In the wild and wonderful world of search engine marketing, it can be difficult for automotive dealerships (or anyone for that matter) to know how to optimally structure a search campaign. A dealership has multiple fronts to focus efforts on, for example, new cars, and used cars (including certified pre-owned). With numerous makes and models inside those aforementioned categories, it can become quite confusing when you layer in search engine elements to structure a campaign. Knowing which keywords to bid on for a particular car and how to group campaigns, adgroups, etc. can become rather cumbersome & overwhelming, leading to a burnout.
By taking advantage of inventory feeds, this campaign setup process can be much more simplified. In its simplest form, a search vendor takes the inventory feed from a dealership and links it up with their platform. From here, data files are pulled from the dealership’s inventory vendor. Keyword lists are dynamically generated based on the makes and models of the cars inside the inventory feeds at that given time. When a car falls off the inventory list, it is removed from the search campaign. When a new car is added to the inventory feed, that car and its keywords will generate in the campaign as well. Now we are starting to gear up!
This dynamic search structure is a great way to capture users who closer to the bottom of the funnel in their quest to purchase a car. For example, if a user searches for a ‘2014 Ford Explorer’ or simply a ‘used explorer’ these searches would trigger under this dynamic campaign setup. Same goes for a new car search result – in the event that someone searches for a ‘2017 Honda Accord’ or ‘new Honda Accord’, the dynamic search campaign would have these covered as well.
For dealerships that want to run a campaign with terms that fall outside of the ones covered on the dynamic side, a traditional search campaign can be set up to run in tandem with the dynamic inventory campaign. In this arena, it would be recommended to run branded terms & keywords specific to the dealership. Capturing other terms & keywords that are higher up in the funnel here would be a good play – terms such as ‘Toyota dealership’ or ‘pre-owned Ford trucks’. The critical step here is that you want to avoid overlapping terms & keywords between the traditional campaign & the dynamic inventory campaign, so it’s a good rule of thumb to negate or exact certain terms to avoid double bidding. Once this is complete, it’s time to stop revving the search engine and go full speed ahead!
As the leading automotive marketers and sales people continue to rev up their digital footprint, it will become more and more important for dealerships to stay up to date on the latest trends in digital marketing. Advance Ohio has not only the capabilities, but the experience and know-how to leverage a personalized SEM strategy for your auto dealership. Check out our Automotive Advertising resource page for info on the latest trends in the industry, or contact us today to build a unique SEM campaign that gives your company the edge on the competition.
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