5 Google Posts Best Practices for Automotive Dealers

With increasing competition in the digital marketing space, it is more important than ever for dealerships to make the best first impression with shoppers. Google recently released Google Posts for dealerships who have a verified Google My Business account. Let’s take a look at five ways your dealership can make the most of Google Posts.

Choose the most compelling content to feature.

Google Posts stay live on your Google My Business profile for up to 7 days with the goal of keeping content as relevant for shoppers as possible. Partner with your with your Dealer.com Social Media Coordinator to ensure your strategic content calendar includes planned Google Posts that are refreshed with non-repetitive content each week.

Set the right expectation by removing expired offers.

Google Posts show prominently below your business listing, and may be one of the first impressions your business makes with shoppers. Expired offers may set improper expectations with your potential buyers and may cause compliance issues. If you have Dealer.com Managed Social, your Social Media Coordinator will monitor your offers and remove them once expired. If you don’t have Dealer.com Managed Social, be sure your social media management partner is on top of removing offers in a timely manner.

Utilize professionally-designed impactful visuals to help posts stand out.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words; make sure your graphics tell the most effective message possible Graphics for Google Posts should have minimal, if any, text utilized in the graphic and should be designed by a graphic design expert with automotive-specific expertise. Our Dealer.com Content & Creative team of expert designers can partner with your Dealer.com Managed Social Coordinator to design visually captivating Google Posts.

Check the specs.

It’s very important that your Google Posts meet the technical specifications set forth by Google. Graphics must be a minimum of 720 x 540 pixels and must adhere to the 4:3 size ratio. Google Posts have a text limit of 1,500 characters, however, only the first 100 characters show up before the shopper clicks on the post. Make sure your first 100 characters are used wisely, and do not create unfinished/partial sentences.

Maintain visibility.

Since Google Posts are not tracked in Google Analytics, it’s important to use referral tagging to track your engagement. With a Dealer.com Website and Dealer.com Managed Social, your Social Media Coordinator can utilize the DDCRef tag to give you full visibility into both the quality and quantity of traffic being driven to your site through Google Posts.

At Dealer.com, our Managed Social team has been utilizing Google Posts to help clients expand their digital visibility. We’ve explored a variety of content tactics and understand which types of posts resonate best for specific automotive audiences. Request a consultation today to learn more about how we can assist with your social strategy.

Hannah Wright is a Supervisor of Managed Social at Dealer.com.