How To Increase Traffic And Save Money With Search Advertising

A lot of car dealers are taking advantage of the opportunities to catch shoppers higher in the sales funnel by using paid search advertising or SEM such as Google Adwords.

This is a good strategy to capture prospects and drive them to your dealership's website, but how do you decide what keywords to bid on?

One important thing to consider, that a lot of people overlook is that search engines in themselves are a product. As a product Google is dedicated to giving its users the best experience possible.

One of the ways they can ensure that is to give users the most relevant results. Paid search gives you the opportunity to supersede the most relevant results in order to put your company in front of searchers.

If your dealership is the most relevant result though, why spend money to appear higher as an advertisement?

A lot of OEMs have begun to advertise on a national level using search advertising focusing on brand specific terms.

As more businesses bid on a search term, the price of that term to place you as a result in the top 3 goes up. The last thing you want to do is get into a bidding war with your own OEM, and chances are that if someone is searching your brand in your area Google will give them your dealership as one of the top results anyway.

As a dealer you should focus on less competitive terms that will generate more traffic at a lower cost to you.

For example, try bidding on words that describe your products or features they contain such as "luxury sedans," "heated seats," or "driving assist."

By leaving the brand level advertising to your OEM (who in the end will most likely direct the traffic to you) and selecting smart search terms, you will increase your traffic and save money in your advertising budget.

If you have questions or need help with search marketing, SEO, or other digital marketing, click the big blue button below and I will be happy to chat with you one-on-one.