Accelerating Auto Dealership Growth

Hagerstown Ford, a top Ford dealer on the East Coast, needed help to meet its sales goals. There was increased competition in the market from the conquesting brand Toyota, whose sales increased 5% year over year. The other competition further eroded market share: Carvana, located 1 mile away; CarMax, .5 miles away; and another Ford dealership nearby. Hagerstown Ford knew it was time to change, regain lost market share, and sell more cars.

By partnering with PIN, the dealership was able to capitalize on its messaging by strategizing offers and promoting differentiators that set them apart from its competitors:

• In business for 20 years
• Oval certified dealer
• Promotional deals
• Streamlined buying process for customers

PIN created, deployed, and optimized a data-driven strategy:

• Customer persona development based on first-party data analysis
• Ongoing monitoring of campaign effectiveness based on strategically identified actions such as form submissions test-drive requests, and pre-approvals
• Campaign modifications were made to drive the highest consideration behaviors and the lowest cost per acquisition
• Identified and aggressively targeted top-performing and top-opportunity zip codes

The end goal was to increase sales volume while driving more qualified buyers to the dealership. PIN’s tactics to increase brand awareness along with identifying and delivering qualified leads were deployed:

• All assets were refreshed to convey the Hagerstown Ford brand strengths
• Compelling promotional offers were served up to interested car buyers when and where they were known to convert
• To combat ad blindness and fatigue, public-facing assets were refreshed monthly

These tasks were a driving force behind increased consumer engagement. In addition to the messaging and creative updates, PIN built the dealership a paid media campaign to connect with buyers ready to purchase. This increased the volume of new registrations within the region.

The Results

Hagerstown Ford has become better at selling for profit versus just selling anything to anyone and not receiving a profit. In the time they have worked with PIN, their gross profit has increased an average of 38% yearly.

• Hagerstown Ford moved up to 11th place from 19th in the Washington Region
• Total sales averaged 174 cars sold a month, surpassing the goal of 150
• Both quantity and quality of leads improved