As an automotive dealer, you’re always looking for the next best way to pair consumers with their dream car. But the days of cold leads and hoping someone walks through your door needling you for information are over.
Today, automotive manufacturers and dealerships rely on a myriad of online marketing tactics, including VIN Specific Advertising, to identify purchase-ready customers and drive them to make an informed sale.
If your car dealership or business isn’t already using VIN Specific Advertising as part of its digital marketing campaign, it’s time for a change. This innovative marketing tactic is leading the way in the automotive world by bringing qualified leads to dealerships and improving their sales.
What is VIN Specific Advertising?
The process is initiated through campaigns using display marketing, paid search, and Facebook’s marketing platform. VIN Specific Advertising seeks to provide relevant content and product information to in-market shoppers who are on the cusp of being ready to buy.
VIN Specific Advertising efforts work by providing information about vehicles in your inventory to consumers in the Vin Specific market for a specific make and model, who are actively searching for information.
As consumers shop online for particular vehicles, your car dealership can deliver ads and content filled with the information they’re looking for about their vehicle of choice. Best of all, VIN Specific Advertising tactics can easily fit right into the online marketing campaign or strategy your company is already employing.
Using VIN Specific Advertising on Facebook
According to the Pew Research Center, 68% of Americans use Facebook. 74% of that audience checks the platform daily. While we’re sure your automotive dealership has a thriving Facebook page, are you using the platform’s remarketing and advertising capabilities to its fullest?
You can always post about your inventory and new cars on Facebook organically. But using Facebook ads in combination with VIN Specific Advertising can increase ad click-through rates as well as the number of qualified leads for your dealership.
A Honda dealer in Tennessee enjoyed a 214% increase in click-through rate using VIN specific Facebook remarketing, instead of standard Facebook remarketing.
The term remarketing refers to the tactic of serving social media ads to shoppers who previously viewed products on your website. In this particular instance, car dealerships can strategically place VIN specific ads to those who have already looked at that same vehicle on their website. VIN Specific Facebook remarketing ads serve as a means of gently reminding a customer about their interest in a new (or used) car.
For example, let’s say you searched for a 2019 Ford F-150 on a dealership’s website. You look at the information and click out of the website. Later in the day, while scrolling on Facebook, you happen to see an interactive advertisement for that same vehicle from the same dealership. This ad contains walk-through videos, high-quality pictures, and all the information you could ever ask for about the vehicle.
From there, you click through to the website and finally take action by contacting the dealership or submitting an inquiry form.
You can also target individuals who have been to your business and inquired about a specific vehicle. By pairing your CRM system with Facebook advertising, you can serve quality and
in-depth ads using VIN information to those who are still considering to make a purchase.
Quick Tips for Using VIN Facebook Advertising
If your car dealership elects to use VIN specific advertising on Facebook, you’ll find these tips to be quite useful.
Make Your Ads Stand Out
Sadly, social media is full of ads these days, and users tune them out. While the high relevance of your VIN-related ad will pique their curiosity, the rest of your advertisement needs to capture their attention fully.
Use the following to make your ad stand out from the rest of their newsfeed:
- Professionally filmed videos about the specific vehicle
- Up-to-date mileage and other vital vehicle data
- High-quality imagery of the car’s interior and exterior
- Captivating copy about the car, dealership, and any ongoing promotions related
to the vehicle
Run A/B Tests
Facebook gives dealerships the ability to test various campaigns against each another to see which performs the best. After uploading your data management system inventory to Facebook, put together multiple campaign types and formats for each vehicle.
For instance, you can test different styles of copy. Do your customers prefer copy full of information about the vehicle, or would they rather read about a particular promotion? Or, you can test using different images and media in your ads.
Once you’ve figured out the winning combination, roll with it and let the leads fly in.
Create a Call to Action
Although VIN specific ads on Facebook are informative and timely, they’re useless if you don’t include a Call to Action (CTA). Your CTA must be brief and easily understood. Users should never be confused about what step to take next.
Common CTAs for dealerships include:
- Click here to request a test drive!
- Contact us to learn more about the [car make/model].
- Stop in and take advantage of this promotion before it ends!
- Click here to get started for our sale event!
Make sure the CTA relates directly back to your campaign’s goal, too.
VIN Specific Display Advertising
Similar to Facebook advertising and remarketing tactics, display ads are a form of remarketing that follows consumers to other websites on the Internet.
However, as consumers, we’ve learned to block out banner ads on websites. A recent study showed that approximately 86% of consumers suffer from banner blindness. With this in mind, it’s not enough to craft a simple banner ad anymore.
This is where VIN Specific Advertising tactics come in handy.
The consumer has already been to your dealership’s website and looked at that specific vehicle, so they’re much more likely to notice the banner ad about it. The high relevance of that ad to the consumer will practically ensure they pay attention to, and interact with, the ad.
Quick Tips for Using VIN Specific Display Ads
Keep these tips in mind as you design your display ads:
Use an Organized Design
With banner blindness in mind, you’ll need to design your VIN-specific banner ads to communicate a single message clearly in a matter of seconds. Work with your car dealership’s marketing team to put together a concise design using dynamic VIN information that will capture a customer’s attention on a busy, cluttered website.
Be Strategic with Your Message
Banner ads don’t offer a lot of working space. Stick to one message point about the vehicle, such as price, and design the ad around that. This will give you a clear creative direction to work on for the rest of your ad. It’ll also avoid confusion for consumers.
Include a Call to Action
Like all online ads, your display ads need a CTA as well. However, you’ll want to prominently your CTA in the advertisement. Otherwise, it will get lost in the other design elements and copy.
Paid Search Using VIN Numbers
Lastly, your car dealership can launch a paid search campaign utilizing your inventory of VIN numbers. As customers look for the specific car they want on search engines such as Google, a dynamic ad appears at the top of their search results page with info that’s relevant to
a specific VIN.
When a user clicks on your ad, they’re brought directly to the vehicle details page on your website where they can learn all about that specific car.
Paid search ads typically offer vague copy loosely based on the searcher’s query. VIN Specific paid search campaigns, however, provide potential customers with the exact information for the car they were viewing. Thus, you will increase their level of trust with your dealership and the likelihood of them making a purchase.
Tips for VIN Specific Paid Search Ads
Thinking about using paid search as part of your VIN specific advertising efforts? These tips will help you out along the way.
Write Clear Copy
While your data management system will generate much of your VIN specific ad copy, be sure that your paid search ad utilizes clear and direct copy. Otherwise, it will get lost among the other search results.
Highlight the Call to Action
Since paid search ads rely only on text, you’ll need to highlight your CTA early on in the copy. Remember to direct users to take a specific action such as contacting your dealership to set up a test drive.
Why Your Car Dealership Should Use VIN Specific Advertising
On top of improved sales and digital marketing results, VIN specific advertising provides auto dealerships with several advantages, such as:
Strengthened Customer Relationships
Customer relationship management and stellar customer service are key when helping people make one of the most significant purchases in their life. During this time, customers want as much information about the vehicle as possible. With VIN specific advertising, you can be upfront with the vehicle information before you meet the customer face-to-face, beginning the customer relationship on a positive note.
Shorter Sales Cycles
Since the customer will come to your dealership already having knowledge of the vehicle, the sales cycle will be shorter. This leaves your sales professionals with more time to scout out additional sales opportunities or help existing customers find a second or third vehicle for
their home.
Increased Brand Awareness
As customers shop for vehicles online, your VIN specific ads will follow them through other websites and social media. This increased brand awareness will help ensure that customer’s recall your brand.
Start Using VIN Specific Advertising Today
Ready to use VIN Specific Advertising to your advantage? Improve your online marketing results and overall sales with help from the J&L Marketing team.
