Are you missing deals by not utilising this free advertising option?
Although paid ads such as Google ads can do a good job of delivering leads, you are still paying for them at the end of the day. Wouldn’t life – and your bottom line – be so much better if your leads didn’t cost you anything?
One of the most powerful marketing tools at your disposal as a dealer is your Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly Google My Business (GMB). A well-optimised GBP profile is one of the easier and quickest ways to get your dealership to rank on page 1.
Google Business Profiles are, in effect, another social media profile. Most dealers are good at one aspect of GMB management – getting customer reviews.
This is a great start, but dealers are missing opportunities by not posting to their GBP.
Posts were introduced to Google My Business in 2017 and function much like any other social media channel, allowing you to post pictures, updates, news, events and more directly onto your Google Business Profile. Despite their value, posts are still massively underutilized by dealers.
For digitally-savvy dealers, this presents an opportunity to connect with customers on search engine results pages (SERPs), where their intent is highest, and their pathway to a sale is shortest.
How to get the best results from your Google My Business posts?
Use the right image size
Not everything in the post is immediately visible. The full image is only visible when a user clicks on the post. To get the best results make sure the key sales message is visible in the thumbnail.
As you can see below the image on the left has not been optimised from GMB and part of the key message is missing, and the post doesn’t make sense.
Click here to download our Photoshop Design GBP Post template (PSD file)
Click here to use our Canva GBP Post template
Post unique content
Another thing to keep in mind is that Google has recently started classifying GBP Posts that feature duplicate photos, videos and logos as spam . This makes it even more important to use original images every time you make a post, instead of a placeholder or logo image or just reposting the same “sales event” post every day, as many have done in the past.
Each GMB post must be unique.
How often should you post?
There are no set rules when it comes to how little or often you should post but it is important to always be delivering value to the end-user, so don’t go turning your Google Business Profile into a Twitter feed.
Types of posts
There are no set rules when it comes to how little or often you should post but it is important to always be delivering value to the end-user, so don’t go turning your Google Business Profile into a Twitter feed.
Now that we’ve sold you on the importance of GBP Posts, we should probably teach you how to use them. Creating GBP Posts is incredibly straightforward and can be done through the desktop version of GBP listings or through the mobile app. There are several different types of posts that you can create, depending on your goals. These include:
Sign-Up: Sign customers up to your mailing list with a coupon or discount code.
Order Online: This takes customers directly to a product in your e-commerce store.
Events: Promote an upcoming event and link to a landing page on your website.
Buy: This is similar to an ‘order online’ post, except that it can be used by businesses without an e-commerce store to direct customers to their physical location.
Book Appointment: This is great for service-based businesses and lets customers make a booking directly through Google instead of having to call.
As a general rule, try and keep posts restricted to things that customers are going to be interested in, such as important promotions or news announcements.
Once you create a post, it will appear in the ‘Updates’ section at the bottom of your Google Business Profile for 7 days before it is archived
UTM tag
It is also a good idea to UTM tag your posts so you can track the results of your efforts in Google analytics. You can create UTM tags here.
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