What is Google Free Click Marketing?
Google has Changed the Local Search Rules and it is Hurting Your Dealership!
The recently redesigned Google “Mobile First” local search results is changing the way consumers engage with your Dealership.
These changes are costing your dealership thousands of website clicks, phone calls, and lot traffic everyday!
We will continue to sound the alarm to auto dealers about what Google is doing and how it is manipulating car shoppers by diverting them away from your website, over to Google properties. This page will explain what is happening and what you should be doing about it.
The massive increase of Mobile Device use, has Google changing how they display your dealership information in the Local Search results!
Thanks to technology and the massive increase of mobile device use, car shoppers are changing how they find and view, your new and used vehicles, as well as how they determine which car dealer they will do business with.
Because of the growth of Mobile device searches, Google over the past several years, has been quietly changing the way they show your dealership information on their local search results pages.
What is Google “Free Click Marketing”and why should you care?
The redesigned ‘Mobile First’ local search pages on Google has created a HUGE opportunity for your dealership to tap into thousands of FREE Google clicks, increase traffic to your website, add more phone calls, and even increase walk ins.
Our Google Free Click Marketing and GMB Management Service increases traffic to both Sales and Fixed Operations!
Because of all the local search results changes by Google, your website no longer carries the impact in the organic search results that it used to. However, if you want to regain those free clicks from Google, you need to focus more on your Google My Business – Google Maps listings.
Where are those Free Clicks and How can you get them?
Based on the Data from a 2019 study of over 1.5 billion searches on Google by JumpShot using clickstream data from US only, free clicks still dominate what searchers rely on to find results. The study concluded that for every one click on a paid search ad, there are 11.8 Free clicks on organic search results.
As Google continues to push your website further down the results pages and places your Google My Business – Google Maps data in front of more searchers, doesn’t it make sense to turn them into traffic generating machines?
Aren’t you tired of your digital agency telling you if you want to increase your market share on Google, you must increase your Paid Search budget, or risk losing sales. Wouldn’t you rather grab those 11.8 Free Clicks?.
Understanding how your Google My Business Listing can generate Free Clicks!
Your GMB – Google Maps listings are no longer just simple listings provided for free by Google. It is now a focal point in the local search results and when managed and marketed properly, it will drive substantial traffic to your dealership.
Who at your dealership is accountable for driving traffic through your GMBs – Maps listings?
- What happens when your data has inaccuracies, or past customers trash your Q&A board?
- Who handles user generated content gone bad? Happens all the time!
- Who is in charge of providing updated information about your products and services?
- Who handles duplicate listings when they pop up?
- Who handles VDP marketing?
- Is there someone in charge of marketing your sales, service and parts GMBs?
- Did Google create an unclaimed service department GMB that already has unanswered reviews?
We could go on all day with these unanswered questions but I think you get the picture!
When it comes to managing and marketing on one of your most powerful digital assets to generate more Free Clicks, Phone Calls, Lot Ups, and Service Traffic…
Who’s Got Your Back?
Right now, probably no one! Here’s the all to common issue that approximately 95% of car dealers currently experience. You have erroneous, inaccurate, missing, or unanswered information in your GMB, and in many cases, you have no idea your GMB has serious issues. You call your digital marketing agency or your SEO person to take a look at it beit-mirkahat.com. They tell you “we will get right on it!”
Guess what? We can guarantee you they lack the knowledge regarding how to handle your GMB – Maps issues or GMB marketing regardless of what they tell you. How do we know this? Many of them call AutoNet Media to resolve these issues. In essence, one of your most cost effective and powerful online marketing tools is in the hands of non-experts.
It doesn’t take an expert to simply submit and claim your Google My Business listing, (GMB). Heck, that is a no brainer.
However, for every digital marketing agency and SEO service we have done GMB -Google Maps work for, they have no one that understands how to fix major issues, never mind how to properly Market your GMB.
At AutoNet Media we are experts at Free Click Marketing using Google My Business management and marketing because that’s all we do, and our clients success stories are what we live by!
Imagine if your Digital Marketing agency set up your Pay Per Click campaigns and just let them run without any follow up or tweaking. How effective would they be? Well, that’s exactly what is going on with your Google My Business profile. Someone claimed it, filled in the data, and called it a day.
Free Click Marketing requires constant accountability when it comes to your Google My Business listings.
This ‘claim it and forget it’ mentality is costing your dealership leads and sales every day. Maybe every couple of weeks someone goes in a creates a Google post with some article or special offer that in most cases, is a waste of time and effort.
Let’s be honest here, other than monitoring and answering reviews, your GMB probably gets little or no attention. The person assigned to watching it probably lacks the time and/or knowledge to make it into the lead generating tool it should be.
Here is just one example of Google My Business issues we see everyday!
You may or may not be aware that your Google My Business profile has a Q&A section. This allows online searchers to ask questions about your dealership and other Internet users can and will answer them. Your dealership can and should be answering these questions.
WOW! Thousands of potential customers are reading these comments and it is hurting your dealerships click through rates big time. Did you notice that those negative answers have been up for a year?
It gets worse! Almost every dealer GMB we analyze is not using the powerful marketing tools properly, if it all. This is costing your dealership valuable leads and sales daily. Google is giving you these marketing tools and almost every dealer we see, has no idea they exist and/or how to properly utilize them!
Google Posts are one of the most poorly used marketing tools on your GMB profile. If someone at your dealership, your digital marketing firm, or your SEO person tells you they are a waste of time or do not generate any traffic, they either are dead wrong or too lazy (or time constrained) to implement an ongoing marketing plan designed to increase leads, VDP views, or service drive traffic to your dealership.
AutoNet Media does this for you by marketing and converting these posts into ongoing bottom line gains!
When it comes to increasing website clicks, phone calls, and VDP views using Free Click Marketing, the GMB experts at AutoNet Media deliver! Why?
That’s all we do! We are a Google My Business and Google Maps Marketing and Management service and we are darn good at it!
We have a cost effective and powerful ongoing marketing and management plan designed to move more viewers directly to your Sales, Service, and Parts departments. Have a Collision Center? We handle that also!
We also provide accountability and tangible metrics through our analytics reports as proof that Free Click Marketing is working for you dealership on an ongoing basis!
Is your SEO service giving you the accurate data when it comes to the organic traffic coming to your website via Google searches?
The answer here is no. We have been doing local SEO for 23 years, so we have nothing against SEO services, but a lot has changed over the past several years. If your Google analytics are not set up properly you probably do not know that in most cases a very large percentage, if not the majority, of your dealership’s organic search traffic (free clicks) comes directly from your GMB – Google Maps.
Oops… sorry SEO’s – the cat is out of the bag now!
The fact is, your Google My Business listings coupled with AutoNet Media’s free click marketing strategies will be generating a very large percentage of your overall traffic to your website, as well as thousands of phone calls and lot ups. If it currently is not… Contact AutoNet Media for a Free Demo!!
Do you know how many new and used VDP views free clicks generate every month?
How about your used VDP’s?
Don’t worry we have it covered! Not only do we set up the metrics, our GMB marketing program will turn your GMB into a powerful lead funnel that is fully responsive, accountable, and trackable. At AutoNet Media we pride our expertise in delivering honest accountability when it comes to digital marketing.
Tired of your Service and Parts departments getting second string status on your main dealership Google My Business listing?
Your service department is a huge revenue stream and AutoNet Media has a free click marketing plan to increase your dealerships service department’s bottom line. Google changes their rules constantly and AutoNet Media makes it our business to keep your dealership up on these changes when they happen. You may not be aware that Google now allows dealerships to add service and parts departments with it’s own unique GMB.
Google considers your main GMB as your sales page, and wants you to list the sales phone number and sales hours on it. We have had some pretty harsh conversations with service managers about this one! There is nothing worse than a angry customer that read the wrong hours and showed up at your dealership too late or too early for service. Can you say… we just lost a client and here comes a bad review!
We got it handled! Google has already on its own, created thousands of car dealer service and parts department GMB – Map listings that are floating around on Google unclaimed, often times with inaccurate information. Many of these unclaimed GMBs are hidden, and your dealership may have one right now which can be made worse by the possibility of a duplicate service GMB. We know how to find them, claim, and fix them.
There are strict rules when setting one up and if you make one mistake it can hurt all of your GMBs. No problem, not only can we help you, we will show you how to rank for searches like brake repair, oil changes, and other popular auto repair search phrases in the Google 3-pack and Google Maps.
Do you want thousands of Google searchers to see your service coupons? We have a free click marketing plan for that also.
Do you have a Collision center at your dealership? Yup, we got your back again!
We Saved the Best For Last!
We are not going to give you all our secret sauce in this article, but if anything written here has gotten your attention, it’s time for us to have a talk! Not just a talk, let’s get right down to business and schedule a FREE, full analysis of your current situation and an online Demo of our Free Click Marketing Platform in action.
- Do you have a few minutes to learn the truth about what your Google My Business profile really does for your dealership?
- Are you tired of inefficiencies in your Google My Business platform that is costing you traffic and leads?
- Are you tired of being told the only way to increase your Google Market Share is increasing your paid search budget?
Or you can contact us right now by phone at 800-506-9848 and one of our GMB experts will answer all your questions.
About the Author:
Jeffrey Taylor got started in the Automotive industry in 1996 when he started the first online dealer classifieds with photos. No BS here! In fact, he created the first VDP, faxing leads to dealerships in Arizona. Very few dealers, if any, were using email in 1996.
Over the years he has done local SEO work in multiple small business verticals, as well as numerous car dealers big and small.
For the past 4 years he has been doing extensive consulting work for digital agencies that need GMB work for their clients. This where he realized there is a serious need for car dealers regarding GMB marketing.
“I created the Google Free Click Marketing and GMB Management service because right now, there is a huge need for GMB expertise in the auto industry. Over the past few years I have fixed many dealer GMB- Google Maps listings only to go back a few months later to see more problems. Why? No accountability or knowledgeable personnel at the dealership or the agency they rely on. Without an ongoing management and marketing plan in place, dealers are losing thousands of website clicks, phone calls and walk-ins every month.”
He is considered one of the leading Google My Business experts in the USA, always keeping a keen eye on what Google is up to, and what you need to do to stay ahead of your competition when it comes to GMB marketing.