Do you ever feel like your ads are becoming just noise to your customers? As a dedicated automotive advertising agency, we know how important it is to keep your brand and inventory in front of potential buyers. That’s where retargeting comes in. Retargeting is a crucial component of dealers’ marketing budgets and can be done effectively on Google, Meta, and the newest addition – TikTok.
Why Is Retargeting Essential for Automotive Marketing
Retargeting allows you to keep your brand top-of-mind while the customer goes through their buying cycle. Here’s why it matters, especially for auto advertisers to stay top of mind:
🚗 The Automotive Shopping Journey:
- 🇺🇲 In the U.S., the average automotive shopping journey lasts between 30 to 60 days, and for certain generations, like Gen Z, this can extend to 140 days. During this period, consumers are deeply engaged in research and comparison, visiting an average of 4.2 websites, including third-party platforms, dealership sites, used car retailers, and automaker pages. Over two-thirds of U.S. customers invest at least 10 hours researching their next vehicle. (statistica.com) This indicates that while the process may be relatively short, the effort and consideration put into online research is thorough, making it crucial for your dealership to stay in the conversation.
- 🇨🇦 In Canada, the journey stretches to about 62 days on average, with 17 days spent on research, 35 days of careful consideration, and the remaining 10 days spent making a final decision. Canadian car buyers visit an average of 4.2 automotive websites. Interestingly, 45% of new car buyers and 78% of used car buyers rely on automotive marketplaces at some point in their journey. New shoppers average 9.4 visits, while used shoppers check an impressive 15 sites. (Brankovic)
Why This Matters to Your Dealership:
These stats clearly highlight the need for a strong and consistent online presence. With shoppers engaging across multiple digital platforms and spending significant time researching, retargeting is the key to staying visible and top-of-mind throughout their decision-making process. The goal is to get the shopper returning to your site, not a competitor’s.
The Power of Retargeting:
- 🔄 Better Conversion Rates: Retargeting ensures that your dealership can serve highly personalized and relevant ads based on the shopper’s previous actions. When potential customers see ads for vehicles or offers they’ve already browsed, they are much more likely to convert—this is how you turn interest into action. There is a 70% greater likelihood of converting re-targeted visitors vs. those who are not. (saleslion.io)
- 💸 Cost-Effective: Retargeting maximizes your ad budget by targeting a smaller, highly interested audience. By focusing on those who’ve already shown interest, you’ll achieve better click-through rates and higher lead conversions, making every dollar spent work harder for your dealership. (coxnext.com)
- 🔕 Don’t let your dealership get lost in the noise. Engage shoppers at every stage of their journey and turn those visits into sales with effective retargeting strategies!
Each platform offers its unique strengths, and here’s how you can optimize your campaigns to maximize results (and of course, we can help):
Social Media (Facebook, Instagram & TikTok)
- Install the Facebook Pixel:
Retargeting isn’t new and has been around for well over a decade. If you’re not using it, you’re leaving money on the table. One of the simplest (and most powerful) steps you can take is to install the Facebook Pixel. This little piece of code tracks user interactions on your website, including things like vehicle views, test drive requests, and form submissions, so you can then retarget shoppers who’ve already shown interest. If you don’t have this set up, it’s time to start asking us some questions. - Audience Segmentation:
It’s one thing to segment audiences, but how do you know which shoppers are truly ready to buy? That’s where our Engaged Prospect Metric (EPM) comes in.
EPM is designed to track real buying intent by analyzing digital behaviors like time on page, scroll depth, and photo click-throughs. It helps separate the serious buyers from the tire-kickers so that dealerships can focus their marketing efforts (and cost) on the people who matter most.
Once you know who these engaged prospects are, you can take things a step further with retargeting. This means serving them relevant ads on platforms like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and TikTok, keeping your dealership top of mind as they move through their buying journey. If you’re not segmenting and retargeting based on real buyer intent, you’re really missing out on serious sales opportunities. - Use Dynamic Ads:
Dynamic ads allow you to display personalized vehicle ads to users based on their interactions with your site. Showcase the exact cars they browsed, coupled with compelling offers, to keep them engaged and bring them back to complete their purchase.
- Set Up Google Ads Remarketing:
Use Google Ads to create remarketing audiences based on user activity on your website. Whether a user visited your homepage, browsed a specific vehicle, or left without converting, you can craft personalized ads to bring them back and guide them toward conversion. Instead of blasting generic ads to everyone, you can create highly targeted custom audiences based on real user behavior. Let’s talk about more relevant ads, better conversions, and smarter ad spend utilizing our engaged prospect metric (EPM). - Dynamic Display Ads:
Create eye-catching, dynamic display ads that highlight the top features of each vehicle. By automatically pulling images and details from your inventory, you can showcase the most relevant options to your audience, driving higher engagement and interest. - Complement with Dynamic Search Ads:
Run vehicle listing ads (VLAs) alongside your retargeting efforts. These ads are generated in real-time based on the keywords that users search for, matching your inventory with what they’re looking for. It’s an excellent way to capture interest when shoppers are actively seeking cars like yours. - Optimize Engagement with Targeted CTAs:
Use compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) that encourage users to take the next step, whether it’s scheduling a test drive, checking out your specials, or speaking with a sales rep. A well-crafted CTA will guide your audience through the final stages of their buying journey.
By combining the strengths of Google, Meta and TikTok and by following these best practices, you can create powerful retargeting campaigns that stay visible, relevant, and engaging throughout your customers’ buying process. We always suggest a holistic, multi-channel approach to ensure you are engaging buyers in the right place at the right time.
Crafting Personalized Retargeting Messages
The key to successful retargeting is personalization, which means tailoring your messages to resonate with your audience and drive them back in. Here’s how to craft retargeting messages that turn interest into action:
1. Be That Friendly Reminder
Customize your ads to act as that gentle “nudge” that reminds the customer of their past interactions with your site. Use personalized verbiage that speaks directly to their experience, whether it’s a vehicle they viewed or a feature they showed interest in. A message like, “Still thinking about that [Car Model]? It’s waiting for you!” can draw them back for another visit.
2. Offer Irresistible Incentives
Who doesn’t love a great deal? Entice users back with special offers, discounts, or limited-time promotions that they feel are just for them. Highlight exclusive offers, like a price drop, trade-in bonus, or financing deals, to create urgency and drive immediate action. Messages like “Only 2 left at this price” or “This offer expires in 48 hours!” can create a sense of urgency and prompt quicker decisions. Not all website visitors are created equal, as some are just casually browsing while others are actively shopping for their next vehicle. The key to smarter advertising is audience segmentation. By segmenting visitors based on which vehicles they’ve viewed or interacted with, you can serve highly targeted ads to those who are actually interested. Instead of showing generic ads to everyone, segmentation ensures your dealership is putting the right message in front of the right people and ultimately increasing conversions and improving ad efficiency.
3. Maintain Consistent Messaging
Consistency is key in building trust. Ensure that your retargeting ads align with your website and in-dealership experience. Use similar language and visual elements across your campaigns to create a seamless, familiar experience for the customer. Whether on your site or seeing your ads on social media, maintaining the same tone and message helps reinforce your dealership’s brand and the customer’s journey.
4. Highlight What They Loved
Show users what they’re missing and give them a sense of FOMO! If they show interest in a specific vehicle, highlight that same car with a personalized message like “Your dream car is still available” or “Still thinking about the [Car Model]? It’s ready when you are.” Keep the focus on the exact vehicle they viewed to reinforce their initial interest.
By crafting personalized, consistent, and compelling messages, you ensure that your retargeting efforts stand out and push customers to take the next step in their buying journey while ensuring that your dealership is top of mind!
Once They Come Back
Now that you have the customer back to your site, you want them to pick up where they left off the last time they were there. Customizing their shopping experience for their second or third visit will increase the chance of converting them into a valuable lead.
Presenting a targeted incentive on a customer’s next visit creates a sense of urgency, motivating them to take immediate action and contact your dealership. The key is to make this incentive highly relevant and tailored to what will encourage them to act now, rather than delaying their decision, which in turn could have them shopping elsewhere.
Don’t miss the opportunity to leverage our Smart Offer, which can be triggered based on the UTM parameters of your retargeting campaign. This ensures that only users who have interacted with your campaign and returned to your site will see the exclusive offer. This level of precision ensures your message hits the right audience at the right time, boosting your chances of conversion.
Monitoring retargeting performance and optimizing based on engagement retargeting isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it type of campaign. You will need to monitor a variety of metrics to optimize your strategy. Here’s how:
- Tracking Key Metrics: Monitoring metrics such as Cost Per Click (CPC), Click-Through Rate (CTR), and conversion rates.
- Adjust Based on Frequency: Frequency is how many times a customer was shown one of your ads in the last 30 days. Just like any friendly reminder, we need to make sure we are staying top of mind but not being overbearing. Displaying a retargeting ad once every 2-3 days is the ideal frequency that will keep the customer engaged in your brand.
- A/B Testing: Running different versions of your ad and measuring them effectively will allow you to continue to improve on how you appear to your audience.
By implementing these retargeting strategies, you can supercharge your automotive marketing efforts, drive more engagement, and boost conversions. Ready to get started? Let us help you put these best practices into action and watch your marketing efforts take off and your budget drive a lot further!
Let’s Take Your Dealership’s Marketing to the Next Level
The reality is that car buyers are doing their homework long before they ever step foot on a lot. If you’re not staying in front of them with strategic, data-driven retargeting, you’re handing sales over to your competitors.
We specialize in helping dealerships maximize every marketing dollar by targeting high-intent shoppers with precision on Google, Meta, TikTok, and beyond. Whether you need to fine-tune your audience segmentation, optimize your retargeting campaigns, or drive higher conversions, we’ve got you covered. Do you know what your EPM is?
Let’s talk strategy and start bringing more buyers back to your dealership. Get in touch today!
Ready to learn even more?
