Digital Marketing Co-Op Information

Owned by Kyle Sharrer
Aug 31, 2023
3 min read

This SOP is a work in progress. If you notice anything that is out of date, could be more clear or could be more efficient please update the SOP or add a comment to start a conversation.

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to outline the process of Co-Oping and its effects in a client’s digital marketing services.

What Is Co-Oping?

When a client advertises for an Original Equipment Manufacturer, or OEM, they are often eligible to receive a certain percentage of their website or marketing spend back from that brand if they can prove to the OEM that they follow the OEM's Co-Op Guidelines.

A dealer typically needs to submit all advertising claims to the OEM within a certain period of time from spending their marketing or website dollars so assisting dealers with co-op requests in a timely manner is important. 

Co-Op Campaigns: 

Each OEM has different requirements that the dealer must meet depending on what services they are trying to get co-oping approved.

Dealer Spike and ARI have relationships with many OEMs and are kept up to date with the latest co-op guidelines. To see approved OEMs and their co-op requirements head to the OEM Co-Op Info sheet. That said, you may need to reach out to your dealer to get the latest co-op guidelines if the info we have is out of date. 

Website

If a dealer reaches out to you needing to make updates to their website to follow their OEM's co-op guidelines, reach out to their CS rep and work with Support to make any needed changes to the website.

Examples:

  • Updating the OEM logo throughout the website to the most recent image

  • Updating the listed price on the OEM's inventory on the dealer's site

SEO

For SEO, dealers primarily need to show the OEM:

  • A site URL dedicated to the OEM

  • An SEO/content plan guided by an SEO audit and local keyword research specific to the brand

  • Plans to monitor local search ranks for keywords relevant to the brand

  • Plans to provide technical and content recommendations for improving organic traffic to the site for the brand

 

This means, for an SEO rep, it is important to have:

  • A dedicated ILP for the manufacturer that is optimized (H1, Title, Description, FeaturedBanner)

  • A keyword group in SEOMonitor with keywords that have search volume related to the brand 

  • A plan for keeping any OEM content (FeaturedBanner, Pagefooters, Blogs) up to date with relevant OEM information

SEM

Each SEM co-op is separated into its own campaign in AdWords. This means that all of the manufacturer's search ads will be in an individual campaign with the title of the campaign specifying that particular make. Separating the co-op campaigns allows us to:

  • Easily build the reports after the month

  • Allocate individual budgets to particular makes

  • Easily analyze the overall stats of an individual make

Troubleshooting

If you have any questions about Co-Oping or need assistance with a dealer request reach out to the co-op team at co-op@dealerspike.com

Use the following template in your email body:
 

Hello Co-op,

Dealer Name | Dealer Contact Name | Dealer Contact Phone Number | Dealer Contact Email | Website URL

Task:

In the Task section, explain your request to the team.

 

For Example:

Hello Co-op,

Cummings Small Engine | Mark Nanosky | (204) 237-4911 | marknan@hotmail.com | https://www.cseswpg.com/

Task:

This client would like to co-op 100% of his SEO campaign with Husqvarna. Does your team have the 2020 guidelines?