Automotive News - October 16, 2017 - Supplement - S17

OCTOBER 16, 2017 | 17
C A R D I N A L E A U T O M O T I V E G R O U P, S E A S I D E , C A L I F.

ON-TARGET MARKETING
Dealership group closely tracks ad efforts on social media

Printed in Automotive News March 13, 2017
vbond@crain.com

ardinale Automotive Group is not
interested in playing social media
guessing games.
When the 19-store group invests
in digital campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, it's not throwing money around with
no idea if consumers are seeing the ads and
converting.
The stores take a granular approach that
enables them to attribute
the marketing dollars of
their digital campaigns to
floor traffic and sales.
Armed with customer
relationship management
data, the group uses tools
on those social networks
to build target audiences,
track who's taking action,
Gail: It's just
discipline, math and see what sites the
consumers come from,
how many appointments are booked from
campaigns and who shows up to make purchases.
This mentality is driven by a disciplined
approach to spending money in which simply covering costs isn't good enough. If
time and resources are spent, there must be
a return on investment, says CEO Erich
Gail.

Cardinale Automotive Group uses social media tools such as this page to build target audiences,
track who's taking action and see who actually shows up to make purchases.

Vince Bond Jr.

"You're starting to see more
happen now in the dealer
community because of the
evolution of [direct
response] on the Instagram
platform."
Trace Przybylowicz, Facebook's
auto lead for industry relations
and strategic growth

paign during the fourth quarter of 2016.
The stores reached 184,000 potential consumers with ads on Instagram. From there,
the group was able to see that 237 people
took direct actions, which could include a
phone call or an online chat.
Instagram campaign
Those 237 actions turned into 107
Cardinale Automotive, of SeaUsing
appointments that resulted in 66
side, Calif., has stores in Arizona,
customer relationship
consumers showing up in stores.
California and Nevada selling
management data to
In the most important stat, Gail
11 brands, including Acura,
track the success of
said 54 of those people bought
Audi, BMW, GMC, Hyundai
social media
vehicles. The campaign's investand Toyota.
campaigns
ment per unit sold was $132.
"Every single thing we do as a
dealer comes down to discipline
and math," Gail told Automotive
'Hope plan'
News during January's National AutoThis granularity is a reason why the
mobile Dealers Association convention in
group moved away from advertising in tradiNew Orleans, adding: "Remove excuses, retional outlets in 2010 or 2011. Gail said he
move emotions from it. It's the discipline to
doesn't want to drop cash on the "hope plan"
do it and the math that produces that rewhere he isn't sure if someone is seeing his
sult."
group's ads.
Gail illustrated the group's tracking preciHis company, Gail said, is all about one-tosion by touting a groupwide Instagram camone attribution.

Instagram "is an incremental piece to
what's happening on Facebook. It's an opportunity to extend your reach and showcase
your content and creative [output] in a different type of landscape," said Trace Przybylowicz, Facebook's auto lead for industry relations and strategic growth.
"You're starting to see more happen now
in the dealer community because of the evolution of [direct response] on the Instagram
platform."
Examples of direct response are buttons asking consumers to "shop now" or "learn more."
The evolving targeting capabilities on Facebook and Instagram over the years have given dealers more control over who sees their
ads.
Based on CRM data, Gail said his stores can
use Facebook's custom audience platform
that allows it to reach its active consumers on
the network.
The group can then separate those consumers based on age, location and models
they own.
The data can be used to retarget those individuals when they cross over to Instagram.
"We know you've had your XYZ automobile for three years, we know you're a sports
enthusiast, you like XYZ, it's probably time
we start doing some sort of pull-forward offer for you that appeals to what you currently own," Gail said. "We're going to deliver
you a message that's relevant for you, then
see if you're going to take an action on it. If
you do, and we find there are others like
you, then we will try the same thing with
them." a

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