Overview

Between ongoing market changes and soaring customer demands, it’s now more important than ever for auto dealers to have options for acquiring inventory to meet consumer demand. That’s why it’s important to develop a plan to address vehicle acquisition needs. By utilizing an effective acquisition strategy, your dealership will be able to maximize your limited inventory for the foreseeable future, regardless of market conditions.

Strategically Build Your Campaign Audiences

When it comes to acquiring vehicles from specific customers in your market, we know you need to think strategically about who you’re reaching out to. Start by identifying audience segments for your inventory acquisition campaigns, such as:

• Service Customers – Identify people who have serviced with you, not bought from you and are likely to sell their vehicle.
• Local Market Conquest Audience – Target people in your market who haven’t purchased from your store or brand before but are likely to sell a vehicle within their household.
• Current Customers – Carve out a specific subset of your loyalty customers and find those who are most likely to sell their vehicle, specifically targeting those with equity for a complimentary appraisal.

Send Targeted Messaging To Those Willing To Sell

Now that we have identified the right customers to target for vehicle acquisition, we need to send the right message at the right time. The key is to target individuals in your market with tailored messages and compelling offers to sell you their vehicle.

Putting Your Plan In Action

Once we have our messages crafted, it’s important to consider the various channels available to reach these targeted audiences. Email, search, social, video, OTT – every channel plays an important role in strategically getting in front of your target audiences. Consider the pros and cons of each, associated costs and time involved to bring your campaigns to market.

Step-By-Step Guide

Step 1: Analyze Your Market

• Which models have the highest demand?
• How does your inventory compare to demand in your market?
• Are you using a trusted tool to analyze, like PURE Insights or vAuto?
• Which models present the biggest opportunity? (make,  high volume, etc.)

For example, if you are a Ford dealer and notice that Ram 1500’s are outselling the F-150 in your market, you may want to target Ram 1500 owners in your market to sell you their vehicle.

Step 2: Mine Your Data

Focus should first be on your most likely to convert audience, your previous customers.

• Create list of sales and service customers owning target vehicles
• Analyze list size
• If less than 1,000 consider adding additional models
• Utilize third-party data sources such as Oracle Data Cloud, Google Data, Amazon, etc.
• Make sure your provider has access to these data sources
• Target in-market or make owners

Step 3: Develop Your Message

What are you offering to your potential customers and where can they see that information?

• Why sell to your dealership?
• Immediate payment
• Loan payoff
• $X or % over book value
• Incentive on new vehicle purchase
• Home pick-up
• Create a landing page including:
• Messaging information
• Trade-in app or tool

Step 4: Deploy Ads

Ads should be deployed in a tiered approach with a mixture of paid and organic campaigns:

1. Social:
2. Organic posts
3. Ads linked to landing page
4. Search:
5. Add site-link extensions
6. Post on Google Business page
7. Programmatic display and video:
8. Display ads linking to landing page
9. Video ads linking to landing page
10. Work your service drive:
11. Incentivize sales people or service writers to set up appraisals on desired models when they are in for service