[Case Study] Dealer Group Harvests First Digital Leads With 9 Clouds
Even in 2024, many car dealerships are still transitioning from traditional marketing methods — which can be less trackable and more expensive — to the more efficient and measurable world of digital marketing.
Jerry’s Auto Sales — a well-loved local dealership in southeastern South Dakota known for its friendly service and reliable vehicles — was no exception. To make this crucial shift, they knew they needed help from experts in digital marketing for the automotive industry.
The Challenge
Jerry’s Auto Sales faced a few key challenges:
- Limited Reach: Traditional marketing methods weren’t connecting with the growing number of online customers.
- Tracking Issues: Measuring the effectiveness of their traditional marketing campaigns was difficult.
- Increased Competition: Competitors who had already adopted digital marketing were gaining an edge.
For Tami Hage, marketing director for Jerry’s Automotive, the writing was on the wall.
“It took a long time to get to the point where we were comfortable moving toward the digital space,” said Hage. “We knew that people were shopping in a different way. When people are in these digital spaces — like Google and Facebook — how can we drive them to our website? That’s where 9 Clouds is incredibly helpful.”
The Strategy
By combining Jerry’s Auto Sales’ customer knowledge with 9 Clouds’ digital expertise, we created a custom strategy that merges traditional marketing with modern digital tactics. Here’s how we did it:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Making adjustments to help the website load faster and improving its structure and content helped the dealership’s website rank higher on search engines and get found by more potential customers.
- Meta Ads: Targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram reached specific customer groups and boosted engagement online.
- Google Ads Campaigns: pay-per-click campaigns on Google attracted users searching for vehicle or dealership-related keywords.
- Tracking and Analytics: Detailed dealership analytics measured how well each campaign performed, so optimizations could be made over time.
Meta (Facebook and Instagram) Ads
Jerry’s ran two Meta campaigns to reach in-market shoppers on Facebook and Instagram.
A top-of-the-funnel campaign (what we affectionately call a “TOFU campaign”) targeted in-market shoppers for both new and used vehicles. Then, a dynamic retargeting campaign retained the attention of the dealership’s website visitors, showing them the exact vehicles they previously viewed.
These campaigns worked together to bring new visitors to the site, and then retarget them over time to bring them back to the site.
Both of these campaigns used our Cumulus inventory software, which connects the dealership’s inventory feed and website browsing data to the dealer’s Meta ads.
Google Ads
Google Ads also played a significant role in the new strategy. These ads showed to targeted people actively searching for relevant car buying keywords on the search engine.
The dealership’s pay-per-click campaigns brought in numerous potential buyers searching for their next car. (More on that later.)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO was the backbone of the digital strategy, making sure Jerry’s Auto Sales popped up easily when people searched for cars online.
The website improvements boosted its search rankings and improved the user experience, which led to more people visiting the site and searching for vehicles to buy.
The Results
The shift to a blended marketing strategy made a big impact right away. The mix of SEO, Facebook ads, and Google Ads not only widened the dealership’s audience but also delivered tangible results beyond what we expected.
In just the first two months:
- Jerry’s Auto Sales saw 153 leads and 44 sales directly from their Meta ad campaigns. This quick success shows just how powerful targeted social media advertising can be.
- Google Ads brought 1,595 active users to Jerry’s website, where they registered 5,327 key events (formerly known as conversions) in Google Analytics 4. These key events included 914 vehicle detail page views, 67 trade evaluation requests, and eight phone calls.
- The Jerry’s Auto website saw an impressive 14.84% increase in website sessions from organic traffic sources. Both the quantity and quality of that traffic improved — with the number of key events from those visits up 6.47% compared to the previous two months.
Jerry’s Auto Sales’ journey into digital marketing has been a resounding success. By integrating digital into their marketing efforts, they significantly boosted their reach and sales in as few as two months — with the results continuing to make a difference to their bottom line.
These results underscore the importance of adapting to digital trends — highlighting the positive impact of a well-rounded marketing strategy.
“What we found the best about 9 Clouds is that they took the time to ask us the important questions. What do we want to improve? What do you want to spend? What do you want to see? 9 Clouds made us feel very confident in our decision. They’re showing results and hard proof that it’s working.”
Tami Hage, Marketing Director, Jerry’s Automotive
Are You Ready to Rock Online?
Research, strategic targeting and consistency helped these digital ads generate leads and sales for the dealership — and optimizations continue to keep bringing in real results. When it comes to Meta, SEO or search engine marketing, dealerships need an ally to help them get the results they want.
Looking for help with your digital strategy? Talk with our team or set up a custom proposal just for your business.
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