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How to start an online auto parts business Powered by

knowledge.
Here are 6 tips on how to start an online auto parts business.

These tips apply even if you just want to grow your existing

spare parts business. Auto parts is a fast-growing sector

 Blog Categories

online. Many brick & mortar retailers are coming back strong
Aftermarket
after the virus shutdown. Many of these brick & mortar
Analysis (127)
businesses are now considering getting into online retailing.
Market Research
We compare marketing techniques (104)
including Google Ads, social media Marketing Articles
marketing, email, remarketing, (112)
eCommerce platforms and more.

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 This is a good time to look at marketing ideas for a parts How Many Cars
Are There In The
business. After all, online sales of parts is now growing at more
World in 2021?
than 30% per year. Read on! June 24, 2021 -
9:00 am
1. Google Ads: fast way to Table of Contents
start an online automotive What is
automotive
parts business [ hide ]
SEO?
How to start an online June 3, 2021 -
Google
auto parts business 10:44 am
Ads can
1. Google Ads: fast way Jeep
be a fast-track to producing to start an online Demographics:
 
revenue. If you have a new automotive parts Income, Age,
Gender and
website, generating organic business
More
traf c is going to be a long-term 2. It’s important to March 10, 2021 -

effort. Paid search through have the right platform 2:17 pm

for your online car

Google Ads can get exposure for
parts business
your website quickly and really
3. Should you grow
helps start an online auto parts
your auto parts
parts business. With Google Ads,
business with
you can reach customers exactly
Facebook Ads?

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 at the point when they are 4. Optimized landing

searching for your type of pages to help grow

your auto parts
automotive products. This can
business
take the form of text search ads,
5. Auto parts
Google Shopping ads or display
marketing using
ads on the Google Display
remarketing
Network. As of November 2019,
6. Grow an online auto
Google Shopping Actions is no parts business with
longer an option for auto parts email marketing

 with speci c tment 

requirements.

All Google Ads options include the ability to target your auto

parts ads:

Location: You can set a target by country, region or city. If

shipping is a factor (you don’t want to ship heavy products

across the country) you can limit by states. If you’re

promoting an auto parts store to a local market you can

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 target ZIP codes, city boundaries or a radius around your

shop.

Device: You can target ads to show on a prospect’s

computer, mobile phone or tablets. On mobile phones you

can display hours and location information.

Time of day/day of week: You can adjust your ads to show at

certain times of the day. For example, for a local store,

display ads only when your store is open.

 Google Ads options 

You have for paid search

text ads or Google

Shopping ads. These

make marketing a spare

parts business more

ef cient.

Negative keywords:

You can prevent ads from showing with negative keywords.

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 For example, if your ad is for “rear brake pads,” exclude

searches for “front brake calipers.” Or, if your ad is for

clutches, exclude searches for women’s purses (which can

be called a “clutch”).

Keywords: You can show your ad when prospects search for

words speci c to your product. It’s important to note that

with Google Shopping ads, you don’t add keywords to any

ad listing, the “keywords” that trigger the Shopping ads are

within the data that drives the ad. That data is uploaded
 through the Google Merchant Center. 

Google Shopping Ads tend to have a good clickthrough rate

(CTR) and conversion rate, and a well-optimized product page

helps. Text-based Google Search ads direct clicks to any URL

on your website you want, and Google Shopping Ads must
direct to a nal product page.

2. It’s important to have the right platform for your

online car parts business
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 Want to know how to start an online auto parts business? Start

by using the best eCommerce platform for automotive parts.

You want to have the best car parts website you can, this is

critical.

For optimal auto parts marketing you need a website that

works well. This includes easy navigation and enough

information to educate your customers.

Site speed is also critical for the highest

 conversion rate. A slow auto parts site repels 
visitors like oil repels water. A slow site
prevents you from the ability market your auto
parts store online.

It is also important to have site navigation and structure that

works with your auto parts products. For example,

year/make/model search if you sell application-speci c

products.

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 3. Should you grow your auto parts business with
Facebook Ads?
Facebook organic reach
has been plummeting

every year. It has

dropped from over 15%

of your followers in 2015

to only 1% or less in 2021. Facebook has clearly changed from a

platform to build followers organically, to a pay-to-play social

 platform. If you want to reach a relevant audience on Facebook 
in 2021, but still keep it very targeted, Facebook Ads are an
option for you.

On the plus side, advertising on Facebook is relatively simple.

The most basic approach is to boost a post and you can do that

on a very limited budget.

We will caution you, however, after analyzing tens of thousands

of Facebook visits to websites over several years, Facebook

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 visitors to auto parts websites tend to convert to buyers at a

very low rate. Quite often we’ll see Facebook visitors convert at
a rate of 10% to 50% lower than an auto parts website’s
average conversion rate. If your site conversion rate is 1%, don’t

be surprised if Facebook visitors convert at .10% to .50%.

Other products, like apparel or home goods, may have better

conversion rates for Facebook visitors than auto parts

businesses.

 Don’t confuse the number of followers or 

“likes” you get for your online auto parts
business, with marketing that is intended to
produce sales. Look at your Google Analytics
to see how these Facebook visitors behave
when they come to your auto parts website.

Facebook has come under a lot of scrutiny for how user data is
treated. That is growing in 2020. Here is a page from Facebook

that describes how data is used to deliver Facebook Ads.

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 According to Facebook, users are targeted for ads primarily on

these factors:

Users’ activity across Facebook companies and products.

Activity with other businesses on Facebook.

Browsing activity on other websites and apps.

The physical location where you’re using Facebook.

Using Facebook Ads Manager

You manage a Facebook advertising program using Facebook

 
Ads Manager. Besides Facebook, your Facebook ads can

appear on the Facebook Audience Network, including other

websites or apps, on Instagram or on Facebook Messenger.

These are “placements.”

Best practice for Facebook Ads are similar to other online ads.

Have a clear Call to Action (CTA). In other words, what do you

want the viewer to do when the ad is displayed? What is the

bene t to the viewer? If you add a button where do you want

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 the button to lead to? Have a speci c target in mind for your

ads. If you’re trying to market your auto parts store online only

in your city, use a geographic limitation.

You should install the Facebook pixel on your website.

Facebook pixel data lets you make sure your auto parts ads are

being shown to the intended audience. It also helps you build

advertising audiences, which is simply the people you want to

target. It also lets you take advantage of other Facebook

advertising tools such as remarketing (scroll down for more of

 
an explanation on remarketing).

4. Optimized landing pages to help grow your auto

parts business
If you want to know how to start an online auto parts business

here’s a tip. Optimized landing pages for your auto products or

services increase sales.

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 An

optimized
page makes

it easier for

a customer

to take an
action or

make a

purchase.
“Golly, I’m optimizing pages all over the place!”
 When you 
optimize a page it’s more likely a visitor will click the “add to

cart” button.

Another goal of a landing page, for a local store, might be to

generate phone calls. In that case an optimized page has a

prominent number with your business hours. That number

should be clickable when viewing the page on a mobile phone.

Optimized pages lead to a better site conversion rate (see our

blog post on automotive conversion rate optimization). Your

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 “conversion rate” is the percentage of visitors that take an

action, either calling your store or making an online purchase.

Think of it this way: increase your site conversion rate from

0.50% to 1.0% and your sales double!

Landing page checklist

Here’s a checklist for designing a product landing page that

converts well:

Show a clear image(s) of the part (and for best practice on

 
auto parts images see our blog post on Google Shopping

images).

Include a headline with the part type.

Have a clear description, not just a short sentence or a

phrase with abbreviations.

Make sure the brand of the part and the manufacturer part

number are visible.

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 Show the price of the auto part and in the case of an

eCommerce store, show shipping cost.

Show in-stock status.

Have a clear Call to Action (CTA), which can be an “add to

cart” button. The CTA should stand out on the page. For

example, if everything on the page is blue and your CTA is

blue, it may be lost visually.

Reduce other distractions on the page that can grab the

viewer’s attention away from the part. Keep it clean and

 
simple. Don’t automatically throw in huge graphic banners.

5. Auto parts marketing using remarketing

Retargeting or remarketing gives you a huge competitive
advantage.

Even if you’ve optimized your marketing efforts, most site

visitors leave a site they’ve visited for the rst time without

making a purchase.

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 This is

the

opposite of your conversion rate, which we de ned at the top

of this article.

 For auto parts websites, typically 97% to 99% 

of website visitors leave without buying
anything. This is why remarketing is a good
option. It brings visitors who didn’t purchase
anything back to your website.

With an online auto parts store, it’s easy for visitors to get

distracted, lose interest, not nd what they’re looking for, or

simply browse your competitors.

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 What if you had a way to chase after all the customers who left

your online store? You do! It’s retargeting, also called

remarketing. Not only does it give you the opportunity to

remind past visitors to come on back to your online store,

you’re reaching a highly engaged audience.

How retargeting works

Retargeting puts a cookie in your website visitors’ browsers,

and that cookie triggers your ad to show on the Google Display

 Network (GDN). This is the largest display network in the 

world, but most people just don’t realize it’s Google because

the Google logo doesn’t appear anywhere. The GDN literally

covers 2 million websites.

With remarketing, you don’t have to guess where your site

visitors went. Your ad automatically displays to them on 2

million websites. Remarketing is a powerful way to increase

brand awareness through multiple touchpoints. It’s also cost-

effective: the Google Display Network is based on cost per

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 click, so unless someone clicks on the ad, it appears at no cost.

This gives you a free brand campaign to market your auto parts

store online!

6. Grow an online auto parts business with email

marketing
Did you know a repeat customer is
worth 3 to 7 times the cost of a

new one? You can see how the

 math works in our lifetime value 
article. Lifetime value is

abbreviated as “LTV.” In that

article we show how one new auto

parts customer can be worth several hundred dollars over two

or three years.

Our article on LTV shows how you can pay $12

to acquire one new customer, who then

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 contributes $147 to your bottom line over
three years.

Once someone buys from you, or even asks to be added to your

mailing list, you have their email address. That’s valuable!

An extremely cost-effective way to sales is with email

marketing campaigns.

Develop a relationship with your customers via email. Send out

regular updates if they’re opted in to your email newsletters.

 This can be weekly or monthly. Send out deals and new

automotive products you’re adding to your store. The better
you nurture your lead, the more your customer will come back
for more and buy your products.

Setup triggered email automation campaigns to send a

personalized “thank you” message with the customer’s name

and product details.

Tips for email subject lines

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 It’s important to have your email opened and read, and that in

turn is related to your subject line. Here are some tips for a
subject line:

Personalize your subject line and include your customer’s

name. Most email platforms have elds where you can add

rst and last names.

Be speci c about your email message.

Get your customer to think by asking a relevant question.

 Don’t assume you have to offer a discount! Many times just 

staying in front of your online customers, or telling them
about a new product, is enough.

If you have the resources and a large enough customer base,

you can segment your email database list. This lets you send

information on products to Chevy owners, or Ford products to

Ford owners.

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 TAGS: AUTO PARTS WEBSITE DESIGN, AUTOMOTIVE DIGITAL MARKETING,


AUTOMOTIVE SEO PPC, CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION, GOOGLE ADS, SELLING
AUTO PARTS ONLINE

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