TAMPA, Fla. -

If you’re unfamiliar, Waze is the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app. You can join other drivers in your area who share real-time traffic and road info, saving everyone time and gas money on their daily commute.

In this post we’ll show you how to create a Waze ad for your dealership and dive a little deeper into why you should consider it as a place to advertise.

Your potential customers are driving by your dealership every day, but what are you doing to make them drive into your dealership instead of past it?

Giant inflatable gorillas, sign-spinners and dancing flags are one way to do it; another way is to purchase a Waze ad. Waze is a smartphone GPS app with many features that drivers love: traffic reporting, turn-by-turn navigation, accident reporting by severity and many more features. It even features celebrity voice navigation.

Not only do drivers love Waze, but advertisers should love it, too. Now you can advertise your dealership to those driving by for as little as $60 a month. If you already use Waze, you may have seen ads pop up on the screen while you’re at a complete stop. Your dealership will also appear in local searches and you will have access to reporting as well.

Download Waze for iPhone or Android to see why it’s so popular.

Steps to create a waze add for your dealership

1. Go to biz.waze.com.

2. Hit the "get started" button.

3. Create a Waze account.

4. Enter your business name. Hit next.

5. Add an 80-character business description.

6. Search for the name of your business (it should auto-fill). Hit next.

7. Choose your business type. Hit next.

8. Choose your budget (the minimum is $2/day). Hit next.

9. Enter your credit card information. Hit "verify payment."

10. Accept the terms of service. Hit "create account."

You’re now on your way to driving more people to your dealership. Waze can take up to 48 hours to review your account and you will receive an email once your account is approved. Once your account is approved, it will automatically go live and Wazers will be able to see your ads on the map.

Creating an offer for your dealership using Waze

Waze wants you to think of its ads as “virtual neon signs.” Drivers will see a virtual pin on their map. Pins expand to show business information, deals and more. Ads also appear when driving naturally stops, which means potential customers are one tap away from driving to your dealership.

Waze reporting dashboard

Once you have finished creating your account, you can view your dashboard. You should see a Go To Dashboard button on your screen.

Here is what you can expect to see in your Waze dashboard:

—Views: How many people viewed your ad.

—Engagements: How many people engaged with your ad.

—Effective Cost/Action: The cost per action.

Waze is used by many locations across the country to drive more people to their business. Are you using Waze for dealership now, or strongly considering it?

If you are already a LotVantage customer and would like help experimenting with Waze, contact us, and we’ll happily walk you through it.

Adam Goldberg is the marketing manager at LotVantage, a provider of digital marketing solutions for automotive, marine, powersports, RV, trailer and outdoor power equipment dealerships. He can be reached at agoldberg@thatus.com. You can also access more social media tips at motors.lotvantage.com/blog.