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Creative use of Car Pics.

@craigh, that is a time magazine based doodle :cool: . A few thoughts on this:
  1. Magazines layouts are portrait, car photos are landscape (following the shape of the car itself). This format could work well on a non-SRP/VDP page.
  2. I tinkered with adding the dealer branding and all it did was 'crowd' the area, take away from the product itself and thereby killing the impact.
  3. Remember, the highest ROI of this work is to cause a high CTR in marketplace SRPs (see below). Once a creative, high impact format is chosen, then that format itself becomes the dealers brand. Said in another way, using a shopper's voice, until I get into the final hour of car shopping, "which dealer" isn't top of mind. As a shopper, returning back to my fav classified site, all the SRP images look the same and I find that --strong yet artful-- SRP image a helpful way CTA.

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IMPORTANT:
  1. Car Dealers are do'ers, they get shit done, they are NOT creatives. It would be wise dealers find an agency to craft and execute this.
  2. This creative work passes the DISC test, but it is a time suck and is expensive. Run a trial on 10 of your oldest units and watch the CTR and lead gen on these units.
 
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MarketPlaces treat your VINs like commodities, you need SRP wow-factor!

My creative effort attempts to create high CTRs with SRP wow-factor --and-- deliver helpful info to boost the VINs USP.

CTR = Click Thru Rate
SRP = Search Results Page
USP = Unique Selling Proposition

Ol' Uncle Joe's back in the lab :unclejoe: and sharing the creative juice! If you try this on your VINs, Please share what your doing and what you found!
Remember, you heard it on DR 1st!
 
I really like the idea for marketplaces - goal is to get the click to the VDP.

For our own 1st party websites, I'd say that clean, non-doodle versions are best, assuming that elsewhere on the VDP we can clearly clarify and identify the top selling points of the vehicle for the customer.

Might be a weird question, but how do you manage your photo feed if you have 2 separate "1st photos", knowing you want the clean version for your site, and the doodle version for marketplaces.
 
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I really like the idea for marketplaces - goal is to get the click to the VDP.

For our own 1st party websites, I'd say that clean, non-doodle versions are best, assuming that elsewhere on the VDP we can clearly clarify and identify the top selling points of the vehicle for the customer.

Might be a weird question, but how do you manage your photo feed if you have 2 separate "1st photos", knowing you want the clean version for your site, and the doodle version for marketplaces.
Create a separate feed for marketplaces with the doodle version.
 
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✨ AI Highlights

Joe Pistell argues that adding people and bold text overlays to vehicle listing photos increases CTR and VDP views on SRPs, drawing on social media best practices and real GA4 data showing fully-photographed new arrivals generating 8.5 median VDP views per day versus 0.3–1.0 for photo-pending units. The thread evolves into a debate about photo quality, pre-recon versus frontline shots, and overlay design aesthetics, with members sharing camera gear recommendations and AI-generated overlay alternatives. The key takeaway is that getting high-quality photos live immediately upon arrival, paired with a 'New Arrival' annotation, measurably drives more engagement before a car ever hits the front line.

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