Mercedes Benz of Princeton gets 36 percent of its traffic from Google AdWords.

ABOUT GOOGLE ADWORDS Google AdWords is currently used by thousands of businesses worldwide to gain new customers in a costeffective way. AdWords uses keywords to precisely target ad delivery to web users seeking information about a particular product or service. The program is based on cost-per-click (CPC) pricing, so advertisers only pay when an ad is clicked on. Advertisers can take advantage of an extremely broad distribution network, and choose the level of support and spending appropriate for their business. For more information on launching your own campaign or getting expert help, visit adwords.google.com

One of only eight distributors in New Jersey, Mercedes Benz of Princeton is dedicated exclusively to selling Mercedes Benz. To attract new buyers and bolster name recognition, the dealership uses newspapers and billboards throughout New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia and also advertises on third-party auto sites. As Internet Manager of Mercedes Benz of Princeton, Joseph Hobbs is responsible for developing the dealership website and driving qualified leads to it. The site, www.mbprinceton.com, offers direct email access, chat functionality, new and preowned inventory, service appointments, and maps and phone contact information. “We want a better experience for our local customers so that they can call me, chat, explore our whole site, engage with us in order to experience the brand early and buy a car from us,” says Hobbs. “So we’ve built a high quality site that extends the Mercedes Benz brand into the buying and service experiences we offer at our dealership.” Challenge For Internet marketing, Hobbs is focused on one goal: selling vehicles. “I want to drive traffic to our website, and make sure they are qualified leads,” he says. “This is a critical part of a well-rounded marketing strategy.” To build that base of leads, since September 2004, he has been advertising with Google AdWords. He says, “If you are only buying third-party Internet leads, you are missing out. Our Internet strategy goes beyond that. We want to reach the right people directly and capture them early in their decision process.” Hobbs notes that “Our Google campaign is focused on consumers within 50 miles of our dealership, so our ads are only showing to in-market consumers. We simply tell Google our address, and it targets our messages to searchers who are within 50 miles of our store.” Results Hobbs first saw AdWords in action when he did a search on Google and spotted a competitor’s ad. “It was easy to envision our message in that space,” he recalls. “With other websites, when I buy leads the consumer doesn’t know much about me. AdWords leads traffic to my site, and people know a lot more about our products when they do contact me.” Used to getting only a handful of leads from online services, Hobbs quickly saw results. Within a month of implementing Google AdWords, he had real data in hand: Google AdWords referred 1,111 qualified visits to the dealership’s website. And today Google represents 36 percent of the site’s overall traffic. Many of these consumers view dealer inventory, print maps to the dealership, use online chat to request test drives or get quotes for cars. Hobbs also uses Google conversion tracking to stay current with the actions his prospects and customers are taking.

MERCEDES BENZ OF PRINCETON

Hobbs sees an additional benefit, noting that “People use Google like a phone book, so we receive local area phone leads. They type in ‘Mercedes Benz,’ and then click to us to get the phone number and call in.” Overall, Hobbs says that AdWords is “very easy to use. We’ve had no problems, and we get good assistance whenever we need to make changes to ad copy or campaigns.” Perhaps even more important, he is “very pleased to see how many more qualified people come to our site through AdWords. We keep saying ‘wow’ – we’re very surprised and happy about the results.”

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