Case Study: How a Comprehensive Digital Advertising Plan Leads to Results

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Client: Toyota of Southern Maryland Problem: Unsure that digital services produce results. Solution: A comprehensive digital plan including: Search, Display, Facebook Advertising, You Tube TrueView, Retargeting, Gmail Sponsored Promotions, VIN NINJA, and Search Engine Optimization. Results: This plan put Toyota of Southern Maryland in the top 10% digitally of all Toyota Dealers in the country and helped lead to a 60% increase in new units sold versus 4th Quarter of 2015.

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Client

Each new client for Mudd Advertising has a different comfort level with how many services we will provide. In a few cases, new clients will allow us to become their full service marketing agency from the start. But in most cases, they  may sign up for  only one or two services at the beginning.  However, soon most dealers see the value in our services, and over time, expand their  partnership with us. Toyota of Southern Maryland is one of those cases. We started planning and buying media for them in 2015, but they didn’t give us the digital portion of their business until the Spring of 2016.

Problem

Toyota of Southern Maryland had done some digital advertising before Mudd took over, but had minimal success. On my first reporting call with the dealership, after they had a fantastic month in sales and all these metrics looked great, the owner’s first comment was “I think all this digital stuff is just a bunch of snake oil.” We have come a long way since. Mudd Advertising instituted a comprehensive digital advertising plan for Toyota of Southern Maryland that covered both new and used vehicles. In the first month using this plan, they saw a huge spike in units sold. They have consistently seen an increase in volume of units sold, and have never looked back.

Solution

So let’s take a look at the services that we provide and how those services have had tangible effects on Toyota of Southern Maryland’s online presence and most importantly, their sales. We have a full online strategy: Search, Display, Facebook Advertising, You Tube TrueView, Retargeting, Gmail Sponsored Promotions, VIN NINJA, and Search Engine Optimization. Individual monthly campaigns are supported with custom built creative Mudd campaigns.

Results

So how did we measure  our results of a quality digital campaign for Toyota of Southern Maryland? We started with the Dealer Digital Evaluation (DDE). Toyota performs this evaluation on a 3 month basis for  every Toyota dealer in the country. This is an evaluation of each dealer’s digital presence that includes factors such as, placement on Google SERP, Website Optimization, Reputation Management, and Social Media. After being with Mudd Advertising for a few months, Toyota of Southern Maryland scored a 76 out of 100. This was just above average, but after having used our digital services for a full six months, Toyota of Southern Maryland clocked in with a 91 out of 100 (October 2016)! This improvement puts them in the top 10% of all Toyota dealers in the country, as the average Toyota score nationally is 70. Now, it’s one thing to score great on an evaluation, but what about the metric that really matters: sales? If you take 4th Quarter of 2016 and compare New Toyota sales to 4th Quarter of 2015 you see the positive effect of a Mudd Advertising comprehensive digital plan. Toyota of Southern Maryland retailed a total of 286 New units in 4th Quarter 2016. This was an increase of 107 new units and a 60% increase versus 4th Quarter of 2015! The results that Toyota of Southern Maryland have achieved in the last year are the mix of many factors, with a lot of hard work logged by the employees of  Toyota of Southern Maryland. We have built trust, and more importantly friendship, with our client. We have come a long way in our relationship since our first reporting call. With a lot of time and effort Toyota of Southern Maryland has achieved new heights they didn’t know were possible. Now we are pushing the limits again to achieve new goals for 2017.