Fixed Ops Journal - October 2020 - F26

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

Dealership sees recovery role
in targeted social media marketing

he service slowdown caused by the
pandemic hit Woody Buick-GMC
in Naperville, Ill., hard, says General
Manager Jerry Roberts.
Repair order counts were down about 35
percent, he says. "We had to go out and attract
more business to keep people employed."
The dealership's service marketing budget is
still modest, but it grew by 70 percent after the
pandemic began.
As part of those efforts, Roberts says the
dealership is now spending $2,500 a month
on highly targeted social media and SEO efforts. It also spent time and money setting up
better Web landing pages to capture leads
when customers click through the dealership's website.
Instead of blanket spending on Google ads,
the dealership now uses digital marketing
company Sincro's tools to micro-target social
media audiences defined by its customer lists.

That includes existing relationships but also
informs "lookalike audiences" that are demographically similar but further outside the
store's geographic area.
"The move to social yielded a much better
ROI," Roberts says.
The dealership has seen two distinct improvements he traces to the new approach,
though he cautions that COVID-19 has driven
some customer spending regardless of advertising. "Customer pay and warranty used to be
a 50/50 split; now it's more like 65/35," he says.
"Conquest, or visiting owner rate, is also up 20
percent from last year."
The dealership is planning to do more engaging video ads later this year but has focused
on simple service reminders and offers. Once
customers click through, they're often taken
directly to a landing page for scheduling.
"We're actually getting a better response
that way than picking up the phone in the

Woody Buick-GMC set up better landing
pages to capture leads on its website.

BDC and calling our existing customers," Roberts says.
Repair orders are still down and service
gross profit is relatively flat year-over-year, he
says. But considering the huge hit of March
and April, he expects improvement.
Woody Buick-GMC pays Sincro about
$1,500 a month plus a percentage of the ad
spend. Sincro says dealership fees vary because of automaker relationships. The fees also cover the retail-side marketing the dealership does with the company.
-Alex Kwanten

FIXED IN TIME

Early
1940s
Three women repair an axle at
Newport News Automobile
Exchange, a Chevrolet dealership
in Virginia. During World War II,
women took over work typically
done by men who were serving in
the armed forces. Before the war,
the women pictured were a
telephone operator, a homemaker
and a department store clerk.
Photo courtesy of the Detroit Public Library's
National Automotive History Collection

 We encourage you to submit
photos for Fixed In Time. Send
images to foj@autonews.com.

PAGE 26

OCTOBER 2020

Fixed Ops Journal - October 2020

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