Geotargeting allows automotive companies to reach highly specific audiences based on their geographic location. How can you take advantage of these strategies?

Too many messages get lost in the sauce and don’t include specific, personalized information and messages that will appeal to some unique shoppers. When a message feels like it’s actually targeted to you as an individual, it’s more likely to grab your attention, this means much more than simply adding your name to the message. Geotargeting strategies can be used to allow automotive ads to target specific segments of the market, maximizing relevance and impact.

How can your team utilize geotargeting strategies in your automotive ads?

Focus on the local audience

Your car dealership is a physical standing location that doesn’t move. That means your greatest opportunity for success is to appeal to the local audience. This means showing ads for vehicles that handle snow in colder climates and displaying convertibles in warmer areas. Understanding the desires of your local community and what they drive will help make your marketing efforts much more successful than bland and broad ads.

Notifications utilizing geo-fencing

Let’s face it: our cell phones, computers, and vehicles know where we are at all times. Unless you don’t have an electronic device in your possession, the internet knows where you are located. One of your geotargeting strategies can be to set up geo-fencing notifications that send ads to online users once they cross virtual boundaries. This allows you to advertise services and products to anyone visiting your local area. This can help bring customers to your service department for an oil change, or it might work to entice a new resident to buy their next car from your dealership.

Geographic social media campaigns

Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads can be set up to target specific regions. This can be extremely useful when you want to focus on the local community or a small region surrounding your dealership. Your geographic social media campaign can focus on locations that your community is familiar with, using terms they associate with your area. This is a great way to show that your dealership is part of the community and not just another big business that doesn’t care.

Personalized email campaigns

Your email list is a treasure trove and a collection of potential customers who might be ready to buy a new vehicle or come to your service department for their maintenance needs. Using online forms to categorize each customer, you can design and send personalized emails that feel like they are focused on the customers and their needs. This could be service reminders, offers on vehicles they have test-drove at your dealership, or invitations to attend community support events being held at the dealership.

Rewards based on location

While utilizing geotargeting strategies to focus on the local area, you can offer rewards to some of your local customers for helping your team increase foot traffic into the dealership. This could be a free service visit for an oil change with a referral, a monetary gift if the referred customer purchases a vehicle, or entry into a drawing for a reward. People love free stuff and if you make it easy for them to receive these rewards you’ll have an audience that’s willing to help drive traffic to your doorstep.

Personalize your content

Part of your local focus should be to create local content that many people in your community can utilize, understand, and enjoy. Your dealership blog can be filled with content that discusses the pain points of drivers in your area. This could be anything from a troublesome intersection in town to the best ways to maintain their vehicle. You can include restaurant reviews or some special finds at local stores. As long as the content is localized, it will be useful and can be part of your geotargeting strategies.

What tools aid your geotargeting efforts?

The tools utilized can have a major impact on how well your team targets the local community. This means you need to focus on the right tools and how they work to help build your strategies for local success. Ten of the best tools for geotargeting strategies are:

• Google Ads
• Facebook Ads
• Scaleo
• Bing Ads
• Foursquare
• Geotargetly
• AdSquare
• Thinknear
• PlaceIQ
• Taboola

If your dealership marketing team utilizes these tools and geotargeting strategies you will see an increase in local foot traffic to your door as well as an increase in online engagement. The next challenge it to stay consistent with your strategies to continue to bring people in the door.