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Do you measure up? We spend so much money on television, radio, coupons, and other broadcasting for our marketing campaigns that we don't have a ton of attribution for.

So how do we track these results? 

On this week's Hard Facts, Samantha is giving you a tip to better measure how your campaigns are performing. By using UTM codes and Google Analytics, you'll be able to decipher where your traffic is coming from and how your campaign is performing.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

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It’s time to start getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. So many times we avoid networking opportunities and meeting new people because it can lead to uncomfortable situations.

But, on this week’s Think Tank Tuesday, I give you 3 easy ways you can meet your new and potential customers. 

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

Website: http://www.ppadv.com

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Chalk this up as a win! YouTube TV has finally been released. It's something you may have heard about for a while, and now you can see it in action in California, New York, and Philly. But why is it so important for your dealership? Your YouTube ads will play on TV! 

Interesting, right?

Watch this episode of Hard Facts for more info.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

Website: http://www.ppadv.com

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So many times business owners focus on the conversion or lead factor of their analytics. While this provides some insight into how successful your marketing campaign in, there's one crucial piece that you should be looking at.

Watch this week's Think Tank Tuesday to figure out what you've been missing in your analytics.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

Website: http://www.ppadv.com

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In your marketing strategies, you should be working hard to tailor your message to specific audiences. Luckily, Google has a tool that can be used to help you. It allows us to show a certain piece of content to an audience if it meets a certain criteria. Learn more by watching this week's Hard Facts with Samantha!

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

Website: http://www.ppadv.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PotratzAdvert...

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Quick question -- do you think that advertising has changed in the last 5 years? 

On this week's Think Tank Tuesday, I talk about the path of a customer and how that can affect your marketing strategy. Watch it now and join the conversation.

Also, take a moment and register for Part 1 of our 3-part mini series by clicking here. You'll learn what needs to be changed in your marketing strategy to get more customers without increasing your budget.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

Website: http://www.ppadv.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PotratzAdvert...

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Potratz

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Great news! Pinterest is now testing search ads with keywords and shopping tools.

97% of Pinterest searches are not brand specific, so a lot of the keywords will have to be intuitive -- just like a Google search. This means that you can supply content to your customers based on their searches on Pinterest and not just Google.

On this week's Hard Facts, Samantha gives you creative pointers and other marketing tips to be aware of as this new technology rolls out to all businesses.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

Website: http://www.ppadv.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PotratzAdvert...

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Potratz

Instagram: @Potratz

So, let's talk about the future of dynamic Facebook ads. Be prepared to reach more than just the people who have previously engaged with your content. 

With these changes, you'll be able to get the attention of customers that have looked at similar products, but not YOUR products.

On this episode of Hard Facts, Samantha will reveal when this feature is being rolled out and how it will benefit your business.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

Website: http://www.ppadv.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PotratzAdvert...

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Potratz

Instagram: @Potratz

Not every dealership and buying experience is the same, so why should you settle for a homepage that is exactly like the rest? Having one that stands above the rest helps to ensure your name, brand, and business stand above the rest.

Reason number one: dealerships are everywhere. This means their websites are everywhere as well. You need to give customers something they will remember and bring them back to you when they are ready to purchase. If you are sticking with your run of the mill website provider because “it’s good enough” or because “it’s just a website”, then you’re missing out on leads and customers.

Create eye catching web panels with outstanding offers to drive customers to view your inventory. Doing more than only using web panels found on your brand manufacturer website helps create a sense of urgency for your customers. It will also make you memorable.

Many of our clients have opted to incorporate a video into the header of their homepage in addition to their web panels. I know what you’re thinking: it sounds kind of busy. Wrong. This gives you the opportunity to further showcase your inventory and your dealership.

Reason number two: what makes you stand above the rest? Why should customers buy from you instead of the guy down the road? Show your customers why you’re better and why they should only come to you.

Showcasing your inventory front and center will certainly propel you ahead of the crowd. Whether you do this by utilizing a featured inventory scrolling feed or by using a quick inventory search tool, implementing features that make browsing inventory easier and quicker for your customers creates a lasting memory for them.

You shouldn’t have to settle for a website that is exactly like the rest. A plain white background with blue letters, given to you by the company you essentially settled for isn’t going to give you a big enough push ahead of the rest. Why? Because this is all they offer any of their clients.  

 We understand you have to make sure your brand is showcased front and center, but that doesn’t mean you should blend in with the same manufacturer dealership down the road. Your dealership identity is just as important.

These are only a few reasons from our list. If you feel like you’re missing out, we should talk. 

If you are active on Twitter, you might have already noticed the addition of a tiny lightning bolt icon up in the menu bar where you can find your mentions or direct messages. Last week, Twitter launched Moments, a new feature that makes it easier for users to stay up-to-date with what’s happening in the world.

Basically, Moments makes it so that you do not need to filter through personal tweets or follow individual news platforms in order to keep up with current events. Instead, by visiting the Moments tab, you are able to see articles, photos, and videos about the biggest news stories all in one place.

Of course, a new venture for Twitter also means a new way for advertisers to get noticed. Twitter will soon start testing for Promoted Moments, where a few lucky companies will have the opportunity to place ads within the Moments feature. While advertisers are normally stuck working with Twitter’s signature 140-character limit, Promoted Moments will allow them to build a complete campaign rather than just a sales blast here and there. It allows companies to be more creative and really set the tone for their brand.  

Over time, there is a chance Moments could expand to cover not only national and international news, but local news, as well. If that is the case, advertising would localize along with it. At that point, smaller companies would have the ability to place their ads amidst local news stories relevant to people within their target audiences.

So what does this mean for the future of advertising? Well, at this point, unless you are a multi-million dollar corporation, probably nothing. The companies with opportunities to take advantage of Promoted Moments are few and far between, and it is still too early to tell whether or not Moments will really take off. However, as is true with most social media platforms, things change over time. As of right now, with Moments in its preliminary stages, the only people with control over its success are the approximately 300 million people who use Twitter each month. 

To hear about our social media strategies and more, contact us today!

I sat down recently with one of our Digital Performance Managers, Kelly, to get an inside look an inside look at her daily life and best practices.

Kelly was asked what she feels as the most important aspects of her job, which she stated, “I think the most important part of my job is helping our clients. We play a role in generating leads for them. It's just as important to follow through and help them with their processes so they can close the deal. At the end of the day, leads won't do much if the dealership doesn't handle them correctly.” 

In order to properly help our clients Kelly and our other Digital Performance Managers have instilled best practices, which they follow on a daily basis. “The big picture of best practices for digital is to have an understanding of what's important for each platform and how to implement an appropriate strategy for each. What works on Facebook doesn't necessarily work for AdWords. It is also key to differentiate clients. Much like the different platforms, what works for one may not work for another. Attention to detail is also critical. There are so many moving pieces in what we do and it's critical to not lost track of any of them.”

During their day they are faced with challenges, highs and lows, as well as misconceptions. Kelly let me know that the biggest high for her is “Making conversions and seeing successes. It's gratifying to notice a trend and capitalize on it to get more conversions. Seeing a strategy pay off is a good feeling. At the same time, seeing a successful campaign that a client wants to pull the plug on is a bit of a low.” Although it is a low for us, we move forward with what the customer wants, giving our suggestions and feedback along the way. Retargeting is great for our clients and us, we understand that it can be slightly creepy for someone who is shopping online and then they see an ad on their Facebook page for the car they were just looking at. It isn’t meant to feel like Big Brother watching you, simply a way to stay in the forefront to keep from being forgotten about. Customers are retargeted, or followed, so that the chance of making a conversion becomes higher.

The next time you are shopping online, then later see ads following you around the Internet, keep Kelly in mind and all the hard work she and her team members put into building these campaigns.If you would like to hear more about the campaigns Kelly puts into place, contact us today!

          My generation was fortunate to grow up during an era of emerging technologies and we were able to experiment with them as they came to the surface. The most prominent of these technologies, without a shadow of a doubt, would be computers and the Internet.

            While growing up and advancing through school, most of what I learned came from textbooks. Then, we were given computers and the Internet, which turned into a phenomenon of ‘how did I live without this?’ It was an explosion of technology; people across the globe had access to just about any information. It was limitless what we could do, and what did I want to do? I wanted to make light sabers for the short films I created with my friends.

            Thanks to the Internet, after a not so short period of time, I was able to teach myself Adobe After Effects and then turn that knowledge into fun features for my short films. They featured a lot more lasers, explosions and light sabers. Every good film needs explosions, right? Kind of, depending on the look and effect of the explosion it could very well be pointless. I was not alone in my aspirations and being self-taught with Adobe After Effects. People the world over were doing the same as me, teaching themselves and seeing what came of it. This became noticeable when YouTube became so prominent. However, no matter how much experience you had with the program, the effects almost always felt amateur and flat. I don’t want to use the word “boring”, it’s such a terrible word, plus how can an explosion be boring? The fact of the matter is, some of the effects and animations kind of were.

            The reason the effects were flat, fake looking, and boring was because everyone had learned After Effects the same as I had. We were animating things without knowing the proper way. Adobe had unintentionally bred an army of animators with no background on animation. Behind a computer screen, you think to yourself I want an object to move from point A to B within a 1-second timespan. The computer will do as it is told and move the object from A to B in that 1-second and that’s it. In life, things do not simply move from one point to another, they flow, wiggle, bounce, jump, run and creep. In life, there is expression and emotion in movement. This is the first thing many cartoon animators learn while in animation school. However, when you are self-taught, you don’t have someone to tell you these things and correct your errors. Humans relate to emotions and sense it in so many ways. Seeing someone walk slowly, shoulders slumped and their head lowered you would get the sense that they’re sad or upset. While in the inverse, if you see someone strolling upright with their head held high, you will get the sense of their confidence or happiness.

            We are still a ways away from being able to tell a computer to create exactly what we’re looking for with our animations. For now, I continue to look every day for new ways to add life to my animations. I look for ways to add expression, exaggeration to every movement, to make something as simple as moving from one point to another relatable and attractive to the eye. It is my goal everyday to put life into my work, so my question to you is; what can you do to add life to your work?

If you would to like to hear more Best Practices from our Design Team, contact us today!

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me, right? Wrong. Weak, or, wimpy words are an epidemic that needs to be put to rest.

            Respect is something we all want to gain within our every day lives and within our professional lives. Eliminating any aspect that could take away from that is essential. One of the biggest things we think of in regards to this are wimpy words. Words such as “just” can really change the feel and importance of what you are trying to say. Look as these two examples: “I am calling you in regards to the email I sent you last night, have you read it yet?” or “I am calling you in regards to the email I sent you last night. I was just wondering if you read it?” Which has a firmer feel to it? Adding the word ‘just’ gives it a softer feel, giving a sense of your vulnerability. You want to eliminate any opportunity for someone to feel as though they can control you or how the conversation should go. Once this happens you can potentially lose control of the situation. Which can be hard to get control of again.

            Another wimpy word would be “try”. This gives the impression that you do not feel it can be accomplished, or that you do not have much faith in it or even yourself. “I will try to reach out to them and try to have an answer for you.” Instead, phrase is this way “I will reach out to them, then, I will be in touch with you as soon as I have an answer.” Phrasing it the second way gives a stronger sense of presence and conviction.

            When you have to send an email, or even speak in front of a group of people, have a coworker spot check your work. Doing it yourself does not always work. You can read the same paragraph three times and miss the same mistake each time. This happens because you know what you mean and what it should say. An outsider, however, does not. They can also catch any grammatical errors you may have missed as well.

            Eliminating wimpy or weak words is especially important if you are considered to be ‘client facing’. Having this position can sometimes put you between a rock and a hard place. Standing your ground, using a strong vocabulary and presence, will gain more respect from coworkers and your clients. Stop the excuses, believe in yourself, and let it show in everything you do.

            If this is something you found to be useful, or interesting, contact us today so that we can share more of our ideas!

We sat down recently with our Social Media Manager, Tori, to find out exactly how she spends her day. Does she spend it on her phone surfing Instagram and Pinterest? Or, is she busy helping to build a brand, researching trends and changes?

            When asked what she finds to be a best practice and procedure for her job she informed us that ensuring the content she is pushing accurately represents our brand. “You need to do your research ensuring you’re posting viable information your clients or fans will actually care about. You also need to check the hashtags you’re using before using them. Too many brands have made the mistake of incorporating a trending topic into their message without first taking a moment to see what the trending topic is. This can potentially become disastrous.”

            She also touched on the importance of staying current with new social platforms, but knowing which is best for business, what type of content you should put out there and what to do with comments. “You don’t want to jump into something without knowing how, or if, it will benefit your brand or business. You don’t need to be on every social network. You need to be spending time on the networks the work best for you. Just because it’s available doesn’t mean it’s right for your brand. We follow the 80/20 rule. The social web is about educating, informing, entertaining first and selling second. You have to engage with your audience before trying to sell something. 80% of your updates should be about engagement and the other 20% can be posts about selling. As far as comments are concerned, no one will believe if you only have 5 star reviews. Either, you’re faking it or deleting negative feedback. Turn the negative into a learning and growing experience. Don’t try to bury it, respond to it. Offer help and find a solution to the issue.”

            Tori is often faced with questions of ‘what do you do all day? Do you just sit on your Facebook account or Twitter?’ She took the time to clear up a few misconceptions. “The biggest misconception of my job is that I sit all day and play on Facebook and Twitter. I’d really like to clear this up, I don’t. Both of these platforms have separate accounts that house all your advertising so there’s days where I don’t spend a single second on any of my personal accounts. Like other jobs, mine has highs and lows. I’m given the ability to think outside the box and think of some really creative and fun campaigns to help increase engagement and customer retention. The lows? When a social network is down, and panic ensues.”

            This is just a glimmer of what she faces when she walks through the door each morning. Tori has many more tricks and tips up her sleeve that she constantly brings to the table.

            If you found this to be interesting and useful, contact us today so that we can help you with your digital and social needs! 

We as a society tend to focus on instant satisfaction and accomplishing your goals, or, workflow as quickly as possible. This becomes so much of our focus that we often don’t realize that what we are trying to optimize really only saves us milliseconds of our day. This holds true for many job roles, including Website Developer and Account Manager.

A Website Developer, for example, is able to run a series of tests while working on another set of coding. Which, in theory, should save them time and finish the project faster. However, if the search they are doing is for anything that says “!=false”, but, because they are too focused on saving time they forget that PHP could consider “0” a false and should have done “!==false”. This seemingly small mistake renders the search, essentially, pointless. Once they find this mistake has been made, they need to fix their search and run it again. This does not really shave off much time from their task list. Instead of managing their time in this fashion, sometimes it is easier to finish all the “small” tasks on their list at the start of their day and save the big project for later on, knowing it will take them more time.

Account Managers are often faced with questions and concerns from their clients, often times, on a daily basis. It will save you, and the client, more time if you respond to them as soon as you have an answer. Scheduling an email response for an hour or more may seem like the best idea. You have your response written, ready to go, now you are moving on to other tasks. Why not respond as soon as you have the answer for them? It may not feel urgent to you, but to them it is. A quicker response time gives the sense of urgency, importance and responsibility. You are my client; I value you and your concerns and will give you the time you require. This also allows ample time for any follow up questions they may have for you.

In short, pick and choose opportune tasks and times of your day to optimize. Can an hour-long meeting be shortened with time management skills? Perhaps instilling a strict time schedule can ensure the meeting stays on track. Is a meeting necessary or would a group email do just as well? To learn about these strategies and more, contact us today!

Many of us while watching a video online experience a form of tunnel vision waiting for the “skip” button to appear.  As advertisers, we have approximately 5 seconds to grab someone’s attention. So, how do we do it?

First things first, understand and accept that almost no one wants to watch your ad. They’re on the site for a video, not a mini commercial. You need to create engaging content that will hold the viewer’s attention. Leave out how long you’ve been in business, while that’s great to know, it is not suited for pre-roll.

Another aspect that you need to understand is that pre-roll is not the same as a commercial. Commercials are much longer and you are able to squeeze in a lot of engaging information about your sales event. It is never best practice to run your commercial as a pre-roll video. By doing so, you have lost the viewer, and they have forgotten all about you. You need to convey your product in a way that will grab them and get them to come to you. Most people become engaged when you have an enticing message showing “what’s in it for them”. Remember, you need them; they can shop and buy anywhere. How will it benefit me to come to you?

Once you are able to grab their attention and they visit your website, make sure your message is consistent. Everything about your content needs to match, it may seem like a small detail, but it is extremely important. Treat it like storytelling; if you were to jump from the beginning to the end, leaving out the middle, you are likely to cause confusion.

In short, understand what it is you are trying to do and trying to accomplish. You want the click to your website, the call to your dealership, a customer visiting, and, purchasing from your dealership. For more tips and strategies, please, contact us today, we would love to continue the conversation with you!

Currently, the automotive industry is at an all time high for vehicles sold.  Yet, as the old saying goes, what goes up must come down.  Our team is confident not only in ourselves, but our clients as well. We are watching the stock market closely in anticipation of a curveball headed our way.

In 2008 the Stock Market and economy took a large hit, which, was felt across the states. It was also, in relative terms, a quick hit. The fall took place over the course of 18 months, and, dropped more than 50%. As opposed to the hit during The Great Depression, which took about three years and dropped almost 90%.*

The Stock Market has been showing signs of wavering the past couple of weeks, which has business owners and employees on edge, for the most part. We are always watching the market, not only for our business, but for our clients as well. By doing so we are able to better strategize; what is working well and what needs improving. If a client is in a market proven to do well selling Hybrid vehicles, we would not need to focus as much on that part of their inventory, instead we would put more focus on other parts of their inventory.

With this in mind we have more than a few tricks up our sleeves to help you through any situation we may find ourselves in. If this is not something your provider is thinking about, contact us today so that we may strategize with you!

No doubt you have heard the saying “happy wife, happy life”, right? Of course, I think we all have. The same concept holds true for your customers. We live in an age where word of mouth, reviews, and referrals can make or break a company. When you make a customer happy, your chances of them coming back time and again will increase. Which, in turn, will cause them to recommend you to their friends and family.

Excellent customer service is a big part of keeping a customer coming back in the future. Unfortunately many people brush it off when the staff gives subpar service, or, butts heads with a customer. Eventually, the staff forgets the incident happened. We need to remember; the likelihood of your client forgetting is slim to none. The likelihood of them turning to social media to complain or leaving a bad review is extremely likely. Once that happens there’s no way of knowing the exact number of people the negative comments reach. Of course, there’s also word of mouth, and news travels fast.

That being said, when your business receives positive feedback in any form, it becomes more likely that a person will take the positive review into consideration. Take a moment and think about it, you are in the market for a new TV and read reviews on two different models. Comparable in price, one has almost all positive reviews, the other, not so much. Which one will you spend money on?

When you fuel your retention it will reveal your expertise. Your brand needs to be viewed as an invaluable resource, and, the very best option for customers. They are looking for the best option for their hard earned dollar. Meaning, you offer the highest quality product, customer service, support and all around value. This also means making yourself viewed as a resource for customers. If you share valuable information on social media sites, post regularly on a blog, or utilize an FAQ page this all helps raise your SEO value; putting you ahead of the competition!

Gaining new customers is always fantastic, but, let’s remember how rewarding it feels knowing someone has been coming to you for years. The statement “I’d never shop anywhere else!” is something your business earned and feels very rewarding.

If you found this to be of use, contact us today so that we can continue the conversation! Let’s build a strategy for your business and retaining customers!

Email Marketing is an important strategy, which when performed properly and effectively, it will set you above the rest of the competition. Our team has outlined their Best Practices, which formulate and structure our Email Marketing.

BUILD ACCURATE & TARGETED LISTS

This is the most important rule when sending emails for any occasion. Like any other marketing avenue, targeting is the key to increasing efficiency and reducing waste. Start by segmenting your lists. If you send sales and service email blasts, at the very least, you need two separate lists. Optimistically, you should have a list for both new and used sales prospects. Then you can decide if you would like to narrow that list down even further. For service leads, you should have a list of regulars, and a list of prospects. You may also want to segment based on in-market vs. out of market prospects for the more advanced campaigns.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

When it comes to sending your emails at a given time of day or day of the week. Generally, for automotive marketing, you will want to aim for an email to go out between Tuesday and Thursday before lunch. Unfortunately, every market is different and timing is difficult to measure without past data. What you will want to do is run some tests. Send emails at different time intervals throughout a given week/month to see what your customers respond best to. Then when you have the results from your tests, you’ll be able to determine what days your customers engage most with your emails. 

USE BOTH GRAPHIC/VIDEO & TEXT BASED EMAILS

Text based emails give more of a personal touch, and can appear more urgent than graphic/video based emails depending on the subject matter. You can expect to see more email responses as well as phone calls with text-based emails. However, a well-designed graphic/video based email can trigger immediate clicks through to the site if it is visually pleasing, customers will typically click on a graphic/video email, rather than calling or replying via email. 

WITHOUT A GOOD SUBJECT LINE, YOUR EMAIL IS USELESS

That’s right, no amount of design skills or clever wording will matter if you don’t get the customer to open your email. Avoid generic subject lines, as these will not stand out and will be lost amongst the hundreds of other emails a customer will receive in just one week. Use personalization when appropriate, first names for example, can draw a customer’s attention. Strong subject lines are those that also demonstrate urgency. For example, “You need to see this,” might spark curiosity for the customer. Experiment with different subject lines by splitting your lists and A/B testing the results.

EMAIL IS ALWAYS CHANGING

No single rule of thumb will increase email effectiveness. You may find that subject lines or creative you’ve used in the past just don’t seem to work anymore. To be truly effective you will need to constantly evaluate your results, determine what works best and what doesn’t in your market area.

If our Best Practices, or, Marketing Strategies are of interest, please contact us today!

          Google has said they are testing their self-driving car prototype this summer on the streets of California. Are we, as humans, ready to give up control of driving ourselves?

            If you were to visit Google’s page endorsing their self-driving prototype you will be greeted with some staggering statistics. The likes of which include “94% of accidents in the U.S. involve human error.” Their claim is that if building a car loaded with sensors, lasers, and cameras to detect movement in all direction it will greatly reduce the possibility of an accident. The prototype also has a rounded shape, which, will help maximize the sensor’s field of view.

            I will agree with the fact that these cars will give independence to those who normally would not be able to drive themselves. Even business professionals who spend much of their time on the road, it will allow them to travel and work at the same time. These cars will allow the passenger to program their desired destination. Which would allow the car to bring a friend home, then, return back to you without anyone riding inside. What about those of us who remain independent and want to feel the rumble of an engine, not the soft hum of a battery?

            For years now cars such as the Mustang, Camaro, and Subaru WRX have garnered a following of loyal fans, which created a cult affect. Their owners are very proud owners, some adorning their wardrobe with hats or shirts, which proudly display the logo. They want you to know; I’m a fan, this is my car, I’m a proud owner. Also meaning, I love driving this car. While there are perks for the self-driving car, I don’t feel as if it will eliminate the vehicles we operate, at least, not for a long while.

            What does this mean for us? Once the self-driving cars are released for public purchase, it means coming up with new and unique strategies for advertising and pushing your product.

If you are interested in discussing this, or, any form of advertising please contact us today!