Targeted Traffic: How VDPs Outshine SRPs in Customer Engagement

It’s generally believed that landing customers on a Search Results Page (SRP) from a paid campaign will encourage them to shop multiple vehicles, but the data tells a different story. In reality, Vehicle Detail Pages (VDPs) have shown to be more effective at engaging customers and encouraging deeper interactions with specific listings. This insight challenges traditional strategies and prompts a reassessment of how traffic is directed in automotive digital marketing.

Instead of broadening consumer options, directing them to SRPs often leads to less engagement. More targeted, VIN-level campaigns that direct potential buyers straight to the VDPs tend to have better results. Through a deeper understanding of VDP vs SRP effectiveness, automotive businesses can refine their digital strategies to better meet their sales goals.

Understanding VDPs and SRPs

Vehicle Detail Pages (VDPs) and Search Results Pages (SRPs) serve different purposes. VDPs are designed to showcase individual vehicles, providing detailed information including specifications, features and pricing, and high-quality images. These pages are designed to engage customers by offering a comprehensive view of a vehicle, thereby facilitating a closer connection and prompting potential buyers to take action such as making an inquiry or scheduling a test drive.

On the other hand, SRPs allow customers to view multiple vehicles at once. Typically, these pages display a list of vehicles that match the customer’s search criteria, such as model type, year, and price range. While SRPs are useful for comparing different vehicles, they do not provide the same depth of information as VDPs. This broad overview is intended to help customers narrow down their choices, but it can also lead to having too many options which can result in the prevention of decisive action.

The effectiveness of VDPs in capturing customer interest lies in their focused presentation and the detailed information they provide, which helps in building a stronger emotional connection with the vehicle. Conversely, while SRPs aim to offer variety and comparison, they often miss the mark in creating a compelling call to action, leading to lower engagement levels.

Rethinking SRP and VDP Engagement Strategies

The prevailing belief in dealership marketing has long been that guiding customers to SRPs would allow them to shop around, comparing various vehicles to find the one that best suits their needs. This approach was expected to increase engagement across the website, as customers explored different options. However, recent data challenges this assumption, revealing that SRPs often do not lead to increased engagement or sales conversions.

Observations of consumer behavior indicate a notable trend: customers directed to SRPs do not engage in browsing as traditionally believed. Instead, those who land on a VDP demonstrate a more defined intent to engage with the dealership.

Luxury Dealership

During one analysis, a luxury dealership ran a month-long paid campaign aimed at driving traffic to SRPs to showcase a broad selection of high-end vehicles. The campaign successfully generated over 2,500 clicks to SRPs. Despite the quantity of traffic, only 32% of these visitors progressed to view one or more VDP.

Import Dealership

In another example, an import dealership implemented a month-long campaign that primarily directed traffic to pages other than an SRP or VDP. The results showed that only 6% of visitors who landed on these alternative pages progressed to view one or more VDPs. Furthermore, for traffic that was directed to SRPs, only 16% of these visitors moved on to explore VDPs.

Domestic Dealership

In a separate analysis, a domestic dealership ran a month-long model-specific paid campaign that drove almost 2,000 clicks to SRPs. However, only 13% of these visitors progressed to view one or more VDPs - highlighting that a significant number of clicks on paid ads to SRPs do not translate into deeper engagement on VDPs.

In a contrasting initiative, this dealer ran a parallel campaign that directed all its traffic exclusively to VDPs.

The VDP visits from the combined campaigns resulted in one to two forms of consumer engagement each. This more focused approach led to meaningful interactions such as map views, reviewing vehicle history reports, direct communication, and lead submissions.

The analysis of various dealership campaigns reveals a clear pattern: directing traffic to SRPs consistently results in lower engagement compared to Vehicle Detail Pages. This trend, observed across different dealership types, underscores the significant shortfall in the SRP-focused strategies. In cases where traffic was sent to alternative landing pages or SRPs, a low fraction of visitors transitioned to VDPs, highlighting the inefficiency of such approaches in fostering deeper customer engagement.

Visitors who land on VDPs, however, show a higher tendency to engage in meaningful actions such as initiating a chat, calling the dealership, checking vehicle availability, or requesting information about a trade-in. This pattern emphasizes the importance of directly connecting potential buyers with VDPs.

This shift in data highlights the critical need for dealers to reassess their digital marketing strategies. Rather than relying on the breadth of SRPs, the focus should shift toward the depth and quality of engagement that VDPs offer.

Strategies for Paid Campaigns

To capitalize on the higher engagement rates of VDPs, dealerships must refine their advertising strategies. While it’s acknowledged that directing some advertising towards SRPs can be effective for capturing potential customers in the upper funnel, this should complement, rather than dominate, the dealership’s advertising strategy. SRPs can help increase awareness and introduce a broad inventory to customers who are not yet ready to make a decision but exploring their options.

However, to increase the likelihood of deeper engagement, dealerships should focus on leveraging VIN-level campaigns. Customers arriving via VIN-specific paid campaign ads are more prepared to take action, indicating a readiness that is less evident in visitors who first interact with SRPs. This strategic focus not only enhances the depth and quality of interactions but also aligns better with the ultimate goal of converting traffic into sales.

VIN-level campaigns have emerged as a highly effective method for dealerships to also focus their advertising dollars on the inventory most in need of exposure. Employing such targeted strategies ensures that marketing dollars are spent more efficiently, leading to improved return on investment and higher overall sales conversions from online traffic.

The insights gained from exploring SRP vs VDP campaigns underscore the critical shift needed in dealership marketing strategies. If dealers focus on directing potential customers straight to VDPs through VIN-optimized campaigns, they can enhance customer engagement and improve the efficiency of their advertising spend. This approach not only streamlines the path from interest to action but also maximizes the effectiveness of each interaction by aligning with the customer’s readiness to engage and purchase.