Nothing Personal... it’s Business.
With over 13 million South Africans using Facebook, 8,3 million YouTube visitors and 6,6 million people twittering every day, social media can no longer be marginalised as a ‘kids’ thing’.
While social networking sites were initially designed for connecting people, they have ultimately turned into business tools that allow brands to connect with customers in unique ways. Motor dealerships can use social media platforms to define parameters such as behaviours, interests, browsing habits, demographics, age range, and language - within their geographic footprint. It’s a market of potential customers who are actively discussing, searching and comparing motor vehicle options.
This is referred to as ‘In-Market’ targeting and is a highly focused method of getting the right message to the right person at the right time and the budget is not wasted on questionable ‘out-of-market’ leads. With social media, tightly targeted advertising is now a reality, giving dealerships a direct channel to an exceptionally active online market.
Currently Facebook, YouTube and Twitter dominate the SA landscape, with Instagram the burgeoning challenger. All of these platforms provide advertisers with Pay-Per-Click and Pay-Per-View options. This means that you only pay when the consumer completes the action you desire, such as calling you, visiting your website or watching a video. You set the budget and the return on investment is totally measurable.
“Facebook is now used by a
quarter of all South Africans”
South African Social Media Landscape 2016: World Wide Worx
Facebook’s global user base is larger than the population of China and the company’s financial success relies on the platform’s ability to attract advertising revenue. It leverages its enormous volume of user information to enable advertisers to target very specific groups of people with ads. Dealers can use behavioural targeting in conjunction with location targeting to focus ads potential customers within a specific geographical area.
Dealers can also target current owners with parts or services ads. Facebook also allows you to confidentially upload your own CRM and hot leads list, and target the individuals via Facebook and Instagram through their phone number or email address.
SA active YouTube’s users grew 15% in 2016 representing tens of millions daily video views. Youtube is not only a powerful ‘In-Market’ advertising opportunity for motor dealerships but there is a growing realisation that video info-clips sell cars. Dealer-created videos can be engaging, selling both the car and the reputation of the dealership.
“More than half of all car shoppers watch
at least a half-hour of video clips during
the buying process. One in four
watches an hour or more”
Source: 2015 Google/TNS Auto Shopper Study (Global)
YouTube advertising is through TrueView - a set of tightly targeted pay-per-view advertising options. Your video can feature in the keyword search results, in the supporting display bar or as the ad featured before a video clip. These are commonly called In-Search, In-Stream and In-Display.
Whilst the smaller platform, South Africa’s Twitterati are very loyal. Twitter argue that their cost per contact is the lowest and that globally their conversion percentage rate is higher than Facebook. Perhaps Twitter’s biggest strength is the fact that it is virtually 100% mobile based. They offer the opportunity to promote a tweet, a trend or an account. Unfortunately it must be argued that these are best suited to expanding an existing core Twitter followship.
“Today's customers aren't visiting 10
dealerships to compare cars and prices.
They're making their decisions online,
in their own time.”
Internationally, up to 70% of customers walk into a dealership and buy exactly what they intended. To win the digital revolution and close more sales, you have to target customers while they're searching – not after they've made up their minds. Social media will continue to grow exponentially in the marketing arsenal of successful car dealerships.
About the Author:
Alan Golden is the CEO of the digital
marketing solutions agency AfricaAnalytics
www.AfricaAnalytics.co.za
alan@AfricaAnalytics.co.za
