Of all the advertising strategies dealerships can use to hit a bullseye with their target markets, none is as spot-on as geo-targeting. Thanks largely to the dramatic increase in mobile usage and the high degree of location accuracy it provides, geo-targeting is highly effective and efficient in pinpointing the location of a person and then delivering customized offers based on that location.
To understand how valuable geo-targeting is, think of it as the ability to hit a moving target with your advertising. Unlike traditional print and broadcast advertising, this digital capability eliminates the conundrum over whether your potential customers are home watching TV when your commercials run or whether they still subscribe to the local newspaper and will read your ads. People are on their mobile devices wherever and whenever. Mobile even exceeds desktop use for browsing, with 71 percent of people in the U.S. preferring mobile devices over PCs, according to a recent report by ComScore.
Geo-targeting even tells you who is in the market to buy a car. It can make it possible to reach every person on a mobile device who is looking for a particular car to see ads from the nearest car dealership. The ads can be customized with messaging directed at potential buyers. No advertising strategy eliminates all the guesswork, but geo-targeting is the most efficient method by far.
Here are three tips to help your dealership boost car sales using geo-targeting:
Use geo-fencing for promotions and offers — Geo-fencing allows car dealerships to create a virtual perimeter for special promotions and offers. This technique eliminates the wastefulness of reaching people who are too far away to care and instead triggers a mobile ad when potential buyers are within your geo-fence.
Enable geo-tags on your mobile app — If your dealership has more than one location, your mobile app should have geo-tags for each one. That way, if a customer is seeking a specific vehicle sold only at certain dealerships, your app has the capability to connect the customer with the locations accordingly.
Use your knowledge about location to segment your audience — Matching your product’s target audience with the right geographical area can refine your outreach and minimize wasteful advertising. For example, if you are targeting car buyers in wealthy areas such as Beverly Hills or La Jolla in California or The Hamptons in New York, to use extreme examples, it likely makes more sense to advertise Mercedes-Benz and Range Rovers than Hyundais and Kias. Demographics and information about customers in specific areas are useful tools for geo-targeting makes and models.
By working with a marketing company that can take full advantage of all this new technology has to offer, and then combine those efforts with good old-fashioned customer service in your dealership, you can create the perfect formula for boosting sales.
Alex Radetich
