Why is my landing page not converting? Reason #1: Traffic

If you have ever tried to push a specific offer in your business, you already know generating new prospects is not that easy. It's true for dealerships but also any other business making online efforts to grow their customer base.

There are many components of a successful online campaign, and traffic is one of them.

As I'm building a comprehensive guide on Landing Page Offer Creation for Car Dealerships, I'm sharing this portion which I find super important.

Types of traffic to drive to your landing page

When it comes to driving traffic to your new landing page, all traffic is not equal. You must first understand your landing page's traffic source. There are two fundamental types of traffic on the internet: intent-based & interruption-based.

Organic Search

Traffic type: Intent-based

Landing pages are not commonly driven through organic traffic. The reason is that organic traffic takes dedicated work & patience in order to grow. Unless you're serving a popular niche with very low competition (which almost never happens), driving organic traffic to your landing page is a long term strategy.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I just want you to manage your expectations. There are some really good reasons why you might want to take the organic route. The most obvious is the lack of a need for advertising. Ads cost money, and if you're tight on ad spend, this is a great option for you.

Obviously, the automotive market is quite competitive, so growing an organic presence will inevitably require a ton of effort. We've seen large automotive entities shift OEMs and big marketplace in an effort to drive free & qualified traffic to their dealership website.

Paid Search

Traffic type: Intent-based

The most common type of paid search campaign is, of course, Google Ads. Everyone knows about it, and most of you invest in paid traffic from the most popular search engine ever.

The reason why you do is quite simple, it works. But there are some caveats & common pitfalls you must stay clear of when driving paid traffic from Google to your landing page.

Driving paid search traffic is the fastest way to test & optimize a landing page. You can drive a lot of intent-based traffic to your page and see if you offer sticks. Very quick, you should have a handful of leads in your hands and start working them. My personal rule of thumb for anything optimization is 1000 visitors.

Until I get that many visitors, I am not drawing any conclusions on my landing page performance. The worst thing you can do is drive 47 visitors to your landing page and pull the cord thinking it didn't work.

Display Ads

Traffic type: Interruption-based

Display ads are mainly used in two forms. Used effectively, this can be a low cost & targeted way to stay top of mind through your prospect's shopping cycle.

The first and most popular among dealerships is through retargeting. Your banner will appear with an offer and link to your website or landing page after the user in question has visited your website.

The second is behavioral targeting. This popular advertising technique consists of showing your ad to someone who's behavior shows interest in vehicle shopping. They did not necessarily visit your dealership's website in the past.

In both cases, ads will appear where people browse the internet, outside your own website such as your favorite news, recipe & weather forecast site.

Referral

Traffic type: Interruption-based

A referral visit happens whenever a user clicks on a link to your website or landing page that's sitting on another website. It doesn't include search engines or paid advertising. A good example of referral traffic would be a local news site talking about a special event at your store such as a grand opening.

Social

Traffic type: Interruption-based

Traffic originating from social media outlets such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin among others. It can be from organic content such as a post from your business page or through ads ran through sponsored content. Social advertising is still on the rise as most platforms offer powerful targeting possibilities through demographics, interests and shopping intent.

Direct

Traffic type: Intent-based

Direct traffic is an auxiliary type of traffic when working with landing pages, especially temporary ones. Because direct traffic originates when users type your exact URL in the address bar. You can imagine this is quite rare as you and your team might be the only ones in control of the exact URL.

Another important factor to consider when looking at direct traffic is that Google Analytics will categorize unknown sources as Direct traffic, inflating the result.

Email Campaigns

Traffic type: Interruption-based

As your sending emails to prospective customers, you should insert links to engage your shoppers in buying activities. You might also want to provide more information. When those users click your links through the email you just sent them, they are categorized as Email traffic.

Want to learn more about Landing Page creation & optimization, check out the Ultimate 2019 Guide: Car Dealership Landing Pages

I'm also looking for your feedback, send me a PM if you want to explore this topic for your business!

Marc Lavoie

Autobahn Academy