Car Dealership Marketing Strategies That Attract Buyers and Generate More Leads

Having a full lot of the latest in-demand cars doesn’t drive sales. You need car dealership marketing strategies that directly speak to the needs and desires of your target audience. Without those tactics, you risk the longevity of your business and your ability to attract top sales team members.

The trouble is that most marketing strategies are overused or pushed too hard, turning buyers away. That’s why you need to stick to what works, blend strategies with your branding, and directly address the unique needs of your buyers both to generate more website traffic and entice more visits to your lot.

What Makes a Good Car Dealership Marketing Strategy?

The average car dealership spends between $34 and $739 on marketing per car each year. That can lead to extreme expenses that directly impact your business bottom line. Without marketing strategies for car dealerships, you’re leaving money on the table.

Try to frame your marketing efforts into three explicit stages:

• Visibility: Can the buyers find the inventory and promotions you’re hoping to push?
• Trust: When you are found, do your operations get promoted in online reviews about transparent pricing, visible details, great listings, and other core values?
• Conversion: Once you have an interested call or message, how well do those translate into actual trade-ins, test drives, and purchases?

You might rank well on Google search results, but if you don’t find a way to convert those interested buyers from all over the nation willing to ship their new purchase home, you are losing money.

Car Dealership Marketing Strategy Comparison

Top Digital Marketing Strategies for Car Dealerships to Try

1. Build Local SEO Around How People Actually Shop

SEO, known as search engine optimization, involves the frontend and backend strategies you use to rank higher on a search engine like Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo. They involve everything from using the right keywords in your copy to earning more backlinks from authoritative sites.

Local SEO uses the same techniques, but in relation to your geographic areas. You want to use the same keywords, but in combination with target buyer areas and your local lots. For example, if your LA dealership is pushing sales for the new Subaru EV, you’d want a keyword phrase like “used Subaru EV in Los Angeles.”

2. Treat Your Google Business Profile Like Another Dealership Homepage

Complete Google Business Profiles generate 7 times as many clicks as those businesses not utilizing the platform. With 46% of internet searches related to some local service, it pays high ROI to fill out all the areas of your Google Business Profile.

This is also a backlink tool. You’ll get more reviews on this directly tied to Google itself, which can then boost your page ranking and visible trustworthiness with new buyers.

3. Turn Customer Reviews into a Trust-Building System

Social proof is a goldmine. Any car dealership marketing strategy needs to include creating, soliciting, and generating more authentic customer reviews. You want to make leaving feedback after a purchase as easy as possible.

Send emails to your customers after a sale, or include QR codes on your letterhead that direct people to your Google reviews. These are valuable marketing assets that you can turn into social posts or add to other customer-facing materials to build trust capital.

4. Use Paid Search to Capture Buyers Who Are Ready to Shop

A standard PPC (Pay-Per-Click) ad campaign sits at $46.50. The average auto sector PPC is about $2.85, with a 5.8% conversion rate. Those are decent odds compared to other industries.

It pays well to use smart PPC advertising that aligns with the platform to drive more engagement. This is one of the more expensive car dealership marketing strategies, but, if managed well and actively, can generate a ton of leads.

Make sure your campaign includes:

• Geographic targeting data for the demographics you want
• The use of relatable, high-intent keywords
• Negative keywords to eliminate irrelevant traffic and help boost conversion rates
• Dedicated landing, promotion, or capture pages tied to the PPC ad
• Clear CTAs with strong messaging aligned with the target audience’s pain points

You also want to track all data from your PPC campaigns. The more you know about CRO, ROI, and the cost of new client acquisition, the easier it will be to modify your ads. The good news is you don’t need to invest heavily in these goals. A small campaign of $3 to $10 per day is more than enough to get data. You can always scale up later on.

5. Use Social Media to Show Cars, People, and Dealership Benefits

Social media is powerful. A customer wanting to purchase a new SUV with a 3rd row before moving to Maine will appreciate an “insider’s look” video from your dealership on a new Toyota Highlander.

You don’t need to post to every social media platform or overwhelm your marketing strategies for car dealerships. Stick to one platform at first and create a consistent schedule. Once you have that under control, you can move to more platforms as needed. Post content like:

• Vehicle walkarounds
• New inventory arrivals
• Customer delivery photos
• Staff introductions
• Trade-in opportunities
• Model comparisons
• Financing explanations
• Behind-the-scenes dealership content
• Community events

6. Turn Website Traffic into Actual Dealership Leads

You need to convert leads. Having 50K visitors per month doesn’t mean a thing if they aren’t converting into test drives, email list sign-ups, and actual sales. Always, always, always tie your marketing strategies for car dealerships to clear CTAs.

You don’t need to saturate your visitors with information. One clear CTA per marketing tactic is more than enough. Try to keep them uniform and related to the content. If you’re sending out an email about an upcoming promotion, you may want a CTA like “Call the Dealership for Your 15% discount.”

You want to help guide your visitors with engaging content that directs them toward positive actions that eventually lead to sales.

7. Build Dedicated Trade-In and Lead Generation Campaigns

If your dealership offers trade-ins, promote the heck out of it. Buyers who want a new vehicle are looking for ways to optimize the value of current assets. Having marketing tactics around “What’s My Car Worth?” or “How Do I Do a Trade-in in Nebraska” directly speaks to an audience segment you may have been underserving in the past.

Use a CRM to help with this project. You want something that can automate many of these tasks and track individual client touchpoints through the marketing strategy journey.

8. Use Email to Bring Previous Shoppers Back

Email is still the cheapest and most effective car dealership marketing strategy. It offers you direct contact with a buyer on a platform they’ll likely check every single day.

You can segment your email lists based on several topics and engagement points, such as customers seeking information on:

• Newly available inventory matching previous searches
• Price changes
• Trade-in opportunities
• Financing promotions
• Seasonal offers
• New model releases
• Follow-ups after test drives

You don’t have to overthink this. It’s simply putting customers into “buckets” where the information they want is the most readily available and personalized to their needs.

9. Expand Your Market by Offering Vehicle Shipping

Finally, a good car dealership marketing strategy is to partner with a reliable, nationwide car shipping service like Nexus Auto Transport. Being able to offer a trusted, mainstream way for online buyers to purchase a new car and have it shipped door-to-door reduces the steps a buyer must take to complete the purchase.

Nexus works with everyone from private individuals to dealerships just like yours, efficiently shipping cars through a massive network of vetted, professional carriers. You can learn more by reading our complete guide to auto shipping to determine whether it aligns with your car dealership marketing strategies.

Turn Your Marketing Channels into One Sales System

Buyers want personalization. That ability to speak directly to their needs comes from a holistic system of multiple tactics and dial marketing strategies for car dealerships. Pay close attention to your analytics as you attempt any new tactic and adjust as close to real time as you can. That will ensure you’re reaching the hottest leads likely to act and make a purchase or trade-in.

FAQs

How much should a car dealership spend on digital marketing?

There isn’t a hard rule about advertising spending. Start small in the $5-$15 per-car-per-day range. Try to keep your cost per customer acquisition as low as you can and track all data throughout the process. If you’ve got an experienced marketing team, you’ll quickly see what does and doesn’t work.

How can car dealerships generate more qualified leads?

Local SEO and strong online reviews from other nearby customers are your best bet. Once you have sales and promotions pages, turn to social media for both organic and PPC lead generation. Those tactics can always be combined with the occasional email about upcoming discounts, new model offerings, or special community events.

How can car dealerships improve their online visibility?

You can use all the digital tactics you want, but the most tried-and-true way to boost your visibility online starts with in-person engagement. Sponsor a local soccer team. Be a part of a community fundraiser. Demonstrate that you are part of the audience you’re serving, communicate that participation effectively, and you’ll boost your visibility.