As your dealership looks toward a new year of sales, it is the perfect chance to reassess your marketing strategies. From sifting through your spend by channels to analyzing which offers resulted in the highest number of conversions over the past year, there’s a lot you can improve upon for 2022.
One area worth a refresher is your actual ad copy. Often, dealerships build out a few ads and recycle them year after year. Little to no thought is given to how effective the copy is and whether it remains relevant in the year ahead.
This year, take the time to try out a few of the following 10 simple dealership ideas for 2022 ad copy:
1. Highlight Your Positive Impact
Too often, customers overlook ad copy because it all starts to sound the same. “Sales Event This Weekend” or “Best Car Prices in Town” all begin to fade into the background as customers become immune to the words on the page.
One way to help your dealership stand out is to run an ad campaign that doesn’t talk about your sales but instead highlights your dealership’s positive impact. Demonstrating your brand values can help create loyal customers who will choose you over your competition, not because your prices are lower or your sales event is more flashy, but because you demonstrate the same values that they hold.
Think about everything your dealership did over the past year. Did you donate to charity? Did your team volunteer at a local shelter? Did you reduce your carbon footprint?
Turn this positive impact into an ad!
For example:
The Dealership That Gives
In 2021, we donated $X to X local charity. Come join us in making a positive impact on the community.
2. Source Your Copy from Your Customers!
Ad copy that speaks to your target audience needs to be written so that your potential customers connect to the words on their screen. How do you know what speaks to your customers? It’s easy. Listen to what they are saying.
Go back through all your reviews from 2021. Look for common themes. Do a lot of your customers mention your friendly staff? Do they emphasize the importance of shopping locally? What type of language do they use to talk about your dealership?
Turn this copy into your next ad. You can even take it one step further and use your positive customer reviews as your actual ad copy.
For example:
We’re a local favorite, but don’t just take our word for it.
“ABC Dealership is not just another big box auto dealer. They are the real deal, run by a local family you can trust.” – Frank Amlay
3. Use Questions to Grab Attention
Look around the web, and a lot of the ad copy you see is in statement form. This can become extremely repetitive, especially when you are competing in a crowded market space. If you and your competition are running similar specials, your ad copy can be hard to differentiate.
This is where a question can help. Questions are a great method for grabbing a reader’s attention. They stand out more than statements, and they make a reader feel like you are standing in their shoes.
Start with a pain point you know your customers have. Then, turn that pain point into a question. Finally, make your dealership or offer the answer to that question.
For example:
Are you worried about how to finance your next vehicle?
We can help! Talk to our financing team about your options.
4. Boldly Be Bold
When you are exposed to the same style of ad copy over and over again, you become immune to the message. However, when you see an ad that is wildly different, it immediately draws your attention.
When it comes to messaging in 2022, don’t be afraid to try out a few bold ads. Rather than toning down your message, ramp it up. If you have something to be proud of, amplify it. If you have a value that you stand for, declare it.
For example:
We’re 100% percent committed to the future of our planet, and we’re NEVER looking back!
Our dealership is powered by solar and wind energy because we believe that the future of the planet belongs to us all.
5. Showcase Your Key Differentiator
What makes you different from your competition? Hopefully, you know the answer off the top of your head. If not, take the time today to make a list of what causes your dealership to stand out in your local market.
This might be your full-service center that’s available in addition to a sales showroom. It might be the fact that you have always been and always will be locally owned and operated. Maybe your differentiator is in your pricing.
Whatever the case, build your ad copy around these differentiators, and make your brand stand out. Go ahead and brag about what you do best. You want your customer base to immediately associate your key differentiators with your dealership’s name.
For example:
100 Percent Locally Owned and Operated. The ABC Dealership Difference.
When you buy a car at ABC Dealership, you’re buying from neighbors, friends, and family you trust. That’s the ABC Dealership difference.
6. Spruce Up Your Copy with Emojis
An all-text ad is bland and blends into the rest of a screen’s text; an ad that includes emojis can quickly stand out from the rest.
Consider adding emojis to your next set of ads. You can even A/B test the same ad copy, running a series of ads without emojis and a series of ads with emojis. Does your customer base respond better to the visual addition of an emoji? If so, you might want to spruce up all your ads with a little extra flair.
For example:
🚗 Drive in today for our sales event! 🚗
🥂 Celebrate scoring the best deals at our 2022 sales event.
7: Be Motivational.
Life can be tough, and the odds are good that your customer base is facing its own set of challenges and stress. Instead of tossing another promotion in front of your customers, take a motivational approach.
Bringing positive energy to your ad copy can help inspire customers to trust your brand. As humans, we are drawn to those who make us feel good. We want to be part of a community where we hold each other up and work on difficult challenges together.
Look for ways to turn your ad copy into something motivational. Add a personalized and positive touch to your next campaign.
For example:
It’s been a tough year, but you’ve got this!
At ABC Dealership, we believe in you and believe you deserve the best. That’s why, for a limited time, we are offering all single moms a free tire rotation with an oil change. Let’s tackle the year ahead together.
8. Test Out a New Call to Action
Look at your ads from 2021. Did you stick to the same call to action over and over again? If so, it might be time to mix it up.
Your call to action should be simple to understand and compelling. The goal of your ad is for your customer to complete this specific action. In many cases, dealerships use the same vague call to action repeatedly, and it hurts the success of the ad. No matter how compelling the first segment of your ad copy is, your ad will rarely convert unless you follow it up with a powerful call to action.
Go through your ads and reassess your calls to action. How strong are they? Are any of them vague? Take note of any ads that performed better than the rest. Did you use a different call to action?
This is another excellent chance to put A/B testing to the task. Run a few ads with the same copy, but swap out the calls to action. See if you notice any trends and try to discover what your customer base responds to best.
For example:
Old Ad
Need to book an oil change for your Toyota?
Click Here.
New Ad
Need to book an oil change for your Toyota?
Schedule Online Now!
9. Make Your Customer Feel Special
People love to be praised, whether they consciously recognize this or not. For this reason, many of the best ad campaigns in history have focused on stroking the customer’s ego.
As you build out your ad campaigns for 2022, look for ways you can congratulate, praise, or point out something flattering about your customer. The key to making this successful is to keep it authentic. What do you think is best about your customer base? Find a way to highlight this in your next ad.
For example:
Hidden fees? You’re smarter than that.
That’s why you choose ABC Dealership, where your questions are always answered with full transparency.
10. Back Up Your Ad Copy with Quality Images
This one isn’t an actual tip about your ad’s copy, but it’s an equally important point. No matter how compelling your ad copy is, if the imagery surrounding it isn’t high-quality or doesn’t match the copy’s message, you risk losing your audience’s attention.
Not only is it a good idea to ensure that the images you are using are crisp, clean, and easy to understand, but you should also rotate out old imagery for a new fresh look. If you’ve been recycling the same images through your ad cycles for the past year, invest in some new photography or pay for a new graphic design. This is particularly relevant when you are retargeting the same customer base. It is easy for people to glaze over an ad that looks repetitive. New imagery can help capture their attention once again.
For example:
If you have run the same ad campaign featuring an image of your showroom over the past year, consider swapping out the photo for a unique graphic design or a picture of your staff. Something as simple as changing an ad image can go a long way in freshening your dealership’s look.
Talk to J&L Marketing About 2022 Ad Copy
If your dealership has been running the same ads over and over again, it might be time to consider changing your ad copy and testing out a few new things. As we approach 2022, talk to our team at J&L Marketing about how we can help.
We have years of experience testing out a variety of ads, which has allowed us to discover what ad copy converts the best. Not only that, but we will also work with your dealership to hone in on the right messaging for your target audience. From there, we’ll even help you set up A/B testing to ensure that you are using your marketing spend as wisely as possible.
The result is that you can spend less on your ads while improving your conversion rates. Talk to our team today for a free consultation.
