Retargeting Can Help Your Dealership Reach Return Visitors and Gain Higher Returns

By Renold Liu

Everyone is constantly looking to get the best bang for their buck and gain better results for less. However, most dealers are currently investing more money into attracting new site visitors instead of focusing on retaining return visitors, which are actually more performant. Returning visitors tend to spend more, and are already likely to consider your dealership as an option, since they are familiar with your website and what you have to offer. As a result, one of the most profitable things you can do as a dealer is to streamline and improve your retargeting strategy so you can get more returning visitors.

Why is it, then, that most dealers spend a significantly small proportion of effort trying to get buyers to re-engage with their vehicles?

Why Returning Visitors are Important

Let’s go through a common online shopper’s journey. Let’s say a buyer already knows exactly which car they want and start searching for it. They take a look at a couple of review sites to make sure they’re making the right choice and then start scouting dealerships for that car. Once a desirable car is found, the buyer typically interacts and engages with the elements of the Vehicle Detail Page (VDP). It makes sense for the dealer to remind the shopper that they have the car that they want and convince them to return to the page, call your dealership or pay an in-person visit.

This is the digital equivalent to a person that walked into your dealership, indicating to a sales rep that they liked the Ford F150 and your sales person providing constant follow up calls for F150s.

And this is the same in all areas of retail. In fact, a recent e-Commerce study indicated that returning visitors spend approximately double the amount spent by new visitors online. In addition to outspending, returning visitors are twice as likely to include an item in their online shopping cart compared to new ones. So even though returning visitors comprise only 48% of e-Commerce sessions, they are much more profitable.

Simple Concept, Tricky Implementation 

The concept of retargeting campaigns isn’t  new to many dealers. However, careful attention must be paid to retargeting efforts to ensure certain limits are geared towards positioning potential clients closer to their dream car as there are many common missteps that dealers make when implementing retargeting.