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Do well written comments make a difference?

May 22, 2019
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Kyle
Hey guys, I'm new to DealerRefresh but I have been doing a lot of reading on here the past few months. Anyways, I wanted to ask you guys about the comment sections of your online ads. I know a lot of dealers use Vauto, but the ads they produce are trash. Many of you say that comments don't matter and people read too fast, but I would disagree. Buying a car is a huge purchase for anyone and I feel as though the more information they can get before going into your dealership the better. Does anyone hand write all of their vehicle descriptions for their dealership? If so, do you have any metrics or data that shows that well written comments are beneficial?
 
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Hey guys, I'm new to DealerRefresh but I have been doing a lot of reading on here the past few months. Anyways, I wanted to ask you guys about the comment sections of your online ads. I know a lot of dealers use Vauto, but the ads they produce are trash. Many of you say that comments don't matter and people read too fast, but I would disagree. Buying a car is a huge purchase for anyone and I feel as though the more information they can get before going into your dealership the better. Does anyone hand write all of their vehicle descriptions for their dealership? If so, do you have any metrics or data that shows that well written comments are beneficial?

Descriptions are important for a couple reasons:

Descriptions that describe the vehicle’s trim, brings attention to any options/packages, AND any value add’s that a dealer offers with any car sold like car washes, service plans, etc etc are going to engage shoppers much more than a running list of crap like “power windows, radio, cloth seats, anti lock brakes, etc etc” is going to. It takes some additional work to make sure the descriptions are working for you instead of taking up room on a VDP, but it’s well worth it. Buyers want to know what the vehicle includes, but they don’t need to be told it comes with things that have been standard for years now.

They drive SEO. Idk if they drive an ungodly amount of SEO, but they def make an impact.

My two cents, anyway!

EDIT: There are some great description generators out there that will make it a much easier process, but any of my dealers I’ve worked with over the last 6 years or so that spend a few more minutes tweaking each description typically saw better visitor engagement compared to those who didn’t. I don’t know anybody who writes them 100% themselves though.
 
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There are systems out there that will enable you to understand the popularity of keywords and keyword combinations and against search volume. I wouldn't bet the house on those types of tools, but I have used them for some success and that includes description generation for paid ads, organic blog post titles and content, etc. They can be invaluable at times, but that needs to be measured (that's the obvious key). Every demographic is going to respond differently, so there are real no benchmarks that exist or red shiny button(s) or true panacea.

If your question is in reference to paid ads, such as Google Ads, then there are 3rd party parsing applications (Kenshoo, Marin, etc.) which will pull (via inventory feed) from a VINs (used) attributes and dynamically populate them within a description, etc.
 
I would echo what Chance said.
Comments are also a nice way to differentiate a VDP from every other vehicle like that one, especially for the search engines.
I don't know that customers actually read them (in many heatmaps we've done, it's hit or miss), but I know that some of the third party sites also index the comments. This means that searching for "rav4 bluetooth" could only show vehicles that have a comment mentioning the fact that the car has bluetooth.

I would argue that photos are still more important, especially the ones that show which features the vehicle has, but comments are worth the minimal time they take.
 
I'd echo what @Chance Mayfield said above.

You may also want to think about the value adds that differentiate the vehicle that are not typically in the standard inventory data feed. What did you do to recon the vehicle? Did you put new tires on the car? Is it a one-owner? How does it compare to similar vehicles for sale in your market? Does it have lower mileage? Is it priced more aggressively? Clean accident history? All of those things have a tangible or intangible value to your consumer.

As an aside, we use a natural language processing AI engine to scan custom comments in listings for value adds like "new tires" in our deal badge evaluations and Market Reports. Again, echoing everybody else, but it is worth the time investment to differentiate the vehicle through custom comments.
 
The quality of the comment is less important than the intention behind it. A good review is like a personal atta' boy to the staff and managment. Although i do strive to provide a great expierience for the customer, im confident in my units and ultimatley find myaelf goimg above and beyond out of fear for the bad review. Theres no way to truley defend or explain your side of a negative review in an internet based world. The stigma set by our predecessors still hangs over our head, and paints us as the bad guy 100% of the time. I take cars back 99% of the time with a full refund if thats what the customer wants. Im confident in our units, but more importantly i understand that our vlients time is just as valuable as ours.

Hey guys, I'm new to DealerRefresh but I have been doing a lot of reading on here the past few months. Anyways, I wanted to ask you guys about the comment sections of your online ads. I know a lot of dealers use Vauto, but the ads they produce are trash. Many of you say that comments don't matter and people read too fast, but I would disagree. Buying a car is a huge purchase for anyone and I feel as though the more information they can get before going into your dealership the better. Does anyone hand write all of their vehicle descriptions for their dealership? If so, do you have any metrics or data that shows that well written comments are beneficial?
 
I think photos (lots of them, and with good lighting) and your website VIN decoding and listing features overall is more important. That being said we are using a comment/description directory that we are paying for to expedite the description creation process. Some of the language is a little weird - but its better than what I would call the "throwup" from the VIN decode that you typically see from vAuto backends. You know, the "Vehicle Brand, Model, Engine, Trim, Bluetooth, Trunk Monkey, Third Row" that typically is displayed. I can't stand it. I think it should still exists for third parties to pull from, but your well written, and somewhat personal comments make your dealership potentially stand out.
 
We write custom ads for every vehicle that we sell, though we do not have a sale inventory of 300 cars or even 100 cars so it is manageable.

Our ads show the benefits of the features the car has and hopefully draws excitement to the car. Our goal is that the customer is already 100% in love with the vehicle when they show up to test drive. Descriptions along with great photos leads to fulfilled expectations and a 50+% close ratio on vehicle appointments.