Dealer Consultants

Are you generating hot leads with online advertising?

A very small percentage of people in America own motorcycles, and this demands some thought on how to find and target those that do ride in your local market area. One reason that Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is becoming more and more popular among powersports dealers is because it’s an extremely viable way to find ‘Powersports Specific’ prospects who are in the market to buy… right now.

Did you know that in 2006 there was an average of 2.7 billion searches every single month? That’s impressive. What’s even more impressive is that in three short years it has grown exponentially to 32 billion searches per month in 2009! More and more prospects are searching for powersports products, but many dealers shy away from online advertising because it’s simply too hard to understand. In this and subsequent blogs, I’ll address little known, yet easy to utilize SEM facts.

You probably know that the term ‘keyword’ simply addresses what someone is searching for or typing into the search box at Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. However, in this blog I’m going to uncover the true purpose of ‘negative keywords,’ and how they can be used to ensure the right message is going to the right target. Negative keywords are used in SEM to prevent an ad from appearing if a search includes a certain keyword that isn’t relevant to your ad. For instance, I create several campaigns when setting up online advertising so that keywords can be better matched with a landing page (the page to which your ad links). Here’s what I mean: If someone searches the term ‘Harley’ your new Harley ad should show, and if they search the term ‘Used Harley’ your Used Harley ad should show. Makes sense, right? However, because the keyword ‘Harley’ appears in both of those search terms they’re actually competing against each other, raising costs, as well as enabling the wrong ad to show (search ‘Used Harley’ and your New Harley ad appears).

What do you do? Enter ‘used’ as a negative keyword for your New Harley ad, and it will never show if the keyword ‘used’ is in the search term. This is also handy for Honda dealers whose ads are automatically showing for terms like ‘Honda Accord’ and ‘Honda Odyssey’… simply enter a negative keyword for each Honda automobile and you’re set.

SEM targets only those prospects who are in the market and searching for products you sell, which is crucial given the percentage of people in America that actually ride.

Does anyone know what percentage of people in America who own a motorcycle?

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