The misnomer of online advertising

Auto shoppers are known to hit the Internet today when beginning their quest to find a vehicle. But with so many thousands of places for them to go, getting lost, confused, or at least overwhelmed is not uncommon. This makes Organic Search Marketing all that more important.

While the advantage that has been gained in recent years by auto shoppers with the Internet age has been the increase in available information and a decrease in the negotiating power of dealers, the prices to pay are too much information and too many hoops to jump, and dealers are paying for it.

15 years ago, dealers competed locally with their counterparts through radio, television, and print ads which covered most consumer markets. These advertisements concentrated on the business and actual specials and would drive customers directly to the showroom. But with the Internet, these consumer markets have been diluted to the Web, so there is less market share off line and more online.

This does not discredit the importance of off line advertising, however the mentality of online automotive marketing today has shifted away from brand awareness and market visibility towards lead generation. This is a terrible misnomer. What ever happened to driving traffic directly to the dealership?

Organic Search Marketing is the giant sleeper for online automotive marketing. Organic search pivots around the idea of brand awareness and market positioning, not lead generation. In the long run, this can be a more fruitful investment because of the residual value it brings. Service providers have become increasingly more aware of this and are now offering modified versions of their PPC-heavy search engine marketing programs, and car dealers are learning to be quite keen on the information they are given and what they do with it.