Auto Dealer Monthly, May 2013

ON THE COVER SHOW EM WHAT YOU GOT Engagement isnt Googles top priority for Google Cars a new service the fi rm is piloting Mike Shum general manager at Sunnyvale Toyota in California is one of the dealers piloting Google Cars The service lives up to the hype he says 16 AUTO DEALER MONTHLY MAY 2013 in the San Francisco Bay area Mike Shum general manager at Sunnyvale Toyota in Northern California was one of the fi rst to test the service which allows shoppers to search new vehicle inventory by ZIP code without ever leaving Google If you go to Edmunds there are many more research tools on it whereas Google is really just getting you straight to the inventory Shum says Google wants less not more Here are the vehicles heres where they are at heres the price on them Th ats what theyre matching up Th eres no other piece to it Shums lead conversion continues to see a boost as Google enhances the service He captures anywhere from 100 to 150 leads per month by bidding about 20 to 21 on each one His spend is slightly lower for leads coming from other sites generally close to 18 but he says the quality is what counts Sometimes you pay for what you get you pay a little bit too low and you think its great but in the end it really isnt he says Th e main complaint he hears from other dealers is that Google Cars masks leads throughout all communications with a car buyer which Google limits to six interactions Shum says that hasnt been a problem for his dealership Whether I have your actual e mail or this masked e mail address if you dont answer me in nine e mails or you just dont answer me at all the likelihood youre going to answer on No 10 is pretty much nonexistent he says Really employees going past six calls or emails is rare But not everyone in the auto industry is as M arketers on Facebook are pleased to fi nd that the sites return on investment ROI reporting continues to improve Experian found in its 2013 Digital Marketer Report And Googles latest research shows YouTubes video promotion service can prove valuable for dealers as well Although the direct attribution to ad spend likely will be more diffi cult for Facebook to prove than Google advertisers have seen their cost per click CPC go down on Facebook in 2012 and the overall value of their campaigns increase with new ad units plus greater focus on mobile and addressable advertising Experians report states Addressable advertising is a reference to Facebook Exchange FBX where dealers can now bid in real time for a specifi c impression of retargeted ads for mobile or desktop and Custom Audiences the data mining tool that matches dealers on Facebook to their offl ine customers Facebook Offers is another promotional tool available to dealers In one case study touted by the social media site Chicago based Castle Automotive Groups Dealer Principal Joe Castle saw an ROI of 24 times the profi t from his ad spend with a buyone get one free oil change offer The offers that we see tend to be really resonating with dealership fanbases are those that relate to fi xed operations and not vehicle sales Thats because the majority of fans of any dealerships page are already owners and have purchased from that dealership says Patrick Workman Facebook Autos client partner Castle also found a 57 percent match rate among his customers through Custom Audiences where he added 8000 users to a customer list of 14000 people The beauty of engaging with customers on Facebook is that for the fi rst time I have the ability to reach out to potential customers and build a relationship with them before they have done business with my dealership Castle says This gives me a huge competitive advantage to win over fans as customers before my competition has the chance Hes not alone Googles Think Insights Automotive page tells the story of Davie Fla based Rick Case Honda The store has earned an additional 50000 from online videos while the dealerships monthly unique site visitors shot up by 18 percent The store has been on Google owned YouTube since 2010 Last year however Rick Case signed on for TrueView Ads where companies only pay if users view at least the fi rst 30 seconds of a video Case targeted local competitors from brands like Toyota and his number of trade ins doubled from 10 to 20 per month It didnt take long for us to realize that video converted much better than pay per click ads or online displays And for video YouTubes the biggest place Richard Bustillo general manager of Rick Case Honda tells F I and Showroom Thats what got us FOR WHAT ITS WORTH When it comes to the younger crowd Experian found that Facebook and YouTube captured the highest share of visits among millennials within the social networking category and accounted for 62 percent and 21 percent of all visits respectively When compared to the online population millennials are more likely to visit other social networks like MeetMe Google Pinterest and Instagram While Facebook and YouTube clearly have a large reach with millennials marketers should consider other social networks that can provide additional opportunities to get in front of this key audience the report states