Category: Managed Services

The Cookieless Future has Arrived

Posted on

Close-up view on conceptual keyboard - Cookies (red key)

As a leading provider of digital marketing solutions for the automotive industry, Cox Automotive has been closely watching and keeping our partners apprised of developments that affect their ability to reach consumers and grow their business.   

For nearly two years, we have been anticipating a time when consumers’ desire for web browsing privacy – and regulators’ intention to mandate it – would come together to kill the tracking cookie as we’ve known it. With the September 2023 release of Google’s Chrome browser update, we’re seeing that moment inching closer.  

Until recently, any website could add a cookie to a user’s browser and track them wherever they went online, storing the information on the site’s server. Often companies would partner to exchange this data to get more insights into a user’s behaviors and preferences. This allowed them to target their marketing more effectively to consumers who had demonstrated their interests.  

With the Chrome update, Google now stores user behavior and activity data within the browser where advertisers cannot access it. The Google Chrome developers’ site says it is phasing out support for third-party cookies beginning in mid-2024.  

Wondering what this could mean for your business? We addressed some focus areas and most asked questions that Cox is prioritizing to stay abreast of the cookieless future so our dealers can continue having success.  

AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION AND ACTIVATION

To address ongoing cookie loss when using third-party pixels, Cox is moving to Server-Side Data connections and APIs. This will allow us to have more durable data signals while remaining privacy compliant. We will also consider Clean Room solutions to provide a secure environment to bring data from different places together for joint analysis. Adhering to privacy parameters and creating the safest place for data sharing and transfer will be extremely important.  

For first-party pixels, we’ll continue using Cox Automotive Identity Graph to help us track and use specific IDs or personal consumer information. To maximize this approach, we want to help ensure your dealer websites are focused on collecting identifiable information, like consumer email addresses or logins during browsing sessions.   

CAMPAIGN AND CONSUMER ANALYTICS AND TRACKING

Campaign Performance and Tracking 

We expect to see fewer conversions being tracked overall. We also expect to see increases in discrepancies from our data verification partners since some data points that are monitored rely on cookies. (e.g., Our verification partner may see the user as being outside their geography when the delivery platform does not.)   

 Server-side will be able to handle signal resiliency issues for the platforms that have Conversions APIs available (mostly social platforms). For other platforms, curated solutions are in developed.   

Consumer Journey Analytics 

Some blocking solutions on browsers will strip some of our tracking mechanisms by default. This would impact some reporting elements for dealers. Since the consumer journey will rely more heavily on identifiable information collected during website visits such as email address or logins, it’s more important than ever to focus on first-party data activation. Read this Dealer.com article on how to collect, connect, and activate your first-party data as you prepare for the cookieless future.  

Additionally, Chrome released an article in August 2023 about Related Website Sets. This may be a solution to customer journey breakage that relies on first-party cookies.   

At Cox, we are committed to helping our dealers throughout the deprecation of third-party cookies. We will continue working on ways to ensure our dealers feel confident with this industry shift and will be there every step of the way to ensure maximum success. We will continue releasing information about the approach we are taking to tackle the future with no third-party cookies.  

How to Generate More Positive Reviews

Posted on

As a dealer, you understand that selling cars is a people business. There’s an actual human being at the other end of every transaction. Every car you sell or service is connected to a person with an opinion. And in a day and age when everything gets shared on online, their opinions about your dealership and their experience are fair game. 

Unfortunately, far too many opinions that get shared online tend to skew negative. The squeaky wheels get the grease and the happy customers are less likely to share their views. But there is a way to generate more positive reviews and leverage positive opinions to your advantage. 

Prioritize Ratings and Reviews 

Online reviews have become a primary research tool for consumers. In fact, 88% of online shoppers incorporate reviews into their decision-making process. These reviews can be key to increasing traffic and dealer leads, but you have to build a steady stream of positive customer reviews first. 

If you don’t have a system in place for generating reviews and giving voice to satisfied customers, the unsatisfied customer reviews will probably paint an inaccurate picture of your dealership online.  

Make online reviews a priority. Take the time to research the right technology and technology partner to realize the benefits of this resource. Doing so can help you generate more positive reviews and turn those reviews into a viable auto dealer marketing tool to build your brand and boost sales. 

Make It Personal 

Consumers that had a negative experience with your dealership are more prone to leaving reviews. But if you ask your happy customers to leave a review, you may be surprised how many come through for you.  

The key to these requests is personalization. Your customers are much more likely to respond to a review generation request when you make it personal to them because they’re already receiving so much spam.  

An always-on, customizable, personalized review solicitation solution makes it easy for your customers to leave positive feedback. By sending a text (on of your customers’ preferred way to communicate) either from your phone or automatically, right after a sales or service transaction, you can increase the overall volume of positive customer reviews. 

Integrate Your SEO and Review Generation Services 

Did you know that 59% of shoppers believe reputation is the single most important factor when choosing a dealership? Having a coordinated digital strategy can unify your online presence, communicate the same coordinated messages across your digital channels, and build your brand reputation.  

When actual customers share reviews that reflect the same messaging as your automotive SEO, it reinforces your customer service commitment online and delivers valuable content that attracts additional shoppers.  

This type of coordinate car dealer SEO and Review Generation effort also involves monitoring all relevant digital properties and thoughtfully responding to all reviews in lockstep with auto SEO service best practices. It’s a smart way to turn every customer interaction into a powerful selling tool. 

Start with the Right Team

Just as there are real people at the other end of every dealership transaction, it takes real people to manage your dealership’s reputation. To implement a successful review generation strategy and generate more positive review, you have to have a dedicated team that knows the automotive industry.  

Take the time to find a team that can deliver real results by creating a customized review and review response strategy that is informed by proven best practices. And, make sure that team is made up of knowledgeable, industry-savvy marketers, not just review generation experts.  

Every customer has an opinion, and the overwhelming majority of those opinions are positive for most dealerships. If you can harness the power of those opinions by prioritizing review generation, making review solicitation personal, integrating your digital strategy, and partnering with the right team, you can generate more positive review and drive business.  

To learn more about harnessing the power of consumer opinions, check out Dealer.com Social and Reputation Management Services.  

Downey Hyundai

Posted on

As a small, family-owned dealership in the competitive Southern California market, Downey Hyundai has always had to think creatively to bring in new customers and keep pace with competitors, which include two larger Hyundai dealerships close by. The collaborative, all-in-one approach to digital marketing has paid off.

4 Questions to Improve Your Dealership’s Digital Marketing

Posted on

As consumers spend more time and complete more activities online, the world of automotive retail is changing. Dealerships are adjusting their digital marketing strategies to incorporate new technologies, tools and tactics that attract today’s online car shoppers. And, as with anything new, dealers have questions.  

In this eBook, 4 Questions to Improve Your Dealership’s Digital Marketing, you’ll find answers to key questions that can drive your digital marketing strategy. You’ll discover:

  • How to define your marketing priorities for the digital-first era
  • How to identify the most productive, efficient ways of finding new leads
  • How to overcome challenges and implement your revamped digital marketing strategy

Lead the way into a new world of automotive marketing with innovative digital marketing solutions that attract customers and help you close more deals. A guide to evaluating your digital marketing strategy to attract customers and close more deals.

Marketing in a Lean Inventory Environment

Posted on

Given today’s inventory shortage challenges, it can be tempting to cut back on advertising. After all, what’s the point in marketing when you don’t have as much inventory to sell. But experience has shown that cutting advertising can lead to significant, long-term setbacks.

Henry Ford understood this concept way back in the early 1900s when he said that stopping advertising to save money is like stopping a clock to save time. But that doesn’t mean your marketing has to stay at status quo. Here are a few smart ways to evolve your marketing strategy for lean inventory times.

Adjusted New-Inventory Campaigns

Now is a great time to focus your marketing on vehicles with more availability. Promote in-transit inventory and vehicles scheduled to arrive. Remove bargain pages and raising prices to match demand. It may also be wise to add urgency to advertisements that help customers understand the realities of availability limits. Fear of missing out can bring in new customers, even if those customers have to wait just a little longer to get their vehicle.

Used Car Advertising Campaigns

New cars may not be immediately available, but there are a lot of pre-owned cars in the world, many of which are prime for purchase and resell opportunity. Shift your used car advertising dollars toward pre-owned campaigns, targeted at shoppers with trade-ins and who are more likely to buy used. As long as you can continue to source used inventory, you can sustain sales operations until manufacturers catch up to meet new inventory demands.

Pre-Order Purchase Campaigns

A car doesn’t have to be physically on the lot for you to sell it. Advertise the opportunity to pre-order a car and promote the option to hand-select features, giving your customers a customized, personalized vehicle purchase experience. These types of pre-order campaigns can also direct your automobile leads to your dealership’s digital retailing tools, allowing them to complete large portions of the buying process online.

Brand Awareness Campaigns

Inventory may be scarce, but buyers are still out there. Brand awareness campaigns can keep your dealership top of mind with active or soon-to-be active shoppers, while reinforcing all the reasons to buy from your dealership. Just as importantly, these types of campaigns prevent competitors from stealing market share by filling an advertising void.

Service Campaigns

Less inventory also means more miles on your customers’ current cars. Shift some of your advertising spend to promote your service department. In doing so, don’t forget about lesser-known services like your wash bay, auto detailing, and other services that can be attractive for drivers wanting to make small upgrades and make do with what they have for the foreseeable future.

Conclusion

As Henry Ford predicted all those years ago, time and car sales continue to march forward. And while inventory shortages are only temporary, the customers you bring in through your marketing can last a lifetime and help your dealership sustain short- and long-term success. To learn more strategies for thriving in the current inventory environment, check out our free Lean Inventory Playbook.

[elementor-template id=”62687″]

Are Negative Reviews Discouraging Your Potential Customers?

Posted on

The Customers Are Always Right (Even When They’re Wrong)  

Your target audience spends a total of about 14 total hours researching and buying a car online. Part of that time is spent researching the right make and model, but a significant portion is also spent researching the right dealership by reading online reviews. And remember, those customers are always right in the minds of the online car buying public. In fact, a whopping 93% of consumers say online reviews impact their purchasing decisions and 91% of people trust online reviews.  

You can do everything possible to give your customers an excellent buying experience, but if the right customer leaves the wrong kind of review, it can—and probably will—negatively impact future sales opportunities. That’s why it’s so important for your dealership to actively manage its reputation online, and that includes prioritizing the positive reviews and leveraging them in your marketing materials. 

Online Reviews Swing Both Ways  

Just as negative customer reviews can leave a bad impression on would-be buyers, positive reviews can convince customers to shop at your dealership. It’s just a matter of harnessing the power of consumer opinion for good. And sometimes it’s as easy as asking. In fact, 77% of people would be willing to leave a review, if asked.  

Begin this process by recognizing where your dealership stands today. Do a little digging to determine your dealership’s Google My Business rating. Then, develop a comprehensive review and response plan with your team, including who will read your reviews and how they will respond (promptly) with on-brand answers.  

Rather than passively waiting for your customers to offer feedback, invite them to share their opinions with review generation tools. This allows your dealership to cultivate a steady stream of positive customer reviews, so you can build trust with online customers and establish your dealership as a leader in the marketplace.  

Partner with a Purpose 

If you’d like help managing your dealership’s online reputation, Dealer.com can give you access to the industry’s best social marketing team. These experts understand your audience and know how to engage happy customers, encourage positive reviews, and keep your dealership top-of-mind online.  

To learn more ways your dealership can adapt in a new age of automotive sales, check out our free eBook: “4 Questions to Improve Your Dealership’s Digital Marketing.” 

[elementor-template id=”61651″]

Partner with SEO Experts to Pass the Competition

Posted on

It has been a whirlwind year for the automotive industry. In order to keep pace with change, consumers are adopting new ways of navigating the vehicle ownership cycle while keeping themselves and their families safe. Whether they’re in the market for a new vehicle or responding to automotive service marketing, your customers are completing more steps online. Is your digital marketing strategy prepared to handle this change, and is your team skilled enough to draw more shoppers to your Digital Storefront? 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a powerful tool to overcome some of your most persistent headaches. With 88% of shoppers starting the car buying process online, there is great potential to reach your target audience while they navigate search engine rankings. But it takes active management of this powerful digital marketing channel in order to make it successful. In other words, a “set it and forget it” approach won’t be enough to keep you on the first page of search results or satisfy the claim of a dealership customer retention plan.  

Managing SEO can take a significant investment in time, effort and expertise to achieve its full potential and maximize returns for your dealership. Fortunately, Dealer.com employs a 100+ member team of trained automotive SEO and content experts who adapt to changing trends and best practices, so you don’t have to.  

Want to know more about Dealer.com SEO, why it matters to your dealership, and ways in which it can be used? Keep reading for one example of how a common dealership sales challenge could be addressed with SEO, leading to more sales with minimal effort and investment.  

The Challenge: Win over shoppers who are looking at competitive models.  

  • The Strategy: Create a model comparison page to showcase your inventory.  
  • Create your unique content: Show your models side-by-side with your competitors’ models and review why your inventory is superior. For instance, talk about performance, efficiency, features, technologies, and price.  
  • Build your metadata: Create a title and description for the page that really grabs their attention. Include the make and model of both vehicles and make it evident that you’re comparing them. The description should tease that your page will show a better one.  
  • Interlink: Now that you’ve made the case for the model you sell, send them to your inventory pages to start the buying process.  
  • Evaluate: Monitor the traffic to your page to learn if adjustments to the comparisons should be made.  

Relying on a team of automotive SEO experts to maintain a more proactive, vigilant SEO strategy can give you the edge over your competition. Contact us today and let us help you identify opportunities to help you move more metal through the art and science of SEO.  

Connect with Us

Give Your Customers Confidence in the Car Buying Process

Posted on

More and more car buyers are looking for contactless or remote car buying and servicing options. In response to continued reluctance among some consumers to visit the dealership, most dealers (81% of them) now offer a variety of these conveniences.

To help you communicate these capabilities at a critical moment in the digital car-buying journey, Dealer.com has built a customizable new widget that allows your dealership to 1) address your customers’ safety concerns and 2) ensure confidence in the car buying process, right on your digital point-of-sale—the VDP.

By promoting your home services availability and capabilities right on your VDPs, you can build confidence in consumers who are ready to make a decision to move forward with their purchase or lease.

The Digital Point of Sale

The VDP is a pivotal decision point in the car buying journey where a shopper takes that next step—either by submitting a lead, a credit app, or some other retailing activity. It’s also the point where they decide to hold off.  Given the number of shoppers who remain reluctant to visit a dealership, the right information about your home services offerings could make or break that decision.

Knowing that your dealership offers at-home test drives, virtual vehicle walkarounds, and home-delivered vehicles can help many customers overcome a major hurdle in these times—fear.

A Full Suite of Home Services Marketing Tools

As the customer buying journey evolves, we’re here to act as your own personal automotive advertising agency to help you promote your dealership’s home services. Our new VDP widget is our latest effort to actively support your dealership advertising and cater to the preferences of millions of automotive consumers looking for contactless sales and service options.

As you continue to build your home services offerings, let us help you showcase them and stay connected to shoppers in your community. Ask your Dealer.com Performance Manager how to activate this feature on your inventory pages, and customize it based on your services.

Build an SEO Strategy for the Future

Posted on

By Dan Durick, Director of Dealer.com SEO 

Coming through recent events feels a bit like we’ve time traveled. We stayed in our homes, like safe little time capsules, and emerged to a new world. In some ways, this world aligns with what we expected for the future, such as more shopping being done online – even in the automotive space. But in other ways it’s been more jarring, like the experience of social distancing, so re-opening dealerships will not be business as usual.  

Let’s look at a couple ways that adjustments to business practices and consumer behavior will impact SEO strategies for sales and particularly service. We’re calling this shift “dealer home services,” as it encompasses everything your business can do away from the dealership, and in your customers’ homes. 

The traditional need for being visible with phrases around vehicle models, car repair, parts, and the like remains, and now there’s a growing trend for phrases associated with buying online and shopping from home. Using Google Trends, we’re seeing an indication of increased search volume for “buy car online”. 

While there are low points as we would expect through stay-at-home orders, the data through 5/16 shows a clear increase above previous highs over the past 12 months. Your SEO strategy should include tactics for capturing this traffic. Does your dealership website have a page that outlines how a customer can buy from you remotely? Do you communicate options for the customer to test drive and accept delivery of the vehicle? If not, that’s a great place to start to target these terms. 

As you change your business practices, consider the content you are making to solve today’s challenges and how best to leverage online. There are countless sources for great content. For example, if you’re making a walkaround video for a potential customer, consider posting that to your blog and adding a link to the Vehicle Details Page. And while you’re there, create a second video with more general information about the model to place on your model landing page and your YouTube channel. Content is still a driving force of performance in SEO. 

What people expect from fixed ops departments is changing. From experience, there’s pent-up demand for service – we have two cars waiting for oil changes and summer tires. A focus on service department marketing is critical, with additional landing page attention on how you protect both your customers and employees. On your service page, create an FAQ (marked up with schema, of course) to answer questions like: Do you offer contactless service? How often is your waiting area cleaned? How close are the seats? What about your loaner cars, are they sanitized? When you’re done with a customer’s car, do you disinfect it?  

Consider what else should be communicated on your service page. Will you pick up a customer’s vehicle and deliver it? Are there services you can do remotely? Expect search volume for these kinds of terms to increase over time and optimizing your service pages for them will help capture that traffic and drive conversions. 

Adjustments to your landing pages are important, but you also need to inform potential customers that are still on the search results page, before they even click on your link. Consider what space in your meta titles and descriptions you can allocate to messaging cleanliness and other precautionary measures or benefits of using your service department. Placing these terms in the title and descriptions of your service pages means Google’s users see them in the search results and will feel more confident doing business with you. When you make this change, monitor performance to understand impact of both rankings and click-throughs. 

While we’re on the topic of the search results page, your Google My Business is also key to communicating to your audience. Leverage your business’ description to highlight the changes you’ve made to the benefit of your community (employees, customers). Also use Google Posts for the same.  

Ensure you’ve created a separate Google My Business for your service center with accurate hours and connected it to your main GMB. Like your main, update the description and publish Posts. Focus on how your business is different today. 

This is also a good time to update the photos on your GMBs. Show how clean your facility is, the space for customers to spread out from one another, and any hand sanitizer stations. 

While your goal to sell cars and service your customers hasn’t changed, the market has. Things like transparent pricing on your service pages still positively impact conversions, but now you need to incorporate elements of safety. That’s a lot to cover in your service section, and while SEO is critical, make sure you have a thoughtful layout with engaging imagery to keep your visitors from bouncing. 

Putting this all together, your brand is evolving.  Adapt to the new market through updated business practices and take advantage of this through proper optimizations and page design. You’ll be rewarded when newly captured dealer home services traffic converts into new customers. 

Of course, none of this is new. It’s been coming for years.