Are You Using PPC Ads in Search & Social?
The Dealer Spike team has two questions for you:
- Are you using pay-per-click (PPC) ads?
- Are you using PPC ads to their FULL potential?
If you are familiar with PPC ads, your thoughts may jump immediately to advertising on search engines. While search engine ads certainly give your dealership a tremendous amount of digital marketing potential, they are not your only option. You also can utilize social media ads to really advance your paid ad results.
Here’s a good rule of thumb to help you determine when to use search engine vs. social media ads:
- Search engine ads are a great way to target prospects, as these leads may not be aware that your business exists and are searching online for a local dealership.
- Social media ads are ideal to connect with customersーcurrent and previousーwho already follow your dealership’s business profiles.
However, both ad types have the capability to reach prospects and customers.
You may feel you need to focus most of your energy on driving new leads to your website and dealership, but keep in mind that actively engaged customers provide 23% more revenue over one-time buyers*. How can you turn a casual purchase into long-time loyalty? Social media can provide the answer! Social platforms are valuable opportunities to connect with new customers who follow your dealership’s social pages and keep them excitedly engaged with your inventory through personalized ads.
Ideally, your PPC strategy should include a healthy balance of social media and search engine ads to engage a high volume of qualified leads across multiple platforms. In order to drive the best possible results across your advertising channels, we encourage you to create recognizable branded ads.
Here’s an example of how paid ads can translate across multiple platforms:
- A prospect is looking to replace their old RV before camping season begins in full.
- During their work day, they take a quick pause to go online and search “affordable RV near me,” which generates an ad for XYZ RVs at the top of the search results.
- The prospect clicks on the ad and scrolls through the website to get an idea of the brand options, then clicks off the site and goes back to their work tasks.
- After work, they decide to check online reservation rates for their favorite campground, and they see a banner ad for XYZ RVs at the top of the website.
- They click the ad and check out a specific unit listing.
- A few days later, the prospect is scrolling on social media and sees an ad for XYZ RVs featuring that same unit.
- The prospect clicks on XYZ RVs’ social page and sees they are a local dealership.
- They call the dealership to confirm that the RV unit is on the lot, and then they drive over that next weekend to view it in person.
In real time, there are many variations and time frames of how this journey could play out, but the consistent message is the importance of using a multi-channel advertising strategy. If XYZ RVs had only used online search or social media to advertise their dealership, they may not have made a memorable impression with the prospect. It’s possible that the prospect would have forgotten about the ad or would have also seen an ad for a competing RV dealership and decided to go there instead. By blending search and social, XYZ RVs created a seamless bread crumb trail that extended all the way from initial search to their inventory lot.
It’s fair to say that search engine ads engage shoppers who have a greater intent to buy, as they are actively searching online for inventory results. However, it’s important to think in the big picture and consider how your overall brand exposure can drive and retain sales leads. Social media plays a crucial role in your dealership’s long-term digital success. Social media ads drive new and previous leads to your business pages, where the “follow” button is waiting to keep your leads engaged with your business for a long time to come.
What else can you do to launch an effective multi-channel paid ad campaign? Connect with Dealer Spike to chat with our digital marketing experts!