Internet search engines, once a foreign idea, are integral to the daily lives of an increasing number of people the United States. For the consumer, they help manage the massive amounts of information available online and for business owners, they provide a measurable medium to target online consumers. When utilizing search engines, consumers rely not only on the search results displayed but also the sponsored links that surround the organic results. Generally, these ads are directly related to the search performed and can be a more effective means for the consumer to find what they are looking for.
For the business owner, these ads are an opportunity to supplement their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy with Search Engine Marketing (SEM)/paid search advertising. Whereas SEO includes a multitude of factors and page ranking isn’t guaranteed, with paid placement, the message and links are placed based on a bidding system and it affords the business owner more control and the ability to be more granular in their targeting.
When done properly, paid placement ads deliver an active consumer directly to the product or information that they are inquiring about rather than to a generic home page. This “deep‐linking” saves the consumer time and increases the opportunity for the business owner to convert them into a paying customer.
This paper examines which companies are adept at delivering not only quantity but also quality of pay‐per‐click ads around searches for used vehicles in the U.S. We examined ads that were displayed when looking for the top 10 used cars in 10 markets. A total of 87 companies produced 992 ads of varying degrees of relationship to the searches.
To read the rest of the report, download the white paper HERE.
Filed under: Automotive, Market Research, Used Car Advertising , Paid Search Advertising, Research, Used Car Research
