advertising.

Getting the Most Out of Your Service Department’s CRM

2 min read

Your CRM is one of the most valuable tools you have at your dealership. It’s full of not only customers, but it also contains tons of information you might be overlooking. The CRM from your service department is a great example. Do you know how many customers purchased from the dealership, but never came in for service? How about the number of people who came in once and never came back again? All of that information is right at your fingertips, and we are going to give you some tips on how to get the most out of your service department’s CRM.

 

Do a Little Digging

First thing you’ll want to do is take a look at your CRM in general. Chances are, you’ve logged in a million times, but now you’re taking a look at it from a different perspective. Is information being updated? If the proper information being entered or filtered in? If you see anything missing, or things that aren’t right, address that with the proper staff at the dealership to ensure you have sold information going forward.

 

Start Pulling Some Lists

Once you’ve gone in and investigated the quality of the information, try pulling some lists. A good one to start with is people who haven’t been in for service for 6 months. Most CRMs have an export option where you can filter down to a list of criteria and then export the names. It’s a great idea to send them an email, give them a call, or send them a postal mailer with some coupons. These are just a few of the things we do at D2D as part of our Targeted Service Campaigns.

 

Evaluate your Current Strategy

You might not be doing any marketing in your service department, and that’s okay. Often times, service managers are so busy, it’s hard to take time to carve out an auto repair marketing strategy. You’re taking the right steps by reading this blog! Most likely, the manufacturer is sending out postcards to current customers, or your system has an automated email generator that sends emails when service is coming due. The truth is, there is so much more you can do. Evaluate what’s currently being done and determine what should continue and what might be due for a break.

 

Make a New Plan

If your dealership is working with an automotive advertising agency for the sales side of the business, it might be a good idea to set up a meeting with them to discuss a service strategy. At D2D, we specialize in all things automotive including fixed ops advertising. Discuss segmentation of your CRM (how you want to break out lists) and what messages you want to send to the different segments. Put together some new specials you can use for coupons in your marketing. Don’t forget to think seasonally when putting your specials together!

With your new plan in place, you’re ready for a jolt in your service department! One thing to consider is that it’s always best to send out professional messages. Sending out “one off” emails might not be the best plan of attack. So be prepared with something specific and timely to give your customers. If you have your service advisors or a service BDC rep calling customers, it’s a good idea to give them some sort of script to use as a guideline. Customer experience is key, especially in service!

If you need any help with your service strategy, or have any questions about what you read here, feel free to give me a shout at cbeougher@digital2dealer.com!

How to Optimize SEM Campaigns

4 min read

An SEM campaign is an essential part of all modern dealership marketing plans and has become a staple in any marketing conversation. Dealerships jockey for top position on all the hot queries daily and spend considerable amounts of money for each click.  SEM can be an extremely fertile ground for leads, but it can also be an inefficient use of funds if not optimized properly. As SEM budgets climb and competition gets fiercer, how can you be sure your campaign is working for you? This blog will examine 5 key aspects to consider when optimizing SEM campaigns.

1.     Geography and Understanding Your Market

Every dealership knows their PMA and which areas they serve, but have you ever plotted on a map where you’re selling cars? It seems simple, but a map of your sales will give you great perspective into your dealership’s reach and effectiveness.  Try plotting your new, used and service sales on a map at least once per year. You may be surprised where your sales come from and where you’re falling short.

After you have this plotted, try overlaying different metrics from your SEM campaigns by zip code. You can overlay spend, cost per click, click thru rate, impression share and more.  By understanding which regions yield the most fruitful returns, you can fine tune your campaign targeting and promote greater budget efficiency.  This can mean showing more often to the right people in the areas where you have the most success or picking up the slack and conquesting in areas where you’re short of your goals.

2.     Up to Date Copy

Ad copy plays a crucial role in your overall SEM campaign on multiple fronts. First, relevant and well written ad copy is a major component of your Quality Score. Quality Score is how Google ranks ads and decides on their placement in the search results.  Well written ad copy will boost your quality score, and consequently you’ll pay less for the same clicks your competition is competing for.

Aside from the Quality Score aspect of it, well written ad copy creates a seamless experience for prospective buyers when they click your ads.   The closer your ad copy lines up with your landing page content the more likely a conversion is to happen.  It is crucial that your site and SEM campaigns remain in lock step with each other and are telling the same story across the board.

If you’re like many other dealers out there, you update your advertised special prices throughout the month to stay ahead of the competition.  Having a procedure in place to communicate those changes through the chain of command and have them implemented as quickly as possible will keep you a step ahead of the competition and your customers informed.

3.     Enabling Ad Extensions

Ad Extensions have been around for a long time now, but many SEM campaigns don’t take full advantage of them. Extensions are a way to not only further increase your Quality Score and take up more real estate on the Google results page, but also enable your customers to interact with your ad and you.

One extension that is widely underused by auto dealers is the message extension. The Message Extension enables your customers to text a message to you directly from your advertisement. If you’ve already incorporated text messaging into your BDC plan, this is a great way to bring that full circle and keep your BDC representatives interacting with new customers. Before implementing this extension, make sure everyone is on the same page and able to adequately respond to customers’ messages in a timely manner. Dayparting this extension to show only during business hours is also highly recommended. For more information on how to set up this feature and other Google features, head over to our how to blog on Google Features.

 

4.     Conversion Tracking End to End.

In order to properly monitor your SEM campaign, you should have end to end conversion tracking set up and integrated with your Google Ads account. This can be done in a variety of ways, and is most often achieved through integrating Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and Google Ads. 

The first step is working with your agency to identify which conversions mean the most to you. Once identified, work with your agency and web provider to get tracking pixels placed to trigger when the goal is completed. Some web providers are resistant to this but keep escalating your request and it should get fulfilled. A full picture of your campaign is absolutely worth the time spent on the phone with your website provider. As an automotive digital marketing agency, we report on conversions every month. Many dealerships do not have this set up, and we can’t emphasize enough just how important it is!

 

5.     Automated Bidding Strategies and Machine Learning

Having conversions implemented and properly firing enables your SEM provider to tap into Google’s automated bidding strategies more effectively. A good example of this is a Target Cost per Acquisition bidding strategy. 

Let’s say you crunch the numbers and conclude that for every $100 spent on SEM you generate 1 lead on average with a traditional Cost per Click based strategy. Google’s Cost Per Acquisition strategy can work to get that number lower. Let’s say we input $90 as our target CPA, and let the algorithm go to work. Google’s machine learning will identify which keywords and people are the most likely to convert based on past conversion data and show your ads as often as possible for those queries and to those people and work towards a $90 or lower CPA. 

Dropping your Cost per Acquisition can increase lead volume and quality, but as with any AI fueled bidding strategy, this needs to be closely monitored by your SEM provider.  Talk with your SEM provider to find out which bidding strategies they use for your campaigns and why.

 

Building and maintaining great SEM campaigns requires intense attention to detail, and near constant monitoring and updating. If you keep these facets and more in mind when formulating your own SEM strategy, you’ll consistently have more successful campaigns and get the most return on investment. The biggest key to SEM success is to be adaptable to the changing marketplace, and don’t be afraid to try new angles and approaches. Here at D2D, we take a very hands on approach to our automotive SEM campaigns.

If you would like some help dialing your own strategy in or have questions about a new campaign feel free to drop us a line here.

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Does Email Marketing Still Work?

4 min read

You probably remember when conquest mail marketing was the “next best thing.” It’s certainly become a very popular method of advertising, which has some dealerships questions whether it’s still worth it. The answer is it definitely can be!

What does conquest mean? Conquest in the automotive world refers to automotive owners who did not purchase from you, but rather a competitor. You can effectively target these prospective customers through conquest email campaigns, which is just one of about 24 touch points a car buyer makes before visiting a dealership. Email campaigns are just another great way of hitting one of those touch points. Email blasts are customizable and unrestrictive in terms of your creative and the geography and targets you want to reach.

However, it is important to know that the data you are getting is accurate. Many companies started selling bad data which has given email marketing a bad rap. Good data is compiled by utilizing online behavioral targeting. Car shoppers are placed into an “auto intenders bucket” based on terms they are searching. Digging a little deeper, they can also be placed into more segmented buckets like makes or models they’re interested in, if they’re currently a lessee, or if they own a certain vehicle. This information comes from sources like IHS.

To have an effective email campaign, there are a few items that need to be solidified before hitting that launch email button. These items are what is going to guarantee your campaign’s success and why conquest email marketing is still valuable today.

 

1) You’re able to pinpoint the geography you want to hit and your targets.

 An email blast is going to be most successful if you are targeting an accurate geography and people who are in the market. There are some manufacturers that require you to only target people within your PMA, which can be limiting if your PMA is small, but still can be effective. On the other hand, we know it’s a small chance that someone who lives over 20-25 miles away will visit your dealership – so why put the money toward a geography that isn’t getting as much action? You can zero in on your geography by a radius or by specific zip codes.

When choosing targets, think of what your main goals are for the month. Are you looking to increase new car sales or pre-owned? Do you want to push your low monthly lease payments, or your low financing rates? These are all factors that contribute to your targets and you’re able to pick and choose as you please.

 

2) Your email creative will drive quality traffic to your website when using calls to action. 

 If your creative is in-line with the targets that were chosen for the email campaign, you will have a better click through rate, time on site, etc. because the content is relevant to the buyer. If you are targeting pre-owned auto intenders, your creative should have a wide variety of pre-owned vehicles from your inventory. Or, if you are targeting people with subprime credit scores, you may want to have a credit approval message in your email. By using powerful calls to action, you’re engaging the prospect into clicking that link. You can link each slice individually to exactly where you want the buyer to go on your website. And since these potential customers are going straight to where they need to be, there should be a decrease in bounce rates and a reasonable time on site. For example, by advertising specific pre-owned vehicles, we’re able to link that car directly to the VDP which gives the buyer full information on the car.  An engaging piece of creative means the buyer is more inclined to shop the entire email and in turn, show up at your dealership.

 

3) You’re able to track your campaign’s success with Google Analytics.

 One of the best parts of an email campaign, or anything digital for that matter, is that we’re able to track the success in real time. By using Google UTM codes for all the links within the email, we’re able to see how many clicks each link gets, how many people are visiting your website, time on site, bounce rates, and much more. These tracked links basically tell us exactly where your traffic is coming from. And not to mention, Google Analytics is completely free! It provides you the key information you need to keep track of your marketing and what is working or what needs improvements. For dealers, it’s beneficial for them to see which models or specials get the most clicks. If you have little engagement, it may be a sign the creative, geography or selects need to be tweaked. This coding and reporting is all part of our transparent and in-depth reporting that we provide and review with our clients on a monthly basis. We feel transparency is key for an automotive marketing agency.

 

4) You’re able to see how effective the email campaign was with a match-back report.

 So, how can you be sure your email campaigns are generating leads and are being converted into sales?  We recommend doing a quarterly match-back report. After 3 months, we compile your sold lists from that quarter and match it against the lists that the email blasts went out to. This way, you can see how effective email campaigns really are for your dealership. You would also be able to see if you’re hitting optimal geography and can tweak for the following month’s campaign if needed. If there are towns being targeted that you aren’t selling as many cars in as others, you can easily adjust and resituate the targets elsewhere.

One of the most unique parts of an email blast, unlike a display ad that you may just see once while browsing the web, it can sit in the buyer’s inbox so they can go back and shop it at any point they want. Our D2D conquest email campaigns typically reach a 20% open rate – double the industry average. They immensely help drive potential customers directly to your website which boosts your direct and organic website traffic. Remember, quality over quantity. An email blast going to 40,000 people will most likely perform better than one going to 100,000 people if you have quality data. Prospects placed into that auto intenders bucket will filter in and out based on the most recent available data. Quality email blasts = quality leads = more sales.

Getting the Most Out of Advertising Model Year End Sales

3 min read

End of summer means that the kids are getting ready to go back to school, our long summer nights are coming to an end, and of course, it means model year end sales events at your dealership. It’s the time to clear out the current year models to make room for the next year’s models. These can be highly successful times for sales, but the more prepared you are, the better the outcome. As a digital agency specializing in automotive, we have help facilitate a great deal of model year end advertising, and we’ve compiled some tips to help your dealership maximize this event.

Make a Plan

The advertising typically begins in August for model year end, so you’ll want to sit with your team and your automotive advertising agency to come up with a plan for August and September. Keep in mind, Labor Day falls during this time, so we typically advertise model year end for August, switch to Labor Day for about a week, and then switch back to model year end once Labor Day has ended. It sounds like a lot of work, but we typically take on all the leg work so our dealerships can just focus on hitting their goals. If this is something you’re looking to do, you’ll want to meet right away. Set your calendar for a meeting within the last ten days of July to get set up.

Model Year End Advertising Tactics

Through our experience with different sized dealerships in different zones, we’ve seen what works best and what doesn’t work so well. Here are some thing you want to consider when mapping out your strategy.

1: Be consistent – You’ll want to make sure that your campaign is consistent across all platforms whether digital, traditional, or point of sale. Your automotive advertising agency should come up with a campaign and execute that creative across display campaign, email marketing, SEM campaigns, mobile marketing, and traditional advertising. For some help on how to stay consistent and bridge the gap between digital and traditional, download our Eguide.

2: Compelling Message – You will need a message that not only stands out, but that is enticing enough to drive a customer to come to you. Shoppers are spending more and more time online and considering more vehicles than ever before. However, dealership visits have dropped. That’s because people are experiencing dealerships and potential vehicles virtually. You need to make sure your dealership gets in front of them with a good message promoting the value of your dealership.

3: Digital Tactics – At D2D, we are constantly testing new tactics to make sure we not only stay on the cutting edge of digital advertising, but so that we can offer our dealerships the very best solutions. We stand behind digital strategies that include mobile geo-tracking, VDP retargeting display, search retargeting display, a well managed SEM campaign, and email marketing. When it comes to email marketing the list is everything. Many companies promote low cost email marketing. Who wouldn’t want that? However, when tested, the open rates are lower and therefore the conversion rates are as well.

4: Traditional Tactics – These can still be very effective when done properly. Target the same people you’re hitting digitally for your traditional campaigns. Whether it’s cable or postal mailers, have as much consistency as possible in your targeting. The more you get your message out to the right people, the better your ROI. If you haven’t already, son’t forget to download our Eguide to help bridge the gap between digital and traditional advertising.

5: Meet with your Internal Team – Let your sales staff and your BDC know what your plans are for advertising. This way all customer that come in get the same message that they’ve seen through your advertising, and no one is confused if a customer mentions a special they might have seen.

Analyze and Adjust

Different things work for different brands and different geographies. The best thing about digital advertising is that you aren’t stuck in what you’re doing. You can make changes as you learn about what’s working and what’s not. Likewise, you can test different campaign messages out to see which resonates better with your audience. We are constantly analyzing and optimizing everything we do, because we believe in the power of optimization. You can no longer “set it and forget it”.

Advertising for Model Year End sales can help you move the remaining models off your lot so that you can order new models and prove to be very profitable for your dealership if managed well. If you need help getting your dealership ready for the 2020 models, please give us a call at 877-958-4524 or email us at info@digital2dealer.com.

Importance of Dealership Signage

4 min read

Window signs. Desk Signs. Posters. It is often an overlooked piece of advertising. They all have a purpose in your dealership and we’re here to give you some ideas of how they can help you!

Advertising In Your Dealership

Imagine you walk into a store with no posters. No signs. NO information at all. How would you feel? Lost? Confused? Would you feel comfortable making a purchase? When making a purchase as big as a car, customers want to be informed.

Posters throughout your dealership can help make them aware of what your dealership is offering. These signs can help provide clarity. The more a customer knows about the product, the more comfortable they feel about buying it.

According to ZenMerchandiser.com, point of sale signage can influence up to 85% of purchases. They liken store signage to an actual additional sales rep!

Would you rather watch the tips in the blog? Head over to the video for a quick visual explanation on dealership signage.

Consistency Is Key

If your dealership is spending money in advertising, chances are that you include incentives and special offers in your advertising, to really grab customers’ attention. Once you have their attention and they arrive to your dealership, you want them to have a sense of familiarity. Like they have seen that message before, came to your dealership because of it, and when they arrive they see it again and they know they are in the right place.

What Makes a Good Showroom Sign?

You may be asking, “what should I include in these signs?” and that’s a great question! Anytime our automotive design team creates a poster we find that following a similar format makes for a clean but easy to understand poster.

Beginning at the top we start with a headline, usually your campaign for the month, but can also include a sale or event you are having like “Holiday Cash Card” or an event “giveaway”. Including your campaign for the month, or a similar look, will help tie your poster in with the rest of your advertising.

The body section would include your main message. This is where you would include incentives, an offer or more details about your giveaway. Depending on how much information you need to include in this area you can also include a lineup of vehicles or a picture of what you will be giving away. Make it visual and interesting to get customer’s attention!

The bottom of your poster is left for disclaimers or information on where a customer can learn more information about what is included in this poster, along with a manufacturer or dealership logo. Although they are seeing this in your dealership, it’s always good to reinforce the brand.

If you or someone at your dealership does not have the ability to design a poster for you, you can ask your automotive advertising agency to provide you with creative, and even ask them to have it printed for you. We provide design, printing, and delivery to our clients.

Where Should the Signage be Placed?

Now that you’ve designed and ordered your poster another key factor is where to put them. Signs should be large enough that customers can read them. We often recommend a 24 x 36 inch poster. This is large enough that you can read from a distance but not too large that it will take away from your showroom. These can be placed on an easel or in a frame.

We recommend placing at least two signs (depending on your dealership size) in the showroom. The first should go near an entrance. This enforces the consistent messaging throughout your advertising and helps the customers feel at ease knowing they are in the right dealership. If your dealership is large enough that there are multiple entrances customers can use, place another one by the other entrance. If you only have one entrance, you can place the other one by one of the vehicles. For instance, if you are advertising a Chevy Equinox, place the sign by an Equinox. This way you know those who are looking at the Equinox will be interested in the incentive you have on that vehicle.

Another place we often put signs is in the service waiting room. Chances are you are communicating with service customers who are ready to trade up or who have equity in their current vehicle. This is a great way to plant the seed and let them know if you have a special going on or what incentives are available that month.

Each manufacturer has their dealerships set up a little differently, so you will know where the best places are for your signs. Just make sure they are in high traffic areas and are easy to be seen. It’s also important to note that some manufacturers do not let dealerships place signs in the showroom, so it’s best to check beforehand if you aren’t sure. Most do, so if you feel you want to add this to your overall strategy, you’re ready to get started!

800x300 Bridging the Gap CTA

Common Myths about your Website’s Bounce Rate

4 min read

Bounce rates were one of the earliest Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in web analytics, and a metric that many manufacturers zero in on for car dealers. Everyone has heard their manufacturer rep broach the topic of bounce rates, and perhaps you keep a close eye on your own. The prevalence in the industry of the bounce rate metric has caused some less than true perceptions to spring up surrounding it and its relevance to your website health. While some myths have a kernel of truth to them, many are not based in reality. Here are 5 bounce rate myths we commonly hear, and the truth behind them.

Myth 1: A bounce occurs when a visitor enters your website and leaves immediately.

This is one of the most common understandings of a bounce, and not entirely correct. While a visitor instantly leaving a webpage will register as a bounce, time spent on site has nothing to do with it factoring as a bounce.  A bounce only occurs when a user only views a single website page and exits, no matter how long they spent on that page.

Let’s say you deep page link a campaign directly to where the customer wants to go. After they click through, the page loads and a session is triggered in Google Analytics. They then spend five minutes digesting the information on the page, find everything they’re looking for and decide to leave without browsing father. Their session counts as a bounce, and despite spending 5:00 on the page and finding everything they need, the session is recorded as a bounce with 0:00 on site in Google Analytics. This is due to Google Analytics needing two reference points, the initial trigger of the code on the landing page, and the trigger on the next page, to establish a session duration. Any session without a second trigger is recorded as 0:00.

Myth 2: A high bounce rate points to a problem with your website.

While a high bounce rate can be an indicator of a website issue, that is not always the case. A campaign generating a high bounce rate could point to an issue with the campaign’s targeting, linking strategy, or both.  Campaigns should be targeted specifically for the vehicle you’re promoting, and the landing page should correspond specifically with the creative being promoted. If there’s any disparity here, it could be contributing to higher than normal bounce rates.

Don’t feel like reading on? View our bounce rate myth video and get caught up that way!

Myth 3: You want your bounce rate to be as low as possible.

Super low bounce rates sound great but are strong indicators of a deeper issue.  An extremely low bounce rate suggests that visitors to your site are not finding what they need quickly and easily. If your visitors are not finding what they came for in the first page or two, the structure of your website and your campaign linking strategy needs to be re-evaluated to bring that information front and center.  The more clicks a visitor must go through to convert, the less likely that conversion becomes.

Extremely low bounce rates are also symptoms of conflicting Analytics codes on the website. When codes are installed improperly, they can conflict with each other and skew data. If your website was consistently running at a 40% bounce rate and suddenly drops to 5%, don’t celebrate too quickly. Contact your web provider and make sure there haven’t been any changes to the code implementation recently and have them audit and re-install the code.

Myth 4: If a visitor bounced, they didn’t complete the action you wanted them to.

It is 100% possible to complete a conversion action and still bounce.  As discussed in Myth 1, a person can spend up to 30 minutes on a single page and complete any number of actions on that page still register as a bounce.

Let’s say a customer lands on a lease special landing page from a display advertisement. They read the details of the lease, all the disclaimers and the copy on the page about the car’s features and specifications.   They decide they want to lease the vehicle right away and pick up the phone dial the phone number on the page and call to schedule an appointment.  If they click out of that window after the call, it still counts as a bounce.

If your campaigns are properly linked, and the content of the ads matches the content the clicker expects on the landing page, you should be gaining conversions from sessions which are recorded as bounces.

Myth 5: A high bounce rate impacts your SEO ranking.

This is one of the most pervasive myths in all of online marketing, and it has no basis in reality.  There is no evidence that suggests that Google Analytics bounce rate has any impact whatsoever on your SEO ranking.  

Using bounce rate as a search ranking tool is actually not even be a practical way for Google to rank sites. Did we just blow your mind? Think about it this way – all websites are structured differently and will have different bounce rates consequently.  As mentioned above, sometimes a high bounce rate is a good thing, and it would be nearly impossible for Google to tell a good bounce from a bad bounce based purely on numbers alone.

To top it off, 47.1% of all websites do not use Google Analytics.  If Google used bounce rates as a factor, they would be writing off nearly half the internet from their algorithm.   This myth has even been directly denied by Matt Cutts, Google’s former head of Webspam, yet the rumor still prevails, and is repeated frequently by marketing professionals and amateurs alike.

So once and for all: your Google Analytics bounce rate has no impact whatsoever on your SEO ranking.

Bounce rates are a very interesting metric to track regarding your website, but without proper context they can go from useful to completely arbitrary. Keeping in mind these myths when assessing your bounce rate will help bring valuable perspective to your analysis and give a clearer picture of where your dealership stands online.

Whether you’re diving into your own Google Analytics, or reviewing your metrics with a rep, it’s a good idea to have someone you trust reviewing the metrics with you. A good automotive digital advertising partner will help you. All reporting from Digital to Dealer Direct comes directly from Google Analytics. This help us stay transparent and help us review real time metrics with you so you get a clear picture of what’s going on with your website.

Managing Automotive Co-op

4 min read

Top Tips for Managing Co-op 

As an Account Manager, one of responsibilities I have is to submit and monitor co-op for our clients. It’s a hands-on process that I’ve fine tuned over my years at Digital to Dealer Direct. I’ve compiled my top 8 tips for managing automotive co-op for you.

1. Have a dedicated person at your dealership work with your agency to handle co-op.

2. Have monthly meetings about your advertising budget and how you plan to spend the funds.

3. Have a basic understanding of the factory’s guidelines and what vendors you may be required to use.

4. Know not only how to spend the funds but learn about the accrual process too. (How much you get per car sold, etc.)

5. Know the percentage of what you will get reimbursed for new car/CPO/service.

6. Check fund status weekly and after previous month’s claims are submitted.

7. Stay on top of the claim submissions (should always be up to date with having the prior month submitted at most 2-3 weeks into the next month).

8. If claim is declined for any reason, find a way to make up for those missed funds in the next month.

If you’re new to co-op, you might have some questions related to exactly how it works, and why it’s important. Below, I’ve included some background information on co-op and the very important benefits it has for your dealership. 

What is co-op?

Co-op has many different meanings depending on how it is being used. In one sense, it means two counterparts working together and both parties benefiting off this mutual partnership (think of the word cooperative). But as a member of the auto dealership world, you probably know this word most commonly as a factory program almost every brand utilizes. Still playing off the definition of “cooperative,” in a dealership co-op is defined by the factory (Ford, for example) and a Tier 3 dealership (ABC Motors) both benefiting off each other by working together to promote the brand and drive traffic to the dealership. Plain and simple, the factory allocated dollars to the dealerships under its umbrella to drive traffic to the dealership, making both the dealership and factory more money.

Every manufacturer’s reimbursement percentages are different. Some will reimburse only up to 50% (which is still a nice “discount” on your advertising costs), and others will give you the full 100% of the money you spent back. If that’s the case, think of this as a no out-of-pocket program you are enrolled in which allows you to brand your dealership at the manufacturer’s expense. So, what’s the catch? All manufacturers require you to follow their guidelines, so your brand complies with theirs. Some brands are stricter with their brand requirements than others. They may require you to use certain logos, fonts, colors or have “off-limit” words and phrases. To make sure you’re following these guidelines, they created a pre-approval process which can be a tedious extra step, but, a nice safety net.

Manufacturers essentially created co-op programs so Tier 3 dealerships maintained the consistent look and message that they built their brand around. From a consumer stand-point, if you saw a local dealership in your town using the same sales campaign that you saw in a Tier 1 commercial, you would be more inclined to shop at that dealership. Cohesiveness between Tier 1 and 3 ads creates trust. However, according to CBT Automotive Network, 20% of dealerships don’t use their co-op at all!

Why is Co-op Management Crucial for Your Dealership?

Once your dealership is enrolled in the co-op program, you want to make sure you’re not losing any of that free money. Each year, billions of advertising co-op dollars are given to dealerships by the manufacturer and nearly half of that money is claimed. If these millions of co-op dollars continue to go unused, the manufacturer could decide to cut them down. While it is beneficial to have someone at the dealership aware of your co-op funds, not every dealer has time to worry about co-op.

Here is where we, (the automotive advertising agency) come in. All dealerships should utilize their advertising agency to help with the ins and outs of the co-op process so you can do what you do best – sell cars. Your agency should know the factory’s guidelines, what can be reimbursed, and if you are on track each month to maintain your co-op funds for a seamless process.

Co-op funds are vital to a dealer’s ability to advertise – which is one of the most important keys to a successful business. More advertising equals more leads which means more sales!

That is why your dealership should take advantage of your funds – it will ultimately help bring considerable foot traffic through your showroom. The program is a win-win situation for both your dealership and the manufacturer where both parties can make more money. You do this buy remaining consistent in your advertising which is more appealing to the consumer. Manufacturers made an investment in dealerships and it has paid off tremendously for them. If you make an investment in your dealership by advertising more often, it will be paid off literally and figuratively.

At D2D, we know how vital good co-op management is. That’s why we take such a hands-on approach to partnering with our dealerships to make sure their co-op is covered. To learn more about the ways that D2D is different from other agencies, visit the Why D2D page.