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New Ways Automotive Marketers Use Mobile Search to Drive Vehicle Sales

DialogTech

4 out of 5 shoppers use their smartphones to research vehicles and according to a 2014 study, 25% of auto shoppers research dealerships using only their smartphone device. With so much automotive research and shopping happening on mobile devices – it’s key for your dealership to optimize your marketing for mobile search. Read on for a few ways you can optimize your automotive marketing.

1. Solicit Online Customer Reviews of Your Dealership

One way to help stay top of mind and top of search engine results is through review websites. In fact, 79% of millennials view online reviews of dealerships very important or extremely important in their research and auto shopping process. Having good, honest reviews on dealership directors like Cars.com or Yelp is extremely important for consumers. You can ask happy customers to leave reviews of your dealership on directories to help positively influence auto shoppers purchasing decisions.

Not only do review websites help mobile auto shoppers find out more about your dealership, they also help your dealership appear in organic search results. For example, if a consumer searches for “Best Mazda dealer near me” the top organic search results will be for Mazda dealerships near them followed by review websites like Cars.com, Yelp, DealerRater.com and more. Again, encouraging customers to leave reviews will help your dealership appear in organic rankings on search engines.

Auto shoppers are even using their smartphones while on the lot to read reviews. 17% of shoppers reported using their smartphones to read reviews while on a dealer lot.

Is your dealership suffering because of bad online reviews? It’s important to respond to these bad reviews publicly. Check out this post on Cars.com for tips on replying to reviews about your dealership.

2. Maintain Your Google My Business Dealership Listing

With Google My Business your dealership can show business hours, phone number, and directions on Google Search and Maps for free. Ensuring that your listing has accurate and up-to-date information is critical to driving both mobile and desktop consumers to your dealership. In fact, 37% of auto shoppers reported using multiple devices in their research before visiting a dealership and your Google My Business listing will appear on all types of devices.

3. Take Advantage of PPC Advertising and Extensions

If your dealership isn’t taking advantage of PPC advertising it is likely that your competition is winning more business from mobile shoppers than your dealership. But what is more important than just simply running paid search ads for your dealership is utilizing the extensions that come along with PPC ads. Below I list several types of extensions and ad formats that automotive marketers can take advantage of to drive more calls and sales from PPC.

Mobile Ads for Auto Dealers. According to Google’s VP of Product Management, more than 50% of automotive searches happen on mobile, and Google recently rolled out two new ad formats specifically for auto dealers. In the example shown below, dealers can use a carousel of images in their ad with links to their website, special offers, and more.

Google Auto Ads
-Nearby Business Ads. The number of search queries containing the terms “near me” and “nearby” has doubled in the last year according to Google. Automotive marketers can run ads with location extensions so that users searching for dealerships “nearby” are served an ad with a link to get directions instantly, as well as a click to call link so they can connect in a conversation immediately.

Nearby or Near Me Business Ads– Sitelink and Callout Extensions. Using sitelinks and callout extensions you can highlight the benefits an auto shopper will get from choosing to click through to your dealership instead of the competition. With sitelinks you can show different pages on your website that are popular to your consumers such as, “Get a Quote” or “Search Inventory”. Using callout extensions you can highlight the specific makes, models, or special offers your dealership has. See an example below.

Sitelink and Callout Extensions

– Google Call Extensions. When auto shoppers are ready to make an appointment to visit a dealership, they call. Calls to dealerships outnumbered email leads 4 to 1 in 2014, and many of those callers were driven to dealerships by PPC ads.

Google Call Extensions

Since so may auto shoppers are on mobile devices, the easiest path for them to connect with your business is a phone call. Whether they see your ad or your organic listing, making it easy for them to get in touch with your dealership is critical and Google Call Extensions do just that for paid ads. You can even track the calls your extensions generate to optimize campaigns for the keywords that are driving calls and sales. Watch this webinar to learn how easy it is to get started with call attribution for Google Call Extensions.

To learn more ways to improve the way you market your automotive dealership check out the free guide, “New Guide for Auto Marketers: Facebook Advertising In a Mobile World.