• Search Marketing Sage, Monday, March 17, 2008 1 PM

Brand name auto manufacturers (or automotive OEMs) are some of the biggest PPC spenders in the world, but according to Tad Miller, spending a lot doesn't necessarily mean fully leveraging the power of search marketing. And in the case of automotive OEMs, Miller says that their search campaigns are faltering for two main reasons: unclear goals and a lack of budget accountability for their search firms.

Since accountability is at the heart of the paid search value proposition, it seems counterproductive to think that a search firm would be mismanaging the budget. But a majority of the automotive OEMs Miller has analyzed have essentially given the search agency the keys to the car and covered their eyes for the rest of the ride. "Most Search Engine Marketing Agencies are compensated based on a percentage of the online media spend," Miller says. "Their goal, first and foremost is to ensure the budget gets spent first and worry about the actual success generated by the spending second."

Miller says that a majority of the OEMs he's studied have chosen to focus on KPIs like site traffic and branding--missing the opportunity to use search for the real goal of driving consumers to the dealership. "Anyone can pay to bring traffic, and often untargeted traffic, to a Web site," Miller says. "The art of converting the traffic into sales too often gets ignored in automotive."

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