Your marketing dollars should be focused on three key objectives:
1) Capture those riders immediately in the market to buy
2) Speed up the buying cycle for those who are considering an upgrade
3) Create desire from those riders in your market who aren’t considering an upgrade right now.
So where to start?
Think about it this way. If 3% of every living and breathing soul in your market area ride, it means 97% do not and no matter how much money you spend to try to convince them otherwise, they probably never will ride. But you’re not just looking for riders, right? You want to sell units and in order to sell units, you have to find the 1-2% of the 3% who are actually in the market to buy right now. It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack in a hayfield.
So how do you do it?
One of the best ways is Google Ads. It is a reactive media; you are reacting to those riders who are searching for a unit you sell and lives in your market. This checks the box for the first of your three marketing objectives, ‘Capture those immediately in the market to buy.’
What I personally love about Google Ads is your ads only appear for someone who lives in the specific zip codes where the majority of your sales come from and they are literally in front of a computer, tablet or smart phone Googling a unit you probably have in-stock. The best part? It doesn’t cost you a penny when the customer or prospect sees the ad…the only time you’re charged for that ad is when someone actually clicks on it and lands on your VDP Page where that unit lives on your website.
It’d be like asking your radio/TV/billboard rep to display your ad all month long for free and then telling them, “Every time you can prove to me my ad made my phone ring or drove someone to my website, I’ll give you $.82.” Your rep would laugh at you, right? But that’s exactly how Google Ads works and is exactly what we’re doing for this dealer. As you can see, their ads appeared 4,844 times over the past 30 days for folks Googling something they sell and live within 20 miles of the dealership, for FREE. Of the folks who saw the ad, 611 clicked and landed on the relevant page on their website for a total cost of $501.64 or just $.82/click!
Now let’s take a look at something together. Go ahead and open up a tab in Google, do a search for your dealership’s name and read through all the results. What you’re probably seeing is a bunch of results all about your dealership all over the first page of your dealership. Feels good doesn’t it? You’ll probably agree though, if the customer is Googling your dealership’s name, they are probably already a customer, or they know they want to come see you and are checking for a phone number or hours. What about the folks who don’t know where they want to go or aren’t a loyal customer?
Now Google the Year, Make & Model of your best-selling unit. Scroll through all the results on the first page. If you’re not doing Google Ads, what you’re probably seeing are paid ads from the manufacturer and maybe from some competing dealers. As you scroll past the ads, you’re going to see the organic search results including pictures and YouTube videos of the unit from the manufacturer. Then, you’re going to see a lot of the big national sites like CycleTrader.com, UltimateMotorCycling.com, MotorCyclistOnline.com, etc. …but probably not your dealership. Why? Because organically you simply can’t compete with the manufacturer and the big national sites. They get millions of visitors every year and you get thousands. However with the right Google Ads campaign, we can level the playing field and put your dealership in front of more in the market customers and prospects in your backyard, so you can generate more leads and sell more units.
Now let’s talk about your second marketing objective, ‘Speeding up the buying cycle for those who are considering an upgrade.’ One of the best ways to do this is through Google ReTargeting. I’m sure you’ve been ReTargeted a lot in the past; you’re looking at a website for something you’re interested in and then leave and go to another site like Facebook, YouTube, etc. and you see an ad for what you were just looking at. That’s ReTargeting and it’s extremely effective.
I’ll give you an example. I was kicking around the idea of getting a new playground set for our kids this summer and every time I convinced myself I didn’t need to spend the money, I’d see another ad for the damn thing, my emotions would kick back in and finally I pulled out the credit card and bought it! Same thing is true for your customers. Stay in front of folks who’ve recently looked at inventory on your website and you will get them to make the emotional decision to pull the trigger on their next ride faster. For the following dealer, their ads displayed 215,321 times for folks who had visited their website in the past 30 days and 1,373 clicked and went back to their website!
Now on to the 3rd marketing objective, ‘Creating desire from those riders in your market who aren’t considering an upgrade right now.’ One of the best ways to do this is through Facebook & Instagram Advertising. You can proactively target riders in your top performing zip codes with the latest and greatest Rebate & Finance Offers, Low Payment Options, New Model Release Information, Demo Events at the dealership and more. Most of the riders you’ll be targeting don’t have ‘buy a unit’ on their top 5 things to do this month but they do ride and that is a huge jumping off point. Stay in front of them consistently and you can get them to click on that ad or visit your dealership for an event and begin the process of getting them bit by the bug, so they start making plans to buy their next ride.
Below is a snapshot of one of our clients Facebook Advertising results. As you can see, we’ve generated 26,570 impressions over the last 30 days with 490 clicks for a total budget of just $142.51!
PSM is a Google Preferred Partner Company and has managed millions of dollars in AdSpend for hundreds of dealerships for the past decade and I guarantee if given the shot, we’ll be able to outperform your previous provider. If you’re not currently spending money in Ads & Facebook, make this a non-negotiable for your 2020 Marketing Plan because as a Powersports Dealer, this is one of the best ways you can spend your first dollar in advertising.
For more information on how PSM can help you move the needle for your business by managing turn-key Google & Facebook/Instagram Advertising, call me on my direct line at 877-242-4472 x 112. Happy selling.
