If you believe that your closest dealer is your only rival for Pay-Per-Click or PPC car dealer leads online, then you’d be wrong. Third party lead providers and the automotive  manufacturers are oftentimes your biggest competitors. They have been using pay-per-click search marketing for new car leads for a long time. Their bids drive up the costs of PPC new car leads, and they are staffed to support being in the best ranked positions. They control the PPC traffic in your market and send these new car leads where they decide it should go, which may or may not be your dealerships. Using professional internet marketing services for car dealers will enable you to be more competitive with the third party lead providers and OEM’s, while driving new car dealer leads to your website. Learn more, contact us today!

Things can get real ugly real fast without a plan of action. Here is a list of mistakes on lead generation for car dealers, showing how bad things can get when a car dealer just throws money at search engine marketing.

Don’t let Google run your online marketing campaigns.
It may be the easy way out and a fast start for online lead generation for car dealers, but don’t kid yourself, Google is a business and they are in it to make money. Google offers pay per click suggestions that often give you irrelevant phrases or are way outside your set budget parameters.

Don’t let your office staff or sales department run your online marketing campaigns.
Search engines change rapidly and often, and the best online marketing strategies are delivered by people who understand PPC for auto dealers. Lead generation for car dealers must be an integral part of your overall marketing efforts, but your best results will come from qualified pay per click managed services.

Start with a plan.
Before you spend a dollar, establish clear objectives for your paid search marketing campaign. Have a set budget in mind and stick to it until the metrics support a need for a change.

Prepare for the traffic.
Review your processes on how the PPC auto leads will be handled. Make sure that you have tracking mechanisms in place to monitor the activity and measure for success. Your process needs to include quick response times, accurate information, and comprehensive follow-up. Make sure your Internet department is properly trained and hold them accountable.

Know your pay per click keywords.
All search engines will auto suggest “keywords” and phrases for your campaign, but are they the RIGHT words? Just because these keywords are offered doesn’t mean that real people are using them in their searches.

How many keywords do you really need?
Here’s where professionally managed search marketing services are a real plus. A common sales pitch is to offer up thousands of words and phrases for your pay per click campaigns, but generally, a very small amount will account for most of your traffic and budget. Two rules apply here, the Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule) and the law of diminishing returns. 20% of your keywords will produce 80% of your leads while 80% of your keywords will send only 20% of your traffic. Manage according to diminishing returns by limiting your resource investment on weak, low producing keywords, even if they seem like they are relevant.

Don’t spend too much on “pet” keywords
Only buy keywords that are supported by user behavior. Don’t think you have to be number one for the word “SUV.” This type of thinking could end up costing you 10 dollars per click when a little more foresight and detail could result in exact phrases for the models you have in stock at a fraction of the cost.

Be specific with your keywords.
Spending pay per click money on single phrases such as “cars” and “used” is just throwing money away. Do not waste money by being overly generic, target your keywords to maximize your conversions. Managed search marketing professionals will use your site analytics to monitor and improve your metrics by eliminating wasteful words and phrases.

Concentrate on your own neighborhood.
Target your market first for PPC leads. Every car dealer wants their customers and their competitors’ customers and this leads to buying zones or marketing areas well outside any reasonable locale. Another useful tool is to look at your “pump-in/pump-out” report. This will give you a great indication of where most of your customers are coming from. Geographic targeting can be brand specific as well. Sometimes with high-line, low-volume franchises it pays to increase your reach to draw from a bigger audience.

Focus on your own brand.
Buying keywords for models you do not sell is another way to bust the budget. While you may get the eyeballs, you’ll generally find the traffic is low converting, so you end up wasting valuable marketing dollars on auto lead generation. Bid on brand specific keywords first before buying any other automotive keywords. Aim for the low hanging fruit first.

Direct the lead to the correct destination
Customers that clicked on your ad are expecting that your website resolves their search issues. If you direct them to a generic web page that is not relevant to their search, the potential buyers will leave immediately, also known as a “bounce.” If it takes the user more than a click or two to find what they were originally looking for, they will bounce and you end up wasting money.

Don’t be boring.
Boring, generic ads with no compelling reason to click on them will never bring you the traffic you need. Just inserting the keywords is also a mistake, just look at all the Ebay ads for meaningless products. Specific offers generate the most clicks often producing the best ROI. Excellent ad quality allows you to maintain good traffic and can be  more affordable positions.

First place isn’t always a winner.
Being in the first position produces “curiosity clicks” users that are just checking you out with no intention of completing any transaction. When the price between being a first place listing and second place listing is two dollars per click, it pays to let go of the first position. With better ad quality, you can obtain more clicks that frequently convert better than the top position.

PPC for auto dealers means taking control of your own lead generation. A well tuned pay per click campaign can generate as many leads as a third party lead provider for a fraction of the cost. Since you are in control of your the online marketing, you will see a better quality in the leads you get resulting in increased sales and higher gross revenue.

If you’re not having great results from a third party provider, maybe it’s time to try pay per click yourself and see if things improve. If you don’t have the resources to handle it yourself, it might be time to engage professionally managed search marketing services.