Auto dealers look for every opportunity to preserve lost sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and containment efforts. They also are looking for ways to adapt and maximize advertising strategies to grow mindshare in front of every possible customer.
This is critical since many dealerships have either scaled back their business, temporarily closed their doors by state orders or are relying on digital retailing and contactless transactions.
Consequently, the use of video in social marketing and on the web is proving to be beneficial during these times.
Why Video Content Helps
Consumers find videos more engaging, memorable and popular compared with many other forms of content today.
The use of video is important for brand storytelling, and it’s proving to be necessary to increase conversion, exposure, and lead to more successful transactions.
Hubspot says 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool – up from 63% over the last year.
By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic – 15 times higher than it was in 2017, according to Cisco.
And users view more than 1 billion hours of video each day on YouTube.
Tips
Be mindful of how often you are serving video ads to users on Facebook and other social platforms.
Now more than ever, don’t bombard people with ads.
We’ve recommended our dealers start their frequency to once per day and adjust that based on performance in the first week or two.
We don’t recommend starting with a more aggressive frequency of two or more times a day from the start; the last thing you want to do is create a negative experience for potential new customers before you get the chance to start a real conversation.
Once you have at least a week of data you can confirm that your video campaign is:
1. Pacing budget as expected.
2. Engaging users with relevant content.
3. Serving ads to the right shoppers and driving them to your website.
Type of Content
How are some auto dealers building video content? Here are a few ways that can be beneficial:
- Focusing on community “We’re here to help” angles.
- Promoting incentives and offers from your dealership and OEMs.
- Live streaming from your dealership for those still allowed to operate during shelter in place.
- Explaining “How we’re doing business” to show precautions taken to keep customers and employees safe
- Shooting good-news or feel-good stories that bring some light and levity to people’s lives in the midst of all this chaos.
With this approach, dealers have a better chance of connecting with customers, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Jeremy Anspach, left)
Jeremy Anspach is the CEO of PureCars, a dealer advertising and attribution-technology provider at www.purecars.com.
