The ways dealerships spend their marketing funds is beginning to change drastically. Nowadays, we have been seeing that the amount of money that was traditionally committed to TV, billboard and newspaper ads has been shifted towards banner/display ads, Search Engine advertising, SEO and other digital marketing tactics.

Sea Change by the Numbers

Ad spending within the automotive industry declined overall in 2009 2009, but now we’re seeing an extraordinary surge in the amount of money dedicated to internet advertising. As reported by a report produced by eMarketer there is a 14% surge in online ad spending in 2011, which pushed the amount of money used on those ads around $3.24 billion. The projection of online ad money to be spent by the automotive industry because of this year is $3.82 billion, and by 2015 the money assigned to internet advertising could are as long as $5.80 billion.

Within exactly the same eMarketer study it turned out reported that the money which is used for internet advertising will probably be largely syphoned from the money used for traditional advertising avenues like TV ads, print ads or billboards.

But internet advertising isn’t the only place the auto industry is extra cash online. A few of the money that is not being allocated to traditional advertising will undoubtedly be put towards SEO and other digital marketing tactics. That is an indication that the auto industry is also starting to place a greater focus on digital marketing as a method to attract consumers. This trend is confirmed by way of a Kelsey Group Online Dealers & Online Advertising report that discovered that car dealerships are already using digital marketing tactics.

Consumers Using the Internet to Find Cars

It’s no real surprise why auto dealerships are spending more income on digital marketing, because now, more than ever before, individuals are online and search engines like Google to search for dealerships and vehicles online. As outlined by J.D. Power and Associates 84% of new-vehicle buyers are actually using search engines throughout their car shopping process. Of these people, according to a report produced by Yahoo and Cobalt, 79% of consumers utilize the various search engines to get and research car dealerships, and 72% depend upon search engines to assist them find the dealer they’ll visit.

If
Internet Marketing ‘re a dealership and your site isn’t ranking well within search results then you’re likely to be losing valuable leads. Revolution Magazine found that 87% of clicks that happen in search engines occur within the organic listings. This is exactly why an increasing number of dealerships are beginning to make use of digital marketing efforts as their primary solutions to get targeted traffic to their sites. By utilizing digital marketing, dealerships can reach consumers wherever they are on the internet whether it’s in search engines, various websites or email.

Adoption of Digital Marketing

According to exteresauto.com SEO was the top tactic dealers utilized to drive traffic with their websites. Best SEO should not be a surprise as it’s discovered that SEO was ranked among the top two digital marketing tactics for strongest ROI, as well as email marketing, in accordance with Marketing Sherpa. Coupled with the fact that 68% of search engine users only click links which they find on the initial page of search results, it’s no surprise that 41% of auto dealerships reported that they are using internet marketing tactics.

And that number continues to grow today. That’s because the importance of digital marketing can’t be overlooked if you’re a dealership. The internet is among the most main method where consumers find dealerships and when you are not employing digital marketing tactics then you could be losing out on valuable leads.

Being an auto dealer can be quite competitive, especially when it involves digital marketing. With so many people using the internet to get it’s no surprise that dealerships are placing a concentrate on digital marketing.