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• How to use the MaxMyWebsite Expert Advisor to highlight the issue of poor theme keyword alignment
• Why it is essential to apply qualitative judgement along with the MaxMyWebsite tool
• how a Market and Keyword Research Service can help diagnose issues and suggest solution strategies – which could then be implemented via a defined action plan.

Note: this message discusses market selection and sizing, and some aspects of website effectiveness. However, for the purpose of this article, I’m focusing on the data from the home page, and there are several other critical issues not covered here, such as content quality and keyword-themed linking.

Your 1st question was something like:

We’ve been following Jack Humphrey’s 60-day Marketing Plan rigorously, but seeing nowhere close to Jack’s figure of “500 views a day after 60 days”…

So what can we realistically expect?

2 points to consider:

But before we get to those… Note that Jack’s visitor projections are based on selecting a niche topic keyword getting at least 70,000 organic searches per month. Then his claim suggests that you should be able to secure about 20% of this by following his methods for at least 60 days.

Point #1… the target niche for BradYourCarGuy is actually far smaller than assumed in Jack’s figures – in spite of what typical keyword research would lead you to believe!

But even more important than search volume is…

Point #2… location, location, location – BradYourCarGuy is currently in the “wrong place”

In the online world, “location” is defined by a set of keywords.

Rationale:

To make sense of these 2 points, lets take a closer look at BradYourCarGuy.com: (through the eyes of MaxMyWebsite Expert Advisor, of course)

What is the target market, according to BradYourCarGuy?

To find out we’ll check to see to what keywords are included in the

• domain
• title
• description
• meta-keywords
• H1 tags

Domain name: Brad, car
Title: Brad, car
Description:  car buying
Meta-keywords: Ford cars, Lincoln cars, Mercury cars, Ford Trucks, Ford SUVs, Ford Crossovers, Toyota cars, sports utility vehicles, crossover utility vehicles
H1 Tag: Brad Doenges

Images are widely used, but the opportunity is missed to use alt image tags to support and reinforce the theme of the website (The Theme used does not support alt image tags on thumbnail images)

There are only 2 over-laps: “car” (a general, unqualified keyword), and “Brad” (a very specific keyword, but in the absence of a dominant brand, probably irrelevant to organic searchers).

So Theme keyword alignment is poor across these primary factors.

Point 2…
Search Volume too low?

Below is a summary report from ThemeZoom Krakken for these keywords.
The “Searches” column shows daily search volume, so there’s apparently no problem meeting Jack’s 70,000 per month criteria.

Meta Keyword paid & organic search volume comparison

But we need to look a bit deeper…

Cars are not $47 down-loadable electronic products I can buy on-line from anywhere.  No, I want to know price, model details and availability in my local area, arrange a convenient test drive, and look the sales person in the eye when about to do the deal.

So while checking out my options online, I’m going to want to find dealers in my locality. And this will be reflected in the search terms I use.

Then I’m probably going to type a search term including location, as well as the make and model I’m considering.

So although the above keyword set appears to comfortably meet the 70,000 searches criteria, the reality is that most on-line auto-related searches by searchers ready to buy, are localized.

Let’s look at the same keyword list, but with a medium-sized city qualifier added: Tulsa…

Immediately you’ll notice the daily search volume becomes undetectable – for the keyword set targeted according to the website on-page factors.

Localized Keywords – paid & organic search volume comparison

So as you can see, (assuming Tulsa is a target locality for BradYourCarGuy, the website is shooting for the wrong target – or located in the wrong place online.

OK then… Where could BradYourCarGuy “re-locate” to and gain marketshare?

Here’s an alternative keyword set to consider, based on the brands sold by the dealership…. Again, taking Tulsa as the locality qualifier, here is a ThemeZoom Krakken theme cluster** summary table:

A new “Location” online: Tulsa Car Brands as keywords

** One of ThemeZoom Krakken’s unique strengths is to analysis groups of theme keywords as a “cluster“, and present competitive comparisons across a market niche defined by these them keywords.

Unlike the previous keyword set, this cluster shows some daily search volume, albeit still low – but this keyword set (theme keyword cluster) gets about 20,000 searches per month.

How effectively is BYCG Targeting it’s claimed market?

So after about 2 months, just how effectively is the BYCG website doing its job at targeting these?

To answer this, I use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to analyse the site content, and show the main topics Google concludes the BradYourCarGuy site to be about:

use car (27), new car (24), ford mustang (9), ford car (8), ford truck (6), ford fusion (5), car (48), ford (38), use (5), dealer (7), auto (8), lincoln (5)

(The numbers in brackets are Google’s count of the occurrences of these keywords across the BYCG website.)

As you can see, there are matches for only one multi-word term, and its plural version: ford car / Ford cars

This tells me either that:

• the site content does not effectively focus on the keywords listed in the meta-data, or
• Google is confused, or
• both!

Conclusion:

• BradYourCarGuy is trying to swim in a sea that does not really exist, at least not for any individual car buyer.
• Content is not closely aligned to either the stated target keywords, nor the assumed locality qualifier.

Given these findings, its surprising BradYourCarGuy gets as many visitors as it does! (Probably due to the well-written content.)

Then coming back to the question:  “So what can we realistically expect?”

This question can only be answered in advance with confidence by an adequate market niche opportunity research project.

However:

• based on the brief study above
• adopting the suggested target keywords set
• taking just half of Jack’s market share projection ie 10%, and
• following his methods

…I’d project that BradYourCarGuy.com could realistically expect to attract about 2,000 visitors per month via organic search, ie 60-70 visitors per day.

Any comments?

Ken Johnstone, MBA, BSc

Technorati Tags: sales leads, website grading, marketing

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“On line, what other products are available for an auto-dealer to get leads fast?”

(I have some scrappy notes here on this subject…)

The basic options for a dealer are:

1. Buy leads from 3rd party – around $30 / lead
2. Generate his own on-line lead sources

Buying leads is fast – typical claims from service providers is to have active leads to you within a week. If you plan to sell 100 cars per month, and convert 10% leads to sales on average, you need 1000 leads per month overall. If your marketing mix (newpaper, radio, TV, billboards, CRM, direct mail, and online sources) requires 20% of these via online leads, that means you need to buy 200 leads per month @ $30 = $6000 per month

I’ve run a short ThemeZoom Krakken study on 3 closely related theme keyword, each with “Tulsa” as the locality qualifier:

• auto leads
• auto sales leads
• internet auto leads

The chart below shows that the “Organic Market Value” of the market defined by just these 3 keywords is about $7.5M, and lists the providers of auto leads by market share. Looks like AutoLeads.org and AutoLeadProviders.com are the “leaders” here.

clustershare-chart – auto leads, auto sales leads, internet auto leads

Generating your own leads has some major benefits:

• “pure” leads – you’re leads won’t be sold to other dealers
• builds your mailing list
• you build a valuable asset – a list of proven converting keywords
• etc…

… but it takes time, like farming – there can be a longish period between “sowing” and “harvest”, and you have to keep the “weeds” down!

To get going, the dealer needs to:

1. research the online market
2. create an online marketing plan
3. develop a lead generation website, with offer, list manager, and auto-responder sequence
4. create & publish content
5. promote the site

The fastest way to start would be buying part-qualified search-engine visitors through programs such as Google Adwords – assuming there is paid traffic available for the theme keywords in your target market.

So we need answers to 2 questions:

• is there sufficient paid search traffic available for your target market?
• how much will it cost to run a test campaign?

And if you’re a newcomer to sourcing auto-leads from the internet, we also need to answer your question “what is Google Adwords?”

And to answer this, consider viability, and the services required to make it effective, will need at least one more article.

To be continued…

Ken Johnstone, MBA, BSc

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The fastest way to start would be to buy traffic from (for example) the Google Adwords program, provided there is relevant traffic available for the keywords in your target market, in sufficient volume and at a cost which you find viable.

A high value side benefit of this approach is that it provides the fastest available means of either validating, refining, or indeed eliminating the Theme keyword set you have selected to define your online niche.

So we need answers to 2 questions:

1. is there sufficient paid traffic available for your target market?
2. how much will it cost to run a test campaign?

To answer this, I’ve taken our Case Study website – BradYourCarGuy.com – and run the next phase of niche research with the help of ThemeZoom Krakken (restricted availability…  by referral only – for qualified candidates)

With our niche research findings, we’ll have the data to make informed decisions regarding

• the viability of this strategy, and
• the skills, resources, or services required to make it effective.

So, to the 1st question:

Is there PPC traffic available for your target market?

As a reminder, we’ve defined the “target market” for this case study with the top-level Theme Keywords listed below.

Krakken chart – Comparative Niche Sizing

The chart headings:

• PPC Traffic =  estimated daily number of visitors you can expect from your Adwords ad in one of the top 3 positions in the Google results page for that keyword.
• Searches =   estimated daily number of visitors clicking on searches for that keyword
• Yearly ORV(max) = a measure of the maximum annualized monetary value of a top position (rank) in the search engine results page for that keyword
• ORV = Organic Rank Value

This chart indicates:

• available traffic of 10 visitors / day
• at a maximum cost of about $30, or 300 visitors / month at a cost of $900.

Then provided we get >10% conversion to leads, the cost per lead becomes <$30.

We need at least 30 conversions to leads to get statistically valid results with a high enough confidence level to accept as the basis of a plan. 50 would be better.

So we need to run a test with 500 visitors . With the above keyword set, a test with 500 visitors could cost $1500 or more campaign management costs, and take 10 weeks or more. Hardly a “fast start”!!

However, since there is very little Adwords competition for the localized keywords targeted, we should be able to gain a top 3 position at much lower cost.

Also, by expanding the keyword set, we can increase the potential visitor volume to cut the required test duration in half, or more.

So this is good enough to indicate it is probably very worth while to run a limited test campaign using Google Ads, even if the results are negative, because of what can be learned from the campaign.

On to the 2nd question:

What skills, resources, or services would an auto dealer require to make this strategy effective?

Health warning! Google Adwords is an easy way for Google to suck money fast out of your bank, with little benefit to you – unless you know what you are doing!

• It is not something an Auto Dealer should undertake for themselves, unless they are already well experienced in setting up and managing PPC campaigns.
• It also requires a significant capability in keyword research, understanding the Google Adwords system, and writing Google Adwords ad copy, to design and set up an effective test campaign.
• Finally, it requires the time and skill to monitor the campaign, and refine it to be as effective as possible in a short time, without costing the earth!

So, if a dealer shows interest in using Google Adwords, we must either confirm they already have access to the required skills and experience, or offer to provide it for them.

Conclusion:

For an investment of $2.5k – $5k**, a dealer may learn, probably within 3-6 weeks:

• conversion rate of one or more of his on-line offers
• the localized keyword set that converts to leads for his offers
• whether Google Adwords is likely to provide a long-term viable source of leads
• which are the converting keywords to transfer to organic search campaigns to further increase ROI

Also, it is often possible to reduce costs and improve the click-through rate for a Google Adwords campaign by refining keyword set, structure, and ad copy. Thereby, a campaign which is marginally profitable, can provide a high return.

** Google Adwords costs:         $1000 – $2000 (estimate)
Campaign design & set up:     $350 – $1250
Campaign Management:         $750 – $2500

(Actual campaign costs will depend on the project scope, and the market niche.)

Ken Johnstone, MBA, BSc

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So why not have a look at who is offering to provide leads, and how cost-effective they might be….

First thing that strikes me is that most claim to be leaders in providing leads!

Well….

“… the industry’s leading provider of the highest quality,
Internet-generated consumer leads to auto dealers nationwide, today
announced the launch of a used car inventory pay-per-lead program for
dealerships. …”

iSM Today | Automotive Internet Sales Resource – AutoUSA Launches …

Let’s first review online lead generation options – according to Harlene Doane, Auto Dealer Monthly’s Operations Director, some “dealers are reporting a shift to more online marketing…” – should you be one of them?

Broadly, a dealer’s options are:

1. Use 3rd party lead providers

2. Develop own website
- buy qualified traffic eg PPC – Google Adwords
- organic search marketing
- social media marketing
- email marketing
- use off-line promotions (ads, mailings, etc) to send prospects to website offer

Selection Criteria:
- Cost: <$30 / lead
- Info completeness eg name, phone, address, income, acceptable call window, etc

See the comparison of 3rd party vs own website in the article below. (Comes out strongly in favor of doing your own lead generation.)

Automotive Lead Generation from an Auto Dealer Monthly Perspective

Doane goes on to say that “it’s not enough to know the cost per sale of third-party lead providers, but instead you must know the cost per sale of each third-party lead provider individually…Cutting advertising isn’t always a prudent …

Auto leads that makes you deal to right kind of customers in …

Auto-Finance-Leads.Com is the nation’s leading auto finance leads Generation Company. We deal with Auto Finance Leads, Auto Warranty Leads, Mortgage Leads, insurance Leads, Debt Leads, Payday Leads, and other leads. …

Auto Sales Car Sales Leads

Maximize your Auto Sales marketing campaign with Fresh leads Unite’ Car Sales Leads Live Lead Transfers. Fresh Leads Unite offer nothing but the best targeted Auto Sales and Car Sales Leads, Auto Sales, car sales, sales leads, car leads …

Ken Johnstone, MBA, BSc

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