google adwords case study – automotive team at google

Top auto dealer increased leads 350 percent with campaigns combining traditional media and Google AdWords.

Marketing challenges and goals • Courtesy Chevrolet

• www.houseofcourtesy.com

• The largest Chevrolet dealership in America with more than 11,000 annual vehicle sales and nearly 400 employees

Marketing challenges and goals • Advance customers through the sales funnel

• Maintain low cost per lead

• Acquire new customers

• Increase visibility to previous customers going online

• Target specific demographics in defined local areas

• Maximize marketing return on investment

Solution• Use Google AdWords™ during all phases of the sales process

• Devise branding-oriented campaigns using non-vehicle-based offers that capture the attention of consumers prior to the start of their shopping process

• Create campaigns using model- specific relevant offers to reach online car buyers further along in the sales cycle

• Implement site targeting, by placing text-based sponsored links and image ads on relevant sites in the Google content network

• Create targeted microsites, landing pages and deep links into relevant content within the website

• Use geographic targeting to direct specific ads to customers located in the Phoenix metro area and selected micro-markets based on specialized segment opportunities

• Integrate online marketing efforts with traditional media such as billboards, radio, television, magazines and direct mail

Results• AdWords is the most cost-efficient tool for branding and advancing customers

through the sales funnel

• Integrated marketing strategy including AdWords has boosted lead volume 350 percent over 19-month period

• Almost 30,000 people visited Courtesy websites by clicking on AdWords-placed ads, generating well over 2,000 online and phone leads, resulting in 174 vehicles sold

GOOGLE ADWORDS CASE STUDY – AUTOmOTivE TEAm AT GOOGLE

About the Automotive teAm At GooGle

The Automotive Team provides industry insight and advises all Google teams managing Automotive accounts. We work to ensure that Automotive clients get industry-specific solutions and the maximum value from their partnership with Google.

About GooGle AdWoRdS

Google AdWords is currently used by thousands of businesses worldwide to gain new customers in a cost-effective way. AdWords use keywords to precisely target ad delivery to web users seeking information about a particular product or service. The program is based on cost-per-click (CPC) pricing, so advertisers only pay when an ad is clicked on. Advertisers can take advantage of an extremely broad distribution network, and choose the level of support and spending appropriate for their business.

For more information on launching your own campaign or getting expert help, visit http://adwords.google.com.

Business overview Edward Fitzgerald and R. Mitchel McClure founded Courtesy Chevrolet in 1955 in an old farmhouse in Phoenix, Arizona. With nearly 400 employees, the company is currently the largest Chevrolet dealer in America by total sales volume. Courtesy Chevrolet relies heavily on the Internet to communicate with customers and increase sales while honing in on specific target markets. For example, they have set up an online information and referral service to offer Phoenix-area women a hassle-free place to get advice on car purchases, maintenance and other automotive related topics. Using online sales processes that completely remove the confrontational aspects of more traditional automotive retail sales, Courtesy has been able to recruit and hire a team of female sales professionals who offer a female-friendly car buying experience. The AskPatty.com team has its own dedicated monthly AdWords budget for generating customer leads.

Marketing challenges and goals Ralph Paglia, Director of CRM and eBusiness Operations, heads up the dealership’s interactive marketing campaigns. As part of the overall multi-channel integrated marketing strategy, he puts together marketing campaigns using a blend of new technologies and traditional media. He constantly seeks ways to maximize marketing return on investment and to move customers from interest through to final purchase as efficiently as possible. Paglia also supervises a team of more than 60 Internet Sales Specialists, Customer Service Representatives, CRM Administrators, Internet Sales Managers, Team Leaders and Business Development Managers.

Among Paglia’s mainstay marketing tools is Google AdWords™ search-based advertising. “Measurable yields are what we’re after, and we’ve found time and again that AdWords delivers tremendous return on investment for us, both in terms of acquiring new customers and keeping cost per sale as low as possible,” he says. He has introduced AdWords to several of his managers who have their own accounts and use online campaigns for such specific purposes as recruiting Internet Sales Specialists and finding potential sellers who own certain vehicles that the dealership seeks for its used car inventory.

The Google solution Paglia uses AdWords to reach customers during all phases of the automotive sales cycle. Using his interactive marketing strategy, he strives to reach potential automotive buyers during the awareness, engagement, consideration and purchase stages. Using relevant microsite content, inquiries are directed to specialized teams working in the phase of vehicle shopping targeted by the AdWords campaign.

For example, to raise awareness, Paglia sets up integrated online and offline campaigns to build the Courtesy Chevrolet brand. In one campaign, potential customers were directed to www.YouGotGas.com using traditional offline media like billboards saying “Got Gas?” together with TV commercials and radio ads. As part of the campaign, he used AdWords to help drive people to the site, which contained the contest specifics. When directed to the site, people were asked to enter a weekly drawing by filling out a registration form on the web. The winner received $500 in free gasoline. Furthermore, if the customer completed the online registration process, and then purchased or leased a new Chevrolet car or truck from the Internet sales department, the consumer was offered a year’s worth of pre-paid fuel cards.


“When you compare $2 per click with AdWords to an outdoor billboard campaign that costs us $10 to $15 for every person who visits the URL featured on the sign, you can see why AdWords is so attractive.”

Ralph Paglia Courtesy Chevrolet

In order to engage a customer, Paglia creates targeted microsites and landing pages to provide the consumer with relevant information that is specific to an associated AdWords campaign. As of February 2007, Courtesy Chevrolet has over 350 URL addresses for their websites, microsites, landing pages and deep links, and uses Google’s capabilities to direct the consumer to these sites. For example, for www.LatinoChevy.com and other sites targeted to the Latino community, the team deploys Spanish-language AdWords ads to improve results. Furthermore, he takes advantage of geographic targeting in AdWords to help ensure that potential customers are located in targeted areas throughout Phoenix and Arizona.

In addition to Google’s ad products, Paglia uses Google Groups to promote Courtesy Chevrolet’s message. Once an interested consumer lands on one of his sites, she is encouraged to learn more, subscribe to Courtesy’s newsletter, or discuss her questions with other members of the group, thus continuing a dialogue during a key consideration period.

In Paglia’s interactive marketing strategy, the Google advertising platform has proven to be an effective way to reach online car buyers who are further along in the sales cycle, at the moment they’re looking for a new or used car. Using Google’s site targeting program, Courtesy Chevy ads appear on specific and relevant content sites in the Google network. Given that the Google Network reaches more than 80 percent of US Internet users*, Paglia’s strategy is to use both text-based sponsored links and display image ads containing photos and rich media on these sites. Courtesy creates the ads and then distributes them using AdWords keyword based campaigns or by selecting specific sites using AdWords Site Targeted campaign capabilities to reach target customers. For example, in order to reach potential customers during the consideration phase, ads are placed on product research related automotive-oriented information sites. Alternatively, if a consumer is reading about gas prices, he or she may notice a relevant Courtesy ad next to the article offering an incentive to register for a coupon that is converted to a prepaid fuel car upon taking a test drive, or simply receive new model information updates.

To measure results, Paglia uses Google Analytics™ to track where website visitors are coming from and how they interact with the site. With this data in hand, he can measure the effectiveness of both his online and offline campaigns.

Google and Courtesy Chevy’s Buying Cycle

Awareness

Engagement

Consideration

Purchase

Integrated online/offline campaigns w/Google AdWords

Targeted Microsites & Landing Pages AdWords, Geo Targeting Google Groups

Site Targeting

Google Analytics


“Site targeting in AdWords is a fantastic tool that has really improved our ability to reach specific demographics and improve our results.”


© Copyright 2007. Google is a trademark of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

* comScore, September 2006

Results Paglia recognizes that traditional and online media work together to contribute to the success of every campaign. He also has learned that AdWords has become the most cost-efficient tool in the Courtesy Chevrolet marketing mix. It enhances localized branding with the dealership’s extensive customer base, targets new arrivals to the Phoenix area, generates leads and advances customers through the sales funnel to final purchase. “When you compare $2 per click with AdWords to an outdoor billboard campaign that costs us $10 to $15 for every person who visits the URL featured on the sign, you can see why AdWords is so attractive,” he observes.

Using an integrated marketing strategy including AdWords and other Google products, Courtesy Chevrolet has increased the volume of leads generated over a 19-month period 350 percent. “The real magic lies in using an integrated approach that combines online sponsored links, text and image ads pointing to easily- tracked unique URLs along with different URLs featured in traditional media,” notes Paglia.

The ability to target sites for AdWords placement based on specific categories or markets has been an especially fruitful tool. From December 2005 through March 2006 alone, Courtesy Chevrolet’s in-house marketing campaigns generated 33,257,657 impressions. Almost 30,000 visited one of Courtesy’s sites, generating well over 2,000 online and phone leads, resulting in 174 vehicles sold. “Site targeting in AdWords is a fantastic tool that has really improved our ability to reach specific demographics and improve our results,” he says.

Moving forward, the Courtesy team is creating even more granular landing pages and microsites and expanding their strategies to create more targeted ads and place them on specific sites using site targeting in AdWords. Paglia sums up: “AdWords has spoiled us.”


“AdWords has spoiled us.”
