As I sat in Tom’s cramped office in the back of his shop, I could see he was frustrated. Tom had called me because he needed some new customers and he needed them right now.
He was getting bombarded almost daily from salespeople offering all sorts of programs that were all about getting him new customers. There were radio spots, TV commercials, coupons, print ads and, of course, the weekly calls from the “deal site” salesperson and the Yellow Pages.
Tom told me that those calls weren’t as bad as the others. “What others?” I asked. He said he was getting two or three calls every day from people offering him a mobile app, a mobile website, a new website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – you name it. They all wanted to help with his “reputation.”
The problem, he related, was that he was getting more of those calls than he was from customers needing an appointment. His business was way down and he didn’t have much of a budget for advertising and promotion. But he realized he needed to do something.
So what should he do?
I shared two very important points with Tom that very few tire and service business owners think about.
Mistake 1: Get Your Name Out There
Advertising salespeople will often say, “You need to get your name out there so people will think of you when they need tires or a repair.”
That works if you have a multimillion dollar (at least multi-thousand dollar) ad budget – but that was not Tom’s situation. He was scraping together the money for this promotion and if it didn’t work, he might not be able to meet payroll.
The reason large branding advertising may not work for a smaller independent shop is that to make it pay, you need to do it consistently and broadly. That means you must have a large budget.
If you’re advertising on radio, TV or in print, you are paying based on the number of listeners, viewers or readers. So if your local newspaper has 100,000 readers, how many may need tires that day? Probably only 10-20, but you’re paying for the full 200,000 eyeballs.
Mistake 2: You Need a…
Don’t get me wrong, you do need a great website, a solid mobile website, even a mobile app. And you need to be involved in social media by utilizing Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more.
That’s the “Tire Dealer 101” stuff that every dealer should be engaged with. It will all help you generate new customers and retain your existing customers. We have numerous clients we have been assisting with the above tools and each and every one has shown profits and a great ROI.
But, remember, that was not Tom’s immediate issue. He said he needs customers (and their money) now – and he has a small budget to work with.
Pay-Per-Click Strategy
What I proposed to him was a mobile pay-per-click campaign. Let me explain why that was my suggestion.
There are three major ways of generating pay-per-click traffic:
Google Ads: If you conduct a search on Google for virtually any term, you’ll normally see three ads on the top in a shaded area and seven to 10 more on the right hand side of the page. These ads are worthwhile, but they typically produce shoppers and not buyers. The good news is that you know someone who typed in the product you’re selling is at least searching for that product, which is better than the brand type advertising we spoke about earlier.
Facebook Ads: These are display ads on Facebook and you can choose where they appear – meaning you can target your customer. That’s important because you can better manage your ad budget. If you know your typical customer is a 34-year-old woman living within 10 miles of your shop, you can have your ad appear only to those who fit that criteria. Want to reach senior couples ages 54-70, living in the suburbs, driving a Lexus, and who like to vacation in the Caribbean? Again, you can target just those Facebook members. The problem here is that these people are not specifically looking for you or your service, so this is yet another version of brand advertising.
Mobile Pay-Per-Click: These ads are targeted to people who are actively searching for your products and services – and are doing so on mobile devices. According to Google, 81% of such searches on a mobile device result in a physical interaction with the business, usually within 24 hours. And more than 80% of those people are searching for a local business. The people clicking on mobile ads have a five times better conversion rate than those searching from a desktop or laptop computer.
That means mobile searches are mostly from buyers who want a service or product now.
Currently, mobile ads are significantly cheaper than desktop ads and are markedly more effective. They also are more impactful for creating customers quickly, since someone searching on a mobile device probably needs your service now and is not just shopping or browsing.
This is the method we implemented for Tom and, so far, the results are proving this was the correct decision. His costs were a fraction of a TV, radio, print or even ValPak – and certainly far, far less than a Yellow Pages ad.
Here are the steps to implementing a mobile advertising campaign:
1. Assess what keywords are being searched and the cost per click.
2. Create ads based on that information. It’s ideal to start with two or even three ads to see which will perform the best.
3. Create a daily budget. You can tell Google how much you want to spend each day and you also can turn off your ads during the hours your shop is closed.
4. Run the campaign. Monitor your progress to see if it’s working – and working well.
5. Assess your ROI and decide to continue the campaign, grow the campaign, or create a whole new campaign.
Brian Sacks is a mobile marketing expert with more than 26 years of direct response marketing experience. He is co-founder of Trackable Response Inc., a mobile marketing provider to the tire and auto service industries, based in Catonsville, Md. Brian can be reached at [email protected] or 410-747-1100.
