2024 Dealers United Wrap Up

by Brooke Jensen | Dec 23, 2024 | Company News, Holiday

2024 Dealers United Wrap Up

Facebook Advertising For Car Sales A Guide For Dealerships

That’s a wrap on 2024! 🎉

What a transformative year it’s been at Dealers United! We’ve evolved from being social media focused experts to becoming a full-service digital powerhouse, bringing together the power of search and social to help our dealer partners dominate digital. Our team doubled in size, welcoming 40 incredible new faces who share our passion for innovation and excellence in automotive marketing.

Join us as we celebrate the wins, the growth, and the incredible journey of 2024! 💫

January

We kicked off 2024 with a bang by announcing the launch of our search marketing services, including SEO and SEM! This exciting expansion came with a complete website rebrand to showcase our evolution into a full-service digital marketing agency.
Our content team hit the ground running, publishing four powerful blogs to help dealers maximize their digital presence:

A major milestone for our leadership team: We proudly welcomed Brian Malsom as our new Chief Executive Officer!
We published a Video interview with Matt Sneed, Director of Operations at our partner Power Ford in Albuquerque NM. Watch the full video interview (<15 min!) and learn how Power Ford turns prospects into customers for life.

February

The DU knowledge hub grew stronger with four more blogs:

NADA 2024 in Las Vegas was a blast! 🎰 The DU Leadership Team hosted an epic Topgolf event where we gave away custom-fitted golf clubs for “The Longest Drive.” Nothing beats connecting with our dealer partners while #DrivingTheFuture!
We published 2 Case Studies:

Team DU grew by one tiny member as Jorge Lafosse, our Head of SEO, welcomed his daughter Luna on February 9th! 👶
We hosted a Webinar “14-Point Digital Inspection For Car Dealers” to help dealerships understand if their digital engine optimized for performance across SEO, SEM, and Social
The Culture Committee incited some friendly competition by hosting Superbowl Squares

⭐️ 2024 by the numbers: Dealers United drove 730K+ SEM & Social leads for our Dealers Partners!

March

The creative team released our first holiday (not seasonal) themed Inspiration Playbook For Mother’s Day! Click here to see the Playbook.
We published our 3rd case study of the year with Power Ford covering their 2023 Social media results
We teamed up with TikTok Agency Partner Manager, Julianna Wanner to teach car dealers the best ways to leverage TikTok in our webinar: The Most Powerful TikTok Strategies For Car Dealers with TikTok!
Watch this video interview with Jay Healey, CMO of Healey Brothers Automotive Group, where he breaks down their success in building a people-first, tech-driven approach to automotive marketing.
March Madness fever hit the Culture Committee, keeping the competitive spirit alive! 🏀

⭐️ 2024 by the numbers: We documented over 250 new SOPs!

Welcome to the Team in Q1!

In the first quarter of the year we welcomed 10 new team members!

Welcome to the team: Ezekiel (Zeke) Hamor, Jasmine Smedley, Zach Bauman, Madelyn Capehart, Gil Marquez, AJ Jusufbasic, John Jireh Lizaso, Tessa Brooks, Michael Sigel, & our new CEO, Brian Malsom!

April

Check out these 2 blogs we pushed live:

It’s a boy! Aleena, Performance Manager, Welcomed Sullivan Henry Martin into the world April 25
We published #4 and #5 Case Studies:

A major milestone achieved: We proudly earned our Google Partner Badge! 🏆
The Culture Committee hosted one of our favorite annual events: DU Cribbs! 🏠 Team members dropped their Zoom backgrounds to showcase their real workspaces, share their office stories, and introduce their furry coworkers!

May

2 more blogs made their way onto the site:

We published a case study with Pinterest! Our sixth case study of the year featured Zeigler Subaru of Kenosha’s results.
May’s Webinar: Decoding GA4 For Car Dealers! In this session we shared the biggest GA4 updates & features important to car dealers, and more.
New Resources were published to help dealers dominate digital:

The Culture Committee got nostalgic with “Who’s That Kid?!” 👶 Team members had a blast guessing who was who in childhood photos!

June

More blogs? You got it! Read:

Another full-service case study made the list! Our 7th case study featured the SEO, SEM, Social results of St Albert Dodge in Alberta, Canada.
The Culture Committee hosted an Emoji Game. The team had to guess the titles of movies based on the emojis describing the plot.

⭐️ 2024 By The Numbers: 10,196 Hubspot Tickets created & solved by our Support team!

Welcome to the Team in Q2!

The more the merrier! We welcomed 12 more team members in Q2!

Welcome to the team: Stuart Hardy, Farzad Jafari, Mallory Sackey, Xavier Miles, Cameron Smith, Matt Hilend, Ashley Rogers, Ashton Day, Nick Mitchum, Crystal Kulpa, David Dreier, & Clyde Jenkins!

July

Our eighth case study revealed Power Ford’s transformation after implementing Meta’s Conversions API Integration.
We joined forces with Meta for an epic webinar: “Maximizing Meta: AI, Ads, Reels, & More” 🤖
📱 Dealers looking to optimize their search game got a boost with our comprehensive SEM Checklist!
The culture committee hosted a DU favorite, the “Remote Scavenger Hunt,” where the team found objects in their homes from a provided list in 5 minutes!

August

We published a new search-focused blog: “SEO Strategies for Car Dealerships: Boost Sales“
Case Study #8 featured Rob Sight Ford’s Strategy on SEO and SEM. It included a Video Interview with Bobby Sight, where he claimed “Dealers United crushes the Search game. It is a night and day difference…”

September

To help dealers understand how their digital marketing is performing, we hosted a Webinar with digital dealer: DIY Search & Social Digital Audit For Car Dealers
The Culture Committee got lost (in a good way!) in our virtual Corn Maze in Kumospace! 🌽
Digital Dealer prep kicked into high gear with our first DU Sizzle Reel Video! 🎥

⭐️ 2024 By The Numbers: 2.9M vehicles were ingested by our proprietary platform that powers our inventory ads, with over 26.6M images!

Welcome to the Team in Q3!

We welcomed 18 more team members! We are happy to have each and every one of you on Team DU.

Welcome to the team: Jesse Charchut, Chad King, Erin Carter, Brett Ponda, Jay Shindledecker, Joel Mosquera, Mandi Eddings, Rob Steinberg, Wendy Gill, Andi Plotts, Sydney Jones, Victoria Fistler, Jason Dinh, Jennifer York, Kyle Roberts, Morgan Trent, Brad Zerman, & Emily Leasure!

October

The biggest event of our Marketing team’s year was the Digital Dealer conference and Expo in Las Vegas! This was our first time exhibiting in a long time, and it was so fun to set up our booth and network with dealers!
We also co-hosted a session on the keynote stage with TikTok, “TikTok Masterclass for Car Dealers.” Watch the TikTok Masterclass recording here!
To kick off the week, we held a party at Topgolf where a hundred dealers competed for $2,500 custom golf clubs. Congrats to the winners!

This month’s webinar was: Sushi, Robots, Other SEO Strategies. Think our webinar title is weird? The SEO strategies we’ve seen dealers use are even weirder…
More BLOGS coming up…

3 additional Case Studies made the website:

Spookiest culture event of the year: the virtual Murder Mystery! The team gathered in character to try and catch the killer in this 90s themed music awards murder mystery!

November

We published more BLOGS to continue to educate on search and social:

Case Study #12 featured dealers who are dominating the SRP!!!

During our webinar, “6 Tips to 2x Google Performance Max ROI,” we were able to answer a ton of dealer’s questions about Pmax LIVE.
The #TeamDU Culture Committee planned a company give back initiative by teaming up with Letters Against Isolation. LAI’s mission is to “Fight senior loneliness one letter at a time.” Our team created greeting cards that were sent to assisted living centers around the country!

⭐️ 2024 By The Numbers: Shout out to our Creative Department who decreased Creative Ticket turnaround time by 66% (from Q1 to Q4) ⏰

December

The team is gearing up for NADA Show 2025 in New Orleans! 🎭 Join us for:

Expert-led “14-Point Digital Inspection” sessions (with a special gift waiting at our booth!)
$5K -A- DAY NADA SWEEPSTAKES – Enter to win!
An exclusive 2-day party on Bourbon Street with VIP balcony access
An insightful NADA workshop by Justin Friend and Jay Healey on “17 Battle-Tested Social Ads“
Party passes, prizes, and more all at Booth #7757!

We hosted the webinar “7 Essential Tactics to Dominate Digital” based on our most impactful webinars and trending topics, you will find out the top search and social tactics to bring into the new year and beat your competition.
Case studies #13 and #14 showcased more incredible dealer results…

How Serra Ford Buick GMC Achieved 47% Increase In Conversions QoQ Through Strategic SEM
How Big West Quick Lane Achieved 73% Lead Growth Through Meta Ad
The Culture Committee closed out 2024 with our beloved traditions: a virtual white elephant gift exchange and our fiercely competitive gingerbread house contest! 🎁 🏠

Wrapping Up 2024 – What A Blast!🚀

What a remarkable journey 2024 has been! From launching our full-service digital marketing solutions to welcoming 40 new team members, every milestone has strengthened our commitment to delivering exceptional results for our dealers.

We’re filled with gratitude for our amazing dealer community, dedicated team members, and industry partners who made this transformative year possible.

We’ve built a foundation that combines the power of search and social, assembled an incredible team, and delivered game-changing results for our partners. But this is just the start – we’re already gearing up to bring even more innovations, insights, and impact to the automotive industry in 2025.

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Written By Lauren Blackwell
Lauren Blackwell is a skilled content marketer who has spent the past 3 years working in automotive advertising technology and now brings her unique experiences to Dealers United. From running ad campaigns, to curating auto-specific resources, Lauren is empowered to create valuable content to help automotive dealers thrive on social media.

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How Much ($$$) Should Car Dealers Spend on Facebook Ads?

by Brooke Jensen | Nov 20, 2024 | Budgeting, Facebook

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How Much ($$$) Should Car Dealers Spend on Facebook Ads?

Social media has fundamentally changed how people shop for vehicles. Your potential customers are scrolling through Facebook and Instagram daily, discovering vehicles, reading reviews, and engaging with dealerships long before they step foot on a lot.

For car dealers, this shift in consumer behavior means that having an effective Facebook advertising strategy isn’t just an option – it’s essential for staying competitive in today’s digital marketplace.

Understanding Facebook Ad Costs for Car Dealers

Facebook advertising costs vary significantly across industries, but automotive dealers face unique considerations when planning their social media budget. The key metrics that influence your dealership’s Facebook ad spend and the metric benchmarks you should aim for include:

Cost Per Click (CPC): $2.08
Click Through Rate (CTR): 8.77%
Cost per Lead (CPL): $42.52
Conversion Rate (CR): 5.72%

Note: These metrics are benchmarks determined by our social ad experts at Dealers United!

Factors Affecting Your Dealership’s Facebook Ad Budget

Several different things influence how much your dealership should invest in Facebook advertising, like market size and competition, inventory volume, and business goals:

Market Size and Competition

Local population density
Number of competing dealerships
Average income in your market

Inventory Volume

New vs. used inventory mix
Number of vehicles to promote
Special promotions and events

Business Goals

Lead generation targets
Brand awareness objectives
Service department promotion

Budget Considerations by Dealership Size

Small to Medium Dealerships

Your Facebook ad budget should align with your sales volume and business goals. A properly scaled budget should allow for:

Multiple campaigns targeting different objectives
Adequate audience testing and optimization
Consistent lead flow for both sales and service departments
Proper inventory displayed

Large Dealerships and Auto Groups

Multi-location operations and dealer groups require more sophisticated advertising approaches. Your budget planning should account for:

Scaled campaigns across multiple locations
Market-specific audience targeting
Full inventory coverage for each location
Dedicated service department campaigns
Brand-level awareness initiatives
Multiple campaign objectives running simultaneously

Click here to find out what your Facebook ads budget should be using our MarketAnalyzer tool.

Maximizing ROI on Facebook Ad Spend

The key to successful Facebook advertising isn’t just how much you spend – it’s how effectively you deploy your budget. Top-performing dealerships focus on:

Strategic Campaign Structure

Separate campaigns for new, used, and service
Dynamic inventory ads
Custom audience targeting

Creative Excellence

High-quality vehicle photography
Engaging video content
Compelling ad copy

Continuous Optimization

Regular performance monitoring
A/B testing
Budget reallocation based on results

Optimizing Your Facebook Ad Strategy

When managing Facebook advertising campaigns, dealerships should focus on several key areas:

Campaign Timing and Seasonality
Strategic Audience Segmentation
Performance Metric Tracking
Regular Campaign Optimization
Creative Asset Quality

Professional Campaign Management

Professional management of your Facebook advertising can help your dealership:

Implement advanced targeting strategies
Monitor and optimize campaign performance
Create engaging automotive-specific content
Track and analyze key performance metrics
Scale campaigns based on results

Strategic Investment Planning

Your Facebook advertising investment should align with:

Your dealership’s specific sales goals
Your local market conditions
Your competitive landscape
Your target audience size
Your inventory mix and volume

Use our MarketAnalyzer tool here to analyze your market opportunity and create a tailored budget approach for your dealership.

Start Maximizing Your Facebook Ad Performance

Success with Facebook advertising requires strategic planning, consistent optimization, and deep understanding of automotive digital marketing. The right approach can help your dealership reach potential customers effectively and drive qualified traffic to your showroom.

At Dealers United, we specialize in automotive Facebook advertising and understand the unique challenges dealers face in the digital space. Our team can help you develop and execute a Facebook advertising strategy tailored to your dealership’s specific needs and goals.

Dominate Social Ads

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How to Audit Your Dealership’s Search & Social Digital Marketing: The Complete DIY Guide

by Brooke Jensen | Oct 29, 2024 | Digital Marketing, SEM, SEO, Social Media

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How to Audit Your Dealership’s Search & Social Digital Marketing: The Complete DIY Guide

Many dealers are missing crucial opportunities across their Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM / Paid Search), and Social Media campaigns…

That’s why we’ve written this blog article, to help you identify where you have gaps in your search and social strategies on your own.

Want a quick win? Click here to skip the article and schedule an appointment with our Search and Social experts who will give you a free 14-Point Digital Audit!

Why Your Dealership Needs a Digital Marketing Audit

It’s not a secret that dealerships struggle to effectively capture the attention of users online. Here’s why:

Misaligned SEO strategies focusing on irrelevant content (like local restaurant reviews)
Inefficient ad spend due to poor campaign structure and targeting
Outdated social media content missing key conversion opportunities
Lack of coordination between marketing channels
Insufficient tracking of key performance metrics

The Three Pillars of Digital Marketing Success

Recent data shows that although 68% of car buying journeys start with a search engine, social media influences over 2 hours of your customers’ daily online activity — meaning that there is an extreme opportunity to reach users on search and social.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Quality organic traffic can drive up to 53% of your website visitors — which makes SEO important.

Before we get into what you need to audit, here are some tools that can be helpful as you audit your SEO strategy yourself:

Ahrefs
SEM Rush
MOZ
Google Ads Transparency Center
Search From
Surfer SEO
And more…

SEO Audit Part 1: Domain Analysis

Analyze your domain and look at the following:

Keywords
Monthly organic visitors
Total backlinks
Domain rating (10-30 typical)
Referring domains (the more, the better!)

SEO Audit Part 2: Traffic Level Check

Look back 6 months or 1 year to see the comparison of traffic to the current timeframe
What’s the # of monthly organic visitors?
What’s the peak # of visitors – and when is it?

SEO Audit Part 2: Traffic Level Check

Check your website’s keyword strategy and content focus. Review rankings for key areas:

Non-dealer-branded keywords
Backyard cities
“Near me” searches
Local cities + OEM combinations
Flag any irrelevant keywords (like restaurants or local attractions)

SEO Audit Part 4: Technical Tune-Up

Do all headings give context? i.e., “Browse new models” “shop” “service”
Think like a robot!

How does Google (🤖 ) view your site?
All the words on your site need to be contextualized to get across to Google what your page or website is about

A properly optimized dealership website should rank for more than just your brand name – it should capture valuable “near me” searches and local buying intent across your entire market area.

2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) / Paid Search Marketing

SEM Audit Part 1: Strategy & Budget Diagnostics

Are you over-segmenting campaigns?
Are you cannibalizing your organic traffic for “{{Dealership Name}}” bids?
Make sure you’re not overspending $$$ on Tier 1 & 2
Are you maximizing Google’s Paid Search opportunities with Google VLAs?

SEM Audit Part 2: Audience Assessment

What are your in-market audiences?
Are you using affinity audiences?
Does your audience use demographics?
Are you leveraging your 1st party data?
Do audience signals append to Performance Max?

SEM Audit Part 3: Keyword/Targeting Selections

Are you using the full 15 headlines & 4 description lines for each ad?
Are you using all ad extensions? (sitelinks, location, call, structured snippet, callout)
Are you layering top performing cities into location targeting?
Are you using the “Target ROAS” bid strategy?
Are you using the right KPIs? (phone calls, form submissions, store visits)
Are you using ASC framework for GA4 event tracking?

SEM Audit Part 4: Setup & Hygiene Checks

Are you using all match types? (broad, phrase & exact)
Are you running dynamic Search Ads campaigns?
How often are you reviewing search term reports?
Make sure you’re not adding negative keywords
Are you taking advantage of “Search Partner” & “Display Network”?

3. Social Media Ads

Social Ads Audit Part 1: Model Line Mechanics

Review your model line ads and promotions. Check for these key elements:

Monthly incentive updates
Current OEM imagery
2024 model education content
Outdated promotion removal
Seasonal relevance

Social Ads Audit Part 2: Inventory Ads Inspection

What are your in-market audiences?
Are you using affinity audiences?
Does your audience use demographics?
Are you leveraging your 1st party data?
Do audience signals append to Performance Max?

Social Ads Audit Part 3: Social Systems Utilization

Evaluate your social media campaign setup. Review these technical elements:

Ad format variety (image, video, carousel, stories)
Platform diversification
Format specifications (1×1, 9×16)
Video length optimization
Campaign objective coverage
Data targeting implementation

Social Ads Audit Part 4: Setup & Hygiene Checks

Assess your dealership’s brand messaging. Examine these brand elements:

Customer testimonials and reviews
Unique value propositions
Service department promotion
Community engagement
Special event coverage
Custom video content

Schedule your 14-Point Digital Audit now and learn how to maximize your search strategy and social media ads for your car dealership.

The Power of Integration: SEO + SEM + Social Ads

The most successful dealerships aren’t just executing these strategies independently – they’re creating synergy between all three channels.

Our data shows that integrated campaigns can:

Increase organic traffic by 23% in 90 days (PROVEN results from one of our dealer partners, St. Albert Dodge)
Improve social media engagement rates significantly
Create consistent messaging across all platforms
Maximize budget efficiency through cross-channel insights

What Sets Top-Performing Dealerships Apart

Leading dealerships consistently monitor their digital presence using a comprehensive audit framework, like the one above. They focus on:

Quality traffic over vanity metrics
Local market dominance
Cross-channel audience targeting
Regular performance optimization
Data-driven decision making
Consistent brand messaging

Take Action Today: Book Your Digital Audit For Car Dealers

Don’t let digital marketing opportunities slip through the cracks. Our team of automotive digital marketing experts can help you:

Identify gaps in your current strategy
Benchmark against top performers
Create an actionable improvement plan
Implement best practices across all channels
Monitor and optimize performance

Ready to maximize your digital marketing ROI? Click here to book your 14-Point Digital Audit today and get a detailed inspection of your digital strategies.

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Boosting Online Sales with Google Vehicle Listing Ads: A Car Dealers Guide

by Brooke Jensen | Oct 14, 2024 | SEM

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Boosting Online Sales with Google Vehicle Listing Ads: A Car Dealers Guide

More car buyers than ever are searching online for vehicles…and not just when they’re looking to buy. This means that as a car dealer, you have a unique opportunity to increase visibility on the biggest search engine using Google Vehicle Listing Ads (VLAs).

Google Vehicle Listing Ads (Google VLAs) are an automotive specific solution for dealerships to showcase their inventory at the right moment in the buyer’s journey on the biggest search engine.

Let’s talk about what Google VLAs are, why they’re crucial for dealerships looking to sell more cars online, how they work, the benefits they offer, and how Dealers United can help you leverage Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies, like Google VLAs, to grow your dealership’s impact and revenue.

What Are Google Vehicle Listing Ads and How Do They Work?

Google VLAs are a specialized ad format designed for car dealerships and their inventory.

Unlike traditional search ads, VLAs allow dealers to display vehicle inventory with real-time information such as prices, make, model, and dealership location.

These ads appear prominently in Google Search results when users look for vehicles, making them a powerful tool for attracting high-intent car shoppers.

Key Features of VLAs:

Inventory-based ads: These ads pull directly from a dealership’s live inventory, ensuring accuracy and relevance.
Visual appeal: Vehicle images and key details like price and mileage are included, making the ad highly engaging.
Local relevance: VLAs target users based on their location, showing them vehicles that are nearby.
Direct link to inventory: When a user clicks on a VLA, they are taken directly to the vehicle listing on the dealership’s site, allowing them to take immediate action.

The Benefits of VLAs for Car Dealerships

For car dealerships, the goal is always to sell more cars and bring more qualified leads to the showroom. Google VLAs are a game-changer that offer several important advantages over traditional search ads as well as other digital advertising formats.

1. Increased Visibility for Inventory

VLAs offer dealerships a new level of visibility in Google Search results. By showcasing actual vehicles from the dealership’s inventory, they grab the attention of potential buyers who are actively searching for a specific make or model.

2. Better Targeting for High-Intent Shoppers

VLAs target users based on the specific vehicles they’re looking for, making them a highly targeted ad format. This means that dealerships are reaching people who are already in the market for a new car and are close to making a purchase.

3. Enhanced User Experience

VLAs provide users with a seamless browsing experience. Instead of navigating multiple pages or guessing what inventory a dealership has, potential buyers can see available cars, trucks, or SUVs right in the search results.

[CTA: “Learn How Dealers United Can Optimize Your VLA Campaigns”]

How to Sell More Cars Online with VLAs

As a car dealer, leveraging VLAs as part of your digital marketing strategy provides a significant advantage in capturing more leads and selling more cars. Here’s how Dealers United can help you maximize the effectiveness of VLAs:

1. Create a Custom Strategy for Your Dealership

Not all dealerships are the same, and neither should their VLA campaigns be. Dealers United develops customized VLA strategies tailored to your unique inventory, geographic location, and market to maximize the effectiveness of your ads.

2. Provide Detailed Reporting and Insights

One of the biggest advantages of VLAs is the ability to track and analyze performance in real time. Dealers United provides valuable insights by showing you how many leads, clicks, and conversions your ads are generating. With this data, we can refine and optimize campaigns to continuously improve performance.

3. Leverage VLAs for Lead Nurturing

In addition to driving immediate sales, VLAs can also play a role in nurturing leads over time. By retargeting users who have previously engaged with your VLA, Dealers United can help keep potential buyers engaged throughout the purchase journey.

Take the Lead in the Digital Realm for Dealerships

In the competitive automotive market, being on the biggest search engines where car shoppers are searching is critical.

Our Search Engine Marketing services supercharge your online presence, showcasing your inventory to more qualified leads.

Click here to learn more about how Dealers United’s Search Engine Marketing solutions can help your leads and sales skyrocket.

Want to learn more about Dealers United’s SEM Solutions?

Learn More

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How Dealers United’s Automotive SEO & SEM Strategies Drove 40% More Search Traffic for Rob Sight Ford

by Brooke Jensen | Jun 21, 2024 | SEM, SEO

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How Dealers United’s Automotive SEO & SEM Strategies Drove 40% More Search Traffic for Rob Sight Ford

Having a strong search engine presence is critical for automotive dealerships who want to attract qualified buyers and steal traffic from local competitors. However, many dealers struggle to rank well organically on Google and cut through the paid advertising noise. That’s where Dealers United comes in – we’re search experts specializing in comprehensive automotive search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) solutions tailored for the car industry.

Just ask Rob Sight Ford — After partnering with our team, they saw a massive 40% boost in overall search performance, driving more website traffic and sales opportunities than ever before! Let’s go over how our partnership led to such great results…

The Challenges Rob Sight Ford Faced

Before partnering with Dealers United, Rob Sight Ford faced some pretty big hurdles when it came to their digital marketing. Despite trying various SEO vendors, they struggled to find one that could deliver tangible improvements in search rankings and drive quality traffic to their website.

Bobby Sight, the Managing Partner at Rob Sight Ford, expressed their frustration: “We had experimented with different SEO solutions, but none of them provided the content quality or traffic we needed to outperform our competition in search results.“

On the paid advertising side of things, the team at Rob Sight Ford recognized the importance of utilizing SEM to attract in-market auto shoppers. That being said, they lacked the specialized expertise required to optimize their campaigns effectively and stand out in the crowded space that is our internet today.

Our Automotive SEO Content Strategy

To boost Rob Sight Ford’s organic search performance, Dealers United implemented a comprehensive, user-focused automotive SEO content strategy aligned with Google’s emphasis on great user experience.

We started by publishing articles optimized with relevant keywords that could provide real shoppers with value. A prime example is our “Ford Bronco vs Bronco Sport” model comparison blog – now ranking in the top 5 nationwide!

This type of in-depth, informative content serves multiple purposes:

It connects the dealership with potential customers at various stages of the buying journey.
It positions Rob Sight Ford as a knowledgeable and trustworthy source of information.
It answers common questions and guides decision-making, enhancing the overall car shopper experience.

And the results of our SEO efforts were impressive:

41% increase in organic traffic to the Rob Sight Ford website
43% more phone calls generated from organic visitors
1,500 total keywords either added or improved in rankings

Geo-Targeted Automotive SEM Campaigns

While SEO focused on top-funnel traffic, our team also launched hyper-targeted SEM campaigns aimed at capturing low-funnel, ready-to-buy prospects located near Rob Sight Ford’s dealership.

Our automotive SEM approach included several key tactics:

Keyword Optimization: We focused on geo-modified terms like “Ford dealers Kansas City” and “Ford dealership near me” to capture local search intent.
Advanced Audience Layering: By considering factors such as device types, ad serving times, and previous shopping behavior, we ensured ads were shown to the most relevant audiences.
Ad Extensions: We implemented new ad extensions highlighting high-priority models like the 2023 F-150, increasing ad visibility and providing more information to potential customers.
Multiple Ad Formats: We utilized various ad formats to showcase Rob Sight Ford’s extensive inventory, driving potential buyers directly to specific vehicle listings on the dealer’s website.

The results of our SEM campaigns were equally impressive:

947 total leads generated over a 90-day period
An average cost per lead of just $15
A 37% increase in click-through rates (CTR)

PLUS, we noticed that an important call-to-action was missing on the VDP page to get users to call the dealership. By working with Dealers United’s SEO team to add a prominent call button, their phone calls increased by 43%!

Impact On Rob Sight Ford Dealership

The impact of Dealers United’s automotive SEO and SEM solutions didn’t go unnoticed by the team at Rob Sight Ford. Their glowing testimonials speak volumes about the effectiveness of our strategies:

Bobby Sight, Managing Partner, stated: “Dealers United absolutely crushes the search game. It’s a night and day difference from our previous experiences. With Dealers United, I actually talk to somebody who keeps me informed about what’s happening. They’re accountable: when they say they’re going to improve visibility for a certain search or category, I see real, tangible improvements. I have complete confidence that they’re working hard for us.”

And Rich Poe, General Manager, added: “I can confidently say that the content looks dynamite! We’ve attempted SEO with several other providers in the past, but this team delivers exactly what we had in mind for our content. It looks great and performs even better. Thank you, Dealers United!”

Replicating Rob Sight Ford’s Results With Dealers United

By combining cutting-edge techniques in both organic and paid search, Dealers United helped Rob Sight Ford dramatically increase their online visibility, drive more qualified traffic to their website, and ultimately, generate more high-quality leads.

If you’re a car dealer or general manager looking to replicate Rob Sight Ford’s impressive search marketing performance, click here to schedule time with our experts at Dealers United.

BOOK A DEMO TO DOMINATE SEARCH

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