Websites, SEO, SEM, Display, Social, Marketing

The thread explores whether dealership GMs should be required to have and use Facebook accounts, prompted by the observation that dealers consistently underspend on paid social media compared to classifieds and paid search. George Nenni raises the challenge of educating decision-makers who have no personal Facebook experience, making it harder to sell them on the platform's ability to drive sales and service traffic. The key insight is that a GM's lack of firsthand familiarity with Facebook may be a root cause of dealer underinvestment in social advertising.

Alexander Lau discusses Google's introduction of lead ads on YouTube, positioning it as a significant but underappreciated announcement from Google Marketing Live that finally gives advertisers a YouTube equivalent to Facebook's successful lead ads product. He references the historical evolution of lead generation tactics in digital advertising and emphasizes the potential value of this new YouTube feature for the automotive and other industries.

The thread debates the practical utility and misuse of Google's Impression Share metric in automotive SEM campaigns, with participants highlighting how vendors can manipulate the data (through keyword broadening, radius expansion, or accelerated spend tactics) to either justify budget increases or claim success. Key insights include that Impression Share stops measuring once daily budgets are depleted, making it unreliable for evaluating true performance, and that dealers must understand Google Ads mechanics deeply enough to spot anomalies and ask vendors the right questions rather than relying on any single metric. The consensus is that Impression Share can be useful as one indicator among many (like cost-per-engagement and actual site behavior), but only within properly structured campaigns and paired with scrutiny of vendor motivations.

Dealer Authority's Erika Simms discusses the importance of keyword research in SEO strategy, highlighting their team's approach to testing and reporting results. Alexander Lau responds by emphasizing that the real measure of SEO success isn't just keyword rankings—it's whether those rankings actually convert into business results, a point Simms acknowledges as fundamental to their methodology. The key insight is that dealerships should prioritize SEO services that deliver keyword conversion metrics, not just top search positions.

A new automotive marketing professional asks for guidance on setting up Google Analytics goals for Dealer.com sites, and receives practical advice including a shared GA template and recommendation to use custom events rather than URL-based goal tracking for more accurate conversion data. The discussion expands into a broader suggestion that pre-built, automotive-specific GA dashboards tailored to major website platforms would be a valuable tool for the industry, though no such resource currently exists.

Alexander Lau alerts dealers to Google's new Data-Driven Attribution model, a simplified, beta version of Attribution 360 designed to make sophisticated attribution analysis accessible to advertisers of all sizes. He emphasizes that Google's attribution tools will provide more accurate metrics across Google's ecosystem compared to third-party solutions, making them a compelling reason to rely on Google Analytics. The thread highlights Google's ongoing improvements to attribution, including enhanced capabilities for YouTube's TrueView for Action ads.

GM dealers (Cadillac, Buick/GMC, Chevrolet) are experiencing a sharp drop in referral traffic from OEM websites starting mid-June, though the links appear functional and secure. Possible causes discussed include a major website redesign, broken dealer locator mapping features, or a technical issue with cookies/tokens/pixels on GM's sites. The consensus suggestion is that this is likely a technical glitch rather than a deliberate change, though GM contacts deny awareness of any issues.

The thread discusses strategies for auto dealerships to accumulate Facebook reviews, emphasizing that while there's no quick fix, many dealers struggle more with review volume than quality. The key insight is that having fewer than 10 Facebook reviews signals a negative impression to prospects, making it important for dealerships to actively encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews rather than relying on organic feedback.

The thread offers a practical guide for auto dealerships looking to build their Facebook review count from scratch, emphasizing that there are no shortcuts and that genuine customer experience is the foundation. The key insight is that for many dealers the problem isn't bad reviews but simply too few of them, and having fewer than 10 reviews sends a negative signal to potential customers. The post outlines actionable steps to encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews and reach that critical first 100.

Dealers discuss Carfax's new used car listing portal and whether it can compete with AutoTrader and Cars.com, with mixed optimism about its potential. Key concerns include the sloppy rollout, lack of promised national advertising, and data quality issues, though some dealers appreciate Carfax's dealer-friendly approach (no VDP ads, no bidding for search placement). The consensus is cautiously optimistic that Carfax's strong consumer brand recognition ("show me the Carfax") gives it a real shot at disrupting the market if execution improves, but real-world adoption and results remain unclear.

Automotive industry professionals debate whether "digital retailing" solutions actually exist, given the lack of a standard definition—most current offerings are simply online shopping carts rather than truly digital end-to-end transactions. The consensus is that existing vendors are overselling features as "digital retailing" when they merely digitize portions of the traditional sales process, and dealers report these tools often generate mediocre results because they ignore the reality that most car buyers still want human interaction and won't complete sight-unseen purchases online. The key insight is that any effective digital retail solution must be deeply integrated with in-store processes and adapted to different dealer types, markets, and customer demographics—not just a standalone checkout feature.

Jeff Kershner asks for feedback on DealerScience's lease and finance website plugin for his Mercedes dealership, seeking to increase lease penetration. Responses are mixed: one user reports positive engagement metrics and appreciates the automated specials feature despite initial deployment issues, while others cite poor user experience, mobile responsiveness problems, limited customization options, and technical integration issues that have led them to avoid or discontinue the tool. The consensus suggests the product may benefit certain dealerships but has significant UX and compatibility concerns that warrant careful evaluation before implementation.

George Nenni shares best practices for setting up Google My Business departmental listings for fixed operations, based on advice from DealerOn's Greg Gifford, including keeping Google-generated names, adding dealer identifiers with dashes, using unique phone numbers, and deep-linking to department pages with UTM codes. Jason notes that dealers can also manually create and verify service department listings when they don't already exist in Google. The key insight is that properly structured departmental GMB listings can improve local search visibility for fixed ops departments when set up correctly.

A dealer's Google My Business listing repeatedly reverts from a UTM-tagged URL back to the root URL, despite George Nenni's successful implementation of this tracking method for dozens of other dealers. The community suggests multiple potential causes including redirects (http/https or www/non-www mismatches), indexing issues, competing services like Yext overriding changes, or unauthorized account access—with the most likely culprit appearing to be other users or agencies with access to the GMB account making changes.

Dealers are allegedly being charged multiple times by the same vendors—first for website hosting and traffic, then again for third-party leads, and a third time for SEM/retargeting services—because companies like Oracle, BlueKai, and Lotame are purchasing and reselling visitor data from dealer sites and lead aggregators like AutoTrader and Cars.com. While participants confirm this practice is real and buried in fine print, opinions diverge on whether it's problematic: some argue it's unethical double-dipping that warrants contractual data-ownership protections, while others contend that anonymized data usage is standard in the digital economy and may actually improve targeting. The thread underscores a fundamental tension between dealers' desire to own their customer data and vendors' business models that monetize that information.

A software engineer asks whether they need to be a verified vendor to build a custom website for a Honda dealership in California, replacing Dealer Inspire with a fully custom solution integrated with the dealership's existing third-party vendors (Reynolds & Reynolds, vAuto, Gubagoo, etc.). The discussion reveals that while verified vendor status isn't strictly required for secondary websites, building a custom automotive website is substantially complex—requiring deep knowledge of inventory management, OEM compliance (especially for Honda), and third-party integrations—and would typically warrant a six-figure project fee plus ongoing support costs. The consensus suggests this is an ambitious undertaking that goes beyond typical dealer website projects and should only be pursued if the developer has significant technical expertise and the dealership is prepared for substantial investment.

Alexander Lau explores FOMO (fear of missing out) marketing tactics and social proof notifications as underutilized tools for dealership websites, sharing examples like "Bob S. scheduled a Test Drive" notifications and browser push notification software. Joe Pistell and Ryan Everson contribute by sharing screenshots of similar "Reverse Transparency" VDP features they've built, suggesting these engagement tools have proven effective in the past. The key insight is that while FOMO and push notification technology could drive customer re-engagement and conversions for dealers, these tactics remain surprisingly uncommon in the automotive industry despite their demonstrated potential.

Brian Michael West from Dealer Authority provides a step-by-step guide for automotive dealerships to effectively use Instagram Highlights—the feature that displays archived stories prominently on profile pages. The post emphasizes strategic planning and organization, suggesting dealers categorize highlights by customer photos, reviews, or local content to create a functional and visually appealing profile. The key insight is that Instagram Highlights should serve dual purposes: being both aesthetically engaging and practically useful for showcasing dealer-specific information to potential customers.

Dealership marketing professionals are failing to regularly review their mobile websites despite mobile traffic now accounting for 40%+ of site visits, largely because they work on desktops all day and their own tools aren't mobile-friendly. While the thread acknowledges this challenge, contributors emphasize that testing mobile experiences is non-negotiable and easily done through browser tools or online simulators, and that every department head should be responsible for auditing their section weekly. The broader implication: with Google's shift to mobile-first indexing, ignoring mobile site quality directly impacts search rankings and customer experience.

The thread distinguishes between ROI (Return on Investment), a pure financial metric, and ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment), arguing that dealers and vendors often misuse 'ROI' when they actually mean ROMI. The core insight is that marketing spend has broader objectives than simple financial return, and conflating the two terms leads to flawed evaluation of marketing effectiveness. Understanding the distinction helps automotive professionals make more accurate decisions about where and how to allocate marketing budgets.

Dealers discuss the effectiveness and mechanics of display advertising and retargeting, with particular focus on transparency about ad placements, pricing models (CPM, CPC, CPL, CPS), and ROI measurement. Key insights include that local network placements (newspapers, TV station websites) typically underperform compared to larger networks with behavioral targeting capabilities, and that cost-per-lead (CPL) models are more practical than cost-per-sale for automotive since conversions happen offline. Experienced participants emphasize the importance of strong creative messaging, good analytics, retargeting components, and working with agencies to negotiate better rates rather than attempting display campaigns independently.

A dealer claims Manheim ran their vehicle with a green light (no issues disclosed) instead of the requested red light (issues disclosed), resulting in a higher sale price than warranted, and questions Manheim's integrity as a middleman. Responses suggest the dealer's complaint may be unreasonable and legally difficult to pursue, with one experienced buyer recommending at best Manheim should offer a free re-run rather than additional compensation. The thread highlights disagreement over whether Manheim bears responsibility for the listing error and what appropriate remediation would be.