Situation
A Ford dealer in New York needed to increase meaningful website traffic from visitors with intent to buy. They already had digital advertising in place, so the goal of their Naked Lime digital advertising specialist was to improve their current paid search strategy.
The Solution
Inventory Display Advertising is an advanced digital advertising solution that includes:
- Native, in-image advertising. Shows ads directly over the image the visitor is viewing on the site, making it part of the content.
- Dynamic display ads for both new and used vehicles. Real-time inventory updates offer exactly what you have in stock.
- Advanced contextual and behavioral targeting. Uses each shopper’s online behavior off your site to target ads.
- Remarketing. Follows previous visitors with specific vehicle ads after they leave your site.
All display ads offer interactive features, like photo carousels, that encourage the shopper to engage with the ad and ultimately visit a Vehicle Details Page (VDP) for more information.
Traditional display advertising only operates on the Google Display Network (GDN). Inventory Display Advertising uses the GDN, but also adds the six additional exchange networks in the Auto Audience Network (review sites, listing sites, research sites visited by car shoppers) to increase visibility. This enhances a dealership’s ability to target the right consumer, at the right time, in even more places.
Strategy
The specialist directed $2500 in ad spend to Inventory Display Advertising, focusing on remarketing at the VIN level for new inventory and lease offers. This meant that even after the visitor left the website, they would be served ads for the exact car they viewed, accompanied by others like it, to increase the chance of conversion.
Over 12 months, the specialist concentrated on the following goals:
- Increase traffic through VDP views
- Enhance remarketing efforts
- Drive interest in four top models for the dealership
The specialist tracked VDPs viewed per unique shopper, significant events (form leads, phone calls, link clicks on site) and returning visitor behaviors.
Results
Over the past year, the dealership maintained a strong trend of VDPs per unique user.
Events on site: Over the past year, there were 2,726 events triggered on the site directly attributable to these campaigns.
Returning Visitor Behavior: 41% of users who clicked on a Dynamic Display Ad to visit the dealership’s website for the very first time during December–May returned to the site within a three month time period.
When these users returned we saw a 52% improvement with pages viewed per session (1.57–2.27) and a 133% improvement with average session duration (1.03–2.27).
Recommendation
Based on increased traffic to the website and visitor engagement, Naked Lime Marketing recommends the addition of Inventory Display Advertising to a strong, fully optimized paid search strategy. This type of advertising has proven to be valuable in driving VDP traffic, inspiring users to take action, and remarketing to actively shopping consumers.