The automotive industry has seen its ups and downs in recent months.  While the Cash for Clunkers promotion was successful for many automotive advertisers, advertisers faced an uphill battle to sell vehicles during the fall as consumer spending declined.  With the economy trending upwards, many families receiving tax returns and new car models being released, the automotive industry is expected to grow year over year in the upcoming months.

To help prepare for the new (and pre-owned) car buying season, I have compiled a list of automotive tips and best practices to help automotive advertisers become more successful in 2010.

Negatives - Last year, I wrote an entire post on automotive negatives that included economic and model related negatives.  Continue researching the models you sell.  A Dodge Journey search could possibly broad match to Journey, the band.  Therefore, include music and band as negatives. A Hyundai Tucson could possibly match to the query, "Tucson, Arizona".  The same does for Hyundai Santa Fe and "Santa Fe, New Mexico". Mitsubishi Eclipse could broad match to "Solar Eclipse".  Researching the models you offer and similar keywords will help to target the appropriate audience.  Microsoft's Advertising Intelligence tool is great for creating negative keyword lists.

Including "recall, recalls, problems, complaints" as negatives helps filter out unwanted clicks if a model line has been recalled.  If you are a new or used Toyota dealer, you should include "brakes", "acceleration", "accelerator" as negatives for model campaigns.  If you are running new car campaigns, including previous year models and "used/pre-owned" as negatives will ensure your ads appropriately show for your target audience.  The same applies for pre-owned dealers; include "new" as a negative.  Be sure to bid on 2009, 2010 and even 2011 related car model keywords, even if the new model is not out yet.

Other popular auto-related negatives when selling new or used models include are "insurance", "accidents", "parts" (if you have separate campaigns or you're not a parts dealer), "garage", "lawyer", "lawsuit", "service", "maintenance", "child seat", "junk yard", "classic", "show", "racing" and "rental". 

Incentives - Are you offering 0% APR financing, $ Cash back, zero dollar down payment, multi-year/miles warranty or any type of incentives? If so, it is a best practice to leverage your promotions in ad copy when possible and to bid on related keywords.  Keyword examples include "auto incentives", "car incentives", "0% APR", "car sale", "new car deals" and "car promotion".  These keywords tend to perform well and most currently have low competition.    

Match Types - Match types are often overlooked when optimizing auto related search campaigns.  While bidding on all three match types is a common best practice, it is sometimes not possible for advertisers due to analytic tracking or campaign management tool limitations.  Depending upon your campaigns' ROI goals.  If you are looking to optimize for volume, bidding on broad match will help to achieve higher volume.  Bidding on phrase and/or exact match will result in less traffic compared to broad match, however, conversion percentages tend to be higher on exact and phrase match (partly due to query relevancy). 

Research and understanding user intent including knowing which type of queries (navigational, informational and transactional) is important when deciding what match types to utilize.  Keywords related to transactional queries including "buy new 2010 truck" or "buy Nissan Murano" tend to convert better on exact or phrase match.  A keyword/ad combo matching on exact match often performs well due to high relevancy.  You can leverage the search query report (under Reports tab in adCenter) and Advertising Intelligence to find additional keywords and key performance indictors by keyword and match type.      

Ad Copy Testing - Your ad copy is what the user sees before deciding to click through to your site.  While creating high performing ad copy can sometimes be a challenge, it is possible.  Testing ad copy including call to actions is very important.  If you are an agency or a consultant, it is a best practice to secure additional funding from an advertiser for ad copy testing.  Spending additional funds early for testing can save money while increasing clicks and conversions.  Example call to actions include "purchase", "test drive", "buy", "get", "find", "save" and "low". Using dynamic or param ad copy can also help increase CTR.

Geo-Targeting - If you are a manufacturer, dealership or location based auto company, geo-targeting can be your friend.  Targeting the appropriate locations ensure your ads show to your target audience.  The adCenter Desktop's built in geo-targeting features allow you to target campaigns and ad groups in bulk (great time saver).  Including location in ad copy tends to result in higher ad click through rates (CTR).  If your company is national or has multiple locations, using geo-modified keywords can also help to target the appropriate audience, regardless of location.  Examples include "Chicago area new car dealer", "Seattle new cars" and "Miami SUV dealer".

Continuing to optimize and build upon what works for you will be important in the upcoming months as Bing's traffic and search query share continues to grow. Ensuring your ads are relevant to the user's query and leveraging the appropriate negatives will help increase qualified traffic to your site.  Good luck as this year is sure to be interesting for the automotive vertical!