AUTOMOTIVE ADVERTISING & MARKETING

Tips for Advertising Cars Online

Tips for Advertising Cars Online

JKRAdvertising / Uncategorized /

February 1, 2018

When advertising cars online, be sure to pay attention to the little details. Why? They can ultimately make the difference in a visit to your dealership to look at a car versus that visit being made at your competition’s store. So that brings us to the question: What are some of these little details?

Correctly Advertising Cars Online

First, resist the temptation to place too many photos of your vehicles in your ads. A recent CarStory study showed that more than nine pictures causes “image fatigue”; in other words, that’s when a prospective customer loses interest and begins to mentally tune out. According to their findings, postings with nine images generated 50% more leads than posts that had no images at all; and an astounding 71% more than those that had 30 or more photos.

While we are on the topic of images when it comes to advertising cars online, it’s a good idea to alternate interior and exterior photos of each vehicle. Most dealerships start out with numerous exterior photos, then after a while the interior pics finally emerge. As we mentioned in the last paragraph, image fatigue takes over – so the customer should be seeing both interior and exterior shots almost immediately to get a complete visual experience of the car.

It is also important to carefully choose the first-page photo visible to potential customers. Something like an angled, three-quarters shot of the vehicle with the grille pointing toward the price and information makes the car look much more attractive.

Finally, when you take your photos, be very aware of your surroundings. You don’t want anything in the background to distract from the picture itself. After all, the car is the star attraction … not your dealership facility or anything/anyone else that might find its way into the lens when a photo is taken.

None of these things will cost you anything other than perhaps a little time … but these ideas, while seemingly very subtle, will give you a little edge in the online marketplace.

JKR Advertising & Marketing: We Move Cars.

Press Categories

Recent Posts

Post-Pandemic Dealer Gross Profits are Down – But They Don’t Have to Stay There!
March 13, 2024
It is no secret that dealer gross profits per vehicle are down sharply in the post-COVID automotive world. According to a recent article in Automotive News, gross profits of the six largest publicly traded dealership groups plunged significantly from Q4 2022 to Q4 2023. One of them was actually down 35% per vehicle!

The article explains: High interest rates, more expensive vehicles and a steadier post-pandemic supply chain continue to soften demand and bring it closer to pre-pandemic levels. Still, new-car buying has remained strong overall …

This means that, while sales volume is similar, overall bottom lines are lower for many dealers due to the reduced gross profits. What about your dealership?

Being Realistic
It’s time to turn the page! The time for dealers to simply be order takers for people willing to pay MSRP for a vehicle (and in some cases more) has passed and dealers have to work hard once again to achieve acceptable gross profits.

Selling a high volume of cars doesn’t control gross profits, no matter how much you wish this was the case. Correct processes and menu pricing – and strict adherence to them – do!

What kind of processes?
∙ Slow down the transaction! Your sales staff has to once again sell the customer on the features and benefits of every new and pre-owned vehicle on your lot.

∙ Your salespeople and managers should devalue the customers’ trade-in value (politely, of course) as much as possible. After all, if the customer expects you to lower your price, shouldn’t you be able to do the same on their trade? Remember, you’ll have to fix it up, put your name on it and resell it to someone else with all the tenacity you would a brand-new car. So make sure you buy it right … because the profit is made when you buy it, not when you sell it!

∙ To that end, management should be ready and willing to leave the desk and do thorough walk-arounds on each trade to ensure the best outcome for the dealership.

The Cure for Low Gross Profits
If you are like a lot of dealers these days, you could use some good news. Here it is: while you may not have the capability to achieve profit margins similar to those you enjoyed during the pandemic, they could likely be improved. JKR’s clients enjoy the benefit of attracting not only more customers, but better ones, too!

If meeting and exceeding your sales goals (and increasing gross profits at the same time) sounds great to you, you need to call us. Don’t settle for reduced gross profits when help is out there to get you closer to where you’d like to be.

Want to know how we do it? Reach out to Senior Partner Richard Brauns (407) 701-4233 or Partner/Vice President Jon Albert (407) 718-2494 today.

JKR Automotive Advertising: We Move Cars.

Read more