Acton’s Actions Pay Off

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart

Dealership Acton Toyota, which completed an extensive Web revamping program earlier this year, just before the news of problems with several Toyota models broke, was both.

Here's the lucky part: The 2011 Toyota Sienna, which had generated a lot of pre-release buzz, is not one of the models involved in the Toyota recall. And here's the smart: Acton Toyota analyzed online search information and saw that the new Sienna model was a highly ranked query. It set up a special Web page featuring the vehicle — even before it had taken delivery of its allotment.

Acton Toyota's ability to quickly create pages is the result of retaining Dealer.com, a firm that specializes in online marketing platforms for the automotive industry. In addition to trumpeting the pre-release Sienna, this particular page stood the company in good stead during the recall: The dealer-designed pages centralized up-to-the-minute information for both its staff and customers.

Creating each Web page takes about as long as writing an e-mail, according to Craig Belowski, Acton Toyota's general sales manager. Before the dealership began using Dealer.com, a change could take up to two or three weeks.

Do Something

The Web site flexibility dovetails nicely with Belowski's embrace of measurement in his promotional activities. “Anyone can look at analytics and say ‘That's what we've got,’ but when you look at results and do something with them, that's when you're marketing,” he says.

In Acton Toyota's case, this meant pulling away from search engine keyword bidding and focusing more on Web site optimization. In the two-plus months since the company tapped Dealer.com to help redesign its online operations, the company has moved from generating 40% of its 1,000 leads per month through organic means to 60%.

These leads, according to Dealer.com's site metrics program, are as lucrative as those garnered through paid search ads. Belowski has used this information to move Acton Toyota's marketing mix from mainstream search engines in favor of dealer recommendation sites.

One such site is Dealerrater.com, a vehicle dealer listing site that relies heavily on user-generated reviews. Acton Toyota is tied for the second-highest rating among Massachusetts dealerships, and has far and away more references than any other outlet.

Cutting Costs

Through Dealerrater.com, Acton Toyota has slashed the cost of paid search leads from around $20 each-based on keyword bids-to a $1,000 annual listing fee, which, will easily generate more than 1,000 clicks in 2010.

Prospects who come in through Dealerrater.com are much further along in the sales process than, for instance, Google searchers, says Belowski. Acton Toyota, having recognized this through Dealer.com's reports, does more than just wait for browsers to click on its listing: It maintains a prime-position banner ad on the site's Massachusetts dealerships page.

Acton Toyota hasn't completely abandoned paid search listings. The dealership does a brisk business in off-brand used cars it acquires through trade-ins. Since Belowski doesn't want to waste marketing dollars advertising one-off vehicles, Acton uses Dealer.com's TotalControl Dominator to generate search listings based on each vehicle's year, make, model and other attributes.

Prospects see an off-brand vehicle ad only when searching for a very specific model, meaning they are much closer to making a purchase than a casual Web browser. As a result, the number of clicks a listing generates before the vehicle is sold drops substantially from a generic listing.

“If you are going to spend money on [paid] search engine marketing, there is a whole strategy around how much you bid for a keyword, and what placement it gets you,” says Dean Evans, chief marketing officer of Dealer.com. “Our analytics package provides information on how many times people watch [a listing's] video, or half of the video. Over time, you can fine-tune your site and get it to convert more customers.”

The software is tied in to Acton's inventory system, meaning that once a car is sold, it is automatically removed from search results, meaning that Acton does not pay for clicks on vehicles it no longer has.