Content is dead. Long live Content? (Video Content)

[Matt Lasher]

Hey All,

New to the forum, but wanted to thank you all for your contributions. Always entertaining and informative to read. I was hoping to open a dialogue about custom content on FB/IG - and what ya'll think is working (or not) for you.

Programmatic approaches aside (dynamic inventory retargeting, etc...) - I'm just discussing custom made creative content produced by your teams - including outside agencies - if that's how you roll.

My macro view and goal for our group on social - humanize the brand.

Recently, I was discussing with my team the value (or cost) associated with custom video content and whether it's worth the effort...we have some reoccurring content pieces we make in-house (with a little outsourced help) such as:
- a dealership tour/highlight show modeled after mtv cribz
- a mini doc series profiling each store GM
- custom animations for giveaways, etc.
- an employee spotlight each wednesday

Some of these pieces of content are more expensive than others - both in terms of labor/attention/time resources, and actual invoiced dollars.

So focusing in on one video - from FB business metrics > audience retention, an example of engagement:




50% of audience lost by :06, only about 5% watch to the end! Pretty disappointing! Although on it's surface we might feel ok with 'views' or 'shares' or 'comments'...



Most videos we've made have very similar engagement patterns. I suppose we could ignore this and high five each other with the vanity metrics but that seems silly and it feels (to me anyway) 'expensive' and a 'luxury' to produce.

So I'm wondering if anyone is having measurably different success with engagement on any video content?

Cheers!

 

[Alexander Lau]

Nice post!

Way back when, I used to support some of the things West Herr did textual content-wise, while at an agency.

As for video itself, I manned a team that pushed quite a few videos (working with outsourced videographers) through Google Ads into YT/FB/etc.. The one thing I can say, the CTR and ultimately the conversions were terrible. The reach was great, but no one ever finished the entire video. The numbers for 25% watched length and lower were great, everything else dropped off (so, I think we had the same problem man = don't feel bad as the content is probably just not engaging enough).

Sorry, that's pretty sad actually... I have no data or pretty screenshots to show anything and I am no longer in video advertising.

 

[Alex Snyder]

First off @Matt Lasher. And damn dude! You get a big WTF for taking nearly 5 years to start posting on DealerRefresh

However, nice start.

There are two people I'm going to tap for this thread: @Christine Plunkett now handles DealerRefresh's Facebook page through Dealer Authority. She used to work with me at Checkered Flag and we did a TON of videos. She was the one in the videos. I think she would be invaluable in this thread.

The other person is Bobby Preston from the Preston Automotive Group. Bobby is also a spokesperson on camera and does a lot of social videos. Besides hearing what he has to say I haven't spoken to him in a while, so I'm at least going to use this as an excuse to do that.

 

[Dane Saville]

@Matt Lasher


I commend you on your efforts and being so progressive. I think humanizing a dealership is vital for today’s shopper; however, the one thing I think that’s missing from the bullet list is content that really delivers value to car shoppers across the buyer’s journey.

These videos may have a better home on your site, where shoppers lower in the funnel are really considering your dealership for an in-store visit. Our clients have a steady volume of traffic to Meet Our Staff pages, and GA does not note this as an Exit Page where shoppers drop off but part of a Page Path that continues onward. I’ll try to get with some of our marketing teams to pull specific data.

We recommend that social be leveraged for reach, and I personally see value by having video posts serve a dual purpose: organic and paid.

Have you tested creating some video content around some of the search queries that get the greatest impressions in Search Console? Or perhaps the ad groups or ads that have the best conversions in Google Ads?

You can address long-tail searches with videos that answer high-funnel queries, like "What are the best features of a Chevy Silverado?" (Get a salesperson who's really passionate about pickup trucks, but don't make it a walk-around. Get some cool angles and shots about the specific features he or she talks about with the focus on how excited this person is about the Silverado and leave it at that. Don't go for a "salesy" CTA.)

You can address short-tail searches with videos that satisfy low-funnel queries, like "2018 Chevy Trax near me." (A well-rounded walk-around that ends with the ease of access to the dealership -- give some markers on where it's located -- with contact info. at the end)

You now have video content to leverage as ads on your dealership’s different networks. Keep up the production value and make them engaging. If you satisfy the search intent, my instinct — at least backed by metrics for text-based content — is that you’ll see better metrics for actual shopping behaviors and not vanity metrics.

Are the videos aggregated on a Youtube channel, or do they live in separate silos? You can optimize the videos on Youtube, so you can potentially acquire some traffic. Put in links to your dealer site — specific to the content of the video, so if you’re doing a walk-around for a Chevy Equinox because your seeing a lot of impressions and clicks to Equinox inventory, you could put a link directly to Equinox SRPs. That way you've removed any friction and unnecessary steps to getting them where they have demonstrated they want to be.

Our company’s social team is at a training, but I’ll try to follow up with specific data points they might have regarding video content. The videos we’ve just begun doing aren’t really applicable because we’re not marketing B2C, and I think there’s definitely a difference in approach.

Again, sorry that I cannot provide hard data. Just my thoughts as a copywriter and marketer. And, I guess, in the end, I'm suggesting that you test more diversity in video.

P.S. And, of course, filmed customer testimonials go a long way. The more other people talk about you positively, the more impact it has. We're currently developing our own process for getting client testimonials on video.

 

[Christine Plunkett]

Ok.. so there are two different types of videos - ones which highlight the dealership and staff, which typically only serve to enhance the dealers own feelings of being awesome. Most people do not care who your GM is or how nice your showroom is, unfortunately, they are really interested in two things - product knowledge and benefits of purchasing from you. I get that you're working to humanize the dealership, and I love that, I wonder though if your money would be better spent by churning out videos that SOLVE A PROBLEM for the viewer and publishing them on YouTube.. for example.. at Checkered Flag we did "Meet the Team" videos which garnered anywhere from 50 to 100 views - conversely, we published "How to Use Navigation System in BMW 3 Series" and earned 156,000 views.

By positioning your dealership as a problem solver and source of information for owners, you become top of mind when they consider recommending or purchasing again in the future. Ironically, the better performing "how to" videos are easier to produce and require zero video editing skills (unless you just wanna be fancy.) Here's an example of how to keep the intro short and sweet and focus on the education:

 

[Matt Lasher]

Lots of good stuff there @Dane Saville thanks!

I get a little bogged down when I think about 'long tail' given the 20 brands we represent, my mind starts multiplying out all the work needed and I freak : ) lol But interesting ideas to test...I don't know how to pull out each question individually here, so i'll just respond inside the quote *below*

@Matt Lasher


...I think humanizing a dealership is vital for today’s shopper; however, the one thing I think that’s missing from the bullet list is content that really delivers value to car shoppers across the buyer’s journey. *I guess I'm hoping some of our programmatic stuff fills in more of the 'lower funnel' efforts, and I didn't mention the static low funnel ads we run monthly at each location with whatever core offers we have at the moment*

These videos may have a better home on your site, where shoppers lower in the funnel are really considering your dealership for an in-store visit. Our clients have a steady volume of traffic to Meet Our Staff pages, and GA does not note this as an Exit Page where shoppers drop off but part of a Page Path that continues onward. I’ll try to get with some of our marketing teams to pull specific data. *we do post the content to our primary group site on our blog*

We recommend that social be leveraged for reach, and I personally see value by having video posts serve a dual purpose: organic and paid.
*agreed - but I can get reach with a static image, stock photo, raw selfy at the dealership, etc - so I'm wondering about the value of the higher production value content*

Have you tested creating some video content around some of the search queries that get the greatest impressions in Search Console? Or perhaps the ad groups or ads that have the best conversions in Google Ads? *great idea! - we've done some canvas ads around core models, but haven't found engagement any better than simple posts*

Are the videos aggregated on a Youtube channel, or do they live in separate silos? You can optimize the videos on Youtube, so you can potentially acquire some traffic. Put in links to your dealer site — specific to the content of the video, so if you’re doing a walk-around for a Chevy Equinox because your seeing a lot of impressions and clicks to Equinox inventory, you could put a link directly to Equinox SRPs. That way you've removed any friction and unnecessary steps to getting them where they have demonstrated they want to be. *we post to a group youtube page, but not really 'optimizing' per se ATM*

 

[Matt Lasher]

Ok.. so there are two different types of videos - ones which highlight the dealership and staff, which typically only serve to enhance the dealers own feelings of being awesome. Most people do not care who your GM is or how nice your showroom is, unfortunately, they are really interested in two things - product knowledge and benefits of purchasing from you. I get that you're working to humanize the dealership, and I love that, I wonder though if your money would be better spent by churning out videos that SOLVE A PROBLEM for the viewer and publishing them on YouTube..

Very practical advice @Christine Plunkett! Has any of that content translated to deeper engagement on FB? Have you found the exposure on youtube narrow enough (your primary DMA) to be rewarding? - i think one of our top performing posts on youtube is a Jaguar AWD mode piece we made a bunch of years ago...although that doesn't translate to sales very well. Have you ever needed to solve a different problem (like a plumbing problem) and turned to Youtube? I always stumble across some random plumber on the other side of the country, providing a great tutorial - but zero chance i can reward them with money.

With respect to 'dealers own feelings of being awesome' - I agree with that sentiment, and with the 2000 employees we have, I feel it's a large enough audience to support and help feel awesome : )

 

[Dane Saville]

@Matt Lasher - Good point. I responded a bit from ignorance since I didn't realize the size of your group.

That makes things a bit precarious because you don't want GMs getting frustrated that video is focusing on other dealerships and not their own. I know that from personal experience because I came from a 33-store group here in Raleigh, NC, before we (our CEO was the Marketing Director for that group) formed our company.

Still, I think the important piece here is that you prioritize video for the dealerships that you see the greatest potential to help bolster sales based on the search volume, website traffic, impressions, and clicks that you can gather from GA coupled with the goals of each of those dealerships. And that data can equip you with the reasoning to get the support of the dealer principal(s) or whoever you might directly report to. Also, when considering volume, you may want a general emcee to sort of "host" the long-tail videos (and really even the short-tail depending on time and resources).

You can use the emcee angle in one of two ways:

1. You have an extended voiceover recording of this person and piecemeal the best features differently, so you have a different order of or even completely different set of features that you highlight for the vehicle.
2. You have a short voiceover recording of this person and just duplicate the voiceover but film the angles and shots at each dealership, then make sure you don't duplicate the metadata / descriptions, et cetera, when you post them.

That's a tactic I learned from a Creative Director for a local news station. The latter of the two would be easier because you could share some of the in-vehicle shots and essentially edit each video the same way, so you're not reinventing the wheel.

I also think the issue that you bring up about the plumber can be addressed by parlaying the video into targeted ads on those social channels but have a repository of video housed on Youtube, where, again, you can optimize -- especially using GEO information in the content. Not saying you'll "rank #1" for those searches, but localizing the data definitely won't hurt you.

The issue here is just timeliness. Are you able to produce them quickly enough to still match search volume and search intent.

 

[Dane Saville]

And if you're using programmatic and static ads and your typical low-funnel digital marketing channels/strategies/efforts, that reinforces the notion that your video for social channels can focus more on the reach and brand awareness. If your group has any "specialty" group-wide features, like some of our partners have catchy alliterative names for things they offer consumers (like the Asbury Advantage -- made up, but to give a concrete example), you can use that: so they have shuttle service and free WiFi and so on and so forth -- you could create a group-wide video that you could house on Youtube and use as ads for each store on different months.

 

[jon.berna]

50% of audience lost by :06, only about 5% watch to the end! Pretty disappointing! Although on it's surface we might feel ok with 'views' or 'shares' or 'comments'...

Facebook, YouTube and TV are going to have different engagement patterns due to the intention gap of each platform.

At Driven Data we see a lot of different approaches to create engaging content on FB leveraging our audiences. One of the ones I love is the store below. Their videos are funny and show off their culture which is really what they are selling.