It doesn’t take visions of Minority Report to call to mind questions about personalized advertising. We’re seeing it today in the automotive industry through advertising circuits such as search, banners, and social media. Can car dealers increase sales by taking advantage of more modern advertising practices?

The answer in the past has always been to blanket the market. That takes money and as recent reports have shown it doesn’t demonstrate a proportionate increase in sales. Today, the technology exists for dealers to be more targeted, placing the proper message on the right advertising mediums to yield stronger results without necessarily increasing their budget. The key to it all is in the data.

For decades, “business intelligence” has been the common term used to describe market research and data accumulation that produces recommendations on what to say, where to say it, and who to say it to through advertising. This is nothing new. What’s different today is that the internet allows for a much faster accumulation of data while faster computers and more intelligent algorithms can parse the data to give much stronger recommendations than ever before.

An example of all of this coming together can be found in String Automotive. The data analytics company serves the automotive industry in general and car dealers in particular to give them a more robust understanding of their market. They’re able to give the right targeting advice by looking at where the sales are happening and where they’re most likely to happen in the future.

Moreover, they pull data from various sources to gain an understanding of which venues work properly for the target audience. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not all about Google. Consumers are influenced by multiple messages across an omni-channel atmosphere that requires more than intuition or common sense to properly navigate.

This brings the final piece of the puzzle into focus: messaging. Today’s consumer is not as driven by price as they have been in that past. That’s not to say that they aren’t after a great deal. However, the perception is that a deal at one place can be matched or beaten by a deal at another place. Dealers trying to differentiate strictly through price-based advertising aren’t just advertising for themselves. They’re advertising for their competitors as well.

The real key in messaging is to make it unique. It must stand out and represent the dealership in a way that makes them different from their competitors. Messages about experience, transparency, and lifestyle alignment tend to outperform price-based ads when it comes to actually increasing sales at the dealership level.

Today’s consumers are better-equipped than ever before. This means that dealers who really want to expand must find their growth within smarter advertising rather than more of the same.