We believe that a solid Google Search campaign focused on your business—not a specific brand or manufacturer—should be a foundational element of every dealer’s digital advertising strategy. Spending manufacturer funds for online advertising is something we get asked about a lot, and it is a good idea. But manufacturer funds come with strings attached about ad content and the money can fluctuate throughout the year, making it hard to maintain a consistent presence.

Consistently putting your brand and expertise in front of potential customers who are actively searching for premium and luxury appliances should be an ongoing part of your brand advertising strategy. But building a successful Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign doesn’t happen by accident. Whether you’re already running an online paid search campaign or you are thinking about it, here are three things that high-end dealers need to consider. These aren’t all the ingredients to our secret sauce, but they are some of the most important:

Quality over quantity

One way we measure that is with our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for online campaigns. It’s easy to get excited about chalking up big numbers—typically Impressions. But Impressions are all about quantity. Your potential audience isn’t every appliance shopper in your market; it’s high-end buyers. When you focus on getting highly engaging ads in front of the right (high-end) audience—you have a campaign focused on quality. One way to measure engagement with SEM is Click Thru Rates (CTR). We often optimize first to CTR and secondly (or thirdly) to Impressions. We have client campaigns consistently performing at nearly 300% higher CTRs than the national average for similar campaigns. That’s a measure of quality. 

When you focus on getting highly engaging ads in front of the right (high-end) audience – you have a campaign focused on quality.

Keywords are key

With SEM, identifying the search terms your ideal audience is using is what makes a campaign successful. But aligning those keywords with your high-end audience might mean leaving some “high-performing” keywords on the table. Don’t let a keyword research tool or algorithm dictate your strategy. Always filter your keyword selections through a high-end lens. Are they high-performing keywords? Maybe. Are they going to bring you the right kind of shopper? Maybe not.

Never lose sight of your audience

Every dealer needs to have a clear understanding of who their target audience is. When you build a campaign, overlay that with a profile of your ideal shopper. Your high-end business isn’t built on the “my dishwasher broke, and I need to replace it this weekend” shopper. Your profitability is in the “I’m shopping for a complete set of high-end appliances for my new kitchen” shopper. So craft your campaigns for that buyer. As a side note, if that is your ideal shopper, don’t waste your resources trying to outbid the big box stores. They aren’t your competition. 

If you’d like to learn more about how we help high-end dealers utilize SEM to establish themselves as the source for premium and luxury appliance brands in their market, drop us a note! We’d love to chat.