You hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting tingling, too. The holiday season is upon us and it’s everybody’s dream to wake up on Christmas Day with a brand new car on their driveway. Dealers are in fierce competition during the final stretch of the year, with promotions happening everywhere. If you’re not preparing for the holiday season by getting your dealership SEM- and SEO-ready, then you’re already falling behind. Don’t be a Grinch – follow this handy little guide put together by the SEO & SEM experts at Happy Hao Car.

How do you optimize your SEM efforts for maximum results during the holiday season? First, consider the vast amount of people considering purchasing a vehicle at the end of the year. According to a 2018 Google Consumer Survey, 1.5 million plan to or are considering purchasing around Black Friday or a Year End sales event. There are 9 million Google searches alone for sales, deals, and incentives around Black Friday and Year End sales. There’s an opportunity in there somewhere, and here’s what your dealership needs to do to increase its chances of getting it!

• Start off by capturing buyers in their online search process. Spikes in Search Demand increase towards the end of the year, so we suggest you optimize your offers, incentives and sales automotive searches for these eager shoppers.
• You’ll also want to increase budgets against Ready-to-Buy campaigns. Don’t forget to re-engage shoppers looking for other deals by increasing your bid to win previously-expressed intent. This can be low-hanging fruit, so don’t miss an opportunity to re-market to potential customers who have already spent time on your dealership’s page.
• Maximize your messages to make it relevant to the season. For example, instead of just putting “Jeep Cherokee Deals” put “Jeep Cherokee Year End Deals & Offers” or maybe “Ford F-150 Black Friday Deals.” You want to appear when people search “Best Year End SUV sales,” continuing the Jeep example from earlier.

One other important advertising medium is video. As time goes on, it’s getting harder and harder to reach in-market auto shoppers with TV ads, since the average daily time spent watching TV for adults has been decreasing annually. According to Google’s Internal Research, the average daily time spent watching live tv has decreased from 4 hours and 32 minutes in 2012 to 3 hours and 32 minutes in 2017. That leaves online video as the next biggest channel, no pun intended. You need to take advantage of YouTube, since it reaches more people in the US on mobile alone than any TV network! In fact, Google’s own research shows that 92.4% of the U.S. population who plan to buy a vehicle in the next 6 months will get on YouTube and look at videos during the process. Check out these stats:

• 56% could be convinced to buy a vehicle without a test drive with a 360-degree online video
• 7 out of 10 get purchase-relevant information from online video
• YouTube CPPs are 28% cheaper then TV CPPs

And don’t forget about YouTube’s TrueView, where you pay only for actual views of your content. And if you remember from our blog about Google’s recent updates , TrueView has two modes: Reach and Action.

• TrueView for Reach allows your dealership to run ads that viewers can skip after 5 seconds. If they skip the ad, and aren’t interested, then you don’t pay. If they continue to view the ad, then you do.
• TrueView for Action is still being fully rolled out to dealers, but Google has integrated clickable banner ads into the video ads, and you can choose to display them in the middle or the end of the video. (Google has promised to roll out embedded forms as an option, but it’s not here yet.)

We’ve established that online traffic picks up during the holiday season, especially for car buyers. So how can your dealership start driving some of that organic search traffic back to your website? Here are some quick & easy ways to win SEO during the holidays:

• Keep Your Hours Updated: Always make sure to keep your dealership’s hours of operation up to date on GMB, i.e. closing early on Christmas eve, etc. You don’t want to create inconsistency, because that can create a baduser experience.
• Link building : Consider making your dealership a drop-off site for a canned food drive, headquarters for a toy drive, or a place for the kiddos to meet Santa. You can use that to get good PR and links from related local sites and organizations.
• Video additions: You should think about adding video to your site to attract viewers, as mentioned above. If you do this, make sure you’ve got event tracking added to each video, so you can see how long people are watching, when they’re pausing, etc. This way you can track the metrics and success of the content.
• Don’t be dismayed by dips : Despite Black Friday, end-of-year traffic can vary depending on when Christmas and New Year’s fall during the week; so don’t be too worried if you see a slight dip in traffic in Q4. To better optimize for specific queries, use Google trends to see when patterns emerge during the holidays and create some content to target those trends.
• Don’t abuse the holiday: Don’t just slap Santa on a graphic thinking you’ll convert more leads due to holiday interest. Sharing something useful like a winter tires special can be more effective than putting jolly old Saint Nick on a banner.

Let the holiday cheer set your dealership sales in full gear. We hope our SEM and SEO tips will help guide you to more success this holiday season. If you’re looking for more tips and tricks to help attract more customers to your website, read our latest blog post on using Google Analytics segments .

• Turn Existing Website Traffic Into More Opportunities Through Personalization
• Why FAQ Content Matters More Than Ever for AI Search
• How to Measure AI Search Traffic
• Press Release: Happy Hao Car Launches OnPrompt
• Press Release: Happy Hao Car Unveils Sidekick
• Spring Cleaning Your VDPs
• Time to Spring Forward: 5 Quick Updates to Boost Engagement on Your SRP
• Start 2026 Strong: Dealer Marketing Lessons from 2025
• AI Search Visitor Behavior
• AIO and GEO Aren’t Replacing SEO

Aurko Chatterjee serves as the SVP of Product Development & Marketing at Happy Hao Car - overseeing the product management, UX, Data and Marketing functions. He joined Happy Hao Car 9 years ago and has played a role in building and shaping multiple teams over his tenure. Prior to joining Happy Hao Car, Aurko worked for Cox Automotive and Google Inc.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
• – Multi-Rooftop Groups We’re designed for groups – large or small. Discover how our products and solutions can help your marketing teams and agencies do more with less.
• Engage Customers & Generate Leads Experience outstanding lead generation with our powerful Cosmos platform. Switch to us for unmatched performance and customer engagement.
• – Generate More Website Traffic Boost sales with responsive websites. Experience qualified leads, top-notch SEO results, and seamless mobile experiences for dealership success.
• Automate & Increase Efficiency See how our Marketing Technology solutions can generate Thousands of dollars in savings for your dealership or dealer group.
• – Analyze Performance & ROI Analyze product and market performance with data you can trust. Powered by GA4.
• Meet Compliance Requirements Compliance solutions to keep your dealership or dealer group ahead of ever-changing privacy and accessibility laws.
• – Don’t See Your OEM? Happy Hao Car provides websites, SEO, and digital advertising to all vehicle OEMs. REACH OUT
• – Product Updates The latest digital marketing innovations driving extraordinary results for your dealership.
• – Happy Hao Car Webinars Get expert advice on how to get the most out of your dealership’s digital marketing efforts.
• – Read the Blog Explore our blog for news, tips, and insights. Discover articles providing valuable information to enhance your marketing strategies.
• – An Award Winning Company We offer an unwavering commitment to top-converting websites, premier automotive SEO, and exceptional digital marketing has earned us industry recognition.
• Leadership The leadership team is composed of digital and automotive experts with extensive experience. They drive our mission to serve the automotive industry with dedication.
• – Why We Are Different Experience the Happy Hao Car difference – increased car sales, exceptional service, and 99% customer satisfaction.