The automotive market in the United States was valued at $892 billion in 2020, with projections to reach nearly $1.3 trillion by 2027. Americans love their cars, and it shouldn’t be hard for dealerships to clear out their inventories on a regular basis. 

However, dealerships still find themselves holding onto vehicles longer than they should, leading to sluggish sales and reduced prices to attract buyers. It’s time for auto advertising to pick up the slack and set the gears in motion once again.

Let’s look at ten of the biggest auto industry advertising and marketing trends in 2024, giving managers and sales teams the fuel they need to succeed. 

1. Dealership SEO Builds Authority and Loyalty

The basics of search engine optimization have not changed dramatically in recent years, yet most auto dealerships lag behind on the front lines of SEO. What accounts for this lack of investment and energy into SEO for auto dealerships? It’s not only because managers don’t see the value in SEO for their brands, but rather a shortage of good information and clear best practices they can follow and apply.

The good news is that SEO is still highly relevant for auto dealerships, and brands willing to take the leap stand to benefit tremendously. Competition in the auto world may be fierce, but with the right SEO approach, even small dealerships can capture significant market share. 

What exactly can auto dealerships expect when investing in SEO for their sites and online assets? Let’s look at some of the proven benefits from our own clients:

• Higher rankings on Google and Bing

• More trust from visitors and industry experts

• Increased site traffic for your dealership

• More views for your vehicle description pages (VDPs) on sites like AutoTrader

• More qualified leads for your sales funnel

• Higher online conversion rates

• Enhanced local presence thanks to local SEO efforts

• Boosted reputation in the auto industry with customers and reviewers

Remember: organic SEO differs from traditional forms of paid advertising like Google Ads and other outbound methods. While ads stop working when you stop paying, organic SEO lives on long after your initial investment! A good organic SEO strategy is all about content creation, link building, and keyword research that puts your brand in a position of authority and trust online.

So, how can dealerships master SEO in today’s world? It starts by teaming up with a trusted SEO partner who knows the auto landscape and organic content best practices. AUT0MIZE offers cutting-edge SEO content and systems to help your brand rise up and dominate the search engine results pages. 

With a mix of optimization, content creation and ongoing analysis, we’ve got the tools and tactics you need to capitalize on the SEO rush — from fundamentals to future trends.

2. Video Dominates Car Education, Entertainment, and More

In the world of auto sales, powerful imagery goes a long way. But even static images fail to fully represent the appeal of a vehicle, especially if potential customers have never seen it in person. Therefore, it’s no surprise that video content has taken the auto world by storm, ushering in a new era where video is no longer an option — but a necessity — in automotive advertising.

What types of video work best for auto dealerships, and how do you know where to post? It’s all about learning the best formats and bringing some personality to your videos to capture the attention of audiences online. Here are some of the top video trends in the auto industry right now:

• Vehicle walkarounds/tours that introduce new cars and their features

• Dealership showcases to bring viewers into your world

• Staff members spotlights to share personalities and stories

• Tips and tricks videos to help owners get more from their cars

• Shorts for IG and TikTok, long form for YouTube

• Share with audiences what only your dealership knows

• Promos that your satisfied customers can share with the world (UGC)

Video is here to stay, and a handful of dealerships have skin in the game. Don’t let your dealership be the one left out of the video revolution. If you don’t know where to begin, find a digital advertising agency that knows the way and can point you in the right direction.

3. GMs Gain Insight Into the Digital Customer Journey

The customer journey is one of those marketing buzzwords without a clear definition for dealerships — until now. The concept is simple: look at all the ways that a customer could buy a car from your establishment, and track all these possibilities from beginning to end.

For instance, let’s say a customer watches a car review video on your dealership’s YouTube channel, and makes their way to your dealership website via a link. They wait another week before searching for a buyer’s guide for the car they want. The guide happens to be on your dealership website because you’ve created custom, branded content about that vehicle.

Then, when the customer enters their contact info, you can reach out via email and SMS to alert them about new offers and deals that appeal to their interests and preferences. The moment the next vehicle arrives on your lot — bingo, you’ve already got a buyer lined up.

This is just one example of how the digital customer journey has evolved in the auto industry, and why you need to be fully equipped on all fronts to facilitate the experience for today’s auto shoppers. 

4. Lead Enrichment Strategies Take Hold

Your dealership puts a lot of time and energy into finding leads, from social media and website links to PPC advertising and email blasts. But even with thousands of leads in your funnel at any given moment, they can always be improved and enriched.

For example, an email address is valuable, but not nearly as valuable as an email address plus a phone number. Furthermore, an email address and phone number can be enriched with additional information about the make and model of the car they’re looking for, along with extra info like budgets, current vehicle ownership, and other details.

In short, lead enrichment is the process of finding more about potential buyers and turning them into customers with just a few pieces of missing information. Lead enrichment systems are an auto dealership’s best friend in 2024, when every bit of extra info counts. 

The best auto industry marketing agencies know the art of lead enrichment and can help you get more from each lead in your CRM system, dramatically increasing your conversion rate and overall success. Find out more about how AUT0MiZE is pioneering the lead enrichment process for auto dealers across the country.

5. Digital Marketing Spending Reaches All-Time Highs

There are many competing theories of advertising and marketing in the auto space. But there’s one thing that nearly every dealership agrees on moving into 2024: digital ad spending is on the rise. 

Studies show that the automotive industry spend north of $15 billion on digital ads in 2021, with that number set to increase even more. General managers know they need to spend more to keep up, but now it’s a matter of where that money should be spent.

Outbound advertising is just one piece of the puzzle. Bombarding the public with ads can only take your dealership so far. Thankfully, more dealerships are recognizing the virtues of inbound marketing, meaning that customers come to them to seek information, guidance, and support during the auto shopping journey.

Dealerships that wake up to the realities of the digital landscape and invest in these advanced forms of advertising (beyond just outbound) are slated for monumental success moving forward. 

6. Deal Ratings, Badges, and SmartMerchandizing Emerge

When customers visit sites like AutoTrader or CarGurus, they’re given a key insight into the value of the vehicle in question with a deal rating or value badge.

They’ll be told the quality of the deal based on information from Kelly Blue Book and other databases that point to the overall value of the car relative to others on the market now. This information is summarized as a badge or a rating, ranging from “fair” to “good” and “great.”

What does this mean for your dealership? Obviously, potential customers are far more likely to pull the trigger on a purchase deemed a “great value” by the rating system. Dealerships that can strategically price their inventory to achieve these ratings are more likely to sell, especially when prospective buyers are receiving updates with each rating update online.

This is exactly why we created the SmartMerchandizing feature for your inventory management system. It tells you exactly how to price your vehicles based on badge ratings and sends emails to shoppers looking for the best deal available. Use SmartMerchandizing to your advantage, and your vehicles won’t be on the lot for long.

7. Sales Teams Become Social Media Stars for Dealerships

Dealership managers are known as motivators and leaders in the workplace, but with so much downtime on the showroom floor, how do GMs put their teams to work when business is slow? 

The answer lies in turning these high-energy sales teams into powerhouse social media content creators. This approach ensures your sales teams stay active on social media and drive traffic to your dealership, even when they aren’t directly facilitating the sales process.

For example, your star salesperson can do vehicle tours or create day-in-the-life videos during downtime, putting your dealership in the spotlight online. Here’s how we can help:

• AUT0MiZE will create an easy-to-use content calendar 

• Give your team content ideas based on trends and keywords 

• Content is designed to be relevant to your niche and location

• Optimize, edit, and post content on relevant platforms, complete with your branding

• Track and analyze performance to fuel new content ideas

• Double down on what works, forget what doesn’t

• Expand your social media empire by driving online and in-person business

The result is a fully-utilized salesforce that makes the most of in-person sales and online marketing around the clock.

8. Email and SMS Remain Essential Tools for Lead Nurturing

Email marketing is still the powerhouse of digital communication, even in 2024. Auto dealerships know this, but they still don’t use this platform to the fullest potential, leaving tons of money on the table.

The difficult part of email marketing isn’t just creating emails to send, but finding the delicate balance of distribution, timing, and personalization. These variables are different based on each lead in your funnel, and the slightest miscalculation can drive away potential buyers.

It’s time for car dealerships to get serious about their email marketing approach and balance these efforts with SMS communications with their leads and existing customers. No more shotgun email blasts that go out to everyone and don’t move the dial. 

Targeting, personalization, and proper timing are all crucial to making an impact with email, and supplementary SMS messaging can make all the difference. With the right information and systems created by AUT0MiZE, your dealership can finally use email and text to your advantage.

9. Remote BDC Supercharges Sales for Dealerships

Despite all the marketing metrics we’ve discussed so far, direct sales aren’t going anywhere in the auto industry. While customers might research online and visit dozens of VDPs before arriving at a conclusion, they’ll still end up in a one-on-one conversation with a member of your sales team — and they better be on point to close the deal.

The challenge now becomes arranging and facilitating these calls and meetings in a way that fits customer schedules and preferences. This is where remote BDC comes into play, giving you a highly adaptable platform for sales that meets potential customers where they are.

With a mix of CRM information and optimized sales processes, a remote BDC solution can put your sales efforts on autopilot, freeing up time and energy for your in-house sales squad. These BDC teams can vet leads, guide customers to the vehicle of their choice, and give them all the info they need to make the right pick.

It’s like throwing an alley-oop pass to your in-house sales team for an easy slam dunk every time — every assist counts as a score for your dealership.

10. GMs Pinpoint Key Growth Metrics (and Forget the Rest)

The digital marketing scene is jam-packed with metrics, so it’s not surprising that GMs find themselves overwhelmed with data from every direction. The challenge now becomes parsing this information to see which metrics actually matter in terms of growth and driving sales for dealerships.

In other words, it’s time for GMs to pinpoint key metrics and do away with irrelevant data points that only crowd the dashboard. From website analytics to social media metrics, email marketing to SEO, AUT0MiZE has found the winning recipe for metrics that make a difference to dealerships.

We’ll show you exactly where your dealership is lagging on key metrics and explain how to boost results in terms you can clearly understand. Each metric should have a meaning and be tied to a direct result, with no extra fluff or confusion.

GMs are all about efficiency in the auto sales process, and that’s how we approach digital marketing for dealerships. Let’s clarify your vision of success in digital marketing and leave the unwanted complexity behind.

Put Your Auto Dealership On the Map in 2024

These ten trends can’t be ignored for any dealership looking to make 2024 their best year yet. Team up with AUT0MiZE for a complete, custom approach to digital marketing and advertising you’ve been missing. The opportunity is out there — let’s seize it together.

Sources:

Essential US Car Market Size Statistics In 2023 | ZipDo

Video Marketing Statistics: What You Must Know for 2023 | OptinMonster

Digital Advertising Strategies On The Rise For The Automotive Industry | Porch Group Media