LAS VEGAS — The second day of the 2024 Digital Dealer Conference and Expo begin with attendees gathered to hear from leading auto marketers in the industry. And they heard a frank discussion about four issues auto dealerships are contenting with.

Moderated by Eliana Raggio from Dealer eProcess, panelists “Big” Al Gillespie of Mark Wahlberg Automotive Group, Kevin Frye of Jeff Wyler Automotive Family, and April Simmons of Horne Auto Group spoke for 40 minutes on Oct. 9 in a keynote session title GA4, EVs & AI, Oh My! Topics covered included issues plaguing dealerships with Google Analytics 4 (GA4), practical applications for AI, the impact of Amazon on the automotive space and developing marketing strategies for greater EV sales success.

Gillespie, Simmons and Frye opened the session not holding back their dismay with GA4, summed up when Frye stated “GA4 has been the bane of my existence…Much of our traffic is being hidden from us that I can’t get down in the weeds like we used to.”

Data Worries

Simmons, corporate internet and marketing director for Horne Auto Group based in Arizona, explained the data a dealership receives from Google now has no baseline so that when looking at metrics it is like comparing apples to oranges.

“I can’t compare month over month data, I can’t compare year over year data,” she stated. “So while we’re supposed to be able to get more in the weeds and get more granular about our decisions, we’re actually going much more broader.”

Gillespie added it becomes a is a trust issues with vendors “as the data is just so inaccurate…they take your own data and give you different information based off the data. Numbers are numbers, like don’t twist it the way you want it.”

EV’s, Still Not Moving

The only issue more contentious than G4 for the dealers is the electric vehicle (EV) market, which Simmons said is “awful….I don’t sugarcoat it at 3:00 in the afternoon I certainly can’t sugar coat it this early in the morning.”

Gillespie, the omnichannel automotive marketing as the chief marketing officer for Feldman and Mark Wahlberg Automotive Groups, noted dealers have to revamp their strategies because an EV buyer is different from previous buyers.

He explained that he recently drove a Blazer EV for three months that complicated his lifestyle instead of complementing it. The experience showed that it is a particular customer who drives an EV, great for person driving from point A to point B.  But for a majority of drivers, such as himself, that is not the case.

“I went through my marketing agency and said ‘this is the demographic that we’re trying to go for’ and we changed it up,” he said. “Most EV drivers I’m sure there’s some of you out here most of them feel this, they little more enlightened. So you turn to your marketing and changed the messaging.”

The Promise of AI

According to Frye, objections and concerns are actually growing each year from EV drivers. “Three years ago we were talking about this it was kind of like the Field of Dreams, the idea of build them, they will come,” he said. “They now have legitimate concerns and so how do you address them especially when the vehicle is going to cost a lot more money.”

The three panelists were much more bullish in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) at dealerships. Frye, marketing director of the Jeff Wyler Automotive Family, offered AI is already in use, used for the vehicle photo background or a vehicle scanner in the service department.

“This is such an exciting time to be in the industry with this confluence of immense amounts of data that we finally have the ability to act on with AI computer processing,” he said. “We’re building the foundation of bedrock with our data because I’m telling you each year at all these shows, we go to you’re going to see more AI startups.”

Online Channel Opening

The subject of Amazon entering the market with their deal Hyundai was not seen as a threat but the realization of another sales channel—making a purchases total online—to be explored. In fact, Frye pointed out that his group completed the first 11 new car truly transactional vehicle sales in the history of automotive

“We actually complete the deal our first deal with complete 11:30 at night—the banks were closed, the  dealerships were closed—contracted down the penny they bought the car. So it’s a game breaker,” he said.

Gillespie added online selling is very good option for customers that needs to be available. But the reality is research shows 90 percent of the customers who start that process they end up stopping because they’re not  comfortable with putting in their Social Security number and purchasing an $80,000 vehicle online.

“I think the important thing that everybody in the room needs to understand is it’s an option” stated Gillespie. “We don’t change our dealership process—it’s a tool in our toolbox. We need to educate the people and the biggest problem that we’ve had in our stores is that our sales managers, our general managers, they feel like we’re trying to change. So we just started hiring different people to handle that.”

Amazon Benefits

Compared to GA4, Simmons praised Amazon’s data as it offer an incredibly deep customer shopping data. She recounted her experience with advertising on Amazon for fixed stops

“I did a video in the service drive with my cell phone and not even not even a production type thing and threw it out there to Amazon,” she said. “I have never ever seen RO count rising faster than our Amazon advertising and now we’re starting to put it into some of our other stores.”

With AI, data and influences from companies lie Amazon, all three agreed that personalized messaging is going to be more commonplace in a very short period of time.

“Amazon data (allows you) to find where you want to hyper target people and deliver that personalized experience,” Frye said. “We’re very excited about.”

Its About the Brand

Gillespie focused on the need for dealerships to recommit to branding as buyers need awareness “because if they aren’t aware of our company they’re not going to click on that ad that we paid for.”

“I’ve listen to people tell me ‘you’re wasting money on I’m branding’,” he said. “My favorite conversation I have with my son’s hockey team parents and [they always ask if] have a Lexus store because they know of our brand. They don’t know what brands we actually but the most important thing if they know that dealership brand.”