Tag Archive for: automotive

Success Story: Audi Coral Springs & Audi Ft. Lauderdale

Sales Up 14%

Discover How Audi Coral Springs and Audi Ft Lauderdale Did It

The Qvale Automotive Group is one of the major players in the automotive industry, and one of the reasons for their success has been steady, measured growth. Already having a large presence in California, the group expanded to Florida in 2010 and opened Audi Coral Springs. The company selected Glenn Grosso, who worked his way up from sales in the 1980s into the General Manager position, to lead that store. Thanks to his experience in executive roles, Audi Coral Springs has become one of the largest Audi dealerships in the United States in terms of new car volume, with close to 1,700 sales in 2016, placing them 14th in the nation.

In a flat market, are you Pushing and Pulling to win?

So, the experts were right. The first quarter is over and YOY sales are slightly down. Not so bad in general, however March was down 1.7%, with some brands down in double digits. Unlike the past few years where everyone could win, this year we will see actual winners and losers. Market share gains and losses have already been realized and now is a logical time for OEM’s and dealerships to re-evaluate everything.

This reminds me of the old adage “give a man fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime”.  Since 2009, most dealers have benefited substantially from consistent YOY growth. In 2017, it’s a different story, you must know how to fish to catch more than your fair share. Just waiting for fish to jump in your boat or dropping a line into the same old spot isn’t going to work.

This fishing analogy is really called “Push-Pull Marketing”. It’s simple, “Pull” marketing is a strategy to pull consumers who are already in the market into your dealership. To fish where the fish are biting. A “pull” strategy is easy when there are more and more fish to catch, plenty for everybody. However, “pull” marketing won’t be nearly as easy in 2017 because more people are fishing and the number of consumers in the market will be the same as 2016 or potentially less. We also have an increasing number of 3rd party lead providers trolling the waters. They are going after the same fish and they are really good at fishing for in-market consumers.

Digital Advertising has evolved substantially and the number of vendors that supply this type of “pull” marketing has never been greater and dealerships have never devoted more of their marketing budgets to fishing online. We are looking forward to releasing some case studies with Google in Q2 2017, that highlight the dealerships that have the most successful digital strategies to “pull” in market consumers into their dealerships and show continued growth in a flat market. If your digital strategy does not include content that features every year, make and model you sell with real payments based on live inventory and OEM incentives, online fishing is going to be very difficult for you in 2017. Why? Consumers are no longer biting on ads featuring “Save Thousands”, “Dozens in Stock” or “Whopping Good Deals”. If your ads don’t look like this, then change your bait! And you have to update them daily to make them accurate, real and compliant.

You should be testing your ads often against your competitors, including third parties who are amazing at generating click bait. Don’t pay for this, Google has a free Ad Preview tool that simulates your ads on any device without costing you any clicks or impacting your click through rate (I suggest desktop and mobile) and you can set it for your local market. Just go here, it’s easy.

www.google.com/adpreview

But, to really win in 2017, you have to PUSH.
The dealers who will gain the most in 2017 also know how to “push” consumers in a flat market. They fish off the back of the boat, really well. Its harder, the fish are deeper, but they are also much bigger. In addition to “pulling” in-market consumers, they have strategies and processes to “push” consumers who are not yet shopping… into realizing all the logical benefits of upgrading into a newer vehicle. They know that 50% of consumers don’t realize they can upgrade for a lower or similar payment. Most dealerships do some very basic equity mining, but are not good at this type of fishing. Think about it, they have people (who don’t want to call customers all day…that are very likely not in the market) calling consumers who don’t want to be called.

How do we push customers into the market? To start, STOP sending generic static email blasts. Rather, send custom emails with actual upgrade options built into the email for the vehicles your customers are most likely purchase. Use your historical trade patterns to build customized offers and stop sending your core models to everybody. It’s got to be personal. Also, stop sending your own customers to your public website. Can you imagine starting over every time you went to Amazon? Instead, build private shopping portals for every customer and stock it with custom, personal offers that include their equity, service coupons they can download to apple wallet, and pre-configure their lease and finance payments on every model you sell. Finally, when your customers visit your service department…don’t present them with some bad paper printout. Get yourself a 55” touchscreen display and show them their options right on their private portal in seconds, then offer to email or print out what they are really interested in purchasing. Or save it, so they can review it when they get home on their private shopping portal. Or maybe just do something crazy and walk them over to that exact vehicle you already know they want because you saw them shopping for it the day before on their portal history. That’s how the best dealers fish for the big grosses by logically “pushing” people into the market who are not yet shopping. Technology is key and there are some incredible companies pushing this industry. Don’t settle for a flat market, you can have a balanced approach to fishing and gain market share. Good luck and let’s make 2017 a winner.

The barriers to entry for these new vendors is next to nothing and there are few credentials to verify their claims versus their actual results. Unfortunately, many dealers have found themselves in a “buy and try” cycle for years. That trend will change as the market flattens and real YOY growth becomes harder to achieve. If you need help or just advice about fishing in a flat market, contact us.

 Source: David Boice on LinkedIn – Read the original article here.

#ThinkWithGoogle at Digital Dealer 22!

Come see us in Tampa at Digital Dealer 22 Booth #402 and learn how to think with our Google Premier Partner, Danny Veliz, Director of Digital Marketing. Danny will walk you through your current digital strategy using easy-to-use tools from #ThinkWithGoogle. .

WEBINAR – Learn how to think with a Google Premier Partner

During this webinar you will learn how your ads rank using Google’s free and easy-to-use tools! Get tips from the #ThinkWithGoogle experts and ask yourself some basic questions about your ads:
– Do I have an ad for all my products? New & CPO inventory, leases, service?
– Are my ads bigger than competitors?
– Are my ads relevant or generic?
– Do my ads have pricing, offers, product features and calls to action?
– Is my website fast and friendly?

Have you seen your vendor’s digital report card from Google?

To all our automotive friends, clients and partners. When it comes to digital marketing there are more options than ever and everybody has the same old “according to Google…we are the best” sales pitch. That can’t be true for everyone.

What you know is that you are spending more money with Google and Bing than ever before. What a lot of you may not know is that Google and Bing both have amazing teams that conduct quarterly business reviews of their highest certified companies in the industry. To put it in perspective, these companies generate about 2/3 of all automotive digital ad spend which is in the BILLIONS annually.  Yup, Billions. Our favorite and most invaluable part of their reviews are the reports that compare key performance metrics of each company to the rest of the industry’s largest and certified vendors…across their entire portfolios. We are like kids in a candy store waiting to see how we rank against our peers. It’s a report card that you have most likely never seen from your current vendor. Collectively we are talking about a comparison of metrics on billions of annual ad spend. It’s the only raw un-biased data in this multi-billion-dollar industry that serves as a report card on some of the metrics the search engines consider the most important factors for their advertisers. You can’t fake it, hide from it, or create your own definition of those metrics. It is what it is.

The reports clearly illustrate there are major differences in each company’s performance. I will let our incredible numbers speak for themselves against any and all certified companies. I wish I could post last quarters reports right here, right now but Google and Bing have very strict rules on sharing this information and do not permit it be shared publicly via mass communications. However, each partner can share this invaluable report with their clients and prospects in one on one communications. But nobody really does, until now.  For us, it’s all that matters. You should be asking for this report regularly. It’s free, its available and its unbiased. Every company has every right to share it…or not. Some vendors focus on inexpensive brand campaigns and others include off-brand conquest campaigns which are much more expensive. But everyone is running model specific campaigns that are critical for dealer’s sales. Make sure you know how aggressive your vendor is working for you, it impacts the metrics. This report just breaks it down in a no-nonsense way on the industry averages and who generates the most quality traffic for the lowest cost…plain and simple. Since it covers all certified companies and the billions spent by advertisers…its impossible to argue it’s not right.

So, if you are a dealer, member of an Ad Association or OEM and want to see our data, just comment on this post and we will send you the latest reports directly. Our only requirement is that you not post it anywhere publicly because that violates Google and Bing’s rules for sharing this data.

Now that you know this unbiased data exists, our strongest advice is to stop listening to these hyped-up sales pitches…just ask for the reports directly from their Quarterly Business Reviews. If they say they don’t have those reviews, find out if they are actually certified. The irony is most of the certified partners will not give it to you. It would clearly showcase their actual results, for their clients, compared to the rest of the industry.  Ask yourself, if your kid wouldn’t give you their report card from school, would you be ok with that? Trust me Dad…I am doing great and my grades versus my peers don’t matter. Really?

Dealerships, Ad Associations, and OEM’s don’t have to settle for average or below average results. Google and Bing are keeping score for you. See for yourself.

#ThereIsADifference

NADA – Booth 3481

Visit with us, A Premier Google Partner, at NADA 2017, booth 3481!