When it comes to Google’s algorithm, one thing we know with certainty is that it’s going to change. Often.
Beginning in May 2021, with a gradual rollout through August 2021, Google is upping the ante for its website experience standards, adding its newly defined Core Web Vitals — including load time, interactivity, and content visual stability — to the already hundreds of signals it considers when ranking search results.
We’re announcing that page experience ranking signals for Google Search will launch in May 2021. This will combine Core Web Vitals and previous UX-related signals.
Algorithm updates like these can instill a bit of anxiety in anyone who relies on the search engine giant for customer acquisition, but our SEO advice to dealers remains the same: when you focus on creating the most relevant, helpful, and user-friendly content and experiences — you have nothing to fear when Google updates their algorithm. That’s because every update is only a minor tweak towards their same overall mission: providing the best, most helpful answers when users ask questions.
Join our SEO Technicians for a complete inspection of the upcoming “Core Web Vitals” update. We’ll analyze the algorithm update, and run the diagnostics on how it measures your website experience, what it means for you, how you can maintain them, and why the way to win SEO never changes.
So while Core Web Vitals and the surrounding hype may sound like a major shake-up to the SEO game, Google has already publicly stated in their help documentation that when it comes to achieving high rankings, quality contentthat’srelevant to the user’s search intent is stillthe most important ranking factor.
“Our systems will continue to prioritize pages with the best information overall, even if some aspects of page experience are subpar. A good page experience doesn’t override having great, relevant content”
Pagespeed in general, and Core Web Vitals specifically, are certainly worth our attention and ongoing optimization (see everything below!). Aside from being a helpful measurement that’ll allow you to improve the page load experience for car shoppers, it’s also been shown that the first five seconds of page load time have the highest impact on conversion rates as well (Portent 2019).
That said, while important, Core Web Vitals shouldn’t change your approach to how you earn your organic traffic, and the methods you use to convert those visitors into sales and service opportunities.
You will win in search results if you focus on being the best answer for car shoppers asking what, when, where, why, and how they should buy. And as an SEO agency that then built our own website platform, we were literally born for the challenge of helping you do just that 🙂
WHAT ARE CORE WEBSITE VITALS?
Put simply, Core Web Vitals are Google’s measure of your website experience based on real-user data. Google first introduced Core Web Vitals back in the spring of 2020 to provide unified guidance for quality signals it deems essential to delivering a great user experience. Each of the Core Web Vitals measure an aspect of usability: including load time, interactivity, and the visual stability of content as it loads.
It’s important to remember these are not new concepts. At Dealer Inspire, we have always focused on developing sites that deliver fast, easy, and helpful consumer experiences. Now Google is just trying to simplify and prioritize the measurement of them, motivating site owners to meaningfully improve the experience Google users will have.
While we expect the metrics that make up Core Web Vitals to evolve as user expectations change, there are three key metrics Google is currently tracking:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
The first Core Web Vital is all about load time. LCP measures how quickly site visitors see your content, specifically the interval between the start of a page-load to when the largest image or text block in a user’s viewport is fully rendered. Google knows users are impatient, and if loading takes too long, they’ll get frustrated and move on.
We carefully balance the complexities of dealership websites with necessary page speeds by strategically prioritizing loading the content that users will view and interact with first, providing a near instant experience above the fold where the user begins (as seen in the example on the right).
First Input Delay (FID)
The second metric of Core Web Vitals focuses on how quickly a page becomes interactive. Measured in milliseconds, FID is a real-user performance metric that tracks how responsive a site is to the very first action a user takes, such as tapping a button or entering data in a form. Think of this as the first impression of your website, and even minor delays can leave visitors feeling like your site is clunky.
In these examples, the website on the right allows the user to begin their search immediately, whereas the left website needs to keep loading before that critical CTA becomes clickable — making the user click multiple times before it works.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
The final metric of Core Web Vitals measures page stability. CLS tracks how often the page elements move around while the user is trying to read or interact with them. Think about how frustrating it can be for a user trying to click or read an element of a page, only to have it move on them while they are in the process.
In these examples, notice how the position of the buttons on the left website continue to shift up and down as new page elements load in, whereas the main CTA on the right website remains steady. Even though this all happens in such a brief moment, it can make all the difference between the user being confident in the shopping experience, or frustrated.
HOW IMPORTANT ARE CORE WEB VITALS TO SEARCH RANKINGS?
As Google sharpens its focus on user experience as a ranking factor, it’s worth keeping this shift in perspective. While important, Core Web Vitals will be just one data set among hundreds of others that Google considers in its algorithm when ranking websites.
A good way to think about the impact Core Web Vitals and other page experience signals could have on your rankings is to think of it like a tiebreaker when all else is equal. The all encompassing page experience signals will simply be an additional way for Google to prioritize sites that would otherwise have very similar content quality and relevancy to the user.
For example, Google may deem two model landing pages from two different local dealers to have equally valuable content and find both are relevant to a local shopper’s query. In this case, the page with better Core Web Vitals scores and better user experience may have the edge in the SERP.
A comprehensive SEO strategy will continue to be the most critical element to winning the SERP. From technical platform optimization to building your local search presence and developing a deep content strategy, we believe in a holistic approach that steadily grows your results and future-proofs your presence from algorithm changes.
HOW DOES GOOGLE MEASURE CORE WEB VITALS?
Google has updated their Page Speed Insights test to specifically measure a web page’s Core Web Vitals, and provides two data sets upon completion of the test:
Field Data This is a 28-day performance summary from real-life users via the Chrome User Experience Report. The purpose of field metrics is to provide actual real-world feedback. Google will use field metrics for ranking purposes.
Lab Data Simulation data generated from Lighthouse provides a performance score that estimates the page’s performance in real-time. The purpose of Lab measurements is to give publishers and SEOs a way to test and diagnose site performance to identify areas of improvement.
Performance metrics for each Web Vital statistic are graded according to three outcomes:
Good (passes): 90-100
Needs Improvement: 50-89
Fail: 0-49
To ensure you’re hitting the recommended target for most of your users, a good threshold to measure is the 75th percentile of page loads, segmented across mobile and desktop devices.
WHAT IS A GOOD CORE WEB VITALS SCORE?
Google has offered benchmarks for what it believes is a good user experience and has set the bar high based on user behavior and expectations of how fast people expect sites to load. According to Google’s performance assessment, these are the metrics you want to strive for:
LCP should occur within 2.5 seconds of when the page first starts loading
Pages should have a FID of less than 100 milliseconds.
Pages should maintain a CLS of less than 0.1
Chances are, your site isn’t meeting these standards today, and that’s all right. Most websites don’t. A study conducted in August by ScreamingFrog across 20,000 URLs found that only 12% of mobile and 13% of desktop results passed the Core Web Vitals assessment.
This was backed up by our analysis of auto industry sites in which we looked at 150 sites across 11 different website providers. We found average google pagespeed metrics to be 22 on mobile and 50 on desktop, far below the 80-90 Google requires to be in the green.
Dealer Inspire Industry Analysis, March 2021
While we recommend aiming for improvements, we think it’s imperative to understand these scores in the context of the auto industry and the complex site functionality you offer to users. Google’s recommended benchmarks are uniform across all industries and types of sites, and fail to consider the unique complexities of a dealership or ecommerce site. While getting a perfect score is possible, it would mean sacrificing many elements of your site that would negatively impact the user experience.
HOW DO I GET READY FOR CORE WEB VITALS?
While the technical aspects of your platform’s performance are your provider’s responsibility, you do need to consider the content, images, and 3rd party tools that your team and other partners may be adding to your website. What you add, upload, and integrate into your website can have a significant impact on your Core Website Vitals.
You can use PageSpeed Insights to see where you stand and identify issues that are negatively impacting the user experience and your performance. This report will provide a list of opportunities and diagnostics to help your pages load faster.
While each site will be unique, there are a few common troublespots we recommend you check:
Watch out for third-party scripts
Now is the time to review all third party scripts running on your site. Evaluate if they are still necessary, and if they are dragging your scores down. While we don’t recommend removing valuable tools just because of your score, it is important to consider whether you have widgets that are doing more harm than good. Using first-party chat, digital retailing, and trade-in solutions made by your website provider will make your user experience faster and more seamless.
In other words, don’t just remove third party scripts that are performing and generating leads for you. Carefully review each one and if they are not providing value, then remove them (for example – take a close look at pop ups, scripts that insert a lot of content, multiple tools on your site that may be doing the same thing). Tools made by your website provider have a greater chance of being optimized for the full platform experience, rather than just being an independent add-on that may not be built with pagespeed in mind.
Evaluate image sizes
We expect this will be one of the most important factors when it comes to your performance scores. When uploading images to your site, make sure they are as lightweight and compressed as possible — we recommend staying under 150 KB. Dealer Inspire websites provide a max limit on the media library and optimize images through our CDN (content delivery network), but it’s still important to consider when adding media. Something as simple as your homepage slider can make a huge difference in load times if the image is not optimized for the web.
Upload images for both desktop and mobile
It’s also important to optimize your images for the device they’ll be seen on. There’s no need to load a larger image meant for desktop when the user is on mobile, so we make it easy to upload an alternate version of the image specifically for mobile. That way you’re only asking your website to load smaller, lighter images for the majority of your traffic that visits on their phone.
Rethink iFrames
Third party content published on your website using an iFrame can have a significant impact on page performance, since the page is being delivered from a different server than the rest of your website. Not only can iFramed content lead to an increase in First Contentful Paint, but it can also add to your Cumulative Layout Shift score as well. It’s critical to create your own content on-site and have OEM content delivery directly through your provider’s API integration.
HOW QUICKLY WILL IMPROVEMENTS BE REFLECTED IN MY CORE WEB VITALS SCORE?
All of these tips, along with optimizations Dealer Inspire is making on your behalf, have the power to incrementally improve your Core Web Vitals performance — but don’t expect scores to shift overnight. Since Core Web Vitals rely on Field Data from real users, it will take time for improvements to be reflected in your score. Field Data reported in the PageSpeed Insights tool is from a previous 28 day cycle, meaning it will take almost a full month to see the impact of your optimizations.
WHAT IF MY CORE WEB VITALS ARE IN THE RED?
If you’re looking at your Core Web Vitals performance and seeing red or orange, this is your reminder to take a deep breath. Remember, less than 15% of ALL sites across ALL industries currently have passing scores. Early analysis of some of Google’s own pages even showed they were struggling to pass their own assessment. Here’s what you need to keep in mind.
Perfect scores may actually do more harm
The sites we found with the best performance scores usually lacked core functionality and design features that guide shoppers to buying decisions. A completely stripped down site might very well land you in the green, but you’d sacrifice other key aspects of the user experience and may jeopardize other ranking factors. If the page loads a few milliseconds faster, but the shopper no longer has the tools to customize their payment and submit their lead, was it worth it?
Level set against your competition
When it comes to rankings, remember that you are competing against other complex automotive sites that face similar challenges with Core Web Vitals. While it is a great guidepost, Google’s performance measures don’t take into account the nuances and complexities of different types of websites. Amazon.com is rated on the same scale as your cousin’s one page blog. Let that sink in. If you really want to see how you’ll fare should Core Web Vitals become the deciding ranking factor, benchmark your site against your competitors.
Look to trends before sounding alarms
Instead of simply looking at your performance score, we recommend looking at trends. A sudden dip of several points can be a better indicator of a true problem than your raw score. Looking at changes in your performance score can help you identify troublespots and can also be a great way to understand which changes are having a positive impact. If you do look back historically, note that Google changed how Core Web Vitals were measured in May of 2020. Many sites experienced a significant drop with this change, so don’t begin benchmarking before that change.
Address the low hanging fruit
See our tips above to identify potential trouble spots on your site. There may be large images and third-party applications and scripts that are adversely impacting your performance. Assuming these are not essential for functionality or experience, consider removing them to see if it improves performance.
Expect change to be incremental
Remember that any changes you make will take some time to have an impact on your performance score. It’s important to keep in mind that most changes will result in incremental improvements and that these will take time to register due to the lag time in reporting.
LET’S MAKE YOUR WEBSITE ALGORITHM PROOF
When it comes down to it, you shouldn’t have to be worried about every single update to Google’s algorithm. SEO has been a part of our DNA since the very beginning, and we’d love to show you how our flexible web platform combined with a holistic search strategy can make your website algorithm proof now and in the future.
A wave of new digital privacy rules for tracking personal data have been making headlines as privacy concerns reach an all-time high. Google and Apple both recently announced key changes regarding the use of consumer information on their platforms — impacting both how data is collected and how it can be used in targeting digital ads.
Advertisers everywhere are wondering “How will the changes impact my campaigns?”, and “Will I be able to reach in-market shoppers effectively?”
We’ve been carefully watching and preparing for these policy changes, and we’ve got a game plan to help you navigate the new rules of engagement. We did a whole webinar about it! You can stream it for free to get the strategies, tips, and even a few tools to help you stay on target and make the most of every digital shopper.
With the proper optimizations to your campaign targeting and website, we can make sure you are prepared to face the new era in ad targeting. We have 5 simple strategies to see you through.
1. ADJUST YOUR GOOGLE AIM
When Google rolled out its new Personal Ad Policy in October, the auto industry was naturally concerned. Under the new guidelines developed to improve equal access to housing, employment, and credit opportunities —certain ads could no longer be targeted or excluded based on gender, age, parental status, marital status, or ZIP Code.
This means any ads that contain finance offers in the ad headline or copy, and any ads with a landing page that references finance/payment options or directly link to a credit application (every page on your website, since it is usually in the menu), can no longer be targeted by ZIP Code. Talk about a curveball for automotive dealers who frequently use zip codes for precision targeting and to meet OEM requirements.
Even if you can’t target by zip code, there are some ways you can continue to target shoppers without over-extending your reach.
Utilize Google’s Locations Report: This report will still allow access to performance metrics based on ZIP Codes, even when not directly targeting them.
Directly Target Cities/Towns: Before switching to radius targeting, try directly targeting the city/town of your dealership, as well as any of the surrounding cities that you would have previously targeted. If you utilize Google’s Locations Report to see which ZIP Codes are performing best, you can use that data on a website like Open Data Soft, which will match ZIP Codes to the city they represent for a quicker transition.
Plot Your Sales Data: If you are a Dealer Inspire client, we can plot your DMS data on a map to visualize which areas around your dealership generate the most sales. This can help you identify the cities, as well as optimize your target radius size, allowing you to dial in your targeting where you’re most likely to make the biggest impact.
Now that we have a few months of data under our belt, we know these alternative targeting strategies WORK. In the 90 days since Google updated their personal advertising policy, our clients on average actually saw increases in their campaign performance. Impressions increased by 7.8%, clicks went up 1.23%, and the conversion rate was up 1.56%.
2. FUEL YOUR ADVERTISING WITH FIRST-PARTY DATA
Without the precision targeting of ZIP Codes, it makes even more sense to leverage a combination of first and third-party audience data to augment your targeting efforts and prioritize your bid strategy.
We have exclusive access to Cars.com’s high-quality audience data, so once those shoppers perform a Google search, we prioritize their bids because we know they are more likely to convert.
We also partner with OEMs who feed us in-market audience data from their Tier 1 websites, which we bid up on, knowing they are likely already decided on brand/model and ready to buy soon. For example, take a look at the incredible results we’ve been able to earn for our Ford clients using FordDirect’s pure audience data.
3. LEVERAGE YOUR OWN DATA
Your dealership’s first-party data is one of the best sources to improve search performance. When layered into campaigns, your own audiences can significantly improve performance and efficiency.
Email Matchback Audiences
While adjusting your targeting for customeracquisition, it’s also super important to remember to place a premium on your current customers by leveraging your CRM/DMS data to stay in front of them when they turn to search, whether for service, a lease renewal, or a trade-in / upgrade campaign. Layering in these matchbacks has a huge impact on results for our clients, with a 16% decrease in cost per click, and a whopping 171% increase in click-through rate.
Website Remarketing Audiences
Using your website audience data, we can implement a smarter targeting strategy and tailor ad copy to unique audiences more effectively. When we segment the audience, we can bid up on your past site visitors and show more aggressive offers as these potential customers are more likely to convert since they are already familiar with your brand.
Dynamic Inventory Advertising
You can also set-up your digital advertising to make smart decisions at scale by leveraging data from your own inventory feed. Using Dealer Inspire’s FUEL: Search & Display™, your ads and bidding strategies can be automatically optimized in milliseconds by matching your exact VINs with the right shoppers looking for them.
Even if your geo-targeting isn’t as tight as before the update, you can increase ROI by serving your audience hyper-relevant, dynamic ads tailored to their search query.
4. PREPARE FOR THE TECH WARS ON SOCIAL
Apple is getting ready to roll out data tracking opt-ins with iOS 14.5, and a war is brewing with Facebook as they are likely to be negatively impacted by the changes.
With iOS 14.5, Apple is taking a giant step toward data transparency by introducing their App Tracking Transparency Framework. iOS device users will have to explicitly opt-in to having their online activity tracked for each app they use on their iPhone or iPad before opening the app. Facebook argues this will worsen the user’s advertising experience, and limit the ability for small businesses to reach and generate new customers.
Facebook will begin prompting users to opt-in at the same moment Apple gives them the option to opt-out.
Since 81% of American’s think the risks of sharing their data outweighs the benefits of personalized advertising, we expect an overwhelming majority of consumers to opt-out. Either way, you don’t need to get caught up in the fight. Much like the targeting changes we recommend for Google, a few easy modifications to your social media targeting strategy can keep you right where you want to be: front and center with potential customers.
5. TAP INTO EXCLUSIVE SOCIAL AUDIENCES
All the same audiences and strategies that boost your search performance can be applied to your social targeting: leveraging pure in-market audiences, your own audience data, and dynamic inventory ads is a powerful combination that will position you to reach your targets. In fact, combining those three elements is increasing our dealers’ CTR by 144.6% and decreasing CPC by 50%.
So let’s focus on the unique ways we can take your social advertising to the next level without sacrificing performance from Apple’s new policy.
Oracle In-Market Data
Through a unique partnership with Oracle, our team can target highly custom in-market audiences on Facebook. These are extraordinarily granular audiences we can use to pinpoint highly specific potential customers from various sources. We can do some pretty amazing things to target owners and leasers of particular makes and models, in-market behavior for particular makes and models, and even auto parts and service buyers.
For example, you could target consumers who currently drive a Honda Accord and are coming up on the end of their lease, and show them an exclusive offer to upgrade their ride to the 2021 model. That kind of relevancy and personalization can make a huge difference to your campaign performance.
Quorum Foot Traffic Data
We also partner with Quorum, which tracks mobile IDs to the dealership lot and enables sophisticated store visit reporting as well as high-intent Facebook audiences.
For example, you could target shoppers that have visited the CarMax up the road and conquest them with a social message that says “Don’t Pay the Max”, highlighting all the benefits of shopping local with your team. This kind of precision targeting has already proved to increase conversion rate by 2X.
So, even if an iPhone user opts out of Facebook activity tracking, third-party data relationships provide an avenue to target custom audiences. And while we’ve yet to see the impacts of the Ad Tracking Transparency Framework, we’re confident we can help clients find solutions, just as we did when Google rolled out its changes.
Together, these two exclusive data partnerships can make a big difference vs. the standard Facebook targeting capabilities that come out of the box, especially with the incoming impact of iOS 14.5.
READY TO SHARPEN YOUR AIM?
Just because the landscape has changed doesn’t mean you need to settle for decreased campaign performance, less traffic, and fewer leads. We’ve proven that with the right attention to detail, careful campaign monitoring, and the right strategies to target and convert shoppers, you can continue attracting and engaging car buyers. Let’s discuss how Dealer Inspire can help you target the right shoppers on the right platforms, no matter what gets thrown our way.
THIS JUST IN… Online reviews MATTER. Groundbreaking, right? 😜 Alright, we know most dealers have been building their digital reviews for nearly a decade now, but we have to ask: once you get them, what are you doing with them?
While many of our dealers have reached incredible feats of collecting hundreds and thousands of positive reviews on third-party platforms, few are giving those happy customers the starring roles on their website and digital ads. Now more than ever, new shoppers want to know the safety, quality, and convenience of your experience — and there is no better way to tell them than with 5-star ratings and reviews. Using your top promoters on your own platforms just makes sense to build trust and give shoppers the confidence they need to choose YOU.
But Katie, you say, “Shoppers can easily find thousands of my great reviews on DealerRater, Cars.com, Google, and Yelp,”
That’s fantastic! But getting ratings and reviews on third-party sites is just the beginning. If you’re not sharing all of those shiny stars yourself, you’re missing a huge opportunity to build trust and increase conversions in your own marketing. (I’ll get to that in just a bit!)
Today I’m going to share five easy ways to amplify the voices of your happy customers, so they work harder acrossall of your marketing channels, not just review sites.
Your reputation is your most valuable asset, so let’s not keep it a secret. With your reviews on solid footing, it’s time to showcase your stars on YOUR platform. These are proven strategies I personally recommend to my clients with confidence because they are highly effective, easy to implement, and don’t cost you more than a little time and effort (which we can do for you!). In my book, that makes these hot tips 5-star rated.
1. Turn Happy Customers Into Homepage Heroes
“Welcome to Katie’s Kia” may be a very nice greeting for visitors to your website, but could it be stronger? ABSOLUTELY. After all, we know your customers are cross shopping. You may only get a moment to make a first impression, so every word on your homepage needs to hook shoppers and show them why they should buy from you.
At Dealer Inspire, we’ve found reviews are the perfect way to start engaging visitors and building trust the minute they land on your website. When you dedicate a homepage slider containing a recent review quote with a link to more reviews — you can immediately give shoppers a view into how well they’ll be taken care of.
With a few easy steps, you can make your homepage look like this!
They’ll see that you take pride in your experience and that customer feedback is important to you, all while getting comfortable with your team and proven service.
I’ve been blown away by what this simple shift has done for clients. As we’ve tested homepage reviews — engagement has skyrocketed. Check this out:
You can also use Dealer Inspire’s Personalizer™ tool to make sure customers see fresh reviews whenever they return to your site. By showcasing new quotes with each visit, you reinforce your credibility and establish trust in your entire dealership team.
2. GIVE REVIEWS THEIR OWN LANDING PAGES
Don’t make shoppers investigate your reputation across platforms — have a page on your website that syncs your 4 and 5-star reviews from Google, Facebook, DealerRater, and Cars.com all in one feed. This dedicated landing page for your reviews (which is free out of the box at Dealer Inspire) gives your SEO efforts an extra boost, increases engagement and time on site, and provides a much needed hub to both showcase and solicit reviews.
With all of your best customer feedback in one place, it’s easy to build trust! That’s why I also recommend sending a link to this page to any leads you’re working. It builds confidence and can help you close the deal. It’s also a perfect destination for email campaigns and other communications you have with your customers.
3. Build a Page To Build Reviews
48% of shoppers say that reviews need to be less than two weeks old to make an impact on their decision¹, so it’s important to be constantly generating fresh reviews.
By building an engine to drive reviews on your own website, you can easily include it in your process and marketing. Feature the most important platforms to be present on, and give customers the option to leave feedback where they are most comfortable.
This is the perfect destination to use when asking customers to leave a review after they take home their new ride. Once they’ve had a chance to give their new car a name, show it off to their work buddies, and pick out a new license plate cover — it’s your moment to shoot them a text with a link to this landing page.
We recommend texting within the first 24-48 hours. Often that’s all it takes. But to give yourself the best shot to have that text message result in a positive review, include a picture. We found that 50 percent of all review requests that include a picture will lead to a review²!
The bottom line is that your customers are usually happy to share their experience with the world, and a simple text message with a photo linking to a well designed landing page makes getting that review easy.
4. Showcase Your Top-Rated Sales Stars
Just like you wouldn’t let a customer aimlessly stroll through your showroom without assistance, you can begin making 1:1 connections with your digital showroom shoppers by introducing them to your top-rated salespeople on your staff page and VDPs using Salesperson Connect™ from DealerRater®.
Not only can your visitors choose who they’d like to work with, but they can also schedule 1:1 appointments with them right on your website, making those shoppers more likely to show up and purchase — because leads generated from Salesperson Connect™ have a 2.5x higher close rate³ compared to standard website leads.
5. Power Up Your Ads With Promoters
Nothing beats the words of your customers. A happy car buyer sharing their experience is way more impactful than any claim or offer you can make. So instead of tooting your own horn or offering a rock bottom price, I recommend incorporating reviews into your digital ad campaigns. They’re free to use and they WORK!
Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:
Show social shoppers what sets your store apart: Build a targeted social campaign to introduce your store to local in-market shoppers who may not have discovered your dealership yet. Our video templates that showcase dealership reviews and awards are consistently among the highest performing for our FUEL: In-Market Video partners.
Show your stars in Google ads: An easy way to boost conversion is to incorporate reviews in your paid search campaigns. Google has an ad extension that will allow you to show your star rating and review count within your Google ads. If your dealership has at least 100 unique reviews in the past 12 months with an average rating of 3.5 stars or better, you’re eligible to activate this extension.
Another opportunity to shed some light on your dealership’s reputation in your paid search ads is by incorporating a sitelink to the review aggregation page on your website.
WE CAN MAKE YOUR HARD-EARNED REPUTATION WORK EVEN HARDER
Your dealership’s reputation is your most valuable asset, so let’s work together to show it off. Whether it’s a new campaign featuring reviews, homepage testimonials, or a website hub for all of your great customer feedback, let’s see what we can do to turn your well deserved reviews into bottom line results.
¹BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey Dec. 2019 ²DealerRater® LotShot Pilot Data September 2014 ³Based on Cars.com VDP lead submissions between January 2019 – February 2020
While most people slow down and unwind a little during the second half of December in anticipation of the upcoming holiday season, car dealers work harder than ever to close as many deals as possible before the big ball drops to ring in the new year.
So that means right about now you’re hopefully finally catching your breath and reflecting on how your dealership dealt with the challenges that 2020 presented, and how your business can grow in 2021.
If 2020 was good for anything, it showed us that your digital platform is your most valuable asset and taught us a lot about the good digital habits that are helping dealers win in this changing landscape. If we can all take what we learned and really commit to those habits year-round, we can take dealer ROI to the next level in 2021 while future-proofing the dealership experience for years to come.
So without any further ado, here are some New Year’s Resolutions that’ll help your dealership win 2021!
1. LOSE 10 LBS. (ON YOUR WEBSITE)
In the past two decades, we’ve looked to our websites to just generate leads so your team could then reach out and set appointments after they’re gone. But with customers now expecting and sometimes needing to complete more of the car buying process remotely, 2020 proved your website needs to be so much more to make the most of every opportunity.
Your website truly needs to be a digital dealership, where shoppers can quickly find vehicles, get their questions answered, and connect with friendly experts on your team who can start guiding them down the Road To The Sale to purchase, just like in-store.
That starts with having the right messaging (with live video) and digital retailing solutions that work seamlessly with your website experience — as well as the right commitment to using those tools — but assuming you already have those, let’s resolve to making sure shoppers can easily find them.
As dealers added new solutions in 2020, websites have put on a lot of excess weight with buttons and widgets that get in the way of guiding shoppers down clear paths — wasting opportunities on shoppers who give up trying to find instant, easy answers to their questions like “can I afford it?”. This excess weight is something that happens to all of us, especially around the holiday sales events, but now is the perfect time to reevaluate your website experience to foster a healthy conversion rate in 2021.
Not all buttons have the same value for you or the customer, so funnel your traffic to the buttons that are more likely to drive sales (not just form-fills). For example, a shopper who quickly filled out an [Unlock Extra Savings] form to see how it affected the price (someone will be in touch to tell them later) is not as valuable as the shopper who clicked [Explore Payment Options] and instantly personalized their payment, valued their trade, saved an account on your website, and started to add accessories and insurance products — so send more shoppers that way.
By taking a deeper look to discover website design mistakes like too many conflicting CTAs, or disconnected shopping experiences that are causing your customers to bounce instead of convert, you can make a serious impact in your business KPIs without spending more advertising dollars to acquire more traffic.
2. START WORKING OUT (YOUR DEALS ONLINE)
Once you have shoppers clicking the right buttons to start the buying process on your website — make sure your team is there to help them! These engaged shoppers exploring payment options online are just as valuable as the opportunities that physically walk into your store, so it’s important to staff your digital showroom and build the habits that will continue and close those deals that start online.
Instead of creating a dead-end to their online experience and forcing them to come in for an appointment to learn more, you have the tools to keep up the momentum and guide them closer (or all the way) to purchase online. Of course many customers will still want to visit the dealership before signing, but the further you can get them into the process online, the more likely they are to follow through and stick with your dealership. They may have submitted leads with other websites, but you’re clearly positioned to win if they’re actively working a personalized deal with you.
Whether they’re on your website in the moment or just left, watch how easily (and instantly) you can pull online shoppers back into the buying process by simply texting the kind of personalized question or recommendation you would offer in the showroom.
No matter what digital retailing solution you have, it needs to be backed up by your dealership’s people and processes, so now is the perfect time to re-acquaint your salespeople and BDC agents with your tech stack to ensure they understand how they can quickly close more deals like these, more efficiently.
The days of “just get ’em in” are officially over. In 2021, resolve to stop saying “just get ’em in” and instead say “let’s go Online to the Sale!“. You’ll have happier customers, and a happier team.
3. BE SMARTER WITH YOUR (ADVERTISING) MONEY
By the end of 2020, something else that became clear was that targeting audiences in your Digital Advertising campaigns was about to get a tad trickier than before.
With Google updating their Personal Advertising Policies restricting your ability to target specific zip codes, combined with the impact of COVID-19 on your business — it’s critical that you reevaluate not just how you’re spending your budget — but on what platforms, and which geographical areas you’re targeting.
The first thing you can do is reassess which areas your dealership did the most business in last year, so you can ensure you have optimal coverage with your paid search campaigns. You don’t want to start the new year by overspending in geographical areas that are no longer providing a sales ROI due to shifts in consumer behavior, and underspending in areas that have historically proven to lead to sales.
The easiest way to do this is to use your CRM or DMS customer data to plot your sales on a map to visually highlight your highest converting areas. You can then use that visualization to work with your Dig Ad provider to adjust your targeting as needed to maximize your spend.
Another recommendation is to use that data from your CRM or DMS to add a customer match layer to your audience targeting on your Google and Facebook ads that’ll help ensure you’re staying in front of all your sales and service customers when searching or surfing. Keeping your dealer’s brand top of mind is going to be more critical than ever in 2021.
You’ll also want to consider how to maximize the reach in your defined geo-targets by diversifying the platforms that you’re advertising on besides Google. For example dealers who have been advertising on Microsoft Bing have seen a 36% higher Impression Share and a 77% higher Click-Thru Rate compared to their same ad campaigns on Google.
Lastly, 2021 will officially usher in the era of true in-market audience targeting with highly valuable first party data. It’s critical that you understand what audience data you’re using to power your advertising, because it can be the difference between guessing and knowing that you’re targeting people who actually want to buy a car.
For example, powered by Cars.com’s 25 million monthly active shoppers, FUEL: In-Market Video has a 100% pure in-market audience, so you know every penny spent is getting in front of local shoppers who are looking for a new vehicle in the short term. Watch the difference that made for Julie Chisum’s advertising ROI at Toyota of Cedar Park!
As we start the new year, it’s a perfect time to rethink and refine where your dollars are going — and resolving to continuously optimize through the year.
4. BE MORE PRESENT (FOR SERVICE KEYWORDS)
COVID-19 brought many challenges, but in a weird silver-lining kind of way, it also helped reveal some opportunities that you have to improve the overall operations of your dealership.
If your dealership had to shut-down the sales side of your biz because of the pandemic and you were only able to operate your service business for a period of time — you probably focused on your Fixed Ops marketing in a way you haven’t in years. And as a result, there’s a good chance you had your eye on the local big box and independent service centers that are aggressively marketing to steal your market share.
Make this the year that you finally fix that leaky fixed ops marketing and resolve to build up your service department’s digital marketing to the same level as your sales department, so you can fend off these competitors and win back customers.
The first step is making sure you’re set-up to capture the local high-intent searchers who are looking for service providers like you. By having the right paid, organic, and local search strategies in place for your service department, you can show up first three times in front of these valuable customers.
Considering upwards of 70% of searchers are on mobile, that top placement is critical for capturing those valuable customers — since only the very top placements are visible without scrolling down.
To take your strategy to the next level on the SERP and beyond, check out our Fixed Ops Marketing Strategy Webinar so you can get the tips, tricks, and info you need to get up and running with a comprehensive cross-channel digital marketing strategy. This year you can optimize your dealership’s service presence to not just fend-off, but overtake, the competition (and without breaking the bank to do it).
5. SPEND MORE QUALITY TIME (WITH YOUR HAPPY CUSTOMERS)
A decade ago, review generation was all the rage because we recognized just what powerful (and free!) positive reviews could and would do for our business. However, it’s possible that over the past couple of years you may have lost sight of keeping your reviews fresh because you felt that your dealership had “enough”.
It’s understandable if your focus shifted from generating new reviews to other matters you felt were more pressing, but you really can’t ignore the fact that 97% of shoppers use reviews to choose their dealership, and 86% of shoppers don’t consider reviews over 3 months old helpful (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey Dec. 2019).
Those two stats should tell you that you need to constantly be driving new, positive reviews each and every week. But it’s 2021, so don’t think you can rely on the same tactics you did a decade ago to drive new reviews, because this year it’s not just the review that will matter — it’s the actual words in the review that will give your dealership the boost it needs.
Oh good, you’re still reading! Remember way back at the beginning of this blog post when I said that your digital platform was your most valuable asset? Well, I should probably amend that statement to say it’s your digital platform AND your people that are the two most valuable assets your dealership has.
When it comes down to it, consumers often see dealerships as all being the same because many dealers tend to look the same, and say the same things. For example, I personally worked for three different dealerships that each claimed they had the largest inventory in the state — and I can assure you, for two out of those three dealers, that wasn’t the case.
If you virtually attended REFUEL 2020 then you had the opportunity to see famed entrepreneur, Jesse Itzler, tell the story of how a college marketing professor changed the trajectory of his young life by asking him one simple question during his final presentation — “what makes your brownie different from all the other brownies on the market?”.
The point Jesse goes on to make is that no matter what you do, there are thousands of other entities doing the exact same thing. So how are you going to do to stand out? How will people know that your dealership is different that all the rest?
To answer that question, we say that in 2021 you should embrace (and market) the people and processes — the customer experience — that truly make your dealership different. Don’t settle for the same old USPs that you’ve been relying on for years. Develop your your real “Why Buy” message and tell the world what it is that you and your people do and offer that no one else does, and why should that matter to car shoppers in your market.
That unique ingredient will make all your marketing efforts perform better, all year.
LET’S MAKE 2021 THE BEST YEAR EVER, TOGETHER
Everyone here at Dealer Inspire knows just how challenging 2020 was for our car dealer partners. The pandemic still isn’t over, and new challenges are going to be thrown at us along the way, but together we have everything we need to win this year.
If you would like to talk about your dealership’s overall marketing strategy for 2021, just drop us a line and we’ll schedule some quality time to talk things over.
Wishing you and your team nothing but the best in 2021 and beyond!
How-to Schema was first announced in 2018 with the intent to make instructional, step-by-step content easier for a search engine like Google to crawl, so it could parse and display that content more efficiently for end users. Because How-to Schema is recognized by Google as an official Schema.org type, that means Google can show “rich snippets” from these optimized web pages directly in the search results.
That said, SERP features like these present a double-edged sword for SEOs and business owners alike. On one hand, taking up more organic real-estate in the SERPs can give your business the competitive edge and reinforce your brand by pushing your competitors further away from users. On the other hand, getting users to click through to your site may be trickier if searchers can get all the information they need directly in the search results.
With that in mind, the SEO team at Dealer Inspire set out to discover if adding How-to Schema to appropriate content pages on car dealer websites was a help or a hindrance. Let’s take a look and see what happened.
EXPERIMENTING WITH HOW-TO SCHEMA
In order to figure out the best way to use How-to Schema to maximize traffic, keyword density, and organic impression share, the Dealer Inspire SEOs developed a controlled experiment so we could examine:
How Google’s How-to Schema markup can impact your SEO strategy
How adding How-to Schema impacts organic traffic and keyword rankings
The Process
We started out by designing the experiment to identify Organic Sessions, Page 1 Keyword Rankings, and SERP Feature presence as the three metrics to track.
From there we identified pre-existing instructional style automotive SEO content that we had published for our clients which could be updated with How-to Schema, and recorded their current performance metrics prior to implementing the structured data.
After the How-to Schema was placed on those pages we requested Google to re-index them, and then got on with our lives for 30 days before returning to check to see what impact How-to Schema had (or didn’t have) on these pages.
The Results
When we came back to check on our experiment after a month of dominating the SERP for our clients, we found that the pages we added How-to Schema to had an average increase in sessions of 8.17%, and an increase in Page 1 search rankings of 9.07%.
It’s worth noting that when accounting for outliers (pages with sessions that went from 1 to 0) the average session increase from implementing How-to Schema for 30 days was a whopping 38.64%.
We also saw an interesting side result where we noted that web pages that appeared toward the bottom of the Page 1 rankings would also show How-to Schema SERP results.
WHY USE HOW-TO SCHEMA
So why should your dealership be implementing How-to Schema on applicable pages on your website? Good question! Not only does it showcase your content more prominently, but when users are searching from a mobile device, you can take up a huge amount of real-estate, especially if you manage to appear for both the featured snippet AND a How-to feature.
Engaging content is still important — especially when users click through to your site — but How-to Schema highlights the fact that your content will succinctly and accurately answer the user’s query.
Also, when it comes to voice searches using Google Assistant on a smartphone or a dedicated device, people can actually hear your result read to them if you have a featured snippet that answers the user’s question — which is more likely to occur if you’ve implemented How-to schema correctly.
WHEN TO USE HOW-TO SCHEMA
In the case of automotive SEO, How-to Schema should be applied deliberately and with purpose. For example, you wouldn’t want to waste your time implementing How-to Schema on a comparison between two vehicles, since that page is less instructional and more informational. However, if you want to tell your customers about how to change the battery in their key fob, How-to Schema may just give you the edge over your competitors.
After adding the required properties and testing your code using Google’s Rich Results testing tool, your page now has the ability to appear in the search results as a unique SERP feature.
Schema markup is a lot easier to implement than in the past. Because of the flexibility of the Dealer Inspire platform, you can place schema in the text field of almost any page.
There are also many free Schema generator tools available to anyone looking to create basic Schema for their site where you can select the specific Schema type you are looking to create and the tool will walk you through the creation process.
That being said, if you’re not well versed in the nuances of generating, adding, and testing the functionality of Schema Markup on your webpages, Dealer Inspire can do this for you as a part of your ongoing SEO Strategy.
IS USING HOW-TO SCHEMA WORTH IT?
While the results varied significantly from page to page, overall, How-to Schema made a significant difference on the pages to which they were added.
In our view, optimizing your web pages to make them more useful for both users and search engines is a no-brainer. Adding How-to Schema markup is an easy and effective way to drive up traffic and keywords while building your brand as visitors are not only more likely to find you in searches but are also more likely to click through and interact on your site.
This reinforces what we already know about the importance of site structure: Google wants to reward websites that put users on the path to their next steps. The biggest takeaway from this experiment is that there is no downside to adding How-to Schema, so why not do it?
DATA DRIVEN SEO STRATEGY DRIVES RESULTS
The SEO experts at Dealer Inspire continuously monitor both the public and behind-the-scenes updates to Google’s algorithm to help you stay ahead of the curve. The best SEO strategy is one that prioritizes data-driven solutions. Have a question for the team? We would love to get you an answer!
On October 19th, 2020, Google will roll out a new update to their Personalized Advertising Policies which will add an additional layer of complexity for car dealers and their advertising partners to navigate. If you missed it, earlier this year Google announced:
“To further improve access to housing, employment, and credit opportunities, we are introducing a new personalized advertising policy for certain types of ads. This policy will prohibit impacted employment, housing, and credit advertisers from targeting or excluding ads based on gender, age, parental status, marital status, or ZIP Code”.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because just over a year ago Facebook rolled out a similar set of advertising guidelines known as the Special Ads Category — the likely precursor that has applied pressure on Google to do the same.
The end result of this update by Google is essentially this:
If you run Google ads that contain finance offers in the ad headline or copy (0% Financing For 72 Months, No Lease Payments For 3 Months, etc.) or your have any ads with a landing page that references finance/payment options or directly links to a credit application — you can no longer target those ads by ZIP Code.
Example of an ad that doesn’t fly anymore due to Google’s Personalized Advertising Policies.
This creates a challenge, because targeting by radiuses will likely force you to target a larger territory (with more competition, including same-brand dealers) than more precise zip code targets. Also, most OEMs require dealers to use a pre-set list of ZIP Codes to target within their Google Ads campaigns, so the transition will require an overhaul of your targeting across all applicable campaigns.
But don’t worry, we’re not going to just deliver the news and leave you on your own. In typical Dealer Inspire fashion, we have a complete guide to help you understand the changes and how to minimize the impact you might see in your campaign performance, along with a few tricks to help connect with car shoppers in your market beyond the Google ecosystem.
HOW WE’RE OPTIMIZING OUR CLIENTS’ GOOGLE ADS ACCOUNTS
While some in the automotive industry are waiting to see how it all plays out after October 19, 2020 before making adjustments to their client’s campaigns — we have been proactively making optimizations to the Google Ads accounts of our clients to ensure as little change in performance as possible. Our DigAd team has already:
Identified existing accounts for which Dealer Inspire is a certified DigAd provider, where the OEM requires ZIP Code targeting.
Accepted the policy change that is now beginning to appear as an account notification for the affected accounts.
Reviewed early flagged Expanded Text Ads and Responsive Search Ads that are not compliant with the pending credit-based policy change and altered ad copy to ensure compliance while maintaining keyword and landing page relevance within the ad copy itself.
Removed excess targeting from campaigns that may be negating ZIP Codes that are no longer relevant.
Begun working closely with OEM program representatives, along with an OEM-focused team at Google, to create new targeting requirements in light of the policy changes.
PERFORMANCE METRICS TO MONITOR
As a part of the updates to Google’s Personalized Advertising Policies, we do anticipate some fluctuations in overall campaign performance. Our DigAd team has always actively monitored the performance of our client’s campaigns, and will continue to do so. Here are the KPIs we’ll be keeping our collective eyes on after October 19, 2020, along with the predicted changes you might see in your accounts’ performance:
1. Search Impression Share
Chances are, if you’re utilizing ZIP Code targeting on some of your campaigns, you’re watching the performance of each one, and removing, negating, or bidding up on them if performance dictates. Unless that geotarget already forms a perfect circle, you’ll likely be grabbing additional geographic areas that you weren’t before, expanding your market further than you would like to.
2. Cost Per Click
OEMs provide dealers a set list of ZIP Codes for a very specific reason— to ensure you’re not bidding against other dealers under the same brand umbrella. When dealerships of the same OEM can’t bid in each other’s backyard, competition is limited and dealers get more bang-for-their-buck. With radius targeting, it’s unlikely that this will remain true, meaning the competitive field for any dealership under a ZIP Code focused OEM just got a whole lot bigger, and it’s likely to include dealers of the same OEM for the first time. We expect clicks to cost more as a result, but if you’re a DI client, you can rest assured that we’ll be optimizing campaigns in real-time to combat those changes.
3. Click-Thru Rate
What’s the benefit of highly focused advertising? You’re spending your money where it counts the most. The less granular you’re able to get with your advertising, the less efficient your campaigns are. Impressions are likely to rise, and with clicks likely to rise at a lower rate, that will equate to a lower Click-Thru Rate. Also, keep an eye on your bounce rate through Paid Search traffic as well via Google Analytics.
4. Lost Impression Share (Budget)
Lower search impression share means that your market has expanded, and with dealers normally providing fixed SEM budgets at the start of every month, your campaigns will likely be stretched thin by a radius geotarget. Of course, you can lower bids if you’re setting them manually, or allow Google’s Smart Bidding to prioritize the searchers most likely to convert, but even still, with a likely increase in CPC, your daily budgets for a campaign utilizing a radius could deplete its available spend earlier in the day than it has in the past.
5. Cost/Conversion
Increased competition and potentially higher bounce rates may mean that the benchmark you’ve been aiming for in regard to Cost/Conversion could now be out of reach. With campaigns set to gain additional traffic once transitioned from ZIP Codes to Radius, the clicks could creep up before a conversion is reached.
TARGETING BEST PRACTICES FOR GOOGLE ADS AFTER OCTOBER 19, 2020
Ok, so on the surface, that may seem like a pretty tough pill to swallow. But like any other change, there are plenty of optimizations you can make to ensure a smooth and effective transition. If you’re managing your own ad campaigns, or are working with another agency, please consider these geo-location targeting best practices within Google Ads moving forward.
Utilize Google’s Locations Report: This report will still allow access to performance metrics based on ZIP Codes, even while not being allowed to directly target them.
Directly Target Cities/Towns: Before switching to radius targeting, try directly targeting the city/town of your dealership, as well any of the surrounding cities that you would have previously targeted. If you utilize Google’s Locations Report to see which ZIP Codes are performing best, you can use that data on a website like Open Data Soft which will match ZIP Codes to the city they represent for a quicker transition.
Plot Your Sales Data: If you are a Dealer Inspire client, we can plot your DMS data on a map to visualize which areas around your dealership generate the most sales. This can help you identify the cities, as well as optimize your target radius size, allowing you to dial in your targeting where you’re most likely to make the biggest impact.
The bottom line is that with the removal of targeting by ZIP Code, you still have plenty of viable options to dial in your targeting without having to over-extend your reach beyond your comfort level.
USE A CONNECTED MARKETING STRATEGY FTW
While Google gives us plenty of campaign optimization tools, and Dealer Inspire is leading the way with testing new strategies — you don’t have to put all of your digital advertising eggs in Google’s basket. Implementing a connected marketing strategy to target in-market shoppers on the devices and platforms they use most can take your advertising game to the next level so you can dominate your dealership’s market at a cheaper cost per click.
Microsoft Ads (Bing): If you’ve been sleeping on Bing, you’re missing out on making an impression with the 36.9% of PC users who make up the lion-share of Bing users. You can import your campaigns directly from your Google Ads account into a Microsoft Ads account, utilize your current ZIP Code targeting, and get quality traffic at a fraction of the price!
Facebook Dynamic Automotive Ads: Utilize Facebook’s inventory catalog capabilities by retargeting your website visitors and layering on a lookalike audience to reach local in-market shoppers with your best offers and brand messages.
Cars.com Display: Cars.com receives an average of 22.8 million visitors each and every month, and Dealer Inspire has exclusive access to that car buying audience. With Cars.com Display, you can run direct-buy display ads on Cars.com targeted to 100% in-market shoppers in your area. You simply can’t get any more precise with your targeting than you can on Cars.com.
FUEL: In Market Video: Video advertising can be one of the most effective ways to get your offers and brand messages in front of prospective shoppers. However as our media consumption habits have become more fragmented than ever, your challenge is figuring out how to reach local car shoppers across multiple devices and social, streaming, and OTT platforms.
FUEL: IMV solves that problem by using the Cars.com in-market audience data (25 million monthly shoppers!) to target relevant ads only to local shoppers actively looking for a vehicle right now — and we target by zip code. FUEL video campaigns reinforce your brand’s message, so when that viewer goes from passively consuming video content, to actively using Google to search for their next vehicle — your dealership’s ads have a better chance of earning their click.
CREATE PRIZM™ ALERTS TO MONITOR CHANGES IN PERFORMANCE
While our team has your back, and will be actively monitoring the performance of your Google Ads campaigns, we highly recommend you do the same. That said, navigating between your Google Ads and Analytics Dashboards to try to figure out what’s going on is a daunting task. Especially if you’re responsible for more than one rooftop.
That’s where PRIZM™, Dealer Inspire’s proprietary reporting dashboard comes in. Not only does it sync via API with your Google Ads and Analytics accounts (among others), but it also has a killer alert feature that you can set up to notify you via text message or email when a pre-defined KPI is performing above or below a certain threshold.
There’s no better way to actively monitor your performance metrics during this transitional period. If you wait until month’s end to review your performance, then you’re losing valuable time and money by not making adjustments as needed in the moment.
At the end of the day, every dealership, agency, and Google Ads user is going to be in the same situation when it comes to navigating Google’s new Personalized Advertising Policy. There’s no doubt that the automotive digital marketing landscape is going to change, and those who have already prepared to make a seamless transition are the ones who’ll have a jump start over their competition.
Want to talk about your dealership’s digital marketing strategy with our expert-level specialists? Just drop us a line, and we’ll set up a time to connect asap!
