Display
advertising has reached a point of being a digital equivalent of a
billboard. We put them up, and with very
little ability to measure it, and see what happens. Click thru rates (CTR) were long the
performance measurement, but now every digital marketer or advertising rep will
instead talk to you about impressions. Retargeting typically offers a much better
CTR due to the nature of presenting to in-market shoppers.
Site Retargeting
While
there are several types of retargeting, for this month I’m focusing on Site
Retargeting. Site retargeting is highly effective at converting consumers back
to the dealer’s website. Your brand
awareness will stay with the consumer as they work their way around the web.
Depending on dealer traffic, or in some cases dealer group traffic, a savvy
Marketing Company can begin to segment the consumers and deliver even more
relevant ads depending on the pages visited.
A strong example would be dividing sales customers and service
customers. Two very important segments,
that are not in need of the same type of advertising.
Many
top automotive providers also offer Dynamic Site Retargeting which allows the
ad being served to be highly relevant, usually a reminder of the last Vehicle Detail
Page (VDP) the consumer visited on the page.
This ad generally will link directly back to that VDP when clicked.
The
goal of all Site Retargeting should be to convert the customer back to the
dealer site and back to a lead. It’s a best practice to have a lead submission
form and chat box available if the consumer does click the actual ad to return
to the VPD. If your dealership is segmenting his service customers, which they
should if traffic is sufficient enough, that link should take them back to an
automated scheduler or chat tool.
Retargeting Creative
It’s
important to work with a company that understands Automotive Consumers, and can
deliver relevant creative to the type of retargeting. Different types of retargeting require a
different approach to creative, and even within those types of products more is
needed.
The
goal with Site Retargeting is to bring the consumer back to your site. Dynamic ads related to their time already spent
on the site will have the best effect.
Likewise, if they were on the Service page, a dynamic ad related to what
they were looking at, or several rotating ads related to current Service
trends, i.e.: Winterization, Oil Changes, Snow Tire Specials.
Retargeting
done right, with an Automotive focused, or experienced provider, is one of the
most effective forms of Digital Advertising available to dealers at this time.
It’s still display advertising, but it’s more effective display showing to the
right consumer. It’s an important mix in
all of your overall advertising. Site retargeting, being the most common, is
also the first priority. It’s your
opportunity to stay in front of a consumer who has already taken the time to
show interest in your business. It also supplements all of your efforts to get
the consumer to that site. TV, Radio,
Third Party inventory sites all make tremendous efforts to drive traffic to
yourdealership.com, now you can continue that campaign.