On Monday, Pearl Technology Holdings announced the launch of Proximity, its new geo-fencing program, which allows its auto dealers to target their competitors’ customers by delivering real-time offers to the customer’s mobile device.
“Nothing is better or more precisely targeted than delivering a compelling marketing campaign while the customer is at a competitor and in the buying process,” said Pearl chief executive officer Bruce Thompson.
The way Proximity works is, dealers purchase exclusive targets which no other dealer on the network can target. Additionally, the network does not allow fellow Proximity dealers to target each other.
“Today, the majority of marketing platforms can only track click through rates, but there is no way to really measure their effectiveness. We tell our auto dealers that it is all about in-store visits,” said Thompson. “Proximity not only circumvents the competitor’s selling area, it delivers the customer to our dealer’s lot at an average cost of $30-40 per in-store visit. There is nothing on the market today that comes close to this type of marketing efficiency.”
Thompson added: “What’s so unique about the tool is that we can track a mobile device when it enters one of our dealer’s target locations and when it leaves. We deliver a minimum of 20-30 of our dealers’ ads to each device over the course of two to three weeks. Proximity delivers to 95 percent of all mobile websites and is integrated with virtually all ad exchanges.”
Target devices and their browsing activity is followed in real time and tracks all impressions and clicks developed from dealers' ad campaigns. The platform even records if the customer ever visits the dealer’s lot.
Proximity is sold on an exclusive first-come-first-served model. So far more than 300 targets have been sold.
On Monday, Dealer.com announced that General Motors certified its Digital Advertising Solution as an in-Market Retail (iMR) Turnkey Product.
The approval gives GM Dealers access to purchase Dealer.com's advertising product and receive co-op reimbursement from GM for their investment.
"GM's approval of Dealer.com Advertising will create more lucrative advertising and sales opportunities for their entire dealer network," said Andy MacLeay, director of digital marketing at Dealer.com. "Dealers now have greater choice on where to most effectively spend their digital advertising dollars."
Dealer.com provides dealers multi-channel advertising that integrates paid search, retargeting and display advertising, as well as unified analytics into a combined strategic portfolio.
Additionally, with the certification, Dealer.com Advertising will be included within GM's Dealer Vendor Advisor Portal that connects iMR Turnkey Vendors with GM Dealers.
CarClicks recently introduced its partnership with Autobytel that integrates its Autobytel Direct product to CarClicks’ existing automotive network, which promotes dealership inventory online.
“Online automotive has evolved, and the need for digital agencies to provide innovative, results-driven solutions has never been more critical,” said Jeff Coats, president and chief executive officer of Autobytel Inc. “Autobytel is in pole position to deliver these products with proven results for engaging millions of consumers and driving quality car buying traffic to dealer and manufacturer websites. We are pleased to be partnering with a progressive company like AIM to drive premium, filtered, and qualified traffic to its clients.”
CarClicks, a product of Automotive Internet Media (AIM), links in-market auto shoppers online directly to vehicle display pages of its dealership clients nationwide.
The product will add high-quality Autobytel Direct traffic to all of its dealership clients’ initiatives in order to increase their number of website visitors. CarClicks said the move provides its dealership clients added exposure and merchandising to both their new and used inventory.
Autobytel provides consumer leads to automotive dealers and delivers consumers with online automotive content.
“We tested Autobytel Direct with a few of our dealerships and were delighted with the quality of traffic it provided,” said Tony French, president of AIM. “Our CarClicks program is dedicated to driving only the highest-quality traffic to our dealer clients and Autobytel is an excellent addition to our network.”
“Adding another quality new-vehicle traffic source only strengthens the overall value of the CarClicks program,” he continued. “Any time we can provide a better mix of potential new and pre-owned buyers to our dealer websites is a win for our clients.”
Clarivoy has announced the native integration of its Multi-Touch Sales Attribution solution into Google AdWords, giving dealers insight into how many vehicles AdWords helps them sell.
The integration includes Clarivoy’s proprietary Anonymous Attribution technology, which identifies the online and offline purchase paths of buyers who opt to remain anonymous. This ensures sales are properly attributed to specific keyword, YouTube and display campaigns.
Dealerships piloting the native integration have reported favorable results. According to Alan Krutsch, director of marketing and e-commerce at Apple Autos, Clarivoy was able to identify $2.2 million of previously unattributable monthly sales for his dealership, helping him to see which ads actually contributed to sales.
“As dealers we spend all of this money on marketing tactics and not enough energy and money on analysis and insight,” he said. “This new integration enables us to make smarter decisions based on facts and data. As marketers we need to optimize campaigns based on data that is flowing through AdWords or our bid management platform.
"The native integration of Clarivoy’s Multi-Touch Sales Attribution solution into AdWords gives us vital insight and certainty on what is working — and that’s priceless."
Chief executive officer Steve White said Clarivoy’s native integration into Google AdWords allows dealers to optimize their AdWords campaigns based on actual sales data — not so-called vanity metrics.
“There is a total disconnect,” White said. “Many dealers think AdWords is working for them. However, they only know half of the story with clicks and don’t truly know what sales can be attributed to their campaigns. And even those that have taken on the arduous task of matching buyers to their AdWords tracking codes are extremely disappointed with the low amount of sales they can identify, since a large percent of buyers never self-identify in their buying journey.
“Now, for the first time ever, auto dealers will know how many vehicles AdWords sold for them in any given month.”
Clarivoy’s Multi-Touch Sales Attribution platform is focused on user-level attribution, allowing clients to transparently view a consumer’s full purchase path while sorting and ranking the influence of each channel’s contribution — paid search, display ads, TV, email, third party websites, organic search, social and brand website.
The integration into Google AdWords collects and pairs all AdWords clicks and calls to the appropriate vehicle buyer while dividing the credit within AdWords, ensuring no over-attribution to any particular keyword, campaign or ad group. Dealers simply need to do is install Clarivoy’s tracking code and provide DMS access to sales.
Clarivoy’s native integration into Google AdWords will be unveiled at the Kain Automotive Clients & Friends Digital Success Workshop set for Nov. 15-17 at the
21c Museum Hotel in Lexington, Ky.
For more information, or to sign up for a product demonstration, visit www.clarivoy.com.
PureCars has been named a Kia Certified Digital Advertising Partner by KiaMotors.
The partnership will make PureCars’ digital advertising solutions available to Kia dealers across the U.S.
Kia’s Certified Digital Advertising Program allows dealers to use paid search and online advertising from certified providers to drive incremental local traffic to their respective websites.
Now, Kia dealers can take advantage of PureCars’ Smart Advertising offerings for improved targeting efforts. SmartAdvertising provides a singular digital advertising solution that executes campaigns across various media channels, enabling dealers to follow consumers’ journeys across search, social, display and video.
“We are honored to be recognized by Kia as a valuable advertising partner for their dealers,” said Jeremy Anspach, chief executive officer of PureCars. “Working with Kia will allow PureCars to continue helping dealers take the guesswork out of search architecture and digital advertising.
“Now, PureCars can provide even higher quality service, technology and online marketing expertise to Kia dealers and help them effectively reach customers across all channels.”
PureCars recently earned a spot on the annual Inc. 500|5000 list for the third consecutive year, following the launch of social and video extensions of its SmartAdvertising platform in early 2016 and a major acquisition by Raycom Media last October for $125 million.
“With a vast majority of consumers going online to research a vehicle prior to purchase, search engine marketing must be a key component of any dealership’s digital marketing strategy,” said Anspach.
“As a Kia partner, PureCars will help Kia dealers more efficiently serve car shoppers' tailored, relevant advertisements at the right time and in all the right places, driving more consumers to the lot as a result.”
Click here to learn more about the Kia Certified Digital Advertising Partner Program.
Election season got you down?
If you're a dealer doing business in a battleground state, the answer is most likely yes.
A recent analysis by Dealer.com revealed that car-shopping behavior in states where the vote can “swing” either red or blue – Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin — was down 9 percent year-over-year in September.
And with new-vehicle sales also down 2 percent year-over-year in September, the election is compounding challenges for car dealers in battleground states. Year-to-date, visitors to car dealership websites across the Dealer.com platform are 6 percent lower in battleground states compared to non-battleground state dealerships within the network.
James Grace, director of analytics for Dealer.com, said a major factor hurting car shopping behavior in these states is the rise of digital advertising costs, as battleground states have averaged 7 percent higher paid search costs than non-battleground states since January, and a bigger increase in year-over-year advertising costs (11 percent) than non-battleground states (7 percent).
“We have seen this trend in past election years where the consumption of and cost of advertising in the traditional ad space that would typically be bought by dealers caused a shift to the digital space,” Grace said.
“Dealers that cannot account for additional advertising spends suffer, which can lead to a decline in online traffic, and ultimately a hit to their bottom lines.”
But Grace said there are steps dealers can take to combat the dampening effects of election season.
Incorporating election-related content
The key to bringing the election into your advertising and marketing is to keep things nonspecific, Grace said.
“But nothing dealing with the rhetoric side of the election,” he cautioned. “I wouldn’t recommend dealers get into that fray, for obvious reasons. But acknowledging the election is going on.”
How about an Election Day special? Dealers could run a banner/slide on their home page offering a discounted or free oil change for customers who present their “I voted” sticker.
Or maybe post-election promotion around “Election got you down? A new car might cheer you up!”
“To me, the best time for that would be late November,” Grace said. “You want to try to get some November sales out of this thing. So letting the smoke clear for a week or so and then looking to drive some end-of-month sales with a post-election message.”
Grace said he suspects that people’s hesitancy to make big purchases at this time may run below the surface.
“My suspicion is this trend of reduced shopping behavior is not a conscious thing for people. I think it’s just a general … there’s so much content. Advertising’s getting more expensive, you’re able to drive fewer shoppers to dealerships.
“I think it’s also just the general these of ‘the economy is not doing well.’ Hearing that message constantly in battleground states kind of created the same mood as 2008, when we actually had a big recession. My sense is that will clear up as the election finishes up. But we’re also seeing a flattening in the industry in general the past couple of months. I think of all that together is adding up to a problem for dealers in these states.”
Optimizing your advertising budget
When asked how dealers can achieve this, Grace pointed to what he called Dealer.com’s “portfolio approach.”
“We’re selling a portfolio to our customers and saying, ‘Let’s use different products to capture different pieces of the market.' We look on (a dealer’s) website, and we’ve got a bunch of tools to say, ‘How are people showing up on your website?’ And then looking at what they do on the website to sort of measure ROI.”
Grace mentioned that dealer.com is unveiling a bunch of tools to measure ROI. One is a quality scoring mechanism being introduced at NADA.
Here’s how it works: Every website visit will get a quality score based on things like time on site, bounce rate, number of page views, etc. This will be available in January, and will make things a lot easier for dealers, Grace said.
"One of the things that I’ve been talking to dealers a lot about is what I call the quality gap, and their need to focus on quality rather than quantity,” he continued. “If we look at measures of traffic, visits to websites, for instance, it’s up substantially over the past year by 10-12 percent, and sales are roughly flat, maybe plus-2 percent in the past 12 months. So that creates this gap between the traffic we measure and actual results.
It kind of puts to bed this whole idea that more advertising equals more visits to your website equals more leads equals more opportunity equals more sales, he continued.
“That very linear thought process where ‘all I have to do to sell more cars is to drive more traffic to my website’ just really doesn’t make any sense anymore.”
CarMax is joining the development parade of finding ways to retail used vehicles without the buyer having to step foot on the lot. As outfits such as Beepi and Carvana gain steam, CarMax recently announced it is launching a test of home delivery in Charlotte, N.C.
Charlotte is the first city for CarMax Home Delivery, which allows customers to select, finance, test drive and buy a vehicle, as well as trade in their current model, all without ever going to a store. More than 20 years ago, CarMax claimed it had revolutionized the industry by delivering an “honest, transparent and high-integrity buying experience.”
CarMax says it’s now extending that “revolutionary” experience from the store to the Internet through the development of online customer-focused innovations.
Home Delivery is currently only available within a 60-mile radius of Charlotte. CarMax offers Home Delivery for no additional cost. However, like in-store purchases, a fee may apply for vehicle transfers from stores outside of North Carolina.
Each vehicle still comes with CarMax’s five-day money-back guarantee and a 30-day limited warranty.
“We believe in customer empowerment — it’s why we went into business more than 20 years ago,” said Jim Lyski, chief marketing officer at CarMax.
“We will continue to lead the industry by delivering the car-buying experience customers want, wherever they want it,” Lyski continued.
Just like CarMax’s in-store experience, Home Delivery users can receive personalized customer service throughout the shopping and purchasing process. CarMax specialists are instructed to help the customer find their ideal model, apply for financing and trade in their current vehicle.
Once the customer has chosen from the nearly 50,000 vehicles in inventory, CarMax will deliver the vehicle to the customer’s home or work so the customer can take a no-obligation, stress-free test drive.
In addition to test driving in their own neighborhood, customers can see how essentials like strollers or bikes fit in the car, or even how the vehicle fits in their garage. If the vehicle is “the one,” the customer can complete the purchase on the spot.
CarMax added that the company will utilize this test in Charlotte to gather valuable customer insights and learn the best ways to further operationalize this offering for potential future markets.
CarMax also recently piloted online financing on carmax.com, which allows customers to get prequalified for financing from the comfort and privacy of their home, and then finish their shopping experience more quickly in store. This new offering rolls out nationwide this fall.
Carvana has expanded its footprint in the Northeast by launching in Pittsburgh, its 18th market.
The company says it now can offer as-soon-as next-day delivery to nearly 125 million customers, including more than 6 million in the Pittsburgh metro area.
“Pittsburgh is a historic city full of thriving businesses and we’re excited to be able to serve such a large and diverse market,” said Ernie Garcia, founder and chief executive officer of Carvana. “Coupling its geographic location with the city’s dependence for transportation, we see huge potential for our offering in Pittsburgh, and we’re eager to bring Carvana’s unmatched, 100-percent online car-buying experience to consumers in the area.”
Carvana has delivered vehicles to customers in 46 states and provides delivery options nationwide. Additional facilities enable Carvana to offer faster and more affordable delivery options, including free, as-soon-as next-day delivery to local residents in 18 markets, which in addition to Pittsburgh include:
—Atlanta
—Austin, Texas
—Birmingham, Ala.
—Charlotte, N.C.
—Columbus, Ohio
—Cincinnati
—Dallas
—Houston
—Jacksonville, Fla.
—Miami
—Nashville, Tenn.
—Orlando, Fla.
—Raleigh, N.C.
—San Antonio
—Tampa
—Richmond, Va.
—Washington, D.C.
As it has done with prior expansions, Carvana is providing a full refund of delivery fees paid to customers in Pittsburgh who bought before the expansion.
DataMentors LLC, a provider of data-as-a-service (DaaS) and right time marketing, has launched an auto lease expiration data solution available through its Relevate Auto business line.
Access to names and addresses of people whose auto leases are nearing expiration gives automotive marketers a unique data set to target consumers who may soon be in market for a new vehicle, the company said.
“In a continuous effort to provide automotive marketers with industry-leading acquisition solutions, I'm extremely excited that we are now able to provide auto lease expiration data, a robust addition to our Relevate Auto marketing database,” said Michelle Taves, senior vice president of data strategy and product management.
“In today’s market, it is estimated that 28 percent of households currently lease at least one automobile in their garage,” she continued. “Having the ability to target a household before their lease expires provides a powerful opportunity.”
The database contains over 2.7 million consumers with an automobile lease expiring in the near future. Data can be pulled by lease expiration date and can be further broken down by vehicle ownership information, demographics and contact data.
DataMentors’ auto lease database is not credit based, and can be used with no marketing restrictions. Data comes from multiple sources including:
— Point-of-sale and service data
— Transactional data sources
— Automobile warranty data sources
— Aftermarket repair and retail facilities
— Insurance transactional data
— Self-reported data obtained from national online and telephone surveys
— Service transaction records
— After-service work surveys
Relevate Auto also has information on over 190 million VINs, profiles on more than 225 million consumers, 170 million email addresses, and robust demographics.
For more information, email kidol@datamentors.com or call (800) 523-7346.
Grab your smartphone, tablet or camera.
DealerPeople is inviting all salespeople to shoot a short video showing their best walk-around for a chance to win up to $1,000.
Through Dec. 31, salespeople can upload their walk-around videos, and DealerPeople will select the best three winners in early January. First place will receive $1,000, second place $500 and third place $300. All entrants will receive a $10 Starbucks e-gift certificate.
“The walk-around is one of the most important, yet sometimes neglected steps in the car sales process,” said DealerPeople chief executive officer Jay Mortensen. “Not only is this contest a chance for contestants to win some cash, but it’s a chance for them to get noticed by one of the 4,000 dealerships currently subscribed to DealerPeople.”
Founded in 2015, DealerPeople is a free platform that allows dealers to post job listings while enabling job seekers to seamlessly search for dealerships, find career opportunities throughout the U.S. and submit traditional print and video resumes.
Available through Android, desktops and iOS, the DealerPeople application also offers real-time access to industry insights and best practices; a video library of “road-tested” solutions; leadership and sales training resources; and coursework to assist employees in achieving new performance goals — which ultimately provides a competitive advantage and contributes to individual and organizational success.
For more information on the walk-around contest and to submit a video, click here. For more information on DealerPeople, visit www.dealerpeople.com or follow DealerPeople on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
