Are you wondering why your dealership has thousands of website visits every month, but only a handful of test drives?
Imagine if your dealership could target the consumers who visit your website and provide them with relevant, real-time ads? Through a well-organized, optimized remarketing campaign, you can.
Remarketing, also referred to as retargeting, is defined by Outbrain as “a form of digital marketing in which marketers serve ads to users who have visited their website, or a specific web page, and who have or have not taken a specific action.”
From display ads to timely email messages, remarketing works to convince a potential customer to return to your website or dealership and take the next step in the purchase process.
3 Key Benefits of Remarketing Campaigns
Retargeting campaigns are known to increase online conversion rates by 150%. And, 91% of marketers who have used retargeting have found that it performed the same as or better than search, email, or other display ads.
Aside from bringing customers’ attention back to your dealership, remarketing campaigns offer three main benefits for automotive businesses:
1. Improved Conversions
In a study of remarketing ads and their effectiveness, the average click-through rate (CTR) of remarketing/retargeting ads was 0.7%.In comparison, regular display ads have a CTR of only 0.07%.
As a result, remarketing campaigns boast a CTR that’s 10 times higher than regular display banner ads!
If your car dealership is struggling to convert online visitors into test drives or purchases, consider launching a remarketing ad campaign to improve your overall conversion rate.
2. Increased Brand Awareness
Often, a user will land on your website while searching online for local dealerships or a specific vehicle. Since 98% of consumers do not convert on the first website visit, they’ll likely leave your website and move on to the next, without remembering a single aspect of your brand.
You can actively improve a consumer’s awareness of your brand by leveraging retargeting campaigns. Considering the lengthy process involved in purchasing a vehicle, remarketing ads are an effective way to stay top-of-mind with qualified prospective customers throughout the sales cycle.
3. Ideal ROI
When it comes to utilizing a marketing budget, what’s a car dealership’s top concern? The return on investment, of course.
While each business’s evaluation of ROI will vary depending on the industry, it’s worth noting that an online watch dealer in the UK was able to improve its ROI 1,300% using retargeting ads.
Remarketing campaigns allow dealerships to narrow in on specific audience segments and individual customers, providing a greater opportunity for conversions, leading to a more desirable return on investment for your dealership.
5 Types of Remarketing Strategies: Which Is Right for Your Dealership?
As with most marketing tactics, remarketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. There are five main types of remarketing campaigns your car dealership can utilize to improve ROI, increase conversions, and generate brand awareness.
1. VIN Specific Advertising
VIN Specific Advertising is a form of dynamic remarketing available exclusively for the automotive industry. Using this tactic, car dealerships can pair their inventory with a consumer’s search intent to provide dynamic, real-time ads featuring information about a particular vehicle.
For instance, let’s say a consumer searched for a “2019 Toyota Camry” and was directed to a listing for that vehicle on your website. Although they didn’t convert, they now receive ads about that vehicle throughout their Internet activity.
VIN Specific Advertising works to show your current inventory to consumers who are actively searching for specific vehicle information online. This type of remarketing campaign is available for use on Facebook, display ads on the Google Display network, and as paid ads in search results.
This type of remarketing provides automotive companies with numerous benefits, including a shortened sales cycle, strong customer relationships, and an increase in ROI.
To set up and launch your dealership’s VIN Specific Advertising campaign, get in touch with the team at J&L Marketing today.
2. Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSAs)
In addition to generic display ads, Google AdWords also enables car dealers to tailor their paid text search ads to customers who have previously visited their website.
To utilize this remarketing feature, you will need to create a remarketing audience list and add a bit of code, known as a remarketing tag, to your website. From here, you can adjust your bid and ad preferences to accomplish your retargeting goals for this particular audience.
Follow these step-by-step instructions from Google to get started.
3. Email Remarketing
Your dealership can also combine the power of email marketing and remarketing ads for an effective advertising strategy.
With email remarketing, you can choose between:
- Targeting display ads to users who have opened an email message from your dealership.
- Sending emails to visitors who visited your website and left without taking an action, prompting them to return to the website.
Since 92% of car buyers research online before they buy, your dealership must stay top-of-mind with qualified customers. And, since the average American spends about five hours per day thumbing through emails, what better place to grab their attention?
4. Video Remarketing
While display ads limit you to a certain number of pixels and search ads only allow so many characters, video remarketing ads offer dealerships a wealth of advertising possibilities.
Without strict text or visual limitations, this remarketing technique enables advertisers to engage with previous website visitors through ads played before YouTube videos.
As with most YouTube advertisements, viewers will have the option to skip your advertisement. With this in mind, your ad needs to capture the attention of viewers through an enticing message, stunning visuals, and a call to action within the first few seconds.
5. Social Media Remarketing
You can also launch remarketing ads on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. While many retargeting ad options use a tactic known as list-based retargeting, social media networks offer the option to use a pixel to track and deliver your ads to those who have visited your website.
Using this method of remarketing, users will see targeted ads for your dealership throughout their social media feed.
Remember, VIN Specific Advertising is also compatible with social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Combine your inventory with a user’s social media activity and deliver highly contextual, individualized ads in real time!
How to Make the Most of Your Remarketing Campaign
Since the goal of remarketing is to improve your dealership’s conversions and marketing ROI, it’s important to keep these tips in mind before you launch your first campaign:
Set Campaign Goals
Before selecting a remarketing campaign type or setting up a tracking pixel, you need to identify your goals for the campaign. Are you trying to get previous website visitors to return to your website for more information, or would you like them to take a specific action such as signing up for a test drive?
The best retargeting campaigns follow the “SMART” goals format:
- Specific — Be as exact as possible with your goals. For example, “we want to receive a 0.5% CTR and four test drives within a two-week time frame.”
- Measurable — Your goals must be quantified and able to be measured through metrics such as conversions, CTR, website visits, etc.
- Attainable — Make sure your goals are attainable or realistic.
- Relevant — Are your remarketing goals relevant to your overall marketing strategy?
- Timely — Provide a deadline or timeframe for completion.
Having these goals in place will help guide your remarketing decisions throughout the campaign.
Define Your Budget
Retargeting campaigns allow dealerships to choose between various bidding and ad spending options. As a result, it’s far too easy to drive up your costs if you’re unprepared.
First, decide how much you’re willing to spend on a single remarketing campaign. From there, you can identify which bidding tactic is best for your goals and budget. Remarketing campaigns enable users to bid via click, keyword, etc., as well as set campaign spending limits. You are also able to set manual bidding strategies on platforms such as Google Ads.
Target Specific Audiences
Sure, you can send remarketing ads to every single person that’s ever visited your dealership’s website. But is this a good use of your marketing funds? Of course not.
Instead, be specific with your remarketing audiences. For instance, if you’re running a promotion, consider adding a pixel to your website during the first few days of the campaign. From there, target the users who have visited your website during that time frame with an individualized ad campaign related to the promotion.
Doing so will increase your chance of conversions more than blasting out a generalized campaign to the masses.
Test and Track Everything
Test out different variables such as the message, platform delivery, imagery, etc., to see what your audience responds to best.
With each new adjustment or addition to the campaign, be sure to track the results meticulously. Having detailed records of your campaign efforts and the outcomes will give you a full understanding of how your ads are performing.
Work With Advertising Specialists
While you may be an expert in the automotive industry, our team is made up of advertising experts. It may be more convenient to quickly write and design the remarketing ads yourself, but how effective will they be?
For the most successful outcome, it’s best to partner with a team of copywriters, designers, and advertising strategists to make the most of your remarketing efforts. Each specialist is an expert in their area of the field and understands how to optimize ads to captivate your specific audience and convince them to take action, which results in more conversions for your dealership.
When you’re ready to launch remarketing ads and improve your dealership’s conversion rate, contact the team at J&L Marketing. As digital marketing and direct response leaders in the automotive industry, we understand what it takes to develop and optimize a successful remarketing campaign.
