You’re a franchise dealer.

A General Manager. 

A Dealer Principal.

…Maybe you run a Parts or Service Center.

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You advertise on social — probably, hopefully — at least on Facebook and Instagram, right?

Maybe you get SOME results from your social ads — maybe not. You might you feel social is a necessary — but more like a necessary evil. Something about the way “online marketing” vendors present themselves and their results has always smelt funny to you — a whiff of SCAM — the quality of snake oil. 

Why is it when you ask your vendors — your digital marketing agencies, platforms, specialists, etc — straightforward questions like

What do our ads look like?

or Who sees them?

or How often?

Suddenly, no one can talk straight.

You get an avalanche of numbers, an earthquake of acronyms. You’re looking for answers, and instead you get buried.

• If you’re getting it, click here to call me, Gerald Lombardo, direct, or text me: (561) 632-7101

  • I’ll talk and we’ll get into the straightforward, good stuff — no million questions with zero answers. Open for any GM, owner, or top-level franchise dealership decision-maker — anyone ready to get real about social ads.

    • Getting real means wanting the power of great advertising — having the best, most memorable, most talked about, engaged with and persuasive billboard lining the busiest Super-highway in history.

      • Social media

        • Social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc) is the commuter route that almost every person in your ASA drives — and they do it every day — most of them multiple times a day.

          • Done right — it’s an advertiser’s paradise, the ultimate real estate in a consumers mind.

            • Done wrong, social advertising done wrong means you’re nothing — your dealership isn’t a billboard, it’s a scraggly pine tree — like on Florida ‘95 — sure the pine tree is “on the social SuperHighway” — but it’s nothing, it’s not seen, not really, it’s ignored, it’s part of the background…No wonder.

[IMAGE OF BILLBOARD vs Pine tree]

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Note, note, we do occasionally, also work with high-end + high-spend used car owners, but only sometimes. We’re not snobs, but we can’t LIMP into things. For real success — business changing success that speaks in real market share growth, only the ambitious need apply — others, AUT0MiZE is just not your agency.

Without clarity — uncommonly common sense clarity — you, the dealer, the GM, the Service Manager, can not — not intelligently — know where to take one ad dollar, and where to put one.

Interest-Based Social Advertising. It’s an AUT0MiZE invention, a not-so-new kind of advertising.

Let’s talk if you’re a dealer looking for something clear — advertising that makes sense — because the best advertising always makes sense — it requires context, sure — but it makes sense.

This is what Interest-Based Advertising is all about.

The foundation of what we’ve coined as “Interest-based advertising” is this: Advertising works best when it appeals to things people are ALREADY interested in.

And here’s the beauty of it: Social platforms like Meta (Facebook + Instagram) are specifically BUILT for this type of advertising — YET, there are literally ZERO ad agencies in the auto space who take advantage of this fact.

Why? Because the creative and technical powers necessary to create and deliver this type of advertising is elite/

Here’s an example:

You’re a Honda dealer in the Northeast…There is an emerging youth market in your ASA. But these young people are FAR from excited about your product line up.

They think “Honda” and nothing happens — no emotion, no connection to the brand.

So how do you make Hondas — YOUR Hondas interesting to potential car buyers between 22 and 30?

TAP INTO THEIR INTERESTS — One of their interest are super-heroes. This agree group was RAISED on Marvel movies. Batman, Ironman, the Avengers, you name it.

The first thing we need to do is VERIFY that, yes, indeed there are young people in your ASA who are using Facebook and Instagram who we can specifically aim our ads ad.

This is Interest-based targeting.

Yes - that is nearly 100,000 people in one of our clients’ specific ASA’s who are interested in not JUST comic books but also “lateral” interests.

*Note, that thinking in terms “lateral” interests is one of our secrets at AUT0MiZE — you have to be a client to look under the hood here…The point though, is that we KNOW that this group of people will find THE RIGHT comic-superhero-style advertising particularly appealing.

And so begins our Creative process…This is where we consider the perfect visuals, the perfect message, and the perfect delivery for this particular audience.

And what we end up with is this:

How to Test Your Cu'rrent Online Marketing Agency

What does most “online marketing” agencies do?

Nothing close to this.

Most — ALL online agencies that I’ve encountered outside of AUT0MiZE — approach advertising in the most obvious, least effective way.

How do they make THEIR new car ads? They talk about “low, low prices” they talk about “the best warranties” they scream the same tired, boring messages out there and expect extraordinary results.

If you are saying the EXACT same things in your ads as your competitors — if your ads look the same, sound the same, and target the same people — guess who wins? The dealership that spends more. If your advertising is generic, the only way to win is to spend, spend, spend.

Is your advertising is creative — your $1 in ad-spend becomes as powerful as your competitors’ $10.

How do you know if your ad agency is “generic”

Start here: Ask about “Audiences” as in “what type of people are seeing our ads?”

Do you like what you hear?

Okay, now put their technical-chops to the test…Try asking about “ad frequency”

Frequency — means how many times someone is seeing, hearing, our anyhow being presented with an ad.

Any great advertiser will know this number, or be able to quickly get it for you.

If they can’t, you’re dealing with either incompetence or a very scary frequency number that their purposefully avoiding showing you — either way, not good.

Here are some more pop-Quiz questions (failure to answer any one these, and answer well, should trigger major concern and, hopefully, a call to AUT0MiZE - you can call or text me, Gerald Lombardo, anytime (561) 632-7101.

• What online channels are my ads running on?

• What do my ads look like?

• Who is seeing my ads?

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR AGENCY POP QUIZ

“Creative” isn’t Fluff — it’s a Business Tool. But only when done right…

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Market Leaders

Operationally, the biggest auto groups all have their own way of doing things. What they have in common is advertising. They all advertise heavily.

Note, I didn’t say that they all advertise WELL — that’s a different story. But the fact is that even without the best skills, a huge budget can still make advertising work…It’s not feasible for the up-and-comers, that’s why using great creative becomes and essential business tool for helping David defeat Goliath — great advertising creative DRAWS PEOPLE in, it gets people’s attention so that your $1 ad dollar becomes as effective at persuasion as your bigger, spend-happy competitors’ $10.

And it’s even better than this — really great advertising — when real gold is struck and it’s the perfect message to the perfect audience at the perfect time — THIS winning combination can create campaigns that are 10, 20, even 100 better than “generic” alternatives.

Great creative — especially in the entertainment-driven world of social media advertising — is an essential business tool, a main way that advertising works.

And so what does Carol do? She’s about to buy — she doesn’t know one dealership from the next — how will she decide?

• She goes with the cheapest option.

• Or she’ll go with the most convenient option.

• Or some mix of the two.

But what if things were different.

What if there was one dealership — one she knew and had even engaged with on Facebook. Their advertising was memorable. It was tailored to the things she liked. It was relevant. It was cool…She may not KNOW this, but she remembers it — she remembers the engaging, Interest-Based Advertising and she associates it with your dealership.

Now, tell me, who would Carol rather buy from? A dealership — a business she knows, or some stranger?