How often do you use a search engine? If you’re like most people, then chances are it will be at least once a day. In fact, popular search engine Google receives an incredible average of 40,000 searches every single second – that’s 1.2 trillion searches every year¹!

Digital advertising isn’t quite as simple as it used to be. In order to establish an effective digital marketing campaign, you’ve got to know a little bit about the various factors that affect how your ad will fare amongst your competitors. Factors such as ad rank and cost-per-click are closely intertwined. To remain competitive online, you’ll need a deeper understanding of how they interact.

2020 is here and with that comes the typical, bold claims of what marketing trends and tech “deserve your attention” this year. But, let’s be realistic. There are many new, and exciting developments in the world of marketing that simply can’t be boiled down to one trend or a single buzzword.

What is a CRM or DMS?
A CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is software that collects and manages data associated with your customers. For auto dealers, this refers to a DMS or Dealership Management System. Your DMS is more than just digital storage for your customers’ contact information. It contains a wealth of data that can be used to create hyper-relevant, personalized, and targeted content.

Paid Search ads are basically sophisticated text ads that are triggered based on a user’s search query. While traditional Paid Search does not enlist flashy images, gifs, video, or audio to help grab viewers’ attention, there are ad extensions. With the help of Google, ad extensions play a key role in capturing attention and driving performance.

Look around your dealership. What are your customers doing? Presumably, the majority of them are glued to their phones – checking social media, browsing the internet, or reading the news. Some may even be sending out a quick text or ending a call while still in the service drive.

As a matter of fact, 53% of the customers at your dealership are comparing prices for vehicles at other dealerships, and 40% are finding prices for your vehicles on their smartphones¹. Not to mention, 25% of all automotive searches are parts, service, and maintenance related². What does this mean? It means dealers need a strong mobile and digital strategy to show up for parts, service, and new car searches.

Digital ads are everywhere, but how often do we engage with them? Figuring out how to increase digital ad engagement is the key to generating qualified leads without wasting money on dead end clicks. While digital ad styles continue to change, here are five current ways to increase digital ad engagement:

A 2019 Marketing 'Look Back'

Global advertising spend is expected to exceed half a trillion dollars for the fourth year in a row, and American brands are once again fueling that growth. The main difference this year is that U.S. companies are expected to spend more on digital advertising than traditional media, with digital predicted to account for 54.2% of total advertising.

What's 'wrong' with the Paid Search example below? Hint: compare the search query "chevrolet silverado tires" with the search results.