Pub. 15 2016-2017 Issue 1

N E W J E R S E Y C O A L I T I O N O F A U T O M O T I V E R E T A I L E R S I S S U E N O . 2 , 2 0 1 6 26 new jersey auto retailer Why Ad Budgets MUST Reflect Buyers’ Shopping Patterns It’s Time You Stop Separating Your Traditional & Digital Advertising Budgets and Start Driving Sales Realistically and Holistically BY BRITAIN O’CONNOR M ost every Dealer Principal, In-House Marketing Director, and Automotive Ad Agency is looking for the definitive answer to the age-old question, “How do we best invest our monthly advertising budget?” The answer to this question was once limited to Traditional Marketing’s 5 Core Options: TV, radio, print, direct mail, and outdoor. Then the Internet came along and blew the old debate to pieces with Digital Marketing’s 30+ new considerations. From paid search to display, to remarketing to video, to mobile to social, the market has become fragmented and options grow exponentially. It is harder than ever to determine where best to spend your marketing dollars. Despite tremendous growth in the number of marketing op- tions, total budgets have remained mostly f lat when calculated by a cost-per-car. The knee-jerk reaction of most dealers: divide your Traditional and Digital Budgets, hastily target an obvious geography or demographic, and hope for the best. This divide and conquer approach may have worked 5 or 10 years ago, but as marketing has evolved, so, too, have consumers and their shopping habits. Consumers today are more informed about the products and services they seek than they have ever been (this applies to nearly all ages, genders, and income levels). Any salesperson can tell you that shoppers have done their due diligence long before enter- ing the showroom. Vetting has replaced impulse buying and this means that the customer interacts at varied and numerous touch points. Consider a common car shopping scenario: a consumer views, a car manufacturer, or dealership television spot, then went on Google to research, clicks a text ad, ends up at your website, and does some virtual tire-kicking. Based upon their page views, you retarget this consumer over ‘X’ number of days with ‘Y’ number of static/animated/video ads across their desktop/mobile/tablet devices. The knowledge gap of the shopper then begins to close and a comfort level is established between your dealership and the consumer. The consumer, meanwhile, narrows their choice of vehicles, arriving at a tentative decision. Now, as though the planets have aligned, that consumer is ready to move down the purchase funnel into one of your conversion paths. They punch your dealership’s name into Google Search on their mobile phone and a dealer location ad shows up. They click to call, set up an appointment, and are on your showroom f loor that weekend. The job of closing then falls to your sales team. Let’s recap and count the touch points: 1) TV; 2) Paid Search; 3) Static Retargeting; 4) Animated Display; 5) Video Display; 6) Cross-Device Retargeting; 7) Paid Dealer Listing. Which is the