Make the Most of Your Ad Spend

Whether your dealership’s advertising budget is big or small, there are strategic ways to maximize that spend most efficiently. Regardless of the amount of money that is available for advertising, look at your budget as a whole – are you seeing trackable results that show a solid return on investment when it comes to both traditional and digital marketing methods?

In a perfect world, every cent of what you spend on advertising would be helping your dealership reach the right prospects at the right time, turning them into customers at your dealership.

Consider this – a digital ad campaign could include both search engine and social media ads for an upcoming sale at your store. Never mind the fact that you have complete control over how much is spent on this campaign, and the ability to adjust that spend or end the campaign at any time based on performance – by nature, a digital ad campaign like this one will cost you less than running a commercial or putting up a billboard. But on top of saving the heavy upfront costs that come with traditional advertising methods, a digital ad campaign can also reach a much larger audience. While not every one of your perfect prospects is watching local TV (and paying attention to the commercials) or driving past your billboard (and taking the time to look at it), but you can be certain that those prospects are going online at some point throughout the day. Beyond reaching a larger audience, digital ad campaigns also allow advertisers to pinpoint groups and audiences that are likely to be in the market for your products. So, on top of spending less money and reaching more people who are already likely to be actual prospects, you can also track the engagement that your ads receive throughout the entire campaign.

When it comes to maximizing your budget with pay-per-click (PPC) ads, it is best practice to use both search engine and social media ads. This increases the chances that your ad will be seen, and it also creates familiarity - if a prospect has already seen your ad when searching online, they are more likely to respond when they see it again on social media. In addition, there are likely many past customers who follow your social media pages, and you should be advertising to them too. According to Branex research, the probability of selling to an existing customer is between 60-70% and existing customers spend 31% more as compared to new customers.

While there is still a place for traditional ad methods, looking at ROI alone it’s easy to see that digital advertising should take the forefront. Consider whether your dealership is making the most of your advertising budget – can you say that your current methods are delivering tangible results?