A well-designed and executed Digital Media Strategy drives today's dealership.

With so many different types of marketing tactics that all come together in one place, Google Search is an ecosystem bred to help customers find local businesses to serve their needs. While the usage of these tactics will change based on your goals, it has never been easier to sell used cars with the help of Google Search than it is in 2023. Here are the key tactics for your used vehicle digital media strategy from Melina Beeston, our Director of Digital Media, from her presentation “How to Leverage Google Search to Sell Used Cars in 2023.”

A successful used car marketing strategy benefits from deployment of all of the best practices from digital advertising, SEO, content marketing, syndication and merchandising. A dealership might deploy one or more of these strategies, however no strategy works in isolation and is best utilized when accompanied by all the strategies listed on this page.

With the right combination of strategies, dealerships can increase their chances of success in the automotive marketplace. At EDealer, our experts have the expertise to create a tailored strategy for our clients, so that they can make the most of their efforts. 

Inventory merchandising

It seems like a silly thing to still be talking about the benefits of inventory merchandising in 2023, but we still see that roughly 20% of dealers don’t take local photos of any vehicles, plus even more who either only photograph some vehicles (often new vehicles) or who only take one front view shot of the vehicle. Effective merchandising of used vehicle inventory can help dealerships differentiate themselves from the competition. This will enable them to build trust with potential customers, maximize sales opportunities, and manage inventory. By leveraging strategies such as photography, video marketing, detailed vehicle descriptions, pricing and discounts, calls to actions, and homepage traffic drivers, dealerships can succeed in the competitive automotive marketplace.

Tip: The content of your website should emphasize why customers should buy from your dealership - what makes you stand out from the competition. Examples include comprehensive warranty policy, certified recon, customer loyalty program, vehicle walkarounds.

Automated Google Business Profile inventory syndication

Google listings allow dealerships to showcase their for-sale vehicle inventory on their Google Profiles. Dealerships can reach more customers by providing them with information about vehicles for sale, including availability, pricing, and other key details.

Millions of people search for vehicles every day on Google. These potential customers can now see vehicle inventory from Dealer’s Google Business Profile directly on Google during their online search, including from listings found in local results and Maps.

Learn more about the benefits of deploying EDealer's automated Google vehicle listing service.

GBP Product Listings have a direct impact in local search results (maps + local pack) with exact match to the query, with far higher visibility in the SERP than any organic results.  

 

Performance Max - Target local audience and optimize visits, both online and offline

Performance Max is a new goal-based campaign type that allows performance advertisers to access all of their Google Ads inventory from a single campaign. It's designed to complement your keyword-based Search campaigns to help you find more converting customers across all of Google's channels like YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.

Performance Max helps you drive performance based on your specified conversion goals, delivering more conversions and value by optimizing performance in real-time and across channels using Smart Bidding.

Google Vehicle Ads

Google’s vehicle ads is a program to let dealers promote their entire inventory of vehicles to interested buyers searching for cars on Google via a performance-based, lower funnel ad format. 

The inventory shows up in Shopping Ads,  on the search engine results page (SERP) at the top as a carousel, as seen in the picture at the right. 

These are populated using the Google Merchant Centre via a special vehicle inventory data feed. As of May 2023, VAs now support both new and used vehicle inventory.

Learn more about our Digital Advertising offering and how our experts strategize and customize campaigns that are best suited to your business goals.

2023 Maserati Levante Google Search

Prioritize syndication to online marketplaces

When it comes to SEO and Digital Advertising, we’re not always looking to reinvent the wheel. The concept of “barnacle SEO”—a tactic where you leverage the search performance of other websites—is a decade old, but it still stands to reason that online marketplaces that list many used vehicles will always be highly relevant to queries looking for used vehicles.

Ensure that you are working with a provider who has the capability to syndicate your inventory across multiple listing websites—and particularly, who are willing to include all of your inventory data in those feed files, including your VDP links. If you’re paying them for the service, it should include all of the necessary information to help get the customer back to your website, not just theirs. 

 

Consistent and relevant digital advertising and content marketing 

Generate More Leads with EDealer Digital Ads.

Today, 90% of all automotive sales begin with an online search*. Our Digital Advertising provides deep industry expertise and cutting-edge technology to increase internet leads and showroom conversions for car dealerships.

When it comes to Digital Advertising, why should you choose EDealer?

We Live and Breathe Automotive

  • 14 OEM Certified Partnerships
  • 13+ years of Automotive digital advertising experience
  • Largest digital solution provider in Canada

A Holistic Approach

  • Continuous campaign improvement with cutting edge technology
  • Dynamic inventory campaigns update every 12 hours
  • Transparent real-time reporting

Special offer for our UCW Canada - 2023 Attendees only 

Offer 1: Digital Advertising

Get a complimentary Google Inventory Feed subscription when you sign up for Digital Advertising and Performance Max Ads with

  • A minimum monthly spend of $1250 on Digital Advertising on Google and $250 on Google Performance Max ads
  • 12-month minimum commitment

We’ll credit back the charges for the Google Inventory Feed subscription for each month you meet the advertising spending conditions

Offer 2: Content Marketing

Get 2 months of Google Inventory Feed subscription when you sign up for the Fixed Ops Content Marketing Package

(when you sign up for a minimum of 3 months)