Sell More Cars and Earn More Profit: 5 Automotive Advertising Strategies That Work

As a car dealership existing in the modern business world, things are a bit different than they used to be. Advances in technology and the popularity of smartphones has led to a massive increase in online shopping, even in the car business. 

In some cases, people will shop for a car and pay for it online without ever seeing the car in person or taking a test drive. What does this mean for your car dealership? It means your digital marketing game has to be on point. 

We’re here to help. Keep reading for our top five online automotive advertising strategies that work.

1. Design a Killer Website

First, you need to recognize that to the online shopper, your car dealership is only as good as your website. If your current website leaves something to be desired or you don’t have one yet, we recommend hiring the best website design agency to get you started. 

Your website must convey a sense of professionalism and intrigue. Furthermore, it must be completely user-friendly. If website visitors have a hard time using your website and navigating pages, they won’t stick around to become customers.

2. Lock in Your Local SEO

Once you have a website built, you need to start implementing a strategy to lead online traffic to your pages. This is where local search engine optimization comes in. SEO is the coding used by search engines to find relevant websites based on keyword searches. 

For example, if someone in your area searches for “car dealerships near me,” your SEO will affect how quickly they find your website. If you don’t rank high in the search results, you will lose out on countless sales.

3. Publish Customer Reviews to Establish Credibility Among Car Buyers

When people are looking for a new car, they want to make sure they’re buying from a credible dealer. For this reason alone, many people avoid buying from private sellers.

Therefore, learning how to advertise your car dealership means learning how to instill trust in consumers. To show the community you are trustworthy, encourage your customers to post reviews of your dealership online. This is one of the most effective automotive advertising ideas.

4. Build Brand Visibility in the Community Using Social Media

Did you know roughly 72% of Americans are on social media? Most of us have more than one account and log on multiple times a day. Social media platforms are the ideal place to promote your business, communicate with potential customers, and build brand awareness in your community. 

You can use free social media marketing to publish articles and other content to attract a local following. The more people who start following you, the more influence you’ll have in the community as people like, share, and comment on your posts.

You can up your car dealership advertising on social media by using paid ads. Paid social media ads allow you to target specific demographics of people. They also provide important insight into ad performance and user engagement.

5. Invest in Effective Paid Marketing Strategies

Finally, don’t be afraid to invest a little money in automotive advertising. If you’re a new dealership, it’s going to take time to establish a strong online presence. We recommend investing in search engine marketing. 

SEM works similarly to SEO in that it relies on keywords and search engines. However, in SEM, you pay the search engine to bring your website up at the top of result pages based on certain keywords. Your website will be at the top in the “ad” category and you’ll pay the search engine for each click your website receives. 

Looking for More Automotive Advertising Tips?

As you can see, there’s a lot of work that goes into building a strong online presence. However, the more effort and consistency you put into your strategy, the more leads you’ll generate for your dealership. 

If you’re looking for more help designing an automotive advertising strategy, we’re here for you. Our blog is full of helpful information, including digital marketing tips, website designs, and more. Check out some of our other articles before you go for more insight.