Automotive Alchemy
Welcome to 'Automotive Alchemy', a podcast that dwells in the cavernous depths of data, unearthing precious gems of wisdom to illuminate your path to digital marketing success. As alchemists, we understand that each nugget of information is a vital ingredient in our elixir of knowledge. So ready yourselves as we embark on an enlightening journey through the arcane world of data-driven automotive marketing.
Automotive Alchemy
Automotive CTV: What Every Car Dealer Should Immediately Add To Their Marketing Plan
What if you could revolutionize your automotive advertising strategy and leave your competitors in the dust? Jeff Clark from Dealer Alchemist joins us to explore the seismic shift from traditional linear TV to Connected TV (CTV) and Over-The-Top (OTT) media. Discover how media consumption patterns in 2023 have evolved, with streaming becoming the dominant force, and how devices like Fire TV and Roku are now household staples. We dive into the transformative impact these changes have on targeting potential car buyers, providing a more cost-effective and precise advertising method.
Imagine being able to tailor your advertisements to the specific needs and preferences of a potential BMW buyer, delivering personalized content that speaks directly to them. In this episode, we break down the effectiveness of CTV advertising strategies and how they harness real-time data for unparalleled audience targeting. Jeff and I discuss the importance of understanding consumer journeys, especially for high-value purchases like vehicles, and how this personalized approach can significantly enhance customer relationships and drive sales. We also share real-life examples of local dealers outshining their larger competitors by leveraging these advanced advertising techniques.
Finally, we address the pressing need for car dealers to rethink their marketing strategies and embrace modern digital tools. From creating tailored campaigns for different vehicle buyers to reimagining their approach in the face of shifting consumer behaviors, it's clear that adapting to CTV and OTT is no longer optional. We highlight the importance of making the car the focal point of marketing content and stress the necessity for continual education and adaptation. Tune in for an episode packed with insights and actionable strategies that will equip you to thrive in the evolving automotive marketing landscape.
Welcome back to Automotive Alchemy. I'm joined again by Jeff Clark, one of the premier dealer alchemists over at Dealer Alchemist. Today we're going to actually continue a conversation based on feedback that we got from just our last episode around connected TV and OTT Traditional cable. It's been losing its grip on the market for quite some time and you as a car dealer, rv dealer, a power sports dealer, you need to know as much as you possibly can and go deep. The offers for you to be able to take connected TV, ot TV, to a new place of advantage is incredible, from reach to targeting to cost effectiveness.
Speaker 1:We talked about some of those things on this first episode and then we got a lot of feedback from people that watched the episodes, saw the clips that we're putting into LinkedIn and social media. So we're going to continue to discuss that and why it's important for automotive marketers. And yes, when we talk about automotive, most of the time we're talking about the adjacent industries, like RV and power sports and sometimes even marine dealers. So if you happen to be in one of those adjacent industries, we hope that you'll enjoy this episode as well. But hey, welcome back, jeff. How?
Speaker 2:are you? I am fantastic, Sean. Good to see you again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good to see you Really glad that we're talking about this after the first episode. There's just been a lot of feedback and OTT and CTV has been a conversation for a couple of years but it just seems like a groundswell now, a lot of momentum and I think the curiosity level and I'm not sure, maybe you'll speak to this as we get into the episode, but maybe it's you know, even getting through all the pandemic in the last handful of years has been a bit chaotic for everybody's personal lives and business lives. But it seems like right now where inventory levels are back for most brands, selling cars is once again not quite as easy as it was. So we're kind of going back to some of those fundamentals that the interest here and probably timely on CTV is seeming to kind of hit a peak. So I wanted to kind of start today with a little bit of the basics for people that are not quite as familiar on discussion points and so for the audience. Just know I'm going to try to get some things from Jeff today where we're going to talk a little bit about the shift into CTV, some of the advantages.
Speaker 1:We talked a little bit on the last episode about the OTT being over the top and CTV. Jeff will get into that a little bit, but I want to also get him to share a little bit on targeting capabilities. That's really important for dealers to understand. If we have time, we'll get in a little bit to engagement, attribution and maybe what some of the future trends are. Very, very important to know that if we can't squeeze all the juice out of the orange on this episode, we will continue to make content on this topic based on your feedback. So we really covet that.
Speaker 1:If you've got comments or questions, depending on where you may be watching and or listening to this episode, especially if it's in YouTube or Facebook please drop us comments and if you see the clips we're posting on LinkedIn, please do that as well. Right in that environment. First thing, jeff, after my little monologue to get us started is I know because I got this question after the first episode on like OTT and CTV, I'm going to probably speak more to CTV today, but can you give at least a brief explanation of what CTV is and how it really differs from what the old guys like me know in traditional TV advertising?
Speaker 2:Of course. So traditional TV advertising is oftentimes referred to as linear television. So when you go back to our youth, when you had four channels right NBC, abc, cbs and a little bit of public television, that's how people consume things. And if you remember the good old fashioned TV guide, there was a program. It told you what day, what time and what channel your favorite shows would be on.
Speaker 2:As things have evolved as technology has accelerated.
Speaker 2:We developed something called OTT, which is simply over the top, and it's every other form of media consumption be that a CTV, be that a digital device, streaming audio or otherwise that you can connect with consumers.
Speaker 2:Ctv is just the very television that hangs in your family room, in your living room, in your game room, but instead of consuming the cable side of it, you're consuming the streaming side of it, one of the things that's interesting to think about. In 2023, streaming became the number one way to consume television-based content, and that continues to increase at a very rapid pace. As a matter of fact, more than 90% of households today have a connected TV device. If you're to go to Walmart, best Buy or even Amazon to purchase a television, those televisions are coming pre-programmed with their own Fire TV or Roku or other systems, and really it's become on demand. We're an on demand society. We do it with our television programming, we do it with music, so really, ctv is the number one way that a consumer would actually ingest that content, the number one way that a consumer would actually ingest that content.
Speaker 1:That's very interesting and I know from my own life. I cut the cord, as they say, several years ago. The most difficult part was actually giving up NFL Sunday tickets Because my favorite team it doesn't happen to reside in Texas, but it goes to you, yeah, it goes to you know. So, you know. But, uh, very interesting because I think you know.
Speaker 1:When you say that, I hope people understand. Like I bought a travel trailer last summer, it came with the tv in it and you just mentioned something I recognized it has the amazon fire system built into it. You know, I see the Roku system built into it and you know contextualizing what you're sharing and tell me if I'm wrong. But those are the types of platforms where, if you're a car dealer, you're like, hey, the person goes and connects that to the Internet in their home and all of a sudden now, instead of that being driven by a cable system that doesn't have the capability at all really to do this type of advertising, now it's connected online, which completely opens up this connected TV over-the-top ability, very targeted messaging, is that accurate?
Speaker 2:That's 100% accurate. As a matter of fact, television manufacturers have partnered with these systems, have partnered with these systems. So if you look at certain television manufacturers today, they're producing their TVs with these systems already installed in them. And really today, the travel trailer is a prime example. You can't run a hard cable line to a travel trailer in the middle of nowhere. So how are you going to get your programming? You're going to get your programming through an internet connection and more and more consumers today are accustomed to that. As a matter of fact, today's youth, they don't really know what cable is. They've never seen it. They don't understand it, they can't appreciate it. So we are an on-demand society.
Speaker 2:What has really shifted? As the dealer environment gets back into oh my God, we've got to sell cars now. They haven't adjusted. Most dealers just simply have not adjusted. They were tied into traditional agencies.
Speaker 2:What I'm about to say to you is no knock on any traditional agency anywhere, but they're used to buying their prime flight times on the major networks and the major markets, and your larger dealers commanded that. It was true here in the greater metropolitan Washington DC market, where the Coons Automotive Group commanded the evening news for Fox. They did Every time you watch the Fox evening news at 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock. The Coons organization, which is an amazing organization, commanded that advertising spot. That has changed dramatically. So for mid to smaller size dealers, they can compete in that market.
Speaker 2:They just have to shift the thinking process to being able to leverage CTV, and there's so many advantages and there's so many different ways to really target your audience with your brand. So it is forcing dealers today to go back to think about well, how do I reinvest that money? Because when they frankly, when COVID hit Sean, you know as well as anyone dealers didn't have to advertise there was such a shortage in inventory that they were selling cars at a premium. They didn't really have to try too terribly hard. And now that things have shifted back and you're seeing higher inventory levels, now they've got to get back to the basics of selling cars.
Speaker 2:Well, how do you do that? You need to build a brand for yourself. Digital is a wonderful thing. You and I both spent a couple of decades in digital, but what's really interesting now is is that digital can only get you so far. There are so many people that are influenced by what they see on a CTV device or what they hear through streaming audio. And that's where automotive retailers today have the opportunity to get their message out there, whether it be in an evergreen ad or whether it be an event-specific component. So market to that consumer about.
Speaker 2:We have the largest selection of trucks or sedans or convertibles or sports cars in our inventory. But imagine now having the power to deliver that to people who truly are interested, who are hand raisers and who have expressed an interest in a vehicle, whether it be a type of vehicle or a brand of vehicle. Before, in linear television, you didn't have that. What you had was X number of million of people in a market at a particular time segment watching that channel. So your hope was is through that reach of however many hundreds of thousands of individuals that that happened to be, that a percentage of that audience was hopefully interested in a product or service you've had. So the game has changed the ability to zero in. You know, you and I are both baseball fans.
Speaker 2:We talked about this in our last segment. Think of CV CTV as sabermetrics right. Think of looking at things in a way that before a lot of baseball was done based on gut and feeling and this young man has the ability to hit 390 or 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases. With the advent of sabermetrics and looking at the analysis more and more, they can accurately predict the development of a player. Ctv has really done the same thing. They've just done it in a multitude of verticals with a much more myopic look in. How do we actually specifically target an audience? So it really is a wonderful platform for retailers today to leverage, and at a fraction of the cost of what linear television has been statistically over the last several years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. You know, when I listen to you share all this information, it's clear to me that even the timeline of growth and the evolution of CTV, that also includes the timeline of the viewing behavior of consumers. And as you're talking through that, I'm just thinking like that is so significant as we grow and as technology continues to influence our lives very significantly. The way we used to watch and the way we would kind of consume that content on television even 10 years ago is so, so different. And when you consider a TV that's connected to the same Wi-Fi network, your online network, that's giving you all that ability and your phone is also connected to that. We talked about this a little bit on the previous episode. Right, you have these abilities for these things to happen and be connected to each other. And now, if I'm a car dealer and I'm thinking, wow, the Google game has changed as well, it's not just what you can do to rethink what you've done with advertising on televisions, which is huge, but it's also framing that in almost not competition but in reality in terms of your budget, of what's going to deliver the most realistic opportunities for you to sell and to increase profits in your business. And I guess the short version of what I'm trying to say is Google's made all kinds of different changes within their ad platform in the last handful of years, but they also even just recently, a big, huge leak that I'm sure they didn't want out there. It's all over LinkedIn. Rand Fishkin and all the Michael King and all these SEOs are talking about it. People are chopping this up.
Speaker 1:For me, if I'm a car dealer and I'm learning about CTV, I'm taking a much, much more serious look about putting part of my budget into a place that hadn't really matured to the point where it is now and shows such a growth trajectory that makes sense, specifically comparing the fact of what it was capable of, or if it was capable of this 10 years ago versus today, and comparing it against the other places were competing for the same budget. It's like again I guess that's my way of saying if you're a dealer of any of these verticals that we're talking about I think there's never been a better time to consider the fact that all of these behavior changes and then differences within platforms and the capabilities of CTV. It's a very compelling reason to say, man, we really better figure out and understand it, so you've got the knowledge and then do something with it. It just seems like it's almost at full on no brainer status.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, but you mentioned something there towards the end and I'm interested on this is on cost effectiveness and budget allocation. As I kind of warm this up, ctv certainly is a much more effective way to target the people that you're trying to get your message to. How is it in comparison to, maybe, those old ways of buying blocks, versus a more cost-effective way, even though it's more valuable in today's market? Can you share a little bit more about that or elaborate on maybe some of those advantages that exist there?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Using a variety of different signals and variables, every individual impression so think of it as an ad opportunity of a person that's currently streaming is actually assigned a value in almost near real time. If we can secure that impression out or below the value that's assigned to it, we bid on that impression. In the linear world, the buyer has to buy every impression in every ad spot, typically only constrained by the geography. So we live today in what's called a VOD, a video on demand society. Think of the internet. What is the internet? It's an endless source, real timeand of any and multiple different levels of information you want. Ctv is just an extension of that, just more visual in its content. So if I can now, as a retail automotive dealer, say I only want to speak to an interested BMW buyer in a market and, as such, what do I want to show them? Well, having been a longtime BMW owner, it's an absolutely phenomenal vehicle, maybe one of the best engineered cars in the world, and if you've ever owned one, you truly begin to live the lifestyle of the ultimate driving machine when you've owned a BMW, when you've driven one, it's unlike any other vehicle at the price point in the market. There's a lifestyle that goes with owning that vehicle. And when you begin to understand the educational background, the economic ability of that consumer, if they've been a previous owner, if they're a multi-time owner, if they're a lease buyer, if they're a coupe, a sedan, a convertible, a larger SUV, so many of these buying signals are so key for a brand. Just using BMW as an example. The same thing can be said of Mercedes or Toyota or any number of other brands. With the use of connected television, you have a plethora of information and data available to you to deliver content that is unique and specific to that individual consumer. Linear television cannot do that, has never been able to do that. And because today more than 90% of households have a connected device and that continues to grow, as an advertiser that's really exciting. You mean for me that I can tap back into a consumer.
Speaker 2:So personal story my last BMW was 2008. It's been quite a while. The brands made major advancements. Now that I'm potentially back in the market to buy a BMW again, how wonderful for BMW, how wonderful for the local dealer to be able to get that content in front of someone who already highly rates the brand. But I don't know the latest and greatest of what's happened, what the horsepower is, what the EPA is, what the costs are, what the options are. And I may not just take it upon myself to go online and start looking at the vehicle, but if I've shown an interest, if I've clicked on an ad, if I've liked and commented on something, if I've shown that intent, how exciting for BMW, because now they can curate me as a consumer and, granted, it might take me a year to finally get to the stage of I love my truck take me a year to finally get to the stage of I love my truck, I'm going to keep my truck, but what BMW might I buy?
Speaker 2:So this is a perfect nurturing, improving ground for not just BMW but for any brand to bring that mid-50s year old guy who has the income to be able to buy that next dream vehicle. How do I curate that individual along the process? And it's looking for the signals, it's looking for the behavior, it's looking for all the different components. What better way is a manufacturer, a region and, more importantly, a retailer to be able to now nurture that buyer along? Because in the automotive industry, if someone raises their hand, we want them to buy immediately and there's nothing wrong with that. That's just not how people at certain stages of their life are going to purchase. And that's one of the other really amazing things that we can do from a targeting perspective.
Speaker 2:So think of CTV and the fact that I can measure what we would call life events right. And a life event can be graduated from college, got a new job recently got married, about to have a child, my lease term is expiring or I'm looking for leases, and do I have equity in the vehicle? And what's the age of the vehicle and what's the behavior of the consumer? Where's the consumer been prior to us getting this engagement information? Have they been on a national third party, a carscom, an auto trader, a car gurus, a Carfax, looking at values, looking at new and used versus certified pre-owned? Looking at values, looking at new and used versus certified pre-owned?
Speaker 2:Back in 2008, when I turned in my last BMW, there wasn't necessarily a large buy-in to a certified pre-owned program. Those were relatively new in the market, if you remember back in that day. Now, today, certified pre-owned oftentimes is a better way to purchase, not just economically but from a warranty perspective, than possibly going and buying a new vehicle, and it certainly financially can make a lot of sense. So, from a CTV perspective, from an engagement component, think of now the value of having this spreadsheet full of data to know what the economic status is, what the buying signals are, whether it's a coupe or a convertible, whether it's a sedan, whether it's all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive. All of these things are incredible. And again, now you're giving consumers, while they're binge watching their favorite shows, that content at a time and a place when they've shown interest. It really is. It's unlike anything else from an advertising perspective that's available today.
Speaker 1:Targeting and the precision is, and has always been, I think, really of interest and very appealing to car dealers Lots of businesses but we talk about car dealers and the adjacent industries to automotive. If you're selling BMWs in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex there are parts of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex if you were to go to old school kind of TV programming that you maybe don't want to spend the types of big bucks that they did back in the day. You want to be a little bit more targeted and a little bit more precise, because there aren't a whole bunch of people driving bmws up in bonham, texas, right or way out in like sumner or some of these real more rural where there's ranchers and farmers. They're not driving bmws around they're not.
Speaker 2:They're not driving ma coupes that are tipping the scales at 150 and 160 000. Now they're probably driving 3,500. Dually, that's in the $125,000 range. So again, that's where that data, that's where the economics, that's where so many of these key components come into play. Because go back to linear television and I hope the audience appreciates this isn't a trash on linear television. Linear television has its place, but when you look at the cost, when you look at the reach and the value you as a retailer have to measure, what is your, what's your message? What's your brand? Who are you trying to reach? I would argue, brands like BMW, mercedes, some of your higher end brands. They're not for everyone, they're certainly not for the meek, they're not cheap to either own or to service.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So telling a market of 5 million people that you're the number one BMW dealer in the market? That matters to maybe 1% to 2% of the market. Why not take those ad dollars and really cater to that one or 2% of the market that truly is interested in your product? Ctv allows for the communication of people that are interested in your product. At no other time in advertising have we ever been so dialed into the ability to deliver content to people. I mean, think about it.
Speaker 2:Who knows more about your online shopping behavior than Google and Facebook? Nobody, nobody does. And that's a holy grail of data that Facebook and Meta are not giving up and giving up anytime soon. They're monetizing that as they should for their own value. You, as a dealer, if you have the right connected television partner, if you have the right relationship, you can now tap into a market and look very granularly into how many households within that market have an interest in your product and what that reach might be, based on your budget, whether it's dipping your toes in the water, whether it's making yourself present or whether it's dominating that market you can now, for the first time ever, look to see how many households in that market have shown interest and what that budget can produce and the timeline in which that will then cultivate a consumer for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It really is pretty amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, as you talk through, you know targeting capabilities and how precise it can be and how that drives a different type of engagement from the consumer. You know it's like a slideshow in my own brain of my own experiences, and I think it's important for this audience to also have these contextualized real-world stories, and so I want to share this as part of our conversation because it's happened to me now countless times. In Texas, I live just outside of the DFW Metroplex. It takes me 45 minutes to drive into Fort Worth, so I'm in the country, small town, country, and there are, yes, dealers out here in the country, and not many of them are advertising in this way with CTV, but a couple of them are, and they have literally, through all of the things that you're talking about, gotten my undivided attention for long enough to make an impression on me, for me to be engaged with what they're presenting. And you know what they completely bypassed Every single dealer in DFW that is massively overspending in Google ads, youtube ads, display network ads, facebook ads, like all the stuff that dealers that we have. We have taught them how to think and how to. This is what you should be doing, as we should, if you're good at what you do. You're going to take the industry that you serve and try to educate them and help them make great decisions so they get great results, and if you don't, they're going to throw you out anyway. But so we have helped dealers understand all these digital marketing kind of top shelf choices.
Speaker 1:But now I'm seeing it on a regular basis where somebody's done a really good job of putting a great ad copy together, great messaging, it's close and they know enough about me that they get a few seconds of my time and it's making an impression on me Whether it's the time I want to buy now or not. This literally happened relative to Toyota and relative to Toyota Meaning I was like I'm not really thinking about buying a new Tundra, but now I'm like maybe. And then, of course, my wife and I, just yesterday, because of this dealership that got my attention. I also asked her did you happen to see any of the videos on the new 2025 4Runner? And she's like I think I did see something Beautiful by the way.
Speaker 2:I know Kudos to Toyota on that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, but amazing how so much of where the spend goes and for a lot of dealers it's right there, and I think that's one of the things just as an advocate, just the consultative nature of me and I think you as well it's like it's one of the reasons why you really want dealers to say now there's never been a better time for you to be evaluating every place where you're spending money, because some of those things that you maybe never even spent time or you haven't educated yourself on, you don't know enough about some of those things are outperforming, the things that you have felt are sacred cows for a long, long time, and some of those cows are going to get turned into hamburger more and more and more as we keep progressing and other forms of media distribution and advertising are starting to show how valuable they are. I think that's a lot of this type of conversation, so just anyway, my brain firing off all kinds of interesting fireworks.
Speaker 2:You could not be more accurate. And again, I'm always reluctant to be too forthcoming because sometimes that prompts a negative blowback. I hear dealers just spending exorbitant amounts of money in paid search and in other areas and listen if it's working, keep doing it. But I worry and I see firsthand when my staff's in the field and I sit on some of these calls with dealer management and I ask some hard hitting questions what are you spending? What are you spending? What are you getting?
Speaker 2:Let's take a minute and let's look at your ad. Is it a little alarming to you that every ad seems to be the exact same? We're just doing find and replace on the vehicle. We're doing find and replace on the price and on the term. Here's a newsflash for you A Tundra buyer is not a Camry buyer. It's not a Corolla buyer. Different things are going to appeal to that consumer.
Speaker 2:But before you even get there, did you capture their attention or did you funnel them through the cattle stall that every other advertiser out there tries to do? We're the largest in the market. No one cares. We've been in business for how long? I mean, how many times have you and I joked about some of the taglines that some of these dealers come up with, and that's great. Everybody wants a brand identity, there's nothing wrong with that. But creating a brand identity is a very expensive and oftentimes thankless game. People want the vehicle they want, with the equipment they want, and they want it quickly. And whether you're delivering that to them in a paid search ad, a social ad, whether it doesn't matter what it is. But if you can now take a paid search ad that then drives the interest and now triggers a CTV ad where they can see that particular trim level of a Tundra or of the new upcoming 4Runner, now you've done something with your money.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:But it's for every single vehicle you have in stock, not just your primary core brand, and it's not just for the most popular vehicles you sell, but for all of the vehicles you sell. That's what hurts my heart sometimes, as a digital retailer and as someone who's done this for as long as I have. There's so much of your business that just gets missed because it requires gee. I got to write copy for that and to do that, I have to do this and with that, what do I do about this? You as a retailer? That should not be your problem. That should be your advertiser's problem. So, are they covering all of my brands? Are they covering all of my VINs new, used and certified pre-owned? Are they focused on in transit and are they delivering messages to me that are unique? I recently held an informational seminar and we were talking websites and you and I, coming from the background that we have, we might know a thing or two about websites.
Speaker 2:A little bit and as I'm talking to the audience, one of the dealers said pull up my website. I said you sure? I said because I might hurt a feeling or two. No, no, I want you to. I want you to, it's okay. So we pull up the site and luckily it was a relatively small room, about a dozen people or so, because we were doing breakout sessions.
Speaker 2:And as I'm going through, I'm asking leading questions like why is this on the homepage? Well, what do you mean? Why would you have the digital retailing tool right on the homepage? You think people come to your homepage and all of a sudden want to fill out a credit app. Why isn't that at the VDP or SRP level? Why are you peppering me with chat right now? I haven't gotten anywhere for us to chat anything about. Instead, I'm going to ask you well, what can I help you with? I don't know. Let me get there first and then maybe ask me that question.
Speaker 2:There's so many bad practices that take place. But, Sean, we're not asking the question back of how are we making changes to the industry. We're talking about just simply one aspect with CTV and OTT and streaming and the impact that that can have, we're still operating as if it's 1999 sometimes, and the thought process and then the methodology buyers have changed. Yeah, we're very much in the Amazon Prime world today. We're asking some of the same redundant questions we asked 25 years ago, instead of allowing the systems to tell us what the consumer shopping for. You know, one of the beautiful things about going to Amazon Prime is Amazon Prime will show you everything you ever bought from Amazon Prime and you might like this product. It makes suggestive selling. So there's so many different things and as you watch, kind of, how CTV is evolving, you're going to start to find that those very components of data and that information will be available to the advertiser. So the advertiser, once you've purchased that Tundra, can now start to provide you what, Sean, would you like? A tonneau cover or a camper cover Would?
Speaker 1:you like a bed line?
Speaker 2:Would you like wheels and tires? So there is so much that is capable, but we as an industry are simply focused on the immediate gratification of selling someone a car. We're just not always listening to what they're saying. More importantly, we're not always fishing where the fish are. Yeah, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:It totally makes sense. I mean again, I oftentimes, as I'm hosting episodes and talking to subject matter experts. They're not topics that I'm unfamiliar with with, but even my own knowledge goes deeper because it gets contextualized with what's going on in my own life and my knowledge of all of these things within digital marketing and digital advertising. And the reality is, I think this is only going to continue to become more and more obvious the thousands of dollars that dealers for me they are spending to get my attention about, maybe moving me from the Tundra I'm in to a new, brand new Tundra or some other Toyota product. But let's just say they, because they know me well enough to know that I've been a Tundra guy for multiple Tundras. So it will make good sense that something terrible has to go wrong for me not to want another Tundra when I'm ready for a new truck. Something terrible has to go wrong for me not to want another Tundra when I'm ready for a new truck. But thousands of dollars are being spent in the same old places, heavily on search engines, mostly Google, maybe you're doing some Bing, maybe you're doing some social media advertising. Thousands of dollars there, and then now there are some dealers. There needs to be a lot more that are spending, yes, thousands of dollars to try to get the same attention that I have to give, either through the Google apparatus which I'm not saying, don't do that but I'm saying right now, in my own life, there are more impressions and more of my attention, my time, in being attentive to what you're trying to put in front of me through people who are utilizing connected TV, ctv advertising campaigns when I'm not even in market.
Speaker 1:I'm not in market. I could be, though, and so they get me thinking about it, and this is the point I want to make here, because this is relative to even what I do in my business. From a marketing perspective, I believe that CTV done right, so you're like you were just talking about it's not templated, like it's just find and replace garbage, like you're making good copy and good content, and then you're using CTV as a delivery methodology. That type of advertising is what people remember, even when they're not in market, because, at any given time, it's only a few percent of the market that's actually ready to buy or look, actively looking. So if it's 98% of the market isn't looking which is me right now but you put a seed in my brain. You planted a point of value with me that all of the thousands of dollars that your dealership spent in Google didn't do. You got an impression that's no achievement.
Speaker 1:It's a very little to no value, but it's being sold to them that way. And one of the things I know we're running out of time for this episode, but I want to say for dealers as you consume all this information and you're thinking about it, you need to think about what's behind. Not again that Google's not a good thing. It should be part of your mix, but should you refocus and recalibrate the measure of all of these things and should something? If you have a budget to just add it, then just add it. But if you've got to make some adjustments today, there's not the same huge initiative behind pushing something that dealers still consider new and they don't know enough about OTT, ctv, like there is of the monstrosity that is Google. You should be doing VLAs. You should do you know vehicle or cars for sale in your Google business profile, yes, yes and yes.
Speaker 1:But that is a completely different mechanism that if you don't do it right and I know you guys are really good in that area as well but if you don't do that right, it can be massively lopsided in terms of how much you're spending and not getting in terms of return, when it might be way more advantageous for you to spend yeah, thousands of dollars in connected tv, but you got my attention so I might not be in market in june, but guess what I I'm coming into market in july or august or late summer.
Speaker 1:And because you got my attention through a really smart budgeting and putting together a smart CTV advertising strategy, I'm going to remember you.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to remember the other stuff that's on autopilot with most dealers, with terrible kind of paid search vendors or that kind of market. I think that's really, really important, and so I mean just listening and having this conversation again the second time we've talked about this a lot of lights going on where I'm just thinking. I hope the dealers are hearing and seeing that as well, because it's definitely a place for dealers, especially I haven't even thought about it but maybe even ones that had some exposure to CTV in its early stages and now the trajectory and the growth and the evolution it's 100% worth coming back around and getting a real, real, up-to-date level of knowledge so that you're not missing things that you know. Like I just said, I'm not in market today, but somebody has my attention and they have me thinking about it, so they're going to get my attention or, because they have it. They're likely going to get an opportunity in the near future.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You know I would. I would close With this for the audience take a closer look at how you're spending your money today, and you made a really great point. Google is the 800-pound gorilla and there's nothing wrong with Google. I think there's some misspending of money. I think there's a lot of misinformation out there about VLAs and Performance Max and what does that really mean? How does VLAs work? What is Performance Max so many of these folks have gotten into and we talked about this heavily in our last discussion is they're just they're going through. Dealers are super busy and I can appreciate it, but they're just checking the box. Check the box, check the box, check the box, check the box and let's go sell a bunch of cars and that's wonderful. Do you know that, frankly, bing is taking up a massive amount of growth in the marketplace? And for so long, everyone was like Bing doesn't matter. I would actually argue it does matter. I would actually argue it matters greatly. But is your digital agency talking to you about the growth of Bing and how and why it's growing, and are you effectively spending your money? And do you have control of your AdWords account? And do you understand what GA4 is and how it operates. Do you understand what the triggers and the metrics are? Oh yeah, I've got this campaign and I've got that campaign, but does it perform?
Speaker 2:I spoke to a dealer the other day really, really genuine Tennessee guy and the twang was coming through and shucks. I'm just a multi-generation car dealer. So I said, hey, I want to ask you a question how do you market your used cars? He goes, well, we put them on our website. I said well, do you have third-party services? He goes, pretty much got every one of them. I said, okay, well, what if no one goes to your website? And what if someone doesn't go to that third party? How are they going to see your inventory? And, better yet, why are you spending all your money with a third party to supplement it? Because there's a couple of really good third party players out there. I have one or two of my own personal favorites that just time and time again, do a fantastic job. You know I would say their names now, but of course I'm going to upset people on the other side of the aisle. So if the listeners are interested, you can get in touch with me and I'll happily have that one-on-one conversation with you. Sean, you and I talked about this earlier.
Speaker 2:I absolutely love what I do. I feel blessed every single day to run an amazing company with really, really brilliant people, have some phenomenal clients and two and a half decades of watching the evolution of this industry. But, if you remember, we were addicted to newspaper and traditional and then we got really crazy. We got into third-party leads and then, from third-party leads, we started getting into websites and then we got into paid search and then we got into all these other things. The evolution and the advancement of the tools out there are not going to change. They're only going to continue to improve and get better. But dealers need to continue to educate themselves and work with the right partners and just don't accept status quo. Well, my provider is certified by this player. Well, that's great. They've gone through the vetting process. But are you a number or do you feel valued and are they taking the time to explain to you how you can be better? This is an industry that I will forever love.
Speaker 2:I want to say that I think your comment about staying top of mind could not be more accurate. I'll buy a new car and four months after buying it, I'll still be looking. What's the next thing? Right Now. I may only have that car for a year, year and a half or two, but always interested to see what's out there. What's the new advancement right? What's the difference between a 2024 Ram and a 2025 Ram? Well, 2025, they did away with the Hemi right. Different engine setup, twin turbo, higher horsepower, greater fuel efficiency, more technology. Don't worry about keeping necessarily your dealer in front of the consumer. Make the story about the car, but if you're consistently the one bringing them that content, that consumer, time and time again, is going to see you as the subject matter expert or the go-to person and every time, every time, you're going to be in that consideration process and that's really the best that you and I can hope for to helping our dealers make sure that they're at least part of the consideration process.
Speaker 1:Yep, I love it. I think this is a great place to park it For the dealers and industry folks and all those who might be just casually interested consuming this episode. We'll spike the ball with a couple of things Again, relative to even things in my own life. Since 2020, in the last four years, more than 15 million people have stopped watching cable TV. My household's one of them. Most people watching TV are consuming more than two hours a day in ad-supported streaming platform type of TV, and that compared to the average number of people spending two hours in search, where you're spending all the money to try to get them there as well. It's just a good time to be rethinking some of these things that you've been doing the same way for a long time. So great episode to the audience.
Speaker 1:I think it won't surprise me if we end up actually squeezing a little bit more juice out of this orange in a future episode, but thanks for joining us for another episode of Automotive Alchemy. I always want people to know. Yes, of course, like and subscribe wherever you're finding this content, following us YouTube, all the stuff on LinkedIn, but just know, if you want to go deeper, the reason why Dealer Alchemist has this podcast platform of Automotive Alchemy is specifically to go deep on these topics. But some dealers and we know some of you were never going to say who you are, but some of you already have consumed this content and reached out and we appreciate that because it lets us know that what we're trying to do with insightful, educational content is helpful. And then you know that there's a place where you get to take advantage of whatever might be most necessitated at your dealership in terms of change, and it's critically important to have that trust network.
Speaker 1:So if you wanna learn more, if you wanna go deeper, feel free to go dealeralchemistcom. You can get in touch with the team there. Of course we're going to have more episodes coming up. You'll see us back here in probably a little less than a month for the next episode, where we will continue to do what we do here and that is to turn automotive challenges into results driven gold. Thanks for tuning in on this episode and we'll see you next time. Thanks, jeff thank you.