Getting Started with Car Dealer Digital Advertising by Ralph Paglia

1. How to Build an In-House Digital Advertising
Program at your Dealership
By Ralph Paglia
Introduction
There is an ever-growing supply of vendors starting to sell a variety of digital marketing
and advertising “widgets” to dealers… And, there is no doubt that the automotive
Internet space continues to evolve. However, what there really seems to be a shortage
of, are resources that introduce dealers and dealership managers to the idea of doing it
in-house, as a regular marketing activity managed by people in the dealership. Just like
the way managers usually are responsible for managing their dealership web site
content with updated specials, lead routing addresses, sales people and other employee
listings, etc. So, the purpose of this article is to provide the key issues and tasks any
dealership management team should consider prior to implementing a program for
ongoing dealership advertising campaigns.
The first thing we need to do, so that Jim Bernardi doesn’t gag when he sees how big
this article become, is to limit the scope by identifying just the 2 most frequently used
types of digital advertising so we can focus on them. Since they are the two that are
most widely used, we are going to focus on Web Site Displayed Image and Multimedia
Enriched “Banner” Ads (Display), and the more commonly used Search Engine
Advertising (Search) popular today and used by many dealerships via an outside
vendor. The following section provides a brief description of each…
Display Advertising – Have you ever been visiting a website online and seen an
advertisement embedded into a section of the website page? Similar to newspaper
advertisements, display advertising places your ads on key internet sites where you
want your dealership ad to appear. These ads can be targeted to consumers in your
market area. Online display advertising can be targeted by only appearing on a website
when certain types of customers show up. The targeting criteria that determine when a
dealer’s ads will appear to a website’s visitors (and get billed to the dealer) can be based
on a variety of customer characteristics. Display ad targeting can be displayed on
hundreds or thousands of websites without picking each one individually by placing ads
based on the topics or type of content displayed on the website (Contextual). Ads can
be placed in the background of thousands of popular websites, but only be triggered into
appearing when a visitor who arrives has been previously spotted while visiting another
website that we know means they are in the market to buy a new or used vehicle
(Behavioral Targeting). In a similar manner, previous visitors to a dealer or dealer
group’s own websites can be identified and a dealer’s ads triggered to appear when they
visit unaffiliated popular national websites (Retargeting). Almost all use of online
advertising is based on where the consumer is physically located (Geotargeting).
Another commonly used way to target display advertising is based on personal factors
such as the consumer’s gender, age, income bracket, ethnic background, marital status
and more (Demographic Targeting).
Shown below (next page) is an example of what online display advertising looks like,
with the same campaign displayed in two ads of different sizes at FamilyCar.com:

2. Search Advertising– This is primarily used by dealers to control the “sponsored links”
or website descriptions and URL addresses that appear as linked listings when
consumers search for information using very specific words that the dealer specifies
(keywords). Dealers use search engine advertising to control what consumers in the
area they specify see when they are searching for information about a new or used car.
With search engine advertising, you write the “sponsored link” that will be displayed
when a consumer searches for the words you specify. Your advertisement appears as a
search result either on the right side of the page, or at the top, above the free (organic)
listings. This is far different and should not be confused with the free listings that appear
in an order that is completely and solely controlled by the search engines.*
*OPINION: Many dealers confuse search engine advertising with search engine optimization (SEO).This can be a costly
mistake as they are very different from each other. One of those differences is that paid search advertising is a far more
controllable commodity, with very clear rules and specifications published by the people who sell it… Google, Yahoo!,
MSN, etc. Although there are a few high quality search optimization service providers, the business of selling search
engine optimization to dealers is plagued with scam artists that charge thousands of dollars a month to “dominate the
search engines without paying”. Look at a recent Google earnings report to see the truth behind those statements.

3. Getting Started
If you look carefully at the dealers who claim to have experienced success with online
display or search advertising, you will find that the ones with the highest performing
digital advertising campaigns all share certain characteristics in their strategy and
tactical execution. The following is a list of basic digital Advertising “blocking and
tackling” items that you must deal with in order to be successful.
This list is based on the work I do every day for dealers who are my clients at ADP
Dealer Services, and on what I learned while working for the Courtesy Chevrolet
dealerships in Phoenix and San Diego. Located in every area of the country, there are
dealers who are growing their sales volume and market share, despite the bleak outlook
for new car sales in 2008. Each of these dealerships share similar digital advertising
practices… They have put the following list of action items in place while building their
digital advertising strategy and processes. So, when dealers ask me what they need to
do to get started, here’s what I tell them:
1. Determine who will be responsible – Whose job will it be to get your dealership’s
digital advertising campaigns up and running. Who will be assigned the duty of
managing each campaign to ensure that budgets are not exceeded? Part of that
assignment is to ensure that campaigns are adjusted on a daily and weekly basis to
ensure the maximum results for the dealership. In many dealerships that self-
administer their digital advertising campaigns, a full time Marketing Manager is given
this assignment along with managing other aspects of the dealership’s marketing
and advertising programs.
2. Determine reporting requirements – What reports are going to be prepared and
used to evaluate the effectiveness of your dealership’s digital advertising
campaigns? You will need to designate a person who will be responsible for
gathering the data from multiple advertising campaign sources, and then assemble
that data into a format that can be used by the dealer or other key decision makers to
determine changes in ad campaigns, their messaging and other criteria that
determine how effective digital ad campaigns are.

4. Here’s an example of a report used by a dealer’s Marketing Manager and distributed
to the dealer, GM and other managers each month:
REPORT: Monthly Digital Advertising Summary and Analysis
ACCOUNT: ABC Ford and XYZ Lincoln Mercury Google Adwords Accounts
DATE RANGE: April-08
Combined
Online Advertising Campaigns Impressions Clicks CTR Avg CPC Avg CPM Cost
ABC Ford Coupons/Specials Placement CPC 13,701,169 2,413 0.02% $1.06 $0.19 $2,551.72
Ford CPC Keyword Search Campaign #1 677,660 304 0.04% $2.90 $1.30 $881.02
Automotive and SFO Site CPC Placement #1 12,116 0 0.00% #DIV/0! $0.00 $0.00
Ford CPC Keyword Search Campaign Template #1 151,864 155 0.10% $3.54 $3.61 $548.18
ABC Ford Online Acct Totals: 14,378,829 2,717 0.02% $1.26 $0.24 $3,432.74
XYZ Lincoln Mercury Online Acct Totals: 163,980 155 0.09% $3.54 $3.34 $548.18
Both Store Online Totals and Averages: 14,542,809 2,872 0.02% $1.39 $0.27 $3,980.92
Combined # of # of Cost Avg
Digital Audio (Radio) Campaigns Impressions Spots Stations per Spot CPM Cost
Audio Campaign #1 382,077 65 8 $24.90 $4.24 $1,618.18
Mark's audio campaign #4 444,520 214 8 $9.38 $4.52 $2,008.02
Mark's Audio Campaign #5 406,460 198 8 $9.01 $4.39 $1,784.56
ABC Automotive Campaign #3 470,410 62 8 $20.88 $2.75 $1,294.67
AC-Talk-News Radio Campaign #1 657,408 93 8 $25.49 $3.61 $2,370.17
All Format Daytime Audio Campaign #2 1,100,545 150 8 $17.02 $2.32 $2,552.41
Audio Campaign #3 2,091,499 152 8 $51.35 $3.73 $7,805.17
Unadjusted ABC Ford Audio Acct Totals: 1,703,467 539 $12.44 $3.94 $6,705.43
Unadjusted XYZ LM Audio Acct Totals: 3,849,452 395 $32.22 $3.31 $12,727.75
Both Store Radio Totals and Averages: 5,552,919 934 $20.81 $3.50 $19,433.18
Combined # of # of Cost Avg
Adwords Credits Earned Impressions Spots Stations per Spot CPM Cost
ABC Ford Google Audio Credits Earned: -$5,000.00
XYZ Lincoln Mercury Google Audio Credits: -$5,000.00
ABC Ford Adjusted Audio Acct Totals: 1,703,467 539 8 $3.16 $1.00 $1,705.43
XYZ Lincoln Mercury Adjusted Audio Totals: 3,849,452 395 8 $19.56 $2.01 $7,727.75
Credits Earned Adjusted Radio Totals: 5,552,919 934 $10.10 $1.70 $9,433.18
Combined Online Radio Web Site Cost Avg Combined Grand Total
& On Air Impressions Spots Visitors per Spot CPC Avg CPM Google Spend
Grand Totals and Overall Averages: 20,095,728 934 2,872 $20.81 $1.39 $1.17 $23,414.10
Google Credits Earned Adjusted Totals: 20,095,728 934 2,872 $10.10 $1.39 $0.67 $13,414.10
3. Check on your Phone Call and Lead Management Processes – Is your
dealership properly set up and disciplined to ensure that leads and phone calls
generated by your digital advertising campaigns are being properly handled? Who is
going to monitor and track leads and calls generated? The worst thing a dealership
with poor lead and phone call handling processes can do is to generate more of
them! Make sure you are set up to not only respond quickly to Internet leads, but to
be able to answer the customers questions and provide them with the information
they requested on the first contact. Make sure that everybody who answers the
phone understands the digital advertising campaigns that are in progress and any
offers or promotions associated with them. All digital ads and the landing pages they
point to should have unique phone numbers that allow the dealer and managers to
see how many calls were made and then listen to those calls for quality assurance.
Dealers and managers must be sure to check on the emails being sent back out to
customers so that they know the messages being sent are the right ones and do not
contradict the messaging contained with your digital advertising campaigns. With the
right phone and lead management processes in place, and showroom processes
that integrate with campaign messages, your dealership can sell more cars and
trucks using digital advertising.
4. Landing Page URL’s – A dealer will need to identify and define the specific landing
pages to be used for each type of online advertisement. For example, a dealer that
advertises their large selection of Ford F150 pickup trucks would want to serve up
their inventory of those trucks to the consumer who clicks on the advertisement that

5. they see online. Likewise, if a dealer is advertising that they provide fast and free
online price quotes, the ads should be connected to a landing page within the
dealer’s web site, or a microsite that provides immediate access to a Request For
Quote form. Here are several examples of Digital Ad Campaign landing pages that
make use of direct links into relevant sections of a dealer’s web site:
a. Gas Prices Got You Worried? Check Out Our Huge Selection of Cars that
Deliver More than 35 Mile Per Gallon -
http://www.advantagecars.com/matchmaker.html?minmpg=35
b. Ready to Enjoy Summer? Score a Great Deal on an Exciting Convertible, See
Over 30 Models In Stock and Ready to Put Wind in Your Hair –
http://www.advantagecars.com/inventory/search2.php/ID_group1/TYPE_used/PA
GE_1/SORTBY_price/RADIUS_30/ZIP_/BODYSTYLE_convertible/
c. Looking for a Great Deal on a Used Car or Truck? Check out 30 Certified and
Guaranteed Vehicles Priced to Sell for Below Wholesale Book -
http://www.advantagecars.com/inventory/special.php/ID_group1/TYPE_used/
Although many dealers choose to “land” consumers who click on their ads directly on
their dealer web site home page, most dealers have found that they get better results by
pointing their ads to the specific topic, offer or vehicles that are being featured in the ad.
In other words, do not expect consumers to wade through your web site, clicking on
menu button after menu button in order to get to what your ad promised them. Send
them directly to the section or page within your web site that serves up exactly what the
ad promised!
Using a portfolio of customized URL’s that point to specific pages and microsites is a
commonly used best practice among top performing dealers. Here are a few examples:
o www.Ford-Used.com
o www.Acura-Certified-Used.com
o www.BMWCertifiedUsed.com
o www.Cadillac-Certified.com
o www.Honda-Used-Cars.com
5. Digital Advertising Messages – Before you can properly build a digital advertising
campaign, it is important to identify and define the messages your dealership wants
to communicate. Part of this process is identifying who you are talking to. Who is
the targeted group of customers you want to serve that message to? Keep in mind
that in many cases your digital ads will be limited to three lines of 25, 35 and 35
character spaces, so your advertising message has to be very brief and very clear!
For example, the exclusive availability of Ford’s Sync system and partnership with
Microsoft is a great message for car and truck buyers that are known to use the
types of electronic products that integrate with the Ford Sync system. Likewise,
most dealers will want to show ads that feature Ford trucks to truck buyers, and ads
that feature fuel efficient cars to potential buyers of those vehicles… With Digital
Advertising a dealer can address highly targeted groups of customers with specific
messages that are of interest to those customers. With Search Engine Advertising a
dealer will know what a consumer is looking for by targeting the words that must be
entered into a search query in order for the dealership’s advertisement to appear.
Obviously, a consumer searching for information on a “2008 Ford Mustang GT” is a

6. great prospect to display an ad for your dealership’s Mustang inventory listing. But, it
would probably be very ineffective to show an F150 ad to that same search user.
Here are a few examples of Search engine advertisements that are targeted to
specific groups of buyers:
2008 Ford Truck Inventory
See New Ford Cars-Trucks in Stock
Save Thousands on a New Ford in ABQ
2008 Ford Cars - 35 MPG
See New 2008 Ford Vehicles in Stock
Save Thousands on a New Ford in ABQ
Albuquerque's Rich Ford
Get a Ford Truck Price Quote Online
from New Mexico's Top Ford Dealer!
San Tan Ford in Gilbert
2008 Ford Car and Truck Inventory
Listed Online for Your Convenience
6. Digital Advertising Creative Content - Decide how your dealership will generate
creative advertising illustrations and artwork. Will one of the dealership’s employees
be responsible for creating image files, animated GIF’s, Click-to-Play video ads,
Flash based animated and multimedia ads? What about other creative assets you
will need for use in your dealership’s online advertising campaigns, such as logos,
video clips, sound tracks? Will you outsource this work? If so, who are the suppliers
that specialize in automotive and how much do they cost? Be sure to visit
www.FordDigital.com and click on any of the dealership ad thumbnails to open up
the full size ad and see the animation and messaging. Shown below are examples of
dealership advertising creative images used in digital advertising campaigns:

9. 7. Set your budgets - For each digital advertising campaign, and for digital advertising
as a whole. Keep in mind that over 70% of new and used retail customers use the
Internet to get information that helps them decide what vehicle to buy and which
dealer to buy that vehicle from. Do not get caught in the trap of using a lead value of
$20 in order to determine your digital advertising budgets. After all, do you measure
your newspaper ads by how many Internet leads are generated because you put the
dealership’s URL in the ad? Do you measure a radio campaign based on how many
leads come in from the dealership’s web site? Like other forms of advertising, Digital
advertising budgets should be based on how many people the dealership can
communicate their message to, and how compelling or effective that message is.
Most dealers now agree that at least 20% of the dealership’s advertising budget
should be allocated to various types of online digital advertising.
8. Determine your objectives - For example, some dealers will focus on generating
traffic to their dealership’s web sites by counting click-throughs and “Visitors”, while
other dealerships focus on communicating their message to as many potential
customers as possible by maximizing advertising “Impressions”. Here are a few
examples of Google Adwords campaigns and the performance they generated for
their dealership located in Arizona during the month of April 2008:
Daily Avg.
Online Ad Campaign Name Budget Clicks Impressions CTR CPC Cost
$50.00 69 28,506 0.24% $2.20 $151.51
2008 Escape
$50.00 420 99,143 0.42% $1.83 $767.43
2008 Expedition
$100.00 399 452,546 0.08% $3.32 $1,325.11
2008 Ford Focus
$100.00 722 229,748 0.31% $2.00 $1,446.62
Ford CPC Search ADP Template #1
$100.00 648 140,879 0.45% $3.53 $2,288.90
2008 F150
$100.00 910 581,781 0.15% $2.85 $2,592.23
2008 Mustang
$100.00 1,597 13,427,690 0.01% $1.69 $2,701.60
Ford CPC Site Targeted ADP Template #1
$100.00 2,372 4,144,723 0.06% $1.37 $3,241.90
Ford CPM Site Targeted ADP Template #1
Total - 9 active campaigns $700.00 7,137 19,105,016 0.04% $2.03 $14,515.30
In the campaign examples shown above you can see that one campaign generated over 13
million advertising impressions but had a Click Through Rate (CTR) of only 0.01%. Yet, another
campaign for the same dealership had a CTR of 0.45% which is 450% higher! Can you tell which
campaign had a very targeted target audience with an objective of maximum click-throughs
versus which campaign was about creating awareness and floor traffic?
9. Decide what advertising networks your dealership will use - Because of the
proliferation of web sites into hundreds of thousands of popular destinations on the
Internet, the advertising industry has seen the creation of several networks made up
of sometimes hundreds or even thousands of popular web sites that advertisers can
choose in aggregate. When using networks, dealers must then define their geo-
targeting, or the locations of visitors to web sites within the network that is required in

10. order for the dealer’s ads to appear. Some of the most popular digital advertising
networks for dealers include several household names. Although there are at least
two dozen very effective online advertising networks for dealers to use, the following
networks are used by the ADP Digital Advertising Program for Dealers because of
their proven effectiveness in reaching online automotive consumers:
o Google Advertising Network:
http://adwords.google.com
Site examples: CNN, MySpace, New York Post, Macworld, HowStuffWorks,
Univision, AutomotiveForums, Swapalease, Kudzu and thousands more.
o Yahoo! Advertising Network
http://advertising.yahoo.com/central/solutions/auto/
Site examples: Ebay Motors, Yahoo! Autos, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Email,
Comcast, AT&T, Cars.com, WebMD, Forbes and thousands more.
o Specific Media Advertising Network
http://www.specificmedia.com/why-specific-media.php
ABC and affiliate stations, CBS Sportsline, Disney Internet Group, E! Online,
MLB.com, Food Network and hundreds more.
o Jumpstart Automotive Media Network
http://www.jumpstartautomotive.com/advertisers/dealers/local.php
Site examples: Consumer Guide Automotive, J. D. Power & Associates,
NADA Guides, Vehix.com, Shopping.com, Motortrend, Car and Driver, Road
and Track, and many more.
For dealers who wish to use online advertising networks, contacting each of the
networks listed above, or having your ad agency do so will provide access to an
extensive listing of the hundreds and thousands of web sites included within each
network. For dealers participating in the ADP Digital Advertising Program for
Dealers, your campaign manager can review the network budget allocations that
make the most sense for your dealership’s location and advertising objectives.
10. Decide whether or not your dealership is going to advertise on individual web
sites published by local or regional companies - For example, in the Phoenix,
Arizona market many car dealers buy advertising placements directly on
AZCentral.com which is a local web site published by the Arizona republic
newspaper and one of the most popular sites in Arizona. Other dealers have found
that purchasing display advertising space on automotive specific web sites such as
Autotrader.com, Cars.com and KBB.com can be effective in generating awareness
and consideration of their dealership. You will want to compare apples to apples,
and when most dealers compare the price of advertising on these individual sites on
a Cost Per Thousand (CPM) ad impressions basis, they have found they can get a
better buy using the purchasing power of an ad network. However, different dealers
have different advertising objectives, and if you can get the right package from a
publisher such as Cars.com or the local newspaper’s web site, than it may be worth
considering.

11. If You are Serious about Digital Advertising, Then
You Gotta Have a Google Adwords Account…
That means you have to find a credit card to use!
Go to http://Adwords.Google.com and create an Adwords account for your
dealership.
a. You will need to be the authorized user of a valid credit card to set
up your dealership’s Adwords account.
b. You will need to create at least one Adwords ad campaign in order
to open up a new account. You can set the campaign status to
“Pause” after creating it if you do now want it to be active.
c. Google will charge the credit card you use a $5.00 one time
registration fee.
d. You will need an active email account in order to create a Google
Adwords account. It is recommended that you create a Google
email account for use by the dealership by going to
www.GMail.com and signing up for the free service.
e. You will need a destination URL, or web site address that is valid
and meets Google’s various requirements, such as no pop-up ads
or coupons, in order to create your first valid Adwords campaign.
f. For detailed and expert instructions on Google Adwords, visit this
web site: http://adwords.google.com/support/
g. Create a keyword based search advertising campaign using
Google Adwords that is geotargeted to local customers and is
targeted to keywords like to be used by automotive consumers
seeking your dealership’s products and services.
h. Use your Google Adwords account to buy display advertising
(banner) space on popular websites using geotargeted placement
campaigns your ads only appear to locally based web site visitors
within the dealership’s primary market area. Geotargeting and
paying on a Cost Per Thousand (CPM) impressions or Cost Per
Click (CPC) basis is required for a good ROI.
There are countless numbers of various web sites, blogs and supposedly hard to
get documents available to learn how to better manage Google Adwords
campaigns... To this day we have not found anything with faster and more direct

12. access to the answers needed by car dealers about managing various types of
Google Adwords campaigns than this site:
http://adwords.google.com/support/
If you haven't visited this page lately, you owe it to yourself and anyone you work
for to check it out and look at all the information it provides around different types
of Google Adwords campaigns, such as Placement Targeted, Google Audio and
other types...
Using Other Sources for Digital Advertising:
• Use Pay-Per-Click Advertising Campaigns to drive traffic to your web site.
Besides opening up an account in Google Adwords, also set up your dealership
with ad campaign management accounts in MSN AdCenter and Yahoo! Panama.
• Purchase display advertising space in local company emailing lists and
eNewsletters. Publish an eNewsletter for your dealership, or convince your
regional dealer advertising association to create one for all dealers of your brand
in your market.
• Place display ads and buy text based links to your dealership’s web site that are
published on popular automotive web sites such as AutoTrader.com, Cars.com,
Edmunds.com, KBB.com, dfwVehicles.com and others.
• Visit www.IndustryBrains.com and check out their “Premium Site-Specific
Marketing Solutions for Automotive Advertisers. Target your pay-per-click ads to
focused, site-specific categories on premium web sites like Motley Fool,
BusinessWeek, PC Magazine, CMP TechWeb Network and more. Dealers can
use IndustryBrains.com to deliver display ads to premium publisher Websites on
a CPM bid basis. Brand and sell to your dealership’s best customers.
• Visit www.Marchex.com to see how they provide dealers with the ability to use
their Marchex Adhere solution to reach tens of millions of shoppers searching for
products and services on sites beyond Google.
• Go to www.AdReady.com and see how to customize their automotive ad
templates for your dealership. As with creating a new Google Adwords account,
the first step to running a campaign using AdReady is to customize an ad. You
can select a template from their automotive campaign library, customize it and
start your dealership’s campaign using a credit card and about 45 minutes.

13. Know What the Digital Advertising Purchasing
Variations are and How to Pay for online ads
The three most common ways in which online advertising is purchased are CPM, CPC,
and CPA.
• CPM (Cost Per Impression) – This is where dealers pay for exposure of their
message to a specific audience. CPM costs are priced per thousand
impressions. The M in the acronym is the Roman numeral for one thousand.
CPM Refers to Cost per thousand impressions. The CPM model refers to
advertising bought on the basis of impression. This is in contrast to the various
types of pay-for-performance advertising, whereby payment is only triggered by a
mutually agreed upon activity (i.e. click-through, registration, sale).
The total price paid in a CPM deal is calculated by multiplying the CPM rate by
the number of CPM units. For example, one million impressions at $10 CPM
equals a $10,000 total price.
1,000,000 / 1,000 = 1,000 units
1,000 units X $10 CPM = $10,000 total price
The amount paid per impression is calculated by dividing the CPM by 1000. For
example, a $10 CPM equals $.01 per impression.
$10 CPM / 1000 impressions = $.01 per impression
• CPV (Cost Per Visitor) – This is where dealers pay for the delivery of a
Targeted Visitor to the dealership’s website.
• CPC (Cost Per Click) – This is what many dealers have been sold in recent
years and is also known as Pay per click (PPC). Dealers pay every time a user
clicks on their listing and is redirected to their website. They do not actually pay
for the listing, but only when the listing is clicked on. This system allows what
many dealers know as “SEM providers” to refine searches and gain information
about their market. Under the Pay per click pricing system, dealers pay for the
right to be listed under a series of targeted key words that theoretically are used
by consumers searching for information related to buying a car. The sponsored
listings, or ads then direct click-through traffic to the dealer’s website. You pay
only when someone actually clicks on one of the listing which links directly to
your dealership’s website, or in some cases a microsite or landing page set up by
the SEM service provider for the dealership. CPC differs from CPV in that each
click is paid for regardless of whether the user makes it to the dealership website.
• CPA (Cost Per Action) or (Cost Per Acquisition) – This type of advertising is
performance based and is common in the affiliate marketing sector of the
business. In this payment scheme, the publisher takes all the risk of running the
ad, and the advertiser pays only for the amount of users who complete a form,
such as a Request For Quote (RFQ), Credit Application, Contest Entry Form,
Test Drive Appointment or sign-up for that 3 day trip to Las Vegas that the
dealership is giving away. This is the best type of rate to pay for banner
advertisements and the worst type of rate to charge for website publishers.
Usually, this is a advertising billing plan for the most desperate website

14. publishers. Similarly, CPL (Cost Per Lead) advertising is identical to CPA
advertising and is based on the user completing a form, registering for a
newsletter or some other action that the dealer feels will lead to a sale. Also
common, CPO (Cost Per Order) advertising for service appointments, parts and
accessory sales online is based on each time an order is transacted. Another
good example is secured credit applications that use real-time integration with
credit bureau systems and credit decision engines to give customer an actual
approval while they are still completing the form. We are seeing companies that
provide this technology offering dealers a pricing plan that is based on the
number of completed online credit applications that are approved, with a lesser
fee charged for the declines.
• Cost Per Conversion – This is advertising that is placed online and then
charged to the dealership based on the cost of acquiring an opportunity to do
business, typically calculated by dividing the total cost of an ad campaign by the
number of lead forms and phone calls generated by a campaign specific
microsite. The definition of "Conversion" varies depending on the situation: it is
sometimes considered to be a lead, a sale, or a purchase.

15. Low-Cost or No-Cost “Do It Yourself” Digital
Marketing and Advertising Opportunities
The following material is made up of actions that we have observed dealers in various
parts of the country use to drive more traffic into their dealerships.
Your dealership can implement any one of these or several in order to better utilize
online marketing and advertising to generate traffic to your dealership’s showroom and
websites.
Email
• Bulk email using your CRM or Lead Management Software every month with
current incentives from your OEM, current interest rates from your lenders, and a
snapshot of vehicle inventory counts by year make and model for new and used
vehicles. Each month, select a customer of the month and show photos and a
human interest story at the top of the email with the incentives, rates and
inventory listed below including appropriate links into your website’s content.
• Use a “Send to a Friend” Text on your emails so people can email their friends
and relatives links to look at a specific vehicle or an information section within
your website.
• Use links in your email templates to keep people coming back to your site.
• Use deep links in your automated responses to drive traffic from 3rd party
provided leads that may have never visited your dealership’s site by giving them
single-click access to the most popular sections, such as new and used
inventory, specials, credit applications and coupons.
Your Dealership Web Site
• Update your site with current specials, staff and why buys unique to your
dealership using your website provider’s Content Management Tool (CMT).
• For more complex customization requests, mock up what you have in mind using
Microsoft Word, insert images and text as you would generally like to see them
place and then send the document file along with a detailed email to your
dealership’s website provider. Be sure to copy everyone you know at the website
provider’s company and allow at least 10 days, but set a date that you expect the
changes or custom page to be built by. After you send the email, follow up with a
phone call to make sure the customer service person at the vendor got the email.
• Seek out affiliated product suppliers, such as insurance companies, wheel and
tire suppliers, detail shops and car washes, banks and credit unions to develop
web site referrals (links) and vehicle sale referral affiliations.
• Add an eNewsletter mailing list subscribe form in a high profile spot on your site
• Add a “bookmark this site” text in a high profile spot on your dealership’s web site
• Submit your dealership’s web site to the hundreds of free directories – use the
free Google indexing request form – http://www.google.com/addurl and
http://www.dmoz.org

16. Social/Blogs/Viral (Please remember to brand the Dealership and not the individual
salesperson or manager for these examples)
• Create profiles on MySpace and start networking in groups that are interested in
your brand of vehicles. (complete details in the MySpace Best Practices section
of this book)
• Set up a site at www.ning.com , then write something great about your dealership
or people that our customers of your dealership that is interesting and is not a
direct sales pitch and email other bloggers to let them know – there’s a good
chance they’ll link to you. Remember, whenever possible try to utilize content
from the OEM’s web site with links to yours.
• Post comments and answers within online forums, then have a signature link in
forums that points to your dealership’s web site. Examples include:
http://www.carspace.com/blogs , http://mydrive.roadfly.com/blog ,
http://blogs.motortrend.com , http://www.blogger.com , http://www.typepad.com/
• Post descriptions and links to each of your dealership’s website sections on
social book-marking sites such as: http://digg.com/ , http://del.icio.us/ ,
http://www.technorati.com/ , http://www.propeller.com/ , http://www.reddit.com/
• Leave comments on other people’s blogs that include links back to your site (tip:
look in the dig.com upcoming section for blog posts about to get a lot of traffic).
• Answer questions on Yahoo Answers and reference your dealership’s web site
for more information, along with links to specific content.
• Post in Yahoo and Google Groups with a link to your site in your signature.
• Review the vehicles you sell on automotive social network sites and popular
blogs – If your review of a new or existing vehicle model is positive, email local
publications and ask to be featured in their automotive section.
• Write articles and submit them to online article directories.
• Write a Press Release from your dealership announcing your web site, new
facilities, or other events and submit it to PRWeb.com (make sure it is
newsworthy)
• Submit your dealership’s blogs to blog directories such as: www.blogcatalog.com/ ,
www.bloghub.com , www.blogdup.com , http://dir.blogflux.com/ , www.blogdirs.com/

17. • Send articles to online and eZine publishers with text based links back to your
website that reference specific subject matter or vehicles you have in stock.
• Post vehicle brochures to http://www.calameo.com and http://www.scribe.com
using your dealership’s name, address and links.
• Have links to your dealership’s web site on community sites like MySpace,
Friendster, Flickr, FaceBook, Ning.com and others.
• Use a traffic trading system such as what BlogRush.com offers.
• Create a free product give away campaign featured in online blog postings (t-
shirts, key fobs, oil changes, gas cards, tickets to NASCAR events, etc.).
• Do a group feature where you get automotive enthusiast website owners that
focus on your brand to participate – ask them to submit opinions on your web site
about specific new or used vehicles in stock focusing on how they are equipped.
• Hold a competition for the Top 10 automotive enthusiast web sites focused on
your brand – 1 month later publish the results and let everyone know who is
being featured – encourage links to view rank position in the contest results.
• Submit videos that feature customers and employees using your vehicles to
video sharing sites like YouTube and Metacafe. Include links to the dealership’s
web site in the description and within the actual video. A great example of video
used by a dealership is: http://www.drivethebest.com/
• Post as many videos as you can get your hands on to as many Video web
hosting sites as possible and make sure you include links in the descriptions and
comments for each video that go to relevant content within your sites. Here are a
few free video hosting sites you can use: Google Video / BrightCove /
PhotoBucket / YouTube / DailyMotion / iFilm / Myspace / Vimeo / BuzzNet /
Flixya / GoFish / Kwego / Lulu / MyHeavy / PutFile / StupidVideos / Vmix /
ZippyVideos / CastPost / Dotv / Famster / MeraVideo / VideoWebTown / Vidmax
• Contact popular automotive web sites and ask to write some guest posts about
the types of people that buy certain vehicles of interest, the ordering process to
configure a vehicle the way a customer wants it, the types of vehicles that other
dealers will not let go in dealer trades because they are so hot… You get it, the
kind of articles they cannot get from their own staff!
• Create pages with links into your dealership’s site on specialty expertise websites
like http://www.squidoo.com/ and http://hubpages.com/
• Network! Email other dealership web site owners that you do not generally
compete with for customers, phone them up tell them you have this crazy idea
about each of showing links to each other’s web sites… Go to automotive
industry events like J. D. Power Internet Roundtable, Digital Dealer, ENG
Automotive CRM Summit, NADA, Kelley Blue Book eNetworking Brunches, etc.
and get your dealership known as a leader in digital marketing and online
customer service. If other dealers and enthusiasts know your dealership has
blogs and online communities they will likely visit them and set up links that point
to content they create on your social networking site.
• Create an Amazon profile and start submitting automotive book and accessory
reviews with links to your dealership’s relevant products and services.
• Conduct a local consumer survey and publish the results – make sure you let
people know about it using broadcast emails http://www.polldaddy.com

18. Miscellaneous
• Have an opt-in form for newsletters, specials and event announcements – Trade
links with other web sites… Then, have an opt in form on your confirmation page.
• Pass out business cards with your dealership’s web site URL when you go to
various public events and gatherings.
• Have links to your dealership’s website in vehicle for sale posts on Craigslist (but
use different links with multiple vehicle entries so your site is not flagged as a
spammer site)
• Place classified Ads on CraigsList.com with links to each vehicle inventory details
page inside your website. Example:
http://www.advantagecars.com/inventory/details.php/VIN_5N1ED28T14C671620
/ID_group1/UI_detail_group1
Getting Assistance
There are several qualified sources of consulting and training that can get you started
and off in the right direction, including Jim Bernardi who is the editor of the Auto Dealer
Network newsletter that publishes this site. As most people reading this know, I work for
the ADP Digital Marketing Group and we provide an intensive 2 day consulting package
designed to get dealers started with self-managed digital advertising campaigns. At the
end of the 2 day visit, the dealership has functioning ad campaigns running online. The
way we get it done is with a very specific agenda and a highly focused series of action
items. If your store needs to be sold on digital advertising, this is NOT the program for
you! But, if you are ready to get started and just want a little assistance setting it up the
first time, my ADP Digital Marketing Team is a great way to do it. Contact Jim Jensen at
adp@flmdmc.com or by calling him at 347-678-4135. You can also get information and
enroll online at http://www.adpdigitaladvertising.com/ . Jim is one of the best consulting
team leaders I have ever worked with and he will fit the right person for your dealership
from the 20+ experienced pros on his team.
On the following two pages we have listed the agenda that our ADP Digital
Marketing Consultants use during a 2 day Digital Advertising Implementation visit.

19. Digital Advertising - Campaign Creation and Management Process Implementation
Day 1; Consultant, Dealer, GM and Dealership Advertising Stakeholders
Fill in all cells that are shaded blue… Enter the start time and then the hours and minutes (hh:mm) needed for each section to be delivered In-Dealership
Time Sub-Total Start Time Finish Time
Action Items to be Completed prior to In-Dealership Visit:
Dealer: Create Google AdWords Account, Setuip Payment, Send Customer ID 0:45 1 week prior 6 days prior
Consultant: Pre-load Best Practice Templates into Dealer AdWords Account 0:45 5 days prior 4 days prior
Dealer: Email Advertising Spend by Vendor Report - Last Month, YTD, Last Year 0:30 3 days prior 2 days prior
Prework Time Subtotal………………………………………………………………………… 2:00
Time Sub-Total Start Time Finish Time
Consultant Travel Time 0:45 8:00 AM 8:45 AM
Setup-Prepare Meeting-Presentation Space 0:15 8:45 AM 9:00 AM
Dealer/GM Meeting
Introductions & Review Agenda/Objectives for the Consulting Visit 0:15 9:00 AM 9:15 AM
Dealer or GM presents current Marketing & Advertising Strategies;
Discuss Campaign Objectives and Current Tracking Measurements
0:20 9:15 AM 9:35 AM
Dealer Review of Historical Advertising Budgets - Objective is 20%+ to Digital
Current Key Performance Indicators (KPI) & Campaign Management Processes
0:30 9:35 AM 10:05 AM
Review Google Adwords account access; Verify Dealer's Authorized Users 0:20 10:05 AM 10:25 AM
Morning Break 0:15 10:25 AM 10:40 AM
Digital Advertising Overview - Fact vs. Fiction
PRESENT: Digital Advertising Presentation - CPC Search Value Awareness 0:30 10:40 AM 11:10 AM
PRESENT: Digital Advertising CPC Search Case Study #1 0:15 11:10 AM 11:25 AM
FACILITATE: GM/Dealer/Managers Case Study #1 Pros and Cons - Their "WIN"? 0:15 11:25 AM 11:40 AM
DECISIONS LOGGED: Search PPC Campaign Geotargeting and Traffic Objectives 0:20 11:40 AM 12:00 PM
Time Subtotal - AM Day #1…………………………………………………………………… 3:00 12:00 PM
Working Lunch w/GM or Dealer; Discuss Insights 1:00 12:00 PM 1:00 PM
Digital Advertising Overview - Fact vs. Fiction (continued)
PRESENT: Digital Advertising Presentation - Placement Targeted Campaigns 0:30 1:00 PM 1:30 PM
PRESENT: Digital Advertising CPM/CPC Site Placement Case Study #2 0:15 1:30 PM 1:45 PM
FACILITATE: GM/Dealer/Managers Case Study #2 Pros and Cons - Their "WIN" 0:15 1:45 PM 2:00 PM
DECISIONS LOGGED: Placement Campaign Impression and Traffic Objectives 0:20 2:00 PM 2:20 PM
PRESENT: Digital Advertising Presentation - Digital Audio (Radio) Advertising 0:30 2:20 PM 2:50 PM
PRESENT: Digital Advertising CPM Audio Campaign Case Study #3 0:15 2:50 PM 3:05 PM
FACILITATE: GM/Dealer/Managers Case Study #3 Pros and Cons - Their "WIN" 0:15 3:05 PM 3:20 PM
DECISIONS LOGGED: Digital Audio Campaign Objectives 0:20 3:20 PM 3:40 PM
Afternoon Break; Consultant Assembles Notes 0:15 3:40 PM 3:55 PM
Digital Advertising Strategy & Tactics Day 1 Dealer/GM Review:
Dealer/GM Review and Approval of Day 1 Decisions for Digital Ad Program 0:30 3:55 PM 4:25 PM
Action Plan: Review Digital Advertising Management Action Plan (MAP) Checklist 0:20 4:25 PM 4:45 PM
Time Subtotal - PM Day #1…………………………………………………………………… 4:45 4:45 PM
Consultant Logs Day 1 Notes into NetTrack Online Tool
Enter Dealership Stakeholder Names, Titles, Email and Phone Info 0:20 4:45 PM 5:05 PM
Enter Day 1 Decisions on Campaign Objectives, Assignments, Geotargeting, etc. 0:20 5:05 PM 5:25 PM

20. Digital Advertising - Campaign Creation and Management Process Implementation
Day 2; Consultant, Dealer, GM and Dealership Advertising Stakeholders
Fill in all cells that are shaded blue… Enter the start time and then the hours and minutes (hh:mm) needed for each section to be delivered In-Dealership
Time Sub-Total Start Time Finish Time
Consultant Travel Time 0:45 8:00 AM 8:45 AM
Setup-Prepare Meeting-Presentation Space 0:15 8:45 AM 9:00 AM
Dealer/GM Meeting
Review Previous Day's Outcomes, Decisions & Results - Review Day 2 Agenda 0:30 9:00 AM 9:30 AM
Dealership Advertising Stakeholder Meeting:
Define Digital Ad Campaign Creation & Management Processes
PRESENT: Advertising Messaging and Content; What Sells More Cars 0:20 9:30 AM 9:50 AM
FACILITATE: Review DA Campaign Creation & Deployment Process Map (Template) 0:15 9:50 AM 10:05 AM
DESIGNATE: Digital Advertising "Committee" - Monthly Meeting Time & Place 0:10 10:05 AM 10:15 AM
DESIGNATE: Digital Advertising Campaign Deployment Responsibility 0:10 10:15 AM 10:25 AM
Morning Break 0:15 10:25 AM 10:40 AM
PRESENT: DA Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for Optimization 0:15 10:40 AM 10:55 AM
FACILITATE: Review Digital Ad Campaign Management Process Map (Template) 0:15 10:55 AM 11:10 AM
DESIGNATE: Digital Advertising Campaign Reporting Responsibilities 0:15 11:10 AM 11:25 AM
PRESENT: Challenges to DA Campaign Effectiveness - Internal & External 0:15 11:25 AM 11:40 AM
FACILITATE: DA Assignments & Responsibilities - Who will champion execution? 0:10 11:40 AM 11:50 AM
DESIGNATE: Digital Advertising Champion (GM, Dealer or GSM) 0:10 11:50 AM 12:00 PM
Time Subtotal - AM Day #2……………………………………………………………………… 3:00 12:00 PM
Working Lunch w/GM or Dealer; Discuss Initial Campaign Recommendations 1:00 12:00 PM 1:00 PM
Dealership Google AdWords Campaign Definitions
SPECIFICATIONS LOGGED: Search PPC Campaign Destination URL's 0:15 1:00 PM 1:15 PM
SPECIFICATIONS LOGGED: Search Campaign Local/Regional Keyword Targeting List 0:15 1:15 PM 1:30 PM
SPECIFICATIONS LOGGED: Search Campaign Ad Messaging Content 0:15 1:30 PM 1:45 PM
SPECIFICATIONS LOGGED: Placement Campaign Destination URL's 0:15 1:45 PM 2:00 PM
SPECIFICATIONS LOGGED: Placement Campaign Site Category Targets 0:15 2:00 PM 2:15 PM
SPECIFICATIONS LOGGED: Text & Display Ad Messaging by Site Category 0:15 2:15 PM 2:30 PM
SPECIFICATIONS LOGGED: Display Ad Creative Content Sourcing 0:15 2:30 PM 2:45 PM
Afternoon Break; Consultant Assembles Notes 0:15 2:45 PM 3:00 PM
Dealership Google AdWords Account "Hands On" Session
TASK DEMO: Check Set ups: Backup Payments, Automated Reporting via Email 0:15 3:00 PM 3:15 PM
TASK DEMO: Modify Best Practice Template: CPC Keyword Search Campaign 0:15 3:15 PM 3:30 PM
TASK DEMO: Modify Best Practice Template: CPM Placement Targeted Campaign 0:15 3:30 PM 3:45 PM
TASK DEMO: Modify Best Practice Template: CPC Placement Targeted Campaign 0:15 3:45 PM 4:00 PM
TASK DEMO: Create Google Audio (Radio) Best Practices Campaign: 0:15 4:00 PM 4:15 PM
TASK DEMO: Report Automation: Daily+Monthly Emails to Dealer/Managers 0:15 4:15 PM 4:30 PM
Digital Advertising Campaign Management Processes Day 2 Dealer/GM Review:
Dealer/GM Review and Approval of Day 2 Processes for Digital Ad Program 0:20 4:30 PM 4:50 PM
Action Plan: Review Digital Advertising Management Action Plan (MAP) Checklist 0:10 4:50 PM 5:00 PM
Time Subtotal - PM Day #2……………………………………………………………………… 5:00 5:00 PM
Consultant Logs Day 2 Notes into NetTrack Online Tool
Enter Day 2 Campaign Process Definitions, Destination URL's, Ad Messaging, etc. 0:20 5:00 PM 5:20 PM