I’m excited to be writing about social media advertising and engagement. PCG and Google Wildfire have joined forces to give dealers a new social media tool called PCG Social Fire.
As I have been digging into the strengths of the Google Wildfire platform, it is apparent to me why so many social media campaigns are failing. The reason may surprise you: poor landing page “experience” for mobile device users.
Regardless of how you decide to engage with consumers using social media, the clicks that follow links to your blog posts or dealer website pages must have a rewarding experience that is device independent.
The harsh reality is that most of the articles, stories, and offers placed on dealership website pages are not available on the dealer’s mobile website.
Lease Pull-Ahead Programs
For example, you decide to do a Lease Pull Ahead program for your Honda store. You create a nice landing page on your main website that has the offer details, a promotional video, and a lead form. You want to attract local Honda owners, regardless if they purchased their vehicle from you. You can promote the campaign via Adwords and social media but you are looking to get more traction. You need a new strategy!
You decide to create a Facebook sponsored story and promote it using targeted Polk data. You promote the post to Honda owners with vehicles that are 2 years old and live with 25 miles of your dealership. You include a graphic, a short 90 character description, and a link to your website landing page.
The offer strategy is sound except for one thing; your mobile website does not have that landing page. Mobile facebook users can’t get to that landing page. They are slammed into the home page of the mobile website that has no mention of the Pull-Ahead program. Is that a great conversion experience?
Now to be fair, website platform providers are working to create adaptive or responsive website designs. Today however, the majority of dealers are presenting a disappointing mobile experience with social media engagement that has offsite links to dealer generated content.
The second issue is that dealer generated content does not offer choices that allows the consumer to convert into a lead. That is the art of providing compelling content and the option for further engagement, without coming off as a big sales pitch.
Enter Google Wildfire
Dealers who understand this problem have resorted to creating WordPress websites using a responsive theme. This strategy works well but it adds another layer of website maintenance to your marketing efforts. In reality, only a small percentage of dealers have the staff or patience to create their own response microsites.
The beauty of the Google Wildfire platform is its ability to create unlimited responsive landing pages that can be used across all social media channels to engage consumers. So, your links that you use on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, or Pinterest can go to great landing pages with your custom content. In effect, Wildfire allows the greatest freedom of expression for photos, stories, videos, promotions, or lead generation ideas all with details analytics.
These landing pages, called microsites by Google Wildfire, can contain typical website elements as well as lead capture forms. The landing pages and how consumers interact with these pages, are all tracked in an advanced social media analytics suite. Dealers have been longing for social media ROI and analytics. We are now very excited to be able to offer this level of tracking and data for our customers.
Other strength offered by the Wildfire platform is integration with digital advertising remarketing. It is now easy to connect consumers who engage your social media content with retargeting campaigns. This is a big step forward in connecting social media engagement and digital marketing.
It’s Time To Step Up Your Social Strategy
So, if you are looking to step up your social media strategy with real analytics and engagement tools, you need to check out power of PCG Social Fire, built on Google Wildfire. We are also using the new enhanced data from Polk, to create amazing targeted marketing campaigns for dealers. Polk has matched Facebook users with the cars that they own!!
The combination of Wildfire technology and targeted Polk Data, changes the playing field for social media advertising. I’m very excited with the laser targeting PCG can offer dealers for new car sales, used car sales, and service marketing using Polk data and the conversion pages offered by Wildfire. It is a marriage made in heaven.
Dealers looking to get into the PCG Social Fire pilot with the Google Wildfire technology, can join on July 1st. The June calendar is fullly subscribed so if you are interested in getting started in July, reach out to me immediately.
About the Author
Brian Pasch is the founder of PCG companies. PCG provides customized marketing and training solutions for businesses that are committed to dominate their local market.