How do you make online display ads work for automotive dealers? June 2014 Speed Shift Media speedshiftmedia.com
Table of Contents Introduction 1. What s the difference between dynamic inventory display ads and standard display (or banner) ads? 2. How do display ads affect consumer activity in the big search engines, and how will search engine marketing affect display? 3. What lift or increase in effectiveness in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) can I expect by using display ads? 4. Where can I buy display ads? 5. How do I develop an effective display ad that delivers results? 6. What happens after a prospect clicks on a display ad? 7. What metrics and reporting details should I analyze? 8. How long will I have to wait before seeing results? 9. How do I know whether my advertising partner is doing their job and helping me understand it all? Summary About the Author About Speed Shift Media 2 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
As a consumer, you are no doubt aware of how the Internet has changed the way you live, work and play. You have likely made purchases of products or services online, so you know that your shopping behaviors have also been affected by the infinite amount of information available with just a mouse click. As a marketer in the automotive space or even the owner of a dealership, you may have also experienced the influence of the Internet on your livelihood as loyalty to brands, models and dealerships has decreased. Potential car buyers now have the tools to consider many more vehicle options. This phenomenon has led to consumers beginning their research early in the buying process. The numbers reflect this trend. According to the 2013 Automotive Buyer Influence Study conducted in part by AutoTrader.com: Buyers in the new car market spent 10 out of a total of 13 shopping hours online; Used car buyers spent over 11 hours out of 15 shopping online; and, Use of the web to research vehicles and dealerships has increased in the last few years. In 2013, 75% of all buyers went online for information, up from 71% in 2011. Online display advertising, or banner ads, have evolved over the years and are changing the way some auto dealerships and their marketing departments approach online advertising. The resurgence of display ads as a method of promotion is due, in large part, to the introduction of inventory ads, which are both effective and efficient 75% of all buyers research vehicles online. 2013 Automotive Buyer Influence Study, AutoTrader.com. Tweet This! 3 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
Display ads allow you to get in front of more customers sooner. Tweet This! when used appropriately. Inventory display ads provide a structured combination of reach and targeting. Display advertising enables marketers to deliver ads to the proper audience no matter where they hang out, and the ads can target relevant prospects while processing available data about online users. There are many key advantages to incorporating display advertising as part of an overall marketing strategy. The first is the ability to reach more customers further up the purchase funnel. If you wait until they search for a specific car or dealership in their favorite search engine, it could be too late. Display ads allow you to get in front of more customers sooner. Add to that the benefit of increasing search traffic, extending reach beyond listings sites, and the ability to put pictures of your inventory in front of car buyers and you have some compelling reasons to grab a glove and get in the game. In addition, display marketing enables auto dealerships to know more about their marketing campaign performance through innovative analytics and detailed reporting. This ebook answers some of the questions about the benefits of display advertising and dynamic inventory display advertising and delves into the technology concepts that make them possible. Let s get started! 4 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
1. What s the difference between dynamic inventory display ads and standard display (or banner) ads?
Personalize your display ad unit to significantly increase CTR. Tweet This! Briefly, dynamic inventory display ads incorporate technology that enables the advertiser to adjust the inventory contained in the ad at the exact moment that the ad is shown to a user. The ads are effectively personalized to the interests of the target audience based upon data such as user demographics, search history, site visits, and many more attributes. The result is that ad content is much more relevant to that specific user. The sales conversion rate is also affected by dynamic inventory display ads, making them more profitable than methods that don t allow for real-time changes to ad content. On the contrary, standard display (or banner) ads are 100% predetermined by the advertiser, and any true relevancy to the person exposed to them is based on good planning or, more likely, luck. While they were seen as effective in the early days of web advertising, they ve lost their appeal because of over-saturation. Users become numb when these ads appear along the margins or at the top of a search results page, and they ve subconsciously learned to ignore the irrelevant information. Click through rates are substantially different when comparing standard display ads and dynamic inventory display ads. Exposing a potential customer to the inventory that is pertinent to the searches they ve conducted, their geographic region or other factors, vastly increases the likelihood that they ll click through to your landing page. Thus, being able to personalize your display ad unit to every new user who sees it will significantly increase your Click Through Rate (CTR). Additionally, using tools such as inventory specific retargeting will serve to increase CTR even more. Learn More 6 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
2. How do display ads affect consumer activity in the big search engines, and how will search engine marketing affect display?
You know the household names of the search engine giants, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, and savvy marketers are likely aware of the importance of Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing as a part of the marketing mix. However, you may not be aware of the relationship between search and display advertising, so you might not realize the benefits of using them alongside each other. The 2007 Dealer ebusiness Performance Study conducted by The Cobalt Group identified three main phases that car buyers go through when shopping for a vehicle. The preselection phase is the launch pad where prospects begin by using all available resources and filtering information. Today s consumer uses search engines, in combination with online and traditional resources, to narrow down their model choices and find dealerships. In fact, 83% of car shoppers begin with web-based sources to research cars, while 79% use web searching for more information on dealerships. As a result of search trends and exposure to online marketing, certain behaviors develop among Internet users that have an impact on the correlation of search marketing and display ads. Studies have shown that almost a third of all users will click on a display ad after conducting a search, demonstrating that search has an impact on display advertising. Additionally, almost half of all users eventually conduct a search to find more about a product that first appeared to them in a display ad. The majority will visit a website after performing this type of search, increasing the likelihood of converting a sale. The critical message here is that while both search and display marketing can be effective on their own, the strength of each is significantly increased when used together in a concerted effort. 83% of car shoppers begin with web-based sources to research cars 2007 Dealer ebusiness Performance Study, The Cobalt Group. Tweet This! 8 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
3. What lift or increase in effectiveness in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) can I expect by using display ads?
Once you ve come to appreciate the close relationship between display ads and search marketing, you ll be anxious to know how your SEM will receive a boost by employing them together. Your potential customers are exposed to display ads on a constant basis. They will eventually begin to subliminally shape the way they search online to coincide with the language and terms they see. In essence, the display ads teach behavior and supply the keywords for users to find out more on certain topics. For this reason, display ads are a perfect partner for your SEM campaigns, making it more likely that your prospects will find you. Plus, your target audience is more likely to buy from you when they do arrive on your landing page. Studies have indicated that one in four searchers exposed to display ads made a purchase afterwards. In the specific economic sector of auto dealerships, brand searches jumped exponentially after users were exposed to display marketing on particular models. Users also spent more time on dealership websites, vehicle detail pages and engaging with landing pages. However, it is also interesting to note the conclusions drawn by a Harvard Business School report, Do Display Ads Influence Search? Attribution and Dynamics in Online Advertising. To summarize the findings: Display ads do increase search volume, click through rates and sales conversions; Ads generated by searching do not result in increased interaction with display ads; While search may not be immediately affected by exposure to display ads, a significant boost will likely occur after two weeks; ROI analysis of display versus search continues to recommend search as the dominant spend, though a blend of the two is most effective. Performance indicates that many companies would still benefit from a higher search budget. As such, the combination of search and display ads is a one-two punch for marketing departments, and you might consider adjusting your budget accordingly. Display ads do increase search volume, click through rates and sales conversions Do Display Ads Influence Search? Attribution and Dynamics in Online Advertising, 2013. Harvard Business School. Tweet This! 10 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
4. Where can I buy display ads?
There are a few primary sources where you can purchase display ads: Ad networks are companies that connect car dealerships to websites that host advertisements, similar to a broker relationship. The key benefit of utilizing a network to place your ads is that they offer an aggregation of advertising space and can match available supply with demand. Internet ad networks typically use a central server to produce ads to consumers, which makes it an efficient way to target and report on impressions to determine ad performance. Ex. Google, Yahoo, Centro. A publisher is a site that produces content and offers advertising space alongside the material it disseminates. The publishing site may or may not be related to the ad topic, such as car dealerships, but sometimes they do recognize that the visitor may have conducted a search or clicked on a display ad in the past. The publisher then serves up ads based on user history and behavior. Ex. NewYorkTimes.com, Washingtonpost.com, AutoGuide.com. With highly targeted ads come outstanding results. Tweet This! Automotive specific networks are available in some cases. Recently the Auto Audience Network has been launched in the North American marketplace. This is an automotive specific network that places your live inventory into ad units that run on top of auto images in premium automotive review websites. With highly targeted ads come outstanding results. Visit AutoAudienceNetwork.com for more information. You can also purchase ad space via an ad auction or Real Time Bidding (RTB) Exchange, which incorporates cost per click to determine pricing and placement. In short, every time search terms are entered into a search engine like Google, you can bid against other advertisers to take up the ad space offered. The Google search ad auction process decides which ads appear based on the keyword search terms entered by the user. Ad position and cost per click are also simultaneously established. Ex. AdRoll, SiteScout, Google Bid Manager. 12 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
5. How do I develop an effective display ad that delivers results?
If you lack experience with creating display ads that deliver results for car dealerships, there are some pointers to help you get started. Logo Shop Now Logo Learn More Use text content, images and color palettes appropriately as there is a fine line between eye-catching and tacky. The placement and size of your ad will dictate many of the specifics, especially when you consider positioning on the page. You might try creating a variety of templates subbing out different elements to determine which work best. Your Logo $48,950 $48,950 $47,895 more > more > Learn More Your Name Try out different ad designs and concepts. There are many elements you can tweak to make the ad layout more appealing or capture attention more effectively. If you are using animation, make sure you view to the final frame to ensure that the proper call to action is apparent. Certain teaser texts may disappear as the animation moves forward, possibly leaving the prospect confused as to the next step. Also, if you are using Flash animation, place your call to action in every frame of the media. That way, the viewer will not need to wait until the end of the video to click. If you are using flash animation, beware that not all browsers are capable of displaying flash creative (.swf files). In fact, no Apple mobile devices work with flash. In most cases, the backup for a flash ad is a static gif. However, the best alternative is an ad with an HTML backup. When you are working with a vendor, try to find one that uses HTML backups as a standard. Especially with respect to automotive inventory ads, using live images vs. stock photos is essential. As mentioned, stock images of vehicles are cold and impersonal, while a true picture of the available car will help make a connection with a potential buyer. Make sure your display ads are optimized for mobile. The number of consumers who are using smartphones, tablets and other portable devices to conduct online research is exploding, and you need to ensure that your ads are visible and compelling so don t put a ton of small text into your ads. These tips can be effective when implemented properly, but online marketing novices might consider partnering with a marketing agency or display specialist with experience and expertise in display ads. 14 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
6. What happens after a prospect clicks on a display ad?
When a prospect clicks through to your landing page, you have reached a significant milestone in the sales process, and you need to deliver the proper follow-up content accordingly. The landing page is likely the most important part of an online display campaign, and it is up to you to make it engaging, straightforward and user friendly. While there are no hard and fast rules to developing a landing page, there are some pointers you can use to make yours successful. 1 3 Contact Seller 1 of 6 $50,950 $48,950 1 2 3 4 5 6 2 1 Create an attention grabbing headline with a more detailed sub-heading that s directly related to the display ad the visitor clicked on. In the case of car dealerships, your ideal landing page is the Vehicle Details Page (VDP) that discusses features, availability and location. 2 Make sure to include many images of the vehicle clicked on in the display ad, as well as bullet points that describe the details and features of that particular car. As a practical matter, provide photos that you ve taken at your dealership, with as many close-ups as possible. Keep in mind that consumers can be turned away by stock images of vehicles from the manufacturer or another source. They want to see photos of the exact car they re considering. 3 Supply a clear call to action that details the next steps for your potential customer: whether they should include contact information, fill out a form or call to make an appointment with a sales professional, etc. Please avoid the temptation to give the user more than 3 options to submit a lead simple is better. Note: Very few companies have the ability to direct display ad traffic to your specific VDP s. If you are working with a vendor that cannot display all of your live inventory in a targeted and personalized way and direct the traffic to the specific VDP of the vehicle the user clicks on, you had better look for a new vendor. 16 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
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7. What metrics and reporting details should I analyze?
It s always wise to analyze the key site metrics that demonstrate the success of your display ad campaign, as well as those which reveal weaknesses in your strategy. Some helpful analytics to review are: Impressions are if you want to know how many users saw your display ad. In most networks, the ad loading on the page will register an impression. In the case of a branding or awareness campaign, impressions will be an important metric. However, in most cases, the focus is on action based metrics, like those that follow. x 1 2 3 4 Learn More Keep a close eye on ad Engagement, which is another key factor in display advertising. Often, users will engage with an ad unit, for example, by scrolling through the inventory images, without clicking through to your site. User behavior is different when looking at display ads versus search marketing, so CTR isn t the only metric. The reason for this is that your prospects are reading information they have selected, and they may not want to leave the current page. Conversions relate to whether your display marketing efforts are producing visitor behavior which is valuable, including filling out forms, providing contact information, scheduling an appointment or participating in an online chat. You want to know how effective your display ads are in soliciting the visitor response you re seeking. Learn More Click Through Rate (CTR) will tell you how many people click on your ad. Plus, you should also measure how many people made it to your Vehicle Detail Page, accessed your website, or your landing page by clicking on one of your display ads. Knowing this figure is critical to determining how effective your marketing efforts are at attracting the attention of your target audience. Retargeted Impressions impressions served to people who have visited your site before. Retargeted Clicks are clicks recorded from people who have visited your site before. Note: Retargeting is an exciting new tool available in display advertising that truly excels when users are retargeted with the specific inventory they have viewed on your website. 19 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
8. How long will I have to wait before seeing results?
1 of 3 There are countless factors that weigh into the performance of your marketing efforts, and these will all affect your advertising spend levels. At the outset, it s important to realize that trying it out for a month will not give you an accurate assessment of the effectiveness of your approach. More time is necessary, though there s no hard and fast rule of what you should expect. A common recommendation is to test for a minimum of three months. You will likely see good results in month one but they will continue to improve as the campaign is optimized for up to six months. Still, you can always improve your results by considering the following factors. The nature of your business. As a car dealership, you don t experience the high volatility of other markets, but there are still industry trends to consider. Interest rates, seasonality, holidays and other criteria will affect how long before you see results. The message you re delivering. Be sure to test and measure. It might seem like a simple matter, but your content might need tweaking if your display ads are not performing. You might need to vary your taglines, calls to action and vehicle details; alternatively, you might consider a different placement of this information within the display ad. Without testing, you will not know. Contact Seller $50,950 $48,950 1 2 3 The dynamic content of your ads. Your inventory is one of the keys to great dynamic inventory ads. Do your best to keep photos looking good (live photos are always better than stock), make sure your pricing is competitive, and that you include strong branding and a call to action in the ad creative. Your inventory is one of the keys to great dynamic inventory ads. Tweet This! 21 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
9. How do I know whether my advertising partner is doing their job and helping me understand it all?
You re investing a lot of money and placing your trust in your marketing agency and vendors, so it is essential that you know the basic details of the advertising approach and know what to ask about. Make sure you re comfortable with the goals they have set and where they re targeting to affect your sales funnel. In addition, while your agency partner might be staffed with knowledgeable professionals, they still need to be responsive to your questions and help you understand their approach. You ll know that they re on track if they can elaborate on these topics: Are they serving truly dynamic inventory ads. The simplest way to determine this is to ask if they are using ad tags to serve your ads. If not, then your ads cannot be truly dynamic. Note it is possible to use an ad tag and not serve dynamic creative. The variables they use to dynamically assign ad content. A complete list of criteria involved in the process of delivering ad content (including contextual targeting, behavioral targeting, and retargeting methods) means that the company s display ad solution takes user behavior and context into account. 23 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
The services that are in-house and those outsourced. There s no reason to be concerned if your agency reports that they rely on certain services from a third party. On the contrary, it s a good sign that they recognize their weaknesses and realize that a partner can bring certain strengths. The dynamic nature of their ad creative. Here, the distinction is made between standard banner ads and truly dynamic display ads. You want to ensure that the ad content being delivered is absolutely up-to-date. For this to be the case, your provider will need to update your inventory listing daily, or better. This can be done with a direct feed, or, in some cases, with web scraping technology. Whether they offer automated tools. With thousands of custom impressions presented on a daily basis, automated tools are essential. You cannot be making changes to each ad every time an offer or vehicle changes. You ll also want to know how quickly changes to your display ads can be accomplished ask if they can make changes in real time or if campaigns will need to be redeployed. Assignment of a campaign manager. You re likely going to be in constant contact with your display partner to analyze performance, tweak your campaign and make other adjustments. Dealing with a different person every time you contact them can be frustrating, so make sure you have a campaign manager assigned to your account. 24 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
Summary As a car dealership owner or marketing manager, you need to have a keen understanding of how dynamic inventory display technology can help accomplish your advertising goals by exposing a targeted audience to relevant information. This approach enables you to quickly develop, design and deploy marketing content in an efficient and cost-effective manner. You have an infinite number of ad impressions available through display ads, meaning you can reach a wide ranging group of prospects seeking information on vehicles. If you d like to hear more about dynamic inventory display ads as an advertising medium, please contact a Speed Shift Media specialist. We re happy to provide a free assessment of your current display marketing approach and assess potential areas to increase performance. You can also visit our website to find out more about our products, projects and success stories. 25 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com
About The Author About Speed Shift Media Ian S. Cruickshank, VP of Sales Ian has spent over 10 years in Marketing and Digital Advertising. His early days were spent with two of the largest media companies in Canada in sales and sales-leadership roles. In recent years he has spent his time both consulting on digital disruption and as the head of sales and marketing for a social media marketing firm in Vancouver, BC. Currently, as the VP of Sales, he is the head of all revenue generating activities for Speed Shift Media. With a Masters in Business and IT Management he is regularly called on to present and lecture on a variety of Information Technology and Digital Marketing concepts. Most of all he loves to be outside with his wife and his young family in Port Moody, BC. Feel free to contact Ian directly via Twitter or LinkedIn: We provide dynamic inventory display advertising solutions to auto dealers, digital publishers, and agencies. Our platform combines advertiser data in real time inventory, promotions, and messaging using sophisticated targeting, retargeting, and selfoptimization technologies. We also offer an innovative, premium automotive display network that delivers unparalleled relevancy and engagement. In short, we make sure the right message always reaches the right user, for exceptional results. 26 June 2014 speedshiftmedia.com ebook designed by Danielle Borisoff