Dealers are struggling these days to find new and innovative ways to offset the nationwide drop in vehicle sales. Many are increasing their online marketing ad spend to attract buyers, particularly for their used vehicle inventory. One dealership that has successfully invested in Web 2.0 technology to increase its Internet presence is Roush Honda of Westerville, Ohio. Toward the end of last year, the dealership implemented a new Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategy developed by Auto Dealer Traffic that resulted in such a significant increase in sales; the company no longer has to solely rely on leads from third-party providers.

 

Edwin "Dubbs" Roush opened one of the first motorcycle dealerships in Central Ohio in 1965. From modest beginnings, his motorcycle store eventually grew into a flourishing Honda dealership retailing over 4,500 vehicles each year. The 100% employee-owned company currently operates out of 5 buildings in 3 locations that include vehicle sales and service.

 

The company's website, www.RoushHonda.com, typically captured in-market consumers with 30 day or longer purchasing time frames. "We were getting a decent flow of traffic but it wasn't great. We wanted to reach more online consumers, particularly those that were ready to make a purchase in under 30 days," said Gary Harkin, Roush's marketing manager. "Our goal was to attract their interest, and convert them from shoppers to clients."

 

In September of 2007, Harkin began looking for an SEM company that could optimize their website to draw consumers at all points in the purchasing process. A business associate and friend referred him to Auto Dealer Traffic.

 

"Auto Dealer Traffic not only had an excellent grasp of SEM, they were automotive space experts," says Harkin. "They provided personal attention, were hands-on and results oriented - the things that we were looking at in terms of being important."

 

Auto Dealer Traffic implemented a new SEM technology and marketing strategy that optimized Roush's vehicle inventory so that it would achieve the same high, natural search engine ranking that major automotive portals receive when auto buyers search online for a used vehicle. By increasing Roush's search engine ranking, Auto Dealer Traffic made it easier for buyers to find the auto retailer's inventory and connect with them.

 

"Portals are large enough to be easily read by search engines. Their keywords rank high in searches, which result in a large volume of traffic to the portal," says Todd Swickard, president of Auto Dealer Traffic. "It is much more difficult for a search engine to read the inventory of dealer websites because of the site's smaller size and structure."

 

Auto Dealer Traffic's new SEM technology solves this problem by making the dealer's entire used car inventory search engine crawlable. As a result, dealers can expect their vehicles to appear on the first results page when customers using Google, Yahoo or MSN search for a used car by make, model, year and city.

 

"This new service takes the control of used car sales away from the portals and puts it back into the hands of dealers," says Swickard. "They get more used car leads with much higher close rates."

 

Since the new SEM program was implemented, Roush has generated more traffic to their web site and more buyers to their showroom than ever before. "Our inventory now commands premium ranking, especially when detailed keywords are entered into search engines, says Harkin. "The best part is we've had a 25% close rate on these leads, which is significantly higher than any of our purchased leads."

 

Year-to-date; the company is up 8% on new vehicle sales and 43% on used car purchases. Because of the high volume of quality leads the company is now getting from their website, they no longer have to rely on costly leads from third party providers.

 

"Auto Dealer Traffic has been very responsive to our needs. They're an extension of our dealership and care about our success as much as their own," says Harkin.