In a fast-paced automotive industry, having your brand stand out is crucial as a car dealership or auto parts retailer. And, a boutique automotive marketing agency offers several competitive advantages. Compared to large-scale and general digital marketing firms, smaller auto agencies can fuel your success with their flexible business structures, personalized attention, and more.
Whether you’re looking to strengthen your local dealership’s online presence or drive more e-commerce auto parts sales, here’s how a small auto marketing firm can accelerate your growth.
5 Benefits of Working with a Boutique Automotive Marketing Agency
Below are the top five benefits of working with a small automotive digital marketing agency and why they’re worth your investment.
1. Flexible Automotive Marketing Services
One of the main benefits of working with a boutique automotive marketing agency is its flexible business structure. The automotive digital marketplace is ever-evolving, and your business sometimes has to adapt to these new changes.
For example, dealerships are finding an increase in online purchasing without consumers visiting onsite. More vehicle owners prioritize a convenient car shopping experience by buying cars online and having them delivered without leaving their homes.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, automotive brands adapted to in-person restrictions with contactless test drives, mobile inventory shopping apps, and rising online car retailers. Even in a post-pandemic landscape, the global automotive e-commerce market continues to grow in popularity, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 17.4% by 2031.
With these recent marketplace shifts in the industry, your brand may want to re-align its automotive marketing strategies to cater to these new customer behaviors. You may want to invest in new marketing services, like virtual vehicle showrooms on social media and video customer service chats on your website to answer their questions online and close more deals.
If you work with a corporate digital agency, they may not offer the flexibility to update your existing agreements and scale your marketing services until the contract term is complete.
Your marketing agency should be like a partner in your brand and grow with you as needed.
2. Specialized Automotive Marketing Services
In addition to flexibility, small automotive marketing companies have exclusive industry services that generalized digital firms may not. Boutique auto agencies may offer automotive copywriting and web design/development for your branded dealership’s website that adheres to strict OEM guidelines.
Because they specialize in the automotive sector, they know how to navigate the marketplace with tailored marketing. When your digital agency has industry-specific services and relevant experience, your business can leverage its marketing investments better.
3. Optimized Vehicle Advertising Budget
A boutique auto advertising agency utilizes its industry expertise and in-house team to optimize your ad’s budgets. They know how to use vehicle marketing technology to maximize your ad spend for greater ROI.
If you’re a local car dealership, they can integrate your used and new vehicle inventory data feed with your Vehicle Listing Advertisements (VLAs) on Google Merchant Center. Consumers enter the vehicle features they want, like mileage and model year, and it provides relative listings from your inventory without them entering your website.
When they’re ready to buy, your dealership’s contact information is provided as the final step. Capturing leads from Google reaches new buyers and is critical for automotive brands as users don’t always click on your website when shopping for cars online.
A study shows that integrating VLAs with existing search campaigns can increase average conversion rates by 25%—without increasing ad spend!
Advertising agencies in the automotive industry combine their SEO and SEM knowledge to generate high-converting VLAs because they know which ones have the highest performance to maximize profit and which ones have the lowest performance to adjust for improvement.
4. Personalized Client Communication
As a dealership or auto retailer business owner, sometimes you want to speak with the owner of your marketing agency directly. While they may have assigned staff to communicate with you, like account managers, there are instances where you prefer to speak with someone in the highest position.
Whether you want to build a stronger relationship or scale your marketing services, getting the owner of the digital agency you work with on the phone shouldn’t be difficult due to their schedule.
Smaller automotive marketing agencies typically have more personalized client communication. Since they have fewer clients than international firms, it usually allows them more availability to cater to your needs.
5. Enhanced Client Focus
Just because boutique auto marketing companies are smaller doesn’t mean they’re less capable. In fact, they use their small business structure to their advantage for their clients. With a smaller bandwidth of clients to manage, they can enhance their focus on your brand and tackle new challenges more effectively.
Although corporate automotive marketing firms have more resources and bigger teams, they may have slower turnarounds if you have new service requests or unexpected project disruptions due to their larger workloads and stricter business models.
Accelerate Your Long-Term Success with a Boutique Automotive Marketing Agency
Whether you’re a branded dealership, a local car dealer, or in auto parts e-commerce, working with a small automotive agency is one of the best marketing investments you can make for your brand. From relevant industry experience to flexible scaling contracts, you want a digital firm that tailors to your business’s marketing needs with a successful track record in your niche.
At Reach Marketing Pro, we’re a full-service boutique digital marketing agency with extensive experience in the automotive industry, including social media, video marketing, web design/development, email marketing, and more.
We also offer specialized automotive marketing services.
Our Dealer VIP Advantage program boosts sales for your vehicles in production inventory with OEM and brand-centric pre-order setups and SEO-optimized reservation pages. Our Absorption Boost services streamline your customer’s buying process with mobile QR codes for monthly specials to close deals more quickly and easily.
Ready to turbocharge your brand’s automotive marketing efforts?
As a branded or used car dealership, you understand the importance of automotive social media marketing. But are you generating the results you’re aiming for? Dealership owners commonly make the mistake of posting on every social platform just to do it without data-driven metrics to develop their strategies, leaving them with little to no ROI.
Here’s a complete guide to social media marketing for car dealerships with content ideas to drive more sales.
A Guide to Automotive Social Media Marketing: Content Tips to Increase Sales
According to the CMM Council, leveraging social media marketing in the automotive industry more strategically can increase leads and sales. They reported that using natural language, big data analytics, and positive reputation management can deliver more meaningful social content based on your customer’s buyer’s journey.
Car shoppers aren’t always ready to buy immediately and don’t always want a “car for sale” in their feeds that feels spammy.
They also want personalized vehicle recommendations, to read dealer reviews, to get coupon offers, and even to engage with their favorite automotive brands’ social channels. In addition to transactional posts, consumers want informative and comparative car content before making a major investment.
CMM Council states that 38% of consumers will consult social media before buying their next vehicle, and 23% will use social media to communicate their purchase experience. By creating social media content at each marketing funnel stage, you can meet your target customers where they are in their purchasing process to generate more qualified leads.
Below are some automotive social media marketing strategies to consider and how they can benefit your bottom line.
Google Business Profile: Vehicles for Sale & Vehicle Listing Ads
Although Google Business Profile isn’t considered social media, it’s similar because you’re creating a profile online and sharing updates via that profile. It’s like a social media profile that lives in Google Search and Google Maps.
Vehicles for Sale is a module on your Google Business Profile that uses your dealership’s inventory to showcase specific listings to match a user’s search queries. Consumers can search and apply filters to navigate your inventory outside your website and learn more about it directly on Google.
Then, when they’re ready to get the vehicle they want, it’ll direct them to your dealership to buy it. This feature supports your local SEO because your specific vehicle listings can appear in related search results when local consumers are looking for them.
Vehicle Listing Ads
Vehicle Listing Ads is a feature you set up after you create an inventory data feed within Google Merchant Center. Google matches these details to potential buyers, utilizing the relevant vehicle makes and models they’re searching for.
It’s like a personal shopping assistant for car buyers. They can enter their desired features, like location, make, mileage, and price. Then, relevant Vehicle Listing Ads are shown, including dealerships that can ship it to them.
Google Business Profile Reviews & Customer Testimonials
Social proof can make or break car dealerships, especially as a local brand. Investing and maintaining your online reputation establishes trust for prospective car buyers by showcasing positive testimonials from real customers.
If you don’t have one already, create a Google Business Profile and ask happy customers to share reviews. Also, personally answer to the negative feedback that may occur over a template-based or no response.
Bad reviews are inevitable. But, you can control how you communicate and improve from them. Consumers will notice how you handle these.
Social Media Ads
In addition to organic social media content, creating ad campaigns is as crucial for auto dealers to increase lead acquisition and sales. When determining which social platforms to use, always conduct A/B testing for each ad campaign to see which type of content works first.
Also known as split testing, it sends different versions of your ad campaign to two audiences. We recommend only changing one element of your ad campaign instead of multiple to compare the results accurately. For example, you can use a single image ad for one group and an image ad carousel for another. Then, you can review which ad campaign had a better content performance to know which resonates best with your target audience.
You should also track KPIs and evaluate your ad’s monthly reporting metrics to see if your campaign is still working. If ad conversion rates are rapidly declining, you should re-evaluate your automotive social media strategy.
Now, let’s dive into the different social ad content ideas.
X advertisements with hashtag campaigns are an effective strategy to build brand awareness and attract new car buyers. In 2012, Audi launched a “#WantAnR8” X campaign to promote their R8 V10 model. It engaged the automotive community to win a free drive of their newest car by simply posting this hashtag on their accounts—receiving over 75,000 tweets!
Meta (Facebook) Ads
Meta makes it easy to create social ads for their family apps. You can create Facebook and Instagram ads all in Ads Manager. However, you must strategically create ad campaigns for each platform as they have unique formatting, audiences, and ad spend requirements.
Some car dealership social media ideas for Facebook ads are:
Facebook Canvas Ads: Use images and videos to showcase new car models or highlight the specific features your audience finds the most useful.
Facebook Lead Ads: Create retargeting campaigns for audiences who engaged with your previous ads to generate highly qualified leads.
Facebook Inventory Ads: Showcase your used, new, and vehicles in production inventories to sell cars faster when your audience knows where and when they’re available.
Some car dealership social media ideas for Instagram ads are:
Instagram Story Ads: Post video story ads that prevent users from swiping through, like contests for free one-year servicing or other prizes your audience finds valuable.
Instagram Feed Ads: Create ad copy that stops users from scrolling, like exclusive teasers for new vehicle launches or limited holiday campaign promotions.
Instagram Video Influencer Ads: Work with automotive influencers for video endorsements like “Get Ready with Me” to buy a car that takes them from their home to your dealership. Or videos of their online car shopping process with the car delivered to their home. This provides an immersive buying experience so consumers know what to expect when purchasing from you.
X (Twitter) Ads
TikTok Ads
Although you’re selling cars, you must remember that you’re selling to people, too. Using UGC of everyday people or influencer test drives and car walkthroughs/demos can drive more meaningful connections with your consumers. Their enthusiasm for the cabin amenities, infotainment features, and engine type gives a more visual ad experience.
LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn ads are surprisingly showing success for auto dealers. Car buyers are likely working professionals, so meeting them on this platform can help them make a big purchase decision easier. You can maximize LinkedIn ad ROI with audience targeting, optimized budget allocation, and relevant content they find valuable.
According to Nielsen, effective LinkedIn ad marketing for dealerships includes:
Aspiration LinkedIn Ads: Displaying how your dealership meets and improves consumer needs, like non-luxury vehicle promotions, is 2X more likely to generate brand awareness.
Innovation LinkedIn Ads: Sharing new designs, like EV features and eligible government tax credits, is 2.3X more likely to increase customer recommendations.
Loyalty LinkedIn Ads: Showcasing your commitment to customer loyalty, like free annual services or anniversary discounts, is 47% more likely to drive favorability.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads
Did you know that 66% of automotive calls generated by search engines are from PPC search ads? This study shows that phone calls convert 10 to 15X more revenue than web leads. For this reason, creating PPC search ad campaigns with click-to-call buttons can strengthen its performance and click-through rate.
With many users browsing the web on mobile devices, you can personalize and streamline their car-buying process by enhancing the customer calling experience.
YouTube Ads
Entertainment is everything with YouTube video ads in automotive social media. Creating engaging ad visuals builds excitement with your audiences for new vehicle launches. Use engine revving audio, trending upbeat music, and large text so consumers can also experience your ads on mobile devices.
New Vehicle Launch YouTube or TikTok Videos
Build more hype for new vehicle release videos on YouTube and TikTok. You can make short and long-form videos on YouTube and then short-form videos on TikTok.
Some dealership social media ideas for YouTube and TikTok posts are:
New model year sneak peeks
New vehicle launch countdowns
Influencer new vehicle promos
Behind the scenes of design studios and testing facilities
These videos act as product spotlights, building excitement with potential customers for upcoming vehicle releases because they’re entertaining and informative.
Facebook Educational Content
Did you know that Facebook is the most popular social media platform consumers use to hear about new cars? A Facebook IQ study shows that people use their family of apps (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp) more for vehicle discovery than any other social network.
CMM Council also reports that 84% of car shoppers are on Facebook, and 24% use this channel as a resource for buying their next vehicle. Consumers want to learn more about what they’re purchasing and don’t want to buy blind—especially since cars are a big purchase.
That’s why creating educational automotive social media content on Facebook is crucial. It shows that your dealership is an authority in your industry by becoming a reputable resource for them to reference.
Some car dealership social media ideas for educational Facebook posts are:
Car buying tips
Financing guides
Model year and competitor automaker comparisons
Used car recommendations shared as blog post links
In return, sharing informative content increases your market reach and brand awareness by generating more organic traffic to your website.
Instagram Engagement Content
Automotive social media marketing is primarily visual-based, making Instagram a key platform for your business. In addition to image posts and Reels, you should create engaging content. Interacting with your audience is imperative because it increases your content’s engagement metrics and performance.
Some car dealership marketing ideas for engaging Instagram posts are:
Discount giveaways
Favorite used car brand polls
Personalized vehicle recommendation Q&As
Virtual showroom tour live streams
With Instagram engagement content, you gain valuable insights from your followers. You’ll discover which type of posts they interact with the most, allowing you to tailor your social strategy for better results.
Who better to get feedback from than the people you’re trying to reach?
X (Twitter) Trending Posts
Staying current on X by posting with trending hashtags helps you stay engaged with the automotive community. As a local branded dealership, you can join the discussion with your OEM’s posts. They might engage with your post by liking or reposting it, which increases its reach and impressions from their larger following while the topic is still relevant.
LinkedIn Thought Leadership Posts
As a dealership owner, acting as a thought leader in your field and networking with fellow dealerships can build your credibility. A leading presence resonates with potential customers when they see you’re a reputable seller and resource they can depend on.
A case study showed that Cox Automotive generated 61.8 million media impressions across major networks, including USA Today and Automotive News, with thought leadership marketing. They shared in-depth perspectives of the automotive industry, consumer preference projections, and interviews with fellow thought leaders.
Some car dealership social media ideas for LinkedIn thought leadership posts are:
Commenting on the automotive industry and car buying trends
Sharing current car shopper challenges and innovative solutions
Providing tips on ways dealerships can better serve their customers
Advising on ways OEMs can better support their local branded dealerships
Recapping automotive industry events and how other dealerships are succeeding
Create LinkedIn thought leadership content from an authoritative perspective using your own storytelling and success stories.
User-Generated Content (UGC) Reposts
UGC is one of the easiest and most effective automotive social media marketing strategies because you don’t have to create original content. Sharing posts from previous happy customers tagging you on their personal social media platforms is free-of-mouth marketing, and it generates up to 40% more engagement and 10% more dealership sales!
Additionally, consumers may see your UGC posts from their peers or non-influencers, acting as further social proof from someone they can relate to. Studies show that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from earned media and are 71% more likely to purchase from social media referrals.
Drive More Sales with an Automotive Social Media Marketing Team
With many social media and advertising platforms and consistent testing to ensure your strategies are successful, it can be challenging for dealership owners to navigate. You have to invest consistent time and resources while managing your business.
At Reach Marketing Pro, we have extensive experience in automotive social media management. We’ve worked with local branded and used car dealerships and know how to effectively create social content and ad campaigns on various platforms for your bottom line.
Our Dealership VIP Program helps streamline your vehicles in production pipeline to sell more cars before they arrive on your lot. We make it easier for your consumers to pre-order vehicles with user-friendly reservation pages, and we’ll even manage your Google Drive spreadsheets.
Our Absorption Boost services for auto dealers can also revamp your website with optimized designs on your service department center, car parts, and specials pages to boost your fixed operations. We combine stronger visualization, QR code functionality, and data-driven SEO to custom-build these web pages within your website and OEM guidelines.
No matter which service you choose, we’ll continuously monitor your marketing strategies with monthly reporting to ensure they generate results that support your long-term goals.
Need help deciding which service is best for your dealership?
What Are Vehicles for Sale and Vehicle Listing Ads?
Vehicles for SaleListings are comprised of inventory directories located directly within search results through the dealership’s Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business. Basically, how it works is prospective or repeat customers search and apply filters to navigate through the dealership’s inventory, outside of their direct website, to learn more information about a specific vehicle. Once they find the vehicle they want, it will potentially direct them straight to the dealership to make a purchase.
Vehicle ListingAdvertisements are set up after you create a vehicle inventory data feed with the Google Merchant Center. With the added information, Google will then match the details to potential shoppers with the relevant vehicle makes and models they’re searching for. From a buyer’s perspective, think of it as Google being your personal shopper. You put in the features you want, and it provides relative vehicles you can see or a dealership that can ship it to you. All the information about your chosen vehicle will be at the touch of your trackpad—location, make, model, price, mileage, and more. All you’ll have to do next is contact the dealership to get the vehicle.
Are These Features Worthwhile for Dealership Marketing?
Since Google launched its new vehicle ads platform, it has helped dealerships reach new buyers much easier and faster via smartphone. This digital transition resulted in fewer buyers wanting to visit automotive dealerships and using online vehicle buying as a valued alternative to visiting dealers and test driving on the lot. It can be time-consuming to set up a Google Merchant Center since the process begins with creating the inventory for each feature, maintaining it, managing incoming available vehicles, and ensuring leads are tracked, etc. But when looking at the long-term effects and weighing the benefits versus the costs, the results are very much worth the effort.
Take the statistics into account! Google claims that dealerships who’ve used Vehicle Listing Ads with existing search campaigns increased their conversion rates by 25%, with some seeing as much as 55% or more! Now that’s some premium fuel to kickstart your dealer’s engine.
Can a Private Seller Create Vehicle Listing Ads?
Unfortunately, for those who are not a verified dealership, vehicle ads from private sellers, individuals, or automotive brokers are not permitted. Currently, the vehicle ad platform can only be used for dealers who advertise non-commercial passenger vehicles. However, with evolving supply and demand, available offerings can certainly change in the future.
Other vehicle types that are prohibited, along with non-commercial passenger vehicles, include, but are not limited to:
• Recreational vehicles (such as RV’s, motorhomes, trailers, etc.)
• Farm vehicles and equipment
• Buses of all kinds
• Two-wheelers
• Trains
• Boats
• Airplanes, and
• Outdoor utility vehicles
Hitch a Ride to Greater Marketing Capabilities & Sales Opportunities with Us!
The post-pandemic world has revolutionized the car-buying process, including customer behavior. Stay-at-home orders triggered a massive shift to online shopping and the trend has only increased since. It’s necessary to remain ahead of the evolving demands and expectations by adapting to market needs. With that being said, the need for online shopping has reached a new level. Don’t allow your dealership to have a downward turn; let the newfound need to go “digital” initiate a drive to remain competitive in an ever-changing marketplace! For any dealership, being the top automotive provider is the goal and is critical for long-term business growth.
Since Google implemented Vehicles for Sale and Vehicle Listing Ads in 2021, our team at Reach Marketing Pro has worked hard to perfect their process. Don’t rely on trying to perfect your own system; instead, let us take the wheel and drive you down victory lane. We’ll do the grunt work and put the pedal to the metal so that your dealership does what does best—sell vehicles!
It’s time to hit the gas; contact us today to learn more.
There Should Be a Focus on Comprehensive Dealership Marketing Strategies
When trying to find the answer to a never-ending question, begin with a simple Google search. Sometimes, the best answer could be right in front of you at the top of the web page. If you were a customer looking to purchase a new vehicle, you would first go to google to find the nearest dealership. Second, you would look at their online business reviews and overall reputation. If everything seems promising, you will then schedule a time to visit the lot and test drive. On the other hand, another way would be to listen to or see an advertisement on the radio, TV, or in print advertising spots.
Having a comprehensive automotive marketing strategy is the best way to promote your products and services. Rather than focusing on quick-fix solutions for customers, implementing a slow and steady marketing strategy could show better benefits in the long run.
It’s important to remember that your focus cannot just be on one strategy, but on every component of your marketing plan. By covering all of your bases, it will allow your team to reach the maximum number of prospective customers. Having a strong auto marketing strategy is not just about having positive online reviews, but optimizing your dealership’s Google search ranking, online presence, brand exposure, and customer loyalty.
How To Improve Your Automotive Marketing Efforts
A comprehensive marketing plan is comprised of multiple components that are critical to a dealership’s success. Let’s take a look at each one and how it plays a role in having a successful automotive marketing strategy. The more moving parts your train has, the better it will perform.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process that generates new traffic to your website from free, organic, editorial, or natural search results in search engines. When your dealership’s website is optimized properly with rank-worthy content, users will be able to easily navigate and see what you have to offer, making it compelling and unique from other dealership websites, which will be the key to winning.
Local SEO
Local SEO is a subset of Search Engine Optimization. However, it specifically affects the visibility and ranking of your dealership’s website or web pages in a local geographic area. If your dealership has a physical location or serves as a geographic area, it can benefit from local SEO.
SEM/PPC
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a digital marketing strategy that is used to increase the overall visibility of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs). Leveraging clever paid search campaigns will benefit your dealership’s brand and capitalize on inventory-specific campaigns for new, used, and certified pre-owned vehicles. Pay-per-Click (PPC) is a type of internet marketing strategy that makes advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked on by a prospective customer. Tracking to see how many times an ad is clicked on will show how effective the advertisement is.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is an essential tool to integrate into your auto marketing strategy because it allows your team to promote its brand, its products, and its services across multiple social channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Tik-Tok, etc.). Since each social outlet has its own unique audience, creating dynamic content will help capture more customers and generate leads.
Reputation Management
Reputation Management is a marketing and public relations effort that works on how your dealership influences what and how people think of your brand. For example, think of the difference between receiving a 5-star review and a 1-star review. Some customers may choose a different dealership due to seeing a 1-star review online. Maintaining a strong online reputation will help strengthen your customer loyalty and overall brand development.
Fixed Operations Marketing
Fixed Ops Marketing has been a long-time struggle for automotive dealerships. Paying close attention to this marketing strategy will allow you to take back control of the business and drive traffic into the service department. Steadier service traffic makes staffing needs easier, and an increase in volume always adds a boost in productivity! So even during slower months, the business will grow.
Suite of Automotive Products & Services Designed to Boost Your Sales
Based on what your automotive marketing strategy is focused on, our team has crafted customized product solutions that are created, updated, and monitored for each of our clients. Whether it is to sell more cars, increase your vehicle reservations, schedule more service bay visits, or increase automotive part sales, we have a solution for you.
Absorption Boost– This cutting-edge product completely overhauls your dealer’s automotive specials, its service center, and parts center web pages to boost its fixed operations. By combining a stronger visualization with a custom design and QR code scan-to-wallet functionality, absorption boost targets surrounding local target areas and users in smart intervals. With an easy-to-navigate specials page, customers will have better functionality to digitally scan, download, and save your coupons on their phone, making the buying process so much easier.
Dealer VIP Advantage – Have you ever wanted to watch your vehicles in production sell before they even arrive on your lot? Our digital web experts create custom codes for your VIP landing page that shows all vehicles in production ready for pre-order, making it easy for customers to purchase the vehicle they want at the click of a button. Best of all, our Dealer VIP Advantage solution is OEM and Dealership brand-centric.
Knowing All the Strategies Can Be Overwhelming
We’re Here to Make it Easy
As you can see, our professional team at Reach Marketing Pro has expert knowledge in both traditional and digital marketing strategies. Whether you are looking for a one-off service or a full-fledged ongoing campaign, we are here to help create, initiate, assist, and oversee your Automotive Marketing strategy!
