Effective Advertising Strategies for Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicle (EV) sales grew by 66% year-over-year in Q1 2023 as consumer demand for more sustainable vehicles increases and federal tax credits incentivize shoppers. Translate demand for EVs into sales with an advertising strategy for shoppers at all stages of the buying journey.

Demand-based Advertising for EVs

Paid search is a demand-based advertising tactic where ads are served to users who are actively using Google and Bing to search for the vehicles that you are advertising. Capture high-quality leads with prominent positions at the top of the search results and utilize machine learning that identifies users ready to purchase.

Low Funnel: Users In-market for Your Electric Vehicle

Connect with the users most ready to purchase by bidding on the keywords that demonstrate the highest intent to convert with your dealership. Focus your ad spend on keywords related to EVs from your OEM, buying EVs that your dealership carries, model years, leasing information, and your dealership’s location.

Mid Funnel: Users In-market for Electric Vehicles at Large

Lead users who are already searching for EVs to your dealership by targeting broader EV-related keywords. Drive shoppers to your dealership’s website with ads that speak to electric vehicle-specific capabilities instead of the standard metrics like miles per gallon.

High Funnel: Users In-market for Your Competitor’s Electric Vehicle

Feeling ambitious? Level up your EV lead generation by pursuing users searching for your direct competition. Conquest your competition’s traffic by bidding on keywords containing their OEM and EV models.

Push Advertising

Connect to users with similar attributes to your existing customer base with a holistic push-marketing strategy across display, social media, YouTube, and OTT advertising. Push advertising can help your lead generation through low-funnel remarketing and in-market ads. It can also boost future brand awareness through higher funnel, managed placements, affinity, and demographic targeting.

Low Funnel: Remarketing

Target users who visited your website with remarketing ads personalized to each user with inventory details based on their browsing history. Leverage dynamic ad tech to target users with ads that feature the same inventory they viewed on your website, while it is still in stock. Serving highly-relevant remarketing ads for each user with dynamic inventory display ads can dramatically impact the ROI of your ad campaigns.

Low to Mid Funnel: Users In-market for Your Electric Vehicle

Leverage Google-supplied in-market audiences or Polk Auto Direct prospecting audiences to target users. Focus on users who have been identified from their previous searches and actions as in-market for the EV models sold by your dealership.

Mid Funnel: Users In-market for Electric Vehicles at Large

Reach a broader audience by filtering Google-supplied in-market audiences or Polk prospecting audiences to target users who previously searched for electric vehicles. These users are still in the research stage of their purchase journey so you want your ads to highlight how your OEM’s EVs stand out compared to the competition and the incentives you offer.

High Funnel: Users In-market for Your Competitor’s Electric Vehicle

If you have effectively connected with low, low-mid, and mid-funnel users and want to expand your target audience further, use your competition’s audience to boost conversions with conquest advertising. This tactic serves ads to in-market users interested in buying the same or comparable product or service from your OEM competitors.

Is your dealership optimizing its digital advertising strategy to attract electric vehicle shoppers? Request a free digital analysis to understand the competitive landscape. We’ll take a snapshot of your dealership’s digital presence and provide customized recommendations to generate more high-quality leads.