Digital Marketing Stats for Automotive
As the automotive industry ventures more to an online and digital retailing model, we find it more valuable than ever to ensure you’re making the most of digital marketing. Most people who shop for vehicles begin their journey by comparing deals, and dealerships, online. They search, browse, read and watch all information they can on the car and the people selling it to them. To gain traction for your dealership, you must focus on some core areas of digital marketing like SEO, paid ads, and social presence.
Why SEO and Social Proof?
%
of vehicle buyers use digital as a source of information about vehicle models.
It’s a huge decision, so you better believe everyone does their research. Most vehicle shoppers use online resources to find answers. (Source: Google).
%
of new and used vehicle shoppers run a search on the dealership before buying.
Automotive consumers turn to search engines and social reviews to find dealerships and get answers to their questions. (Source: LSA)
%
of new and used vehicle shoppers contact the dealership by calling after a search.
Consumers typically prefer to speak to a live agent, or chat, to get their questions answered once they’ve completed their online research (Source: LSA).
Why Digital Ads and Social Media?
%
of the automotive calls generated by search engines come from paid search.
The other 34% are driven by organic search. With a solid SEO, digital Ad and social strategy, you can win. Click-to-Call Ads create a quick and easy way to connect shoppers straight to your sales team. (Source: DialogTech).
%
of service customers conduct internet research, including social media and review sites.
Service departments have grown because of having paid ads combined with great reviews online. We’ve seen sales and service grow by using a combination of video ads, social media optimization, and location reviews. (WHIP!).
%
The amount that "test drive" and "Car tour" videos ' watchtime has increased in two years.
People look for model comparisons, safety features, connected devices, walkarounds, and other content to help them make a decision. Videos that are well placed in digital ads, your website and YouTube will help.
Digital Marketing Basics - A Checklist.
Search (aka SEO, aka Search Engine Optimization).
Nearly 30% of consumers immediately go to search engines when starting the car-buying process. What your dealership looks like online is a huge factor. No one wants to do business with a dealer with a low, or no, rating. A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy ensures that car-buyers can find your dealership in search results. Our roadmap for a holistic strategy includes your website, keyword optimization, pay-per-click campaigns, link building, online reputation management, and quality content.
Online Reviews
Many sales and service buyers turn to online review sites before making a purchase. In fact, 70% of car buyers say that online dealership reviews influence where they choose to go. Always monitor your reviews, quickly and constructively respond to negative reviews, and continuously encourage your customers to leave reviews about the experience with your team.
Email marketing is a highly effective channel for dealerships as long as you personalize it. Using your built-in sales CRM, you can send emails that can be targeted by a huge range of selects, such as the exact make and model of the current vehicle being driven, people most likely “in the market” for a new car, and other demographic selections such as income, ethnicity, hobbies, children and more.
Social Media
According to the CMO Council, 1 in 4 car buyers talks about buying a new car on social media and 38% say they will consult social sites before they purchase a vehicle. Facebook and Instagram are very popular with consumers because people love looking and talking about cars. You should have a presence on social media channels, even if it means having a specific strategy for your sales and service team to help create content. When using social channels, be sure to share plenty of engaging content on different social channels, post pictures of inventory, engage in conversations on your social pages, monitor social reviews. This is a large reason we create videos for our clients….to get content out there!
Digital Advertising
Not only should you have a good SEO and social media presence, you should also run digital ads. Forget the old radio and billboard days. Digital marketing is greatly boosted by running ads on places like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, Google Display Network, and programmatic advertising. Digital Ads allow you to target very specific people, for very specific models of cars on the sales side. Then you can make sure you let your entire community know that you’re the place for service, too.
Online Video
Online video marketing is becoming a huge trend this year. Posting videos can boost engagement and interest in dealerships by displaying inventory and information where most consumers research first, making your dealership the go-to place for interested car shoppers. According to a study by Google, 64% of people who used YouTube while buying a car were influenced by it- more than TV, newspapers, or magazines and auto review videos on YouTube have been watched more than 3M hours in the first 9 months of 2015, of which more than 1.2M were on mobile, more than 2X as many as last year. This is why the core principle of our service is video messaging.
“From the time you guys were here two weeks ago, until now, we’ve doubled our sales.”
“Your team is on the cutting edge of creative technology. We’ve seen value in your team and system to help grow the Cadillac brand.”
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