Radio Ads Motivate Customers to Visit Your Website
What’s the best way to get customers to visit your Website? Knowing your audience profile (who they are, where they’re coming from, how much time they spend on each of your Web pages, what devices they’re using to find you, etc.) is half the battle to achieving a successful online advertising campaign.
The other component is making your customer base aware of you and getting them interested enough to look for your dealership on the Internet. It has always been our experience that radio is the most cost-effective way to do so, no matter which of the four types of Website traffic you use. Let’s take a closer look at each one and how radio directly impacts them.
Direct Internet Traffic: This is the easiest of the four to define; it’s when someone hears your radio spot and is compelled to go directly to your Website to review an offer they’ve just heard. You can clearly understand how this happens and why it occurs often.
Organic Search: This is similar to Direct Traffic; however, the customer arrives at the Website in a slightly different manner. When a potential customer is motivated to look for the dealer website but doesn’t know the exact address, they type in the keywords that lead them there. But ultimately, the result is the same.
Paid Search: While it doesn’t operate under the same premise as Direct or Organic, Paid Search is still dependent upon someone first searching for you or your product/service. Again, outside motivation is needed, same as above.
Referrals: Even though radio doesn’t have a direct effect in this case, when a dealer saturates his market with radio impressions, it creates awareness for the brand. This, in turn, causes traffic on review sites and, ultimately, increased traffic at the dealer’s website.
The Proof is Available
Recent advancements in software allow dealers to run specific reports that can accurately measure the results of each type of Web traffic. A lot of dealers miss this opportunity because they don’t immerse themselves in available data. But if you take the time to learn how to run these informative reports, you’ll quickly notice the undeniable parallel between when your radio ads run and the times there are significant spikes in radio impressions – proof positive the ads have the desired effect. (Note: If you don’t, you should seek help finding the right marketing mix for your store.)
The Takeaway
Online advertising should always be part of a dealership’s marketing strategy. But it should not consume the lion’s share of your ad budget because, while it is perfect when you are retargeting your audience (reminding those who have shown a willingness to visit your Website), it is not effective when it comes to people who are not familiar with your dealership or its online presence.
JKR Automotive Advertising: The car dealer ad agency.