Author Archives: Paramo Group

We saw the potential of mega menus early in the year on sites like FireStone. The challenge was to replicate the code from a very expensive commercial site (that site services hundreds of Firestone retailers) into the systems that serve our individual dealers.

This is our first field test at BMW of Shereville.

Mouse over the menu and see how the information is displayed in a much better visual way than just drop down text.

I specially like the service and parts coupons so the customer can see the specials without having to click in the specials page. From a content point of view, something that I’m heavily involved, look at the blog section where the articles are presented by location.

This project should be finalized with in the next 30-60 days and we will implement on all websites.

The post WEBSITES-Check the mega menus appeared first on Paramo Group.

We saw the potential of mega menus early in the year on sites like FireStone. The challenge was to replicate the code from a very expensive commercial site (that site services hundreds of Firestone retailers) into the systems that serve our individual dealers.

This is our first field test at BMW of Shereville.

Mouse over the menu and see how the information is displayed in a much better visual way than just drop down text.

I specially like the service and parts coupons so the customer can see the specials without having to click in the specials page. From a content point of view, something that I’m heavily involved, look at the blog section where the articles are presented by location.

This project should be finalized with in the next 30-60 days and we will implement on all websites.

We saw the potential of mega menus early in the year on sites like FireStone. The challenge was to replicate the code from a very expensive commercial site (that site services hundreds of Firestone retailers) into the systems that serve our individual dealers.

This is our first field test at BMW of Shereville.

Mouse over the menu and see how the information is displayed in a much better visual way than just drop down text.

I specially like the service and parts coupons so the customer can see the specials without having to click in the specials page. From a content point of view, something that I’m heavily involved, look at the blog section where the articles are presented by location.

This project should be finalized with in the next 30-60 days and we will implement on all websites.

The post WEBSITES-Check the mega menus appeared first on Paramo Group.

We saw the potential of mega menus early in the year on sites like FireStone. The challenge was to replicate the code from a very expensive commercial site (that site services hundreds of Firestone retailers) into the systems that serve our individual dealers.

This is our first field test at BMW of Shereville.

Mouse over the menu and see how the information is displayed in a much better visual way than just drop down text.

I specially like the service and parts coupons so the customer can see the specials without having to click in the specials page. From a content point of view, something that I’m heavily involved, look at the blog section where the articles are presented by location.

This project should be finalized with in the next 30-60 days and we will implement on all websites.

The post WEBSITES-Check the mega menus appeared first on Paramo Group.

We updated the mobile menu so as you can see in this screenshot it appears at the op of every mobile page (this is a coupon page at Klein Honda).

The menu gives customers access to every page in the website and not just to some pages like most mobile pages do.

While this is not a new feature we did some testing and adding the word “menu” did better than the previous approach were we had an icon for the menu.

The post Mobile Menu Updated appeared first on Paramo Group.

We updated the mobile menu so as you can see in this screenshot it appears at the op of every mobile page (this is a coupon page at Klein Honda).

The menu gives customers access to every page in the website and not just to some pages like most mobile pages do.

While this is not a new feature we did some testing and adding the word “menu” did better than the previous approach were we had an icon for the menu.

This is a great article on Google’s direction on mobile.

They will force websites one way or another to become mobile compatible and offer an all around cross device compatible experience.

While most dealers already have the mobile issue resolved, I think is a great read on how the future looks ahead of us.

http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/06/05/googles-search-results-now-warn-you-when-a-webpage-is-not-optimized-for-mobile/

This is a product that we have integrated with our websites (but not our product). We feel is good that we keep you update with the components that you use integrated with our systems.

We’re pleased to announce 2 new versions of our web enabled text frame. We’ll be split testing these variations for 1 month and report back accordingly. Lastly, we’re revolutionizing email see below:

• Addressed usability issue
• Frame updates
• Notification System
• Email enabled texting

Read more on our big feature at www.textstr.com/features.

In the fantastic Spike Jonze film “Her” a lonely man falls deeply in love with his smartphone’s operating system. We’re not at that point where love could blossom from conversations with a smartphone. Human to computer conversation isn’t quite a two-way street yet. However, with an increase emphasis on hands-free voice search on mobile devices that conversation channel is definitely a one-way street — with us doing all the talking.

Google recently announced that all Andoid powered devices will now respond to the hot word ‘Ok, Google’. Users can initiate a search, control, and carry out any device function by saying the magic words ‘Ok, Google’ first and then asking a question or command such as “Call mom” or “Find the nearest Honda dealership open past 7pm”.

It’s not out of the question to think that voice control/search will soon be the primary way users interact with their mobile devices. With mobile search consuming a larger part of the search traffic pie every year it’s important to prepare your paid search campaigns to deal with this new paradigm shift of how we interact with mobile devices.

Voice control conversational search is very different from traditional typed search queries. With a typed search query a user may search for something like this: “like new 2011 Chevy Malibu”. This same search query as a voice control search may sound very different, but have the same intention: “find me a 2011 Chevy Malibu with leather seats and less than 30,000 miles”.

With type searches we omit various keywords and the ordering of the words may not always have a natural, cognitive flow. The opposite is true for voice search with additional words such as “a”, “for”, and “me” inserted into the search query.

In paid search campaigns this can lead to misses on exact and phrase match keywords. The broad match keywords may cover this , but you may be missing additional context of the search query and may not present the best ad copy or landing page for the voice search query. This could affect metrics such as CTR, conversion rates, and onsite engagement for voice search query searchers. To target for mobile devices it’s important to take into account voice search queries. This mean creating specific ad groups and campaigns for long tail keyword terms that are conversational.

As our interaction with devices continue to evolve it’s important that our PPC strategies evolve along with it.

Selective Posting Interface

Auto Classified Solution’s new interface will allow the dealer to select which cars they want posted to Craigslist. It works for both new and used inventory.

This will useful for budget conscious dealers that want to select a group of used cars but also for new car managers that want to advertise just a small group of new cars.

I can think already about many scenarios where this will be useful to a new car manager:

You can run a 20 truck campaign ($100 for a month) on F-250′s diesel if you have a heavy rebate on those and compete with dealers selling ‘current -1 -2 models’.

I also see it very useful for VW running the $199 Jetta lease or Honda in the Civic.

Non Prepaid Areas

We now have the ability to post to any area within the United States whether you can buy prepaid blocks or not. 

For more information please contact Jim Gillen [email protected]

Radio spots or TV advertising have been considered the go-to avenue for businesses to increase their brand awareness. Traditionally, search advertising brings its value through clicks, impressions, and conversions. However, a recent study by Google brings new insights into the effectiveness of search ads. The results may surprise you.

The Study
In 2013 Google ran over 60 search experiments to understand how search ads can affect brand awareness. The subjects of the study consisted of 800 US consumers who participated in the simulated search scenario. The participants were placed into either the control group who were shown a search engine results page (SERP) or the the experimental group who were shown a Test SERP spotlighting one of 12 categories: apparel and durables, auto, B2B, classified and local, consumer packaged goods, education, financial services, healthcare, media and entertainment, retail, tech, and travel.

Participants were asked to perform a search for a specific category keyword (for example, “used cars” or “bad credit loan”) on their desktop. They were then shown either the actual SERP or a Test SERP. Those in the Test SERP group would see the test brand’s search ad present at the top of the search results page.

The Results
According to the study results, search ads do in fact have a positive impact on brand awareness. When study participants were asked what was top of mind about a specific category, Google found the following results:

• 14.2% in the Test SERP group named the test brand
• 8.2% in the control group also named the same brand

Overall, there is a 6.6% increase in brand awareness when in the top search positions. Each of the categories studies got slightly different results in brand awareness increases. Most notably, the auto category saw a 9% lift in top-of-mind brand awareness.

Chicago based Maria Espinoza will focus on what are the best conversion points in a website. After looking at over 1000 websites she analyzed the averaged sales leads per form and brought all this information into a powerful presentation about conversion. This is a great class for those of you that want to know what the best website KPA for and why. 

Don and Dennis are the 800 lbs gorilla in the room. Very interesting technology that they develop with our team. Let me give you my 30K feet view: 

You can now do a soft pull from every-single-form that is used in a website (soft pulls don’t require permission), and the data that you get has the customer’s current auto loan, with %, amount left, and monthly payment. So if the customer has a 2012 Toyota Corolla with a payment of $400/month at 15% rate and you can out him on a 2014 with a 6.99% therefore lowering the payment significantly, how is that for a conversation started with a simple lead that came to your site? 

If you have questions or comments don’t ask me, I know about 2% of what a person needs to know about financing in the automotive industry. Come to see Don and Dennis speak and view these new technology developed with DealerLab, Dealereprocess, and Transunion. 

As one of the nation’s leading BDC trainers, New Jersey based Sean Bradley will focusing on one of his latest dealer and the amazing transformation he was able to achieve. 

Last and least! Yago Paramo will focus on content but specifically for the financing side of the business. Generating finance leads and traffic. I will expose some knowledge on geo targeted financing content, location based ads, and some things that we have never shared before. I will not have a power point but a conversation about the possibilities and ideas that a dealer can develop with a content based strategy.

This is a free event to all PGI and Dealer Lab customers. 

Tuesday 24th–Car Dealers