Google offers a variety of marketing services, so it’s easy to get lost in the options. You have Google Ads, Google Shopping, display campaigns, and search campaigns. So, where do you start?

A lot of people confuse Google Shopping campaigns with Google Search campaigns. Most sellers also don’t know how to succeed at each one, because the same strategy won’t work for both.

Each option offers a unique advantage to your parts website, so it pays to know the difference and how to apply each one.

Marketing With Google

You have two options when it comes to Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising through your Google Ads account: Search campaigns and Shopping campaigns.

(PPC means you only pay for an advertisement when a customer actually clicks on it—in other words, you only pay if it works!)

Google isn’t the only search engine to offer PPC advertising, but since Google embeds your advertisement into their search engine results, you usually get better returns.

There’s no minimum budget for these campaigns, either. You can invest as much or as little as you want each month. When someone clicks on your ad, the cost will automatically be pulled from the budget you’ve set.

Plus, each tool comes with in-depth tracking reports, so you can see just how well your campaigns are doing. It makes it easy to test out multiple ads to see which ones perform best, so in the future, you can really focus on what works best for your parts site.

Shopping Campaigns and Search Campaigns: What’s the Difference?

A lot of people get these two campaign types mixed up. At the most basic level, Google Search campaigns rely on keywords and text, whereas Google Shopping campaigns focus on products and images.

Google Search Campaign

What it is:

This is a text-based ad. Your ad shows up depending on the keywords you bid on.

Keywords are basically just common search terms that someone using Google is likely to type into the search bar. (Helpful hint: Google has a free Keyword Planner tool to help you find the best keywords!)

Each ad is set up individually, and you can turn them on or off at any time. You can also make changes to these ads in order to reflect any promotions or sales you have going on.

Example:

If a shopper searches for “Nissan brake pads” in Google’s search engine and that’s a keyword you’ve bid on, then your text-based ad has a good chance of appearing. Google marks the advertisement with colorful text reading “Ad” so that searchers know it’s a sponsored result.

How to succeed:

In order to get the best conversion rate, Google Ads campaigns rely on testing different strategies. Based on the results of your search campaign, switching up search terms and phrases will help you grab more sales.

Think about what your customers might be interested in. Free shipping? A discount? Fast service? Try including phrases like this in your advertisement to gain more clicks.

You can also choose a regional target for your ads. To promote a local parts store or dealership, you can select these ads to only appear for people within a certain geographic distance. 

Similarly, you can choose to have your ads appear to people across the country if you’re selling nationally. Make sure to target the people who are most likely to make a purchase.

For more information, check out Google’s short introduction video to Google Ads and how to get started.

Google Shopping Campaign

What it is:

This is an image-based ad. It shows a picture of your product along with key information (like product name, listed price, special offers, and reviews). Instead of keywords, you bid on products to get them to show up on a search results page. Clicking on the ad will immediately take the customer to your parts store product page.

Unlike Google Search campaigns, you’ll need to keep an updated data or shopping feed in the Merchant Center. The shopping feed also includes helpful information like whether or not a product is in stock. Since it is an image-based type of advertisement, you must have product images.

Google Shopping campaign ads are incredibly effective because images catch the eye of a potential customer. According to a Google Shopping study by CPC Strategy, the average merchant cost on Google Shopping campaigns was $11.30 in spend for every $100.00 in sales.

Example:

When a customer searches for “Toyota floor mats,” a grid of images will show in the results. Each image lists the product name, price, and seller, along with other information you choose to include. Your badge will also appear if your store is a Google Trusted Store too.

How to succeed:

Google Shopping campaigns can be a bit complicated, so there are a few common Google Shopping mistakes that new dealers tend to make.

Since Google Shopping campaigns are centered around your product feed, making this information accurate and up-to-date is absolutely essential.

Your product feed needs proper labels that match exactly what you’ve registered in Merchant Center. You must also enable “automatic item updates” so your product feed always has accurate information. 

If there are too many discrepancies in the prices and availability between your parts store and Google, your account can be suspended or disapproved.

 You don’t have to upload a product feed with your entire inventory. While it’s usually a good thing to list as many products as possible, sometimes it’s an even better idea to exclude certain items.

Bottom Line

The level of complexity is entirely up to you for both Google Search and Google Shopping campaigns. Each campaign type lets you set specific targeting tactics. Setting up these details will make your ad campaigns more successful, but it also takes more time and know-how.

If you’re new to Google Ads, don’t feel like you need to take it that far. Start simple and experiment until you grow more comfortable with the Google Ads software. It helps to keep an eye on your analytics tools and regularly update your strategies.

Consider Your Marketing Options

Many dealers are too busy focusing on selling parts as part of their eCommerce strategy that they forget to focus on the marketing aspects of an effective eCommerce strategy. Luckily, there are options. 

 If you are partnered with RevolutionParts, you have the opportunity to work with one of the best parts marketing agencies in the industry. However, if you are marketing on your own or have an internal dealership marketing team, you can download our free Parts eCommerce Marketing Toolkit to get started. Here’s what you’ll get in the toolkit:

• Tips and strategies for promoting part sales
• Ways to engage shoppers and boost customer loyalty
• A marketing plan checklist 
• Resources for managing marketing efforts

The automotive industry is changing faster than ever, and with that comes a rise in consumer expectations. To better meet consumer expectations, dealers and manufacturers must be on the same page and collaborate to provide consumers with the best experience possible during every interaction. Not just during the buying process, but throughout the life of their vehicle. 

To provide the best experience possible for customers, manufacturers often provide their dealers with the ability to adopt OEM parts programs in the parts department. When dealers adopt OEM programs en masse, it can provide customers with a unified experience and help strengthen brand loyalty. It can also help standardize operations between dealerships. 

For OEM parts programs to successfully create a better customer experience, manufacturers must first get their dealers to adopt their program and then effectively use it. Effective communication is vital to getting more dealers to adopt an OEM program.

Why Effective Communication Matters

RevolutionParts recently surveyed over 100 General Managers in new car dealerships throughout the US. When asked what manufacturers needed to work on, 50% of respondents said that communication around OEM programs was something they wanted. 

When manufacturers effectively communicate the benefits and success of the programs they’ve created for their dealers, adoption rates rise. The more dealers use official programs, the better the experience for customers and the more profitable the program will be. 

Here are some ways OEMs should be communicating with their dealers:

• Emails that convey basic information about the program (benefits, incentives, etc.) or supply more in-depth digital learning materials. 
• Physical mailers, such as brochures and booklets.
• Webinars that can be attended by multiple dealers at once to discuss the program and allow dealers to ask questions.

What OEMs Should Be Communicating About Programs

Promote Program Benefits 

In the previously mentioned survey, RevolutionParts found that 68% of dealers were unclear on how OEM programs could benefit their dealership. If the dealers don’t see the benefits of the parts program and what it could do for their dealership’s overall parts business, they have little incentive to adopt it.

To get dealers interested in adopting a program, you need to sell them on the benefits and solutions the program provides. 

For dealers to really understand the benefits of a program, they must first understand that there is a problem that needs to be solved or an issue that can be improved. Illustrate what the problem is and how your program can solve it.

Communicate Dealer Incentives

Along with benefits, manufacturers should be communicating the incentives provided to dealers who use their parts program. How will the manufacturers help support the dealer to be successful? Will the OEM make it easier for the dealer to purchase the program? Will the OEM provide marketing support? 

By providing factory-to-dealer incentives, such as rebates and promotional incentive programs, OEMs can help encourage dealer adoption of their programs by removing some of the barriers that may be preventing them from signing up.

Demonstrate Program Performance

Managers within a dealership can be hesitant to adopt a new program, especially if it means they will have to update operations to a more technical form. Allowing managers to see the program in action in a one-on-one demo with someone who has in-depth knowledge of the program will help them better understand how they would use it to turn more inventory or improve operations. This also allows managers to ask any operational questions about the program. 

Alternatively, on-demand demonstrations can also provide dealers with more detailed information on how the program operates and its benefits at the dealer’s convenience. The more a dealer is able to view the program, see how it works, and how it can help them improve performance within the parts department, the more likely they will see the value in the program and feel confident adopting it.

The Success of the Parts Program

OEM programs are designed to make dealers and the brand as a whole more successful. The opportunity for success is a key factor that must be communicated to dealers. Showing the success of other dealers using the OEM parts program raises confidence in dealers that they too can be successful and paints a picture of what is possible through the program. It can also show what a dealer may be missing out on if the parts program is not adopted. 

Demonstrating success is key in the messaging, as it reinforces the decision to adopt the program. One of the best ways to demonstrate success is to provide dealers with proof that the parts program is effective. Manufacturers can provide dealers with case studies showing what other dealers have done with the program. 

Partner With a Dealer-Trusted Solution

Choosing to partner with a dealer-trusted parts solution rather than building a parts program in-house can help OEMs communicate better with their dealers. RevolutionParts is used by over 1,500 dealers in North America and is partnered with major OEM dealers. Because RevolutionParts works so closely with dealers, we have insights into the needs of dealers on a ground-floor level. This allows us to provide turn-key solutions to dealers that work for them and benefit the OEMs. 

Plus, when OEMs partner with a solution provider like RevolutionParts, much of the communication and education around the program is supplied, which helps to alleviate the burden from the manufacturer. 

To learn more about RevolutionParts’ parts program solutions for manufacturers, contact us to schedule a free consultation. 

Social media marketing is still the most prevalent form of online marketing for all businesses. In 2021, there were 295 million social media users in the United States, making up about three quarters of the population, and over 31 million social media users in Canada. Social media advertising is a highly effective marketing strategy, but it is also extremely competitive. To maximize social media marketing, you need to know what the benefits are for your parts department and how to use it well. 

Here are the seven ways social media can drive traffic to your parts site and help you generate more business.

Puts Your Parts Business in Front of Future Customers

Getting in front of new customers is one of the biggest challenges to expanding your parts business. Social media can help you get your parts site in front of more potential customers at a faster rate. Social media metrics and campaign tools can help you create content that you can then expertly target to the right audience, in the right place, at the right time. In order to capture their attention, you need to know how to serve content to your customers effectively. This is where social media targeting really comes into play.

According to leading research, up to 54% of active users on social media use social media platforms to browse and research products. If over half the individuals on social media are using it as a way to research companies, products, and services, then you need to find ways to narrow in on customers who are searching for your products through targeted marketing. 

To target social media content effectively, you first have to identify your target market and your target audience. Your target market is the specific group of people that would be or are interested in the products that your company (dealership) offers; in this case, parts buyers. Your target audience is the more specific subset of the two. It’s the specific audience subset that defines that group based on demographics, interests, values, and buying history. You can have more than one target audience. In fact, the companies that see the most success on social media have multiple target audiences that they segment and serve specific types of content to. 

Let’s look at an example target audience and how you can use this information to create effective social media content. 

Let’s say you notice the bulk of your parts customers are:

• Men between the ages of 25 and 44.
• Avg. income is $54,000.
• Have buying habits that include auto parts and accessories purchased within the last year.
• Interests include following car blogs, posting to forums (don’t be afraid to expand your search based on additional interests you see your potential customers engaging with).

How can you use this information to your advantage when creating and serving social media content?

• When creating social media posts/ads, narrow your audience reach to specifically target people that match your target audience.
• Use language that resonates with them.
• Post content during a time when they are most active (this might take a few test runs to get right).
• Post content that features desired products to appeal to your target audience’s needs.

Helps Get Customers Engaged

Getting content out to your customers is the first step in the process of gaining leads, and getting them to engage with you (more specifically, your website) is the next step. Measuring what social media campaigns your customers like, comment on, or click on to put them through to your website can help you determine what content works best for your customer base. It can help you better determine their needs, values, and interests, and can help you get them to the nurturing stage of the customer journey. 

The question is, how should you measure customer engagement? It’s hard to know what you need to look at when you first start, but once you gain enough data, you can better understand what your customers like and what they need from you. 

At the foundational level, these are the things that you should always be measuring when you post anything to social media:

• Likes, comments, shares: These individual metrics add up to the whole picture and help you see which posts perform best overall.
• Post engagement rate: This is calculated by the number of engagements divided by the impressions (reach). A high engagement rate means that people who see your posts are interested in them.
• Account mentions: Organic mentions that aren’t part of a reply tend to indicate strong brand awareness. This is more geared towards platforms like Instagram (which may not be applicable to your social media strategy, and that is okay).

In your social media reporting, the following two metrics should take precedence at the post level:

• Impressions: How many times a post shows up in your customers’ feed/timeline.
• Reach: The potential unique viewers that a post could generate (i.e. your current followers + their list of friends/followers).

By measuring these areas of engagement you can identify what content is most popular among your target audience, streamline your strategy to create more content like it, and gain traction among new customers.

Builds Brand Awareness For Your Dealership and Parts Department

Establishing a strong customer base requires building a strong image. Social media can help you build your brand image and transform prospects into loyal return buyers. Having a strong image makes it more likely for your customers to refer you to others in the future.

Here are some of the things that companies with the best brand image on social media have in common:

• Consistent visuals (logos, colors, fonts, banners, graphics).
• Strong brand voice and tone (keep your messaging the same, identify your core words and phrases, and audit your social posts/campaigns to keep the voice consistent).
• Create multiple accounts to focus on different areas (use certain platforms to promote special offers the most, use other platforms that are great for videos).

Let’s look at Nike as an example. Nike is one of the leaders in social media branding. Nike’s social media posts and ads are instantly recognizable, generate an extreme amount of engagement, and have some of the highest conversion rates out there. That’s because they understand what works best for their audience. 

Just take a look at this image.

What works in this image that lets consumers know, “That’s Nike!”

• Recognizable logo and font
• Uses brand colors (black, white, and gold)
• Messaging is strong (the copy is simple and makes a statement)
• Simplicity (photograph is strong and clean)

Helps Increase Your Referral Rates

Customers who have an excellent buying experience with your parts department can help do a lot of the work on social media for you. Whether it’s through reviews, comments, or even just general praise on your social media, they can actually be your best source of customer referrals. In 2019, as many as 80% of social media referral traffic to eCommerce platforms/websites came from Facebook. 

Any time a buyer has a positive experience with your business, you can use that interaction to generate new business. You can encourage buyers to leave comments or rate your website on your social media by creating a referral program. Offer buyers who refer you to a friend on social media or who leave a 5-star review a special discount on their next purchase. There are ways for you to encourage customers to take some of the strain off of finding prospects. Plus, it’s a great way to build word of mouth. 

Remember that you should respond to customers who leave comments and reviews. Always thank them for their input, and be sure to ask them about what you can improve to make their buying experience even better. It’s quality customer service that everyone can see.

Helps You Anticipate Customer Needs

Social media can also be a great resource for predicting customer needs before they know they need them. Through social media monitoring and interactions, you can get a better idea of what kinds of things customers want from your parts business. It’s a 24-hour job though, so don’t keep your social media on the back burner. 

According to a study published on Statista, nearly 47% of online consumers like a company more, or will look at it more favorably, if a company responds to their questions or complaints on social media. The faster the response time, the more likely a customer will become a return buyer in the future. Plus, when your customers have a positive experience with your customer service approach on social media, they will shout it from the rooftops. It’s basically free publicity!

What should you look for on social media to help you anticipate their needs (especially for customer service-related issues)?

• Look for customer complaints about processes like shipping, ordering, and order errors (remember to respond to them as part of your customer service strategy).
• Look for positive customer reviews and follow up with them about how you can make their experience better.
• Look for customers in need of parts and accessories and help direct them to your part site and get the sales process started.

Keeps You Ahead of the Competition

Social media is a great way to gain insight into your competitors’ actions. You get a front-row seat to find their strong points and their weak points on social media. It also allows you to see what’s popular among your competitors and find ways to be creative with your social media. 

If you can identify your main competitors on social media, you can use that information to tailor your social media strategy and make it personal to your brand. The “similar-but-different” approach can be an effective baseline strategy. 

When looking at your competitors’ social media, ask yourself these questions:

• Who are my competitors? (You should list your top 5 to research before you start the process).
• What social media platforms are they on?
• What success are they seeing on these platforms? (How many followers do they have? How many page likes? What’s the average number of comments on their posts?)
• Identify any threats to your social media (slow follower growth, a limited number of target audiences, or even broader industry changes (like supply shortages or the rise in self-driving vehicles).
• How do they handle customer interactions and customer service on their platforms?

Bottom Line

Social media can be your greatest asset or your worst enemy. You need to make it work for you if you’re going to achieve these benefits. Not sure where to start to revamp your social media strategy? Take the first step to solidifying your marketing plan with our free guide, “Marketing Made Easy with the RevolutionParts Platform.” It’ll give you tips and tricks on how to use marketing to incentivize customers to buy from you again and again. 

PHOENIX, AZ, April 5th, 2022 — RevolutionParts released their annual eCommerce Shopper Behavior Report today, showcasing the buying behaviors of more than 100 million online parts shoppers.

“Consumer behavior is constantly changing,” says Ibrahim Mesbah, CEO of RevolutionParts. “It’s important that sellers stay up-to-date with these changing behaviors to capture the rapidly growing parts marketplace.” 

This report shows the online behavior of OEM parts shoppers that visited parts web stores powered by RevolutionParts between March 1st, 2021 – March 1st, 2022.

Key findings of the report include:

• More people visit parts web stores from their mobile more than any other device
• Although mobile made up 59% of visitors, desktop users shoppers spent on average 31% more per order
• Returning customers made up 52.8% of sales, yet only 29.3% of website traffic
• People aged 65+ had a higher conversion rate than of any other age group

Since the pandemic hit in 2020, dealers across North America have faced a variety of challenges. Between lockdowns, supply chain issues, and limited inventory, dealers have had to find new ways to achieve market penetration and increase revenue. One solution dealers have seen a lot of success with is selling their OEM parts through their own web store, and the data collected above illustrates how important it is that these web stores are also mobile-friendly.

“RevolutionParts has always placed an importance on web stores being mobile friendly,” says Mesbah, “We want to make it easy for customers to find the parts they need and have a smooth customer experience, no matter what device they are using.”

For full insights into the buyer behavior of online parts shoppers, download the 2022 RevolutionParts eCommerce Shopper Behavior Report.

_______

About RevolutionParts

RevolutionParts accelerates OEM parts and accessories sales for every major automotive brand. The company’s core focus is on delivering an enterprise-ready platform for parts retail and wholesale commerce channels. The RevolutionParts platform powers more than $550M in annual sales and reaches millions of unique buyers globally. For more information, visit revolutionparts.com.

Media Contact:
Mike Rich
RevolutionParts, Inc.
480-809-7415
mrich@revolutionparts.com

Launching a parts website was the first step to harnessing eCommerce sales success, but now you need to get your website out in front of consumers and in their minds. A strong marketing strategy can help you do that. You might think it takes too long to get the right marketing strategy for your business up and running and delivering results, but that’s not entirely true. You can see results in a relatively short amount of time if you know how to leverage the right methods. 

Generating more online business means improving your website traffic. How many visitors do you get to your website now? How many would you like to get next month or next year? Once you set your web traffic goals, you can start implementing a marketing strategy to reflect those goals. 

Traditional advertising isn’t the only way to improve website traffic, although it certainly is one of them. If you want visitors to come to your website, you need to implement digital marketing solutions. Here are three proven ways to improve your website traffic and generate new parts business.

#1 Focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Google and other search engines have complex ranking algorithms that determine which websites to put in the top 10 spots of a search results page. If your website has high-quality SEO, that means it’s more likely to appear in the top 10 search rankings and more likely to be found by shoppers. You can increase your SEO ranking by writing and adding unique content to your website (or having a marketing agency do this for you). Websites with optimized original content and targeted keywords are more likely to be deemed “credible” sources and rank higher, ensuring your customers find your website quickly.

Writing parts descriptions for your top-selling categories can go a long way in boosting your visibility. Make sure to include target keywords in the description too, like “Toyota Camry floor mats,” to help Google’s algorithm find you.

#2 Fire Up Google Shopping Campaigns

Advertising with Google Shopping is an investment, but it pays off! Google Shopping ads are convenient, easy to set up, and, more importantly, easy for customers to spot. 

We strongly recommend hiring a marketing agency to manage your ads for you. They can help you get set up with everything you need, get you direct access to your analytics, and help you understand how your ads are performing so you can rework them to produce the results you want. 

If you’re really ambitious and want to be in the top 1% of online sellers, then you should use high-quality parts photos to catch the eyes of your potential customers. Take pictures of all your best-selling parts and upload them!

Never tried Google Shopping? Read about some of the top mistakes dealers make with Google Shopping campaigns so you know what to avoid!

READ MORE: Google Shopping vs Google Search campaigns (+ Strategies for Success)

#3 Launch The Right Email Campaigns

Send out emails that:

• Share coupons
• Advertise promotions
• Give holiday sales information
• Offer personalized parts quotes
• Update customers on seasonal parts (and what they might need)!

RELATED: 4 Must-Have Elements of a Promotional Email that Actually Drive Sales

Bottom Line

Looking for more ways to boost your website traffic with precision? Download the Marketing Made Easy Guide for six tips on how you can use marketing to increase web traffic and revenue, and an inside look into using Google Merchant Center.