By Owen Moon, CEO, FIXED OPS DIGITAL
In these uncertain times, every vendor is trying to provide value to dealerships they currently work with. This is great! However, I have personally seen a huge uptick in messaging on Facebook and LinkedIn from vendors who yesterday only offered variable solutions and are now urging dealers to invest in their new program to drive service business. While I agree reallocating advertising funds to service is smart, many times, vendors who have limited experience with service marketing make mistakes on how to execute.
The following insights can help you to drive better results for your service marketing ad campaigns.
Leading consumers to your dealership’s Schedule Service page is a waste of time and money! Most dealer’s service ads I see on Facebook have a major flaw. Consumer perception is often that the dealership is more expensive than Jiffy Lubes and Pep Boys. Those inexperienced in service marketing typically run “$5 OFF” or “10% OFF” ads. These types of ads often do not resonate with consumers – because if their perception is that a dealership is more expensive, that “$5 OFF” promotion will not work in changing that. Not only do those ads fail to combat the consumer’s perception that the dealership is overpriced for service, but they also often take the consumer to the dealership’s Schedule Service Page – which has no information! Sending any paid media, social, or email blast directly to the Schedule Service page will simply exhaust your ad budget without delivering any real tangible results.
Today’s service customers want more information and recommendations, along with clear and transparent pricing. Here are some data points on the Schedule Service page across all of the dealerships that our company works with:
- Time on Site is roughly 50% less when the first page visited is the Schedule Service page.
- Schedule Service pages have fewer returning visitors than the Service Specials page by almost 200%. Why? Because the Schedule Service page does not provide the information needed, frustrating the consumer and negatively impacting their experience.
- 20% or Less Completion Rate: Some of the popular Service Schedule tools on the market have such a low completion ratio due to excessive questions required to schedule the appointment.
There are a growing number of vendors and agencies now offering service marketing, but exercise caution when choosing a partner to work with. If you want an effective digital marketing strategy to drive more service, parts, tire, collision, or accessory business, my recommendation is to find one that specializes in the fixed ops side of the business.
ARTICLE BY Owen Moon
Owen Moon is CEO of FIXED OPS DIGITAL, the automotive industry’s premier service marketing agency specializing in Service, Parts, Collision, & Tire Online Marketing. For nearly 20 years, Owen has been working with dealerships to help sell more cars and drive more service revenue using proven traditional and digital marketing strategies. Owen has been a content contributor for numerous industry publications and is also an accredited speaker who has presented at many automotive events.