Achieving Objectives Series: Generating More Traffic for Car Dealer Websites
Article published: 01 March 2021
Do you want more traffic to the most important pages of your motor trade website? Maybe you are concerned that visitor levels are dropping off. Or perhaps you have a key offer that needs to gain more traction – now. Whatever your reasons, here are some of our top tips for generating more traffic to your website.
Generating website traffic is one of the easier dealer objectives to meet – as long as you have some budget to put behind your good intentions. That said, there are various different approaches to suit all budgets and ambitions – and a strong overall website and brand identity will support any and all activity with (hopefully) a consistent level of organic traffic.
As the latest instalment in our “Achieving Objectives Series”, today we asked our in-house Digital Marketing experts to put together some great ways to boost website traffic – from highly targeted ads through to more generic traffic-focused strategies.
How social media adverts can generate traffic for your automotive website:
Facebook Campaigns
Whilst Facebook users won’t be actively searching for new or used cars (as they would with a PPC campaign), a carousel advert on Facebook can have a very strong performance thanks to Facebook’s high quality “interests” targeting.
We see performance above and beyond the less-targeted Display Campaigns on Google, and clicks can be cheaper too.
Top tip – it’s all about the quality of your artwork here as it needs to stand out amongst all of Facebook’s other content.
Instagram Campaigns
Did you know that you can advertise on Instagram at the same time as Facebook, with minimal extra effort? We find that campaigns that show on both social media platforms deliver strong traffic levels and, again, convert surprisingly well.
Top tip: Why not start off by advertising a key offer, and if it works you can consider more of an “always on” social media advertising strategy?
Automotive Model Ads
Feed your actual used stock into Facebook in order to be able to create AMAs – Automotive Model Ads directly within the platform. These ads can link through to your website listings, and can also be used for advanced retargeting, showing customers the cars they looked at most recently.
Top tip: Get Bluesky’s Digital Marketing team to sort your vehicle feed, Facebook Pixel and adverts for a seamless advertising package.
Using paid search (PPC) to drive more dealer website traffic:
Model “Always On” Campaigns
Ensure that local, highly-relevant traffic reaches your model pages by running “always on” campaigns for your key model range.
These new car adverts should run consistently, improving performance over time and meaning that you always have a stream of relevant, interested customers landing on the most relevant sections of your site.
Tactical Campaigns
If you have some temporary offers that are very compelling, you can supplement your “always on” PPC strategy with some specific tactical budget. This will increase penetration and drive higher levels of traffic for the duration of the offer or promotion.
Top tip: Ideally tactical campaigns should build on your “always on” strategy and budget, as Google doesn’t reward campaigns that are regularly switched on and off.
Brand / Location Campaigns
This is one for dealers who have more budget available, as campaigns targeting your brand and location will inevitably cross over a little bit with your SEO and Organic traffic.
However, we find that if you have the budget to spare a campaign like this, where you have full control of the messaging getting shown to customers, can deliver strong additional incremental traffic.
Some more ideas for increasing the number of visitors on your motor trader site:
AutoClik Dynamic Ads
Why not consider using our sophisticated AutoClik solution to dynamically (and automatically) create used car ads on Google, using a feed of your physical used car stock?
This ensures that you are only ever running relevant adverts, pausing and activating ad groups and ads as your stock profile changes over time. This minimises any wasted budget and improves the relevance of your adverts, dynamically populating stock levels, pricing and more. You can even get really granular with it, running adverts down to fuel type, colour etc.
Email & SMS Campaigns
If you have a database of customers with appropriate GDPR permissions, you can run email and SMS campaigns with relevant, targeted content. This will be able to send visitors directly through to your website, building traffic and supporting overall website engagement.
Top Tip: You should ideally have a strong communications strategy, with a raft of email and SMSM messages across the lifetime of a customer or prospect. This ensures they have regular touchpoints with your business and keep coming back.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
If your website isn’t delivering organic traffic via google, then you’re going to need an SEO strategy. These strategies aim to improve technical SEO elements and content on your website so that you get relevant traffic coming through from non-paid Google searches.
Top tip: If you don’t have the budget for an SEO strategy, make sure to think about search keywords when writing your content, and have at least optimised your Google My Business listings.
Like the sound of these automotive digital marketing strategies? Speak to our team today.
Our in-house team know car dealer marketing back -to-front - so why not request a campaign proposal today? Simply click the "Talk to us" link below and we'll be happy to pull you something together:
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