May 29, 2025 • 23 mins
In this episode of The Dealer Playbook, I sit down with Matt VanDyke, President of Shift Digital, to unpack some of the most pressing—and overlooked—topics in automotive marketing right now. From mobile-first lead strategies to AI-powered insights, Matt brings a rare, high-altitude perspective that cuts through the fluff and actually makes sense of what’s happening in the trenches.
We talk about:
- Why phone calls and text messaging are quietly dominating lead conversions
- How to rethink click-to-call and ditch the outdated obsession with form submissions
- The $30 out of every $100 you’re losing due to poor website performance (yes, it’s that bad)
- The AI conversation everyone’s having—but few are applying correctly
- Why accountability isn’t a buzzword—it’s the hidden driver of innovation
Matt also drops a sobering stat: fewer than 1% of dealer websites in North America pass Google’s Core Web Vitals. Which means most are unintentionally sabotaging their own ad budgets. If you’re tired of wasting money, or just want to know where the puck is really heading, this conversation is a must-listen.
Whether you're running a store, managing an OEM program, or working at an agency, there’s something in here that’ll shift how you think about performance.
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FlexDealer Need Better Quality Leads? FLX helps car dealers generate better quality leads through localized organic search and highly-targeted digital ads that convert. Not only that, they work tirelessly to ensure car dealers integrate marketing and operations for a robust and functional growth strategy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MC (00:01):
This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer.
Hey auto industry, welcome tothis episode of the Dealer
Playbook.
In today's episode, I'm sittingdown with Matt Van Dyke.
(00:22):
He's the president of ShiftDigital and we're going to be
talking about all of thedifferent trends that are
happening as it pertains toautomotive marketing and
performance tracking.
Matt, thanks so much forjoining me on the Dealer
Playbook.
Matt (00:33):
Thanks, Michael.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Thanks for having me.
MC (00:36):
You have perspective that I don't think a lot of people have
when it comes to the landscapeof automotive marketing, of
course, working in so manydifferent OEM programs and I'll
admit, a little nervous to be onthis call with you because you
are definitely an individual ofinfluence but I'm curious, as
you look across your portfolio,across the thousands of dealers
(00:56):
that are in OEM programs, whatare some of the things that
you're noticing right now thatare trends that you believe
people really need to be payingattention to?
Matt (01:06):
Yeah, there's so much right now.
It's a great question.
A couple things.
One I would say is iscontinuing to optimize lead
handling.
So we're shortly going topublish a new industry report
kind of, on the state of theindustry from 2024.
We've started to do these inthe last two years just kind of
(01:26):
using our insights and data forkind of a force of goodwill in
the industry.
And you know, leads last yearwere up but the quality of those
leads were down.
So the industry in NorthAmerica was up as a whole, but
third-party leads and eventleads and things where I would
say shoppers were being chasedas opposed to just organic
(01:50):
intent, altered a little bit ofthe mix of what's happening in
the industry.
So with that, close rates weredown because the quality of
leads were down and there was acontinued shift away from form
lead submissions into click tocalls.
So that gets to my point.
You know 70% plus of yourwebsite traffic is mobile and
(02:13):
there's still an opportunity toreally laser focus your website
into mobile first call toactions.
And if you are looking at yourwebsite and you're evaluating it
on your desktop with yourwebsite platform partner, don't
Pull out your phone and look atit the way most of your
customers look at it and thenmake sure your vehicle detail
(02:37):
page call to actions includeclick to call.
So that's kind of number one.
And then number two are youmeasuring your phone performance
like you're measuring form,lead performance and things like
that?
So so that's one key thing Iwould say we're focused on right
now is just kind of helping ourclients with that focus and
that process.
(02:57):
A second area is kind of onmedia.
So one of the other trends thatwe're going to report on is
vehicle detail page views.
In North America were up 39%last year and that's a
mind-boggling number.
Yeah, part of it is because ofcontinued increased availability
, but really by the end of 2023,availability for most brands
(03:19):
was kind of back to fullystocked shelves.
The bigger thing is that it'sthe medium mix of traffic that
is going to vehicle detail pageviews.
So one of the biggest things isPMAX has made shifts and it's
kind of that black box approachof sending traffic somewhere,
and they shifted, sending moreand more of that traffic to
vehicle detail page views andthat's partially good, but
(03:43):
there's a huge bounce rate andwhat I would say is, if I'm
talking to dealers who arefriends of mine.
I'm like, hey, are you actuallysending your traffic to the
right places?
If you're doing VIN, specificvehicle listing, advertising and
promoting things that way,great, send them into the BDP
page.
But if you're doing a generalcampaign or kind of a general
(04:04):
sales event message, you may begetting ahead of yourself by
dropping somebody right on apage.
So those are a couple of thingsthat are happening.
We're really looking at kind ofthe makeup of the advertising,
what's working and, again, leadperformance and handling are
some key things.
MC (04:19):
This is huge for me, I mean, especially being in the
marketing field myself.
To key in on something you said, I feel like it was I don't
know five, maybe even 10 yearsago.
People would say things likephone calls, outperform, web
form submissions by like five toone.
And now here we are, 2025.
And you're saying, hey, like ifyou're not paying attention to
(04:40):
phone process now, when are yougoing to do it?
And I think it's just such avaluable thing that the dealers
that are paying attention tophone process and understanding
where the customer is comingthrough through that click to
call conversion, are the ones Ifeel like are going to really
have a leg up as compared tothose that are just waiting for
(05:02):
a form submission.
Especially I'd be curious yourtake on this for those that are
starting to say do we even wantto put forms on our website
anymore?
Like there's a lot of chatconversions.
I mean, what's your take onthat?
Matt (05:14):
Yeah, I mean I would still .
I would keep the general formsubmissions, but I would follow
what you just said, which is payso much attention to the phone
calls.
I mean what you just said,which is pay so much attention
to the phone calls.
I mean first back to the volumething, like when we look at the
aggregated data and we see dataacross 16,000 dealer websites
in North America.
(05:34):
So the sample is good.
The reality is the click tocalls outweigh form submissions,
plus chat, plus trade-in, plusDR all combined.
So again, don't not look atthat Focus there for start.
And then the second thing I wasgoing to say is I think text is
(05:54):
as important as calls, and soone make sure you understand
your local TCPA regulatory rulesand regulations on do you have
permission to text somebody andwork with your provider,
especially your advertisingproviders or your website
providers, so that on you know,on submissions, you're getting
(06:16):
the right permission to textpeople.
But more and more people theywant that text.
Now I think our best practicewould be text them, call them,
email them.
But so many people I mean thinkabout you know your dentist or
your it's Valentine's day.
Do you have dinner reservationstonight?
Do you don't want to beinterrupted right now with them
(06:37):
calling you to find out ifyou're going to show up at the
store.
But if you get a text from themthat says are we going to see
you at 7 o'clock tonight, check,thumbs up, I'm in.
So we're all just used to it inour day-to-day lives.
MC (06:49):
Wow, I just can't help but think the level of intent that
somebody is making behind a textor a phone call and how that
might differ from any other typeof conversion.
To wrap our minds around, hey,this person went out of their
way to not only divulge theirphone number to you, but also to
share, like put their thumbs ona keyboard and share an
(07:12):
important message with you.
Put their thumbs on a keyboardand share an important message
with you.
It's almost to me like a giventhat this person is near the
bottom of the funnel in someregard, in some way, shape or
form.
Matt (07:22):
Yeah, so take the time for a quality response, right?
I mean, if they're looking forpricing, give them pricing.
Even better, give them monthlypayments, since that's what most
shoppers and buyers are.
But I think that qualityengagement with phone and mobile
is a difference maker right now.
MC (07:37):
I don't ask controversial questions, but obviously I know
from your vantage point the AIconversation is being had right
when.
I mean, we were just at NADAand my joke was that people
would say AI more than hello.
Where do you see things goingas far as AI?
We talk about quality response.
We know that there are some youknow response tools out there
(07:59):
that claim to be powered by AI.
Is there a place for it?
Is it something that we shouldbe paying attention to and, if
so, how should we be payingattention to it?
Matt (08:08):
Yeah, I mean absolutely and I totally hear you about
NADA, right, you know, nobodydidn't have AI all over their
advertising products.
I mean, it's almost laughable.
There's companies that have AIin their name that don't use AI,
I think.
But look, I think there is asteady progression.
And look at Shift we have over225 different digital dealer
(08:33):
providers in our programs withover 30 different automotive
brands in the US and Canada andwe end up seeing a lot of
innovation because it's eitherquarterly business reviews with
existing partners or it's up andcoming partners who want to get
access to scale programs.
And I would say last year wasdefinitely kind of a turning
(08:55):
point of just seeing, you knowchat providers that had gone to
natural language processing andgenerative AI, to more
sophisticated marketingautomation platforms that were,
you know, scraping your CRM,identifying customers like to be
in the market, then automatingoutbound messaging in order to,
(09:17):
you know, nurture people and getthem warm along the hook on you
know merchandise inventory,specific VINs and then kind of
handing that over to the rightpeople in dealerships in order
to create a connection.
So we're absolutely seeingmarketing automation providers
make advances and do good things.
(09:37):
I think it's also a neat toolon the service drive.
More and more service lanetechnology companies are
scanning products for trade-in,for dings and dashes, and
helping create tools in order todo vehicle trade-in appraisals.
There's unique and neatadvancements in other vehicle
(09:57):
merchandising providers that aretaking your VDPs and they're
highlighting why-bys customerfeatures, enhancing the creative
by scraping and putting yourdealership name on a license
plate or in the background ofthe car to make sure customers
know that certain inventories ontheir lots.
Really, I think the sky's thelimit.
(10:19):
There's a lot of goodtechnology.
I think everybody still isscared of stories from 15 months
ago where you know a chat toolsold a Tahoe to a customer for a
dollar and things like that.
And yeah, I mean I'm sure thatthere's probably you know legal
things that prevented that.
But I think companies areworking through kind of the
(10:41):
application of industrial AI andthey're putting the right
guardrails on it and creatingproprietary AI solutions that
are purpose-built for auto.
So I think it's definitelysomething to pay attention to.
I think you know one of thethings I hear is like, hey, is
my job going to be replaced by arobot?
And I think the best adviceI've heard is, if you're asking
(11:02):
that question, the answer isyour job probably isn't going to
be replaced by AI, but if youdon't figure out how to use it
and make your job functionbetter, you're going to be
replaced by somebody who knowshow to use AI.
MC (11:16):
That might be the most practical response that I've
heard to that question.
I've often thought if you'rethe one that's worried about
your job being replaced, thenthat means you've made yourself
incredibly replaceable.
Matt (11:29):
Don't be that guy.
Yeah, don't be that guy.
MC (11:32):
I mean gosh, george Jetson pushed buttons that made
sprockets, but before thatsomebody had to make those
sprockets by hand.
You know what I mean.
Somebody's job got replaced anddiluted down to pushing a
button.
Matt (11:44):
Figure out where the value creation is and make sure that
you know you're not just amiddleman, that you're adding
value.
MC (11:51):
The undertone to what I'm hearing here is that, while AI
is definitely something to payattention to, we still need to
get a job done and we needperformance to be there, and
almost and this is the way Iread into it is, if you're the
individual that thinks you justneed the tool and it's going to
(12:12):
do the thing for you, thenthat's probably the misaligned
position to be in.
We're still talking about realhumans having to do real work in
order to sell vehicles, sellmore and fixed, improve F&I
operations and processes.
What's your take?
Hey, does your marketing agencysuck?
(12:34):
Listen, before we hop back intothis episode, I know you know
me as the host of the DealerPlaybook, but did you also know
that I'm the CEO of FlexDealer,an agency that's helping dealers
capture better quality leadsfrom local SEO and
hyper-targeted ads that convert?
So if you want to sell morecars and finally have a partner
that's in it with you thatdoesn't suck, visit
(12:54):
FlexDealercom.
Let's hop back into thisepisode.
Matt (13:00):
Yeah, I mean absolutely.
I mean there is no completeeasy button that says you know,
this is just going to do it foryou and you're going to replace
the practitioners, I mean.
I think another reallyinteresting application, though,
is use it to improve yourmarketing effectiveness and
efficiency.
You know, I think one of theholy grails of marketing forever
has been let's get the rightmessage to the right customer at
(13:23):
the right time, andincreasingly, the AI tools are
helping and we're using them asa company to score customer
propensity to purchase.
Focus on the right customerwho's sending the signals of
being in market whether it be,you know, gobbling up all the
data and figuring out how manyvehicle detail page views of a
certain model someone's lookedat on your website.
(13:45):
Using these systems to createthe right audiences for
targeting.
And again, you can use it tohelp automate the messaging.
But that is one area where youknow first party data platforms,
where you know first party dataplatforms, cdps.
That was kind of like before.
Ai was cool at NADA, but thesesystems are using AI, disparate
(14:13):
data feeds, putting themtogether and make your marketing
more efficient.
So I would really encouragedealers to be exploring that,
experimenting with that, getcapability presentations from
suppliers, who will show you howthey're making your marketing
more efficient using that.
MC (14:26):
This kind of ties into what I think is the core mission of
what you do with Shift Digitalis that you get to serve as the
continuity factor across theboard, like you said, thousands
of auto dealer websites thatyou're looking at, and what was
it 230?
(14:47):
What was the number 230?
Matt (14:49):
Yeah, over 225 different digital dealer suppliers.
Everything from.
You know trade in tools, drtools, chat tools.
You know service scheduling.
MC (14:58):
You name it.
The goal isn't to make anyone'slife difficult.
It's actually to enhance theexperience all around, not just
for the car dealer, but also forthe customer, the end user, the
customer.
Matt (15:11):
Yeah, I think absolutely Like.
Our focus is helping brands anddealers improve their marketing
effectiveness and efficiencyand make the customer experience
better by putting the righttools together.
And so our philosophy is choiceis a winner and choice breeds
competition.
And our role in the ecosystemis to help dealers enable or
(15:34):
help brands enable that fordealers.
And also independentmeasurement, reporting and
analytics right, becauseeverybody kind of wants to come
into a dealership and say turnon our platform for $3.99 a
month or $15.99 a month and yourbusiness is going to go up and
to the right and then they'llcome in and they'll show you why
(15:54):
they're creating value for you.
But the reality is you knowthat independent measurement
that's saying this is who'swinning and how, is really
invaluable for dealers anddealer networks.
And that's our goal.
You know we want there to bechoice.
We want really all thesuppliers to succeed, but some
are more innovative, some catch,you know, trends earlier than
(16:15):
others and we help highlightthose in our programs.
MC (16:19):
The accountability of this is incredible to me.
You know, I often say when wework with our client partners
that we're not afraid ofaccountability.
Accountability is the thingthat I think.
It's a key component ofpartnership, and so the ability
that you have to hold a line ofaccountability across an
(16:39):
ecosystem and especially acrossthat many different programs the
way you do it, I think isnothing short of miraculous.
But in a 2025 world, what'syour opinion on the importance
of accountability in theautomotive ecosystem?
Matt (16:57):
Boy.
I mean you know, I just thinkit's fundamental.
I think, ultimately, what Iwould say advice to a friend is
measure everything and make sureyou're measuring the right
things, but then evaluate allthose choices you make.
You know dealers spend a ton ofmoney on demand creation and
conversion and you know makingsure you have your GA4 tags
(17:19):
configured and doing things sothat you understand what's
actually happening is critical.
And we play that kind of at thatprogram manager level on behalf
of brands for dealers and whatwe see and what we find is the
vast majority of these dealermarketing suppliers, website
companies, chat tools, trade andtools alike, digital
(17:41):
advertising they are sointerested in being able to see
how they stack up againsteveryone else and when they're
on a shift program, what we dois sit down with them, you know
once a quarter, and say here'show you compare to everybody
else on the program.
And there are things like, youknow, dr tools, for example.
You can have dramaticallydifferent performance on
(18:06):
appointment rates, onconversions, on things like that
, and it's a lot of times basedon you know, do you have a lead
gate?
What is the user experience?
And these independent companies?
They don't have a great sourceof understanding how they
compare to somebody else, unlessthey're getting independent
measurement, and so we're ableto provide that, and we're able
(18:28):
to see really smart companiesinnovate, change and get better
for dealers based on the datawe're able to provide them.
MC (18:35):
It makes all the sense in the world.
To me, Accountability equalsinnovation.
Innovation means move the heavyobject forward, provide better
experiences for the dealershipsand the customers alike car
buyers.
It just makes perfect sense tome why it works, and I love how
you're saying the comparisonagainst, like you have something
(18:56):
to cross-reference it against,not just a gut feeling or an
intuition.
It's like no, we've got harddata here that we can compare
against.
Matt (19:05):
Yeah, that's right.
MC (19:07):
It just means it just makes the difference in the world.
So I think that's tremendous.
As we wind up here, I want toget your thoughts.
I mean, we've talked aboutwebsites, what we need to be
paying attention to, the clickto call conversion type.
We've talked about textmessaging and the importance
there, ai who knew you could, bythe way, cram so much
(19:27):
information into just a shortperiod of time?
But that's what we do on theDealer Playbook.
As you look into 2025, 2026, weknow there's going to be more
buzz.
We know there's going to bethings that we latch onto as an
industry.
We know there's political andlegislative factors that
everyone's worried about at timeof recording.
(19:48):
We've got tariffs and things ofthat nature.
From your vantage point, whatis the thing that, if we just
made a small tweak in that area,would just make your day?
Matt (20:02):
Yeah, I think the one other thing, outside of all the
things you listed, that we kindof touched on that I would say
that is a really importantconversation we're having right
now is on overall websiteperformance and we released an
industry paper in Decemberaround basically Google core web
vitals, and I think this is aunder-talked-about issue and
(20:25):
opportunity in the industry.
Like less than 1% of dealerwebsites in North America pass
Google core web vitals andthere's like three main
functions Does it load fast whenyou poke on it with your finger
or on a mouse, does it respondquickly and does the layout
shift because elements areloading.
(20:47):
And getting those three thingsright and fast is an
underreported opportunity.
And here's the thing you can'tjust go to your website provider
and say, speed up my websitebecause they're going to say,
well, the DR tool that's loadingis really clunky or all these
other widgets you've loaded onthere, right, we've
overcomplicated and loaded themup, and then we put huge images
(21:08):
and videos and things like that.
So it really takes dealer brandtool provider, web provider
program manager working togetherto fix this.
There's some interesting newtechnical SEO solutions that are
helping, but I think focusingon how your website is
performing is huge.
The study we put out showedthat of every $100 of
(21:33):
advertising that's sendingtraffic to a dealer website
traffic to a dealer website, $30is basically paying for the
leaky bucket of bad conversionbounce rates from customers
being dissatisfied with the loadtime.
So if I leave you with anything, it's this is something you
should become familiar with Anyany dealer listing, basically
(21:54):
Google page, speedwebdev, andyou'll get Google's tool.
That is basically let you putany URL in mobile or desktop,
the page you're on or the domainand find out how your website
performs and then have the rightconversation with your provider
about how you can make thingsgo faster, increase customer
(22:17):
experience, increase conversionrank higher, better for organic
search and just improve yourperformance by fixing that leaky
bucket.
MC (22:25):
Wow, that's amazing, and I couldn't agree more.
You at least have the choir ofone right here, and I know that
many more in the audience aresaying yes.
Thank you for saying that,because it is a widespread issue
in our industry.
For sure, matt, I can't thankyou enough for joining me on the
Dealer Playbook Podcast.
How can those listening orwatching connect with you?
Matt (22:47):
Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn If you just look for my
name, Matt Van Dyke, ShiftDigital.
You can find information aboutus at shiftdigitalcom and we're
excited about the opportunitiesahead this year.
This is such a great business.
It's such a fun business to bein the entrepreneurship of
dealers.
The innovation is just secondto none in any other vertical,
(23:08):
in any other industry, and itwas a pleasure to talk to you
today, Michael.
MC (23:11):
Thank you, sir.
Thanks so much for joining meon the Dealer Playbook Podcast.
Thank you, hey.
Thanks for listening to theDealer Playbook Podcast.
If you enjoyed tuning in,please subscribe, share and hit
that like button.
You can also join us and theDPD community on social media.
Check back next week for a newdealer playbook episode.
Thanks so much for joining.
This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer.
Hey auto industry, welcome tothis episode of the Dealer
Playbook.
In today's episode, I'm sittingdown with Matt Van Dyke.
(00:22):
He's the president of ShiftDigital and we're going to be
talking about all of thedifferent trends that are
happening as it pertains toautomotive marketing and
performance tracking.
Matt, thanks so much forjoining me on the Dealer
Playbook.
Matt (00:33):
Thanks, Michael.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Thanks for having me.
MC (00:36):
You have perspective that I don't think a lot of people have
when it comes to the landscapeof automotive marketing, of
course, working in so manydifferent OEM programs and I'll
admit, a little nervous to be onthis call with you because you
are definitely an individual ofinfluence but I'm curious, as
you look across your portfolio,across the thousands of dealers
(00:56):
that are in OEM programs, whatare some of the things that
you're noticing right now thatare trends that you believe
people really need to be payingattention to?
Matt (01:06):
Yeah, there's so much right now.
It's a great question.
A couple things.
One I would say is iscontinuing to optimize lead
handling.
So we're shortly going topublish a new industry report
kind of, on the state of theindustry from 2024.
We've started to do these inthe last two years just kind of
(01:26):
using our insights and data forkind of a force of goodwill in
the industry.
And you know, leads last yearwere up but the quality of those
leads were down.
So the industry in NorthAmerica was up as a whole, but
third-party leads and eventleads and things where I would
say shoppers were being chasedas opposed to just organic
(01:50):
intent, altered a little bit ofthe mix of what's happening in
the industry.
So with that, close rates weredown because the quality of
leads were down and there was acontinued shift away from form
lead submissions into click tocalls.
So that gets to my point.
You know 70% plus of yourwebsite traffic is mobile and
(02:13):
there's still an opportunity toreally laser focus your website
into mobile first call toactions.
And if you are looking at yourwebsite and you're evaluating it
on your desktop with yourwebsite platform partner, don't
Pull out your phone and look atit the way most of your
customers look at it and thenmake sure your vehicle detail
(02:37):
page call to actions includeclick to call.
So that's kind of number one.
And then number two are youmeasuring your phone performance
like you're measuring form,lead performance and things like
that?
So so that's one key thing Iwould say we're focused on right
now is just kind of helping ourclients with that focus and
that process.
(02:57):
A second area is kind of onmedia.
So one of the other trends thatwe're going to report on is
vehicle detail page views.
In North America were up 39%last year and that's a
mind-boggling number.
Yeah, part of it is because ofcontinued increased availability
, but really by the end of 2023,availability for most brands
(03:19):
was kind of back to fullystocked shelves.
The bigger thing is that it'sthe medium mix of traffic that
is going to vehicle detail pageviews.
So one of the biggest things isPMAX has made shifts and it's
kind of that black box approachof sending traffic somewhere,
and they shifted, sending moreand more of that traffic to
vehicle detail page views andthat's partially good, but
(03:43):
there's a huge bounce rate andwhat I would say is, if I'm
talking to dealers who arefriends of mine.
I'm like, hey, are you actuallysending your traffic to the
right places?
If you're doing VIN, specificvehicle listing, advertising and
promoting things that way,great, send them into the BDP
page.
But if you're doing a generalcampaign or kind of a general
(04:04):
sales event message, you may begetting ahead of yourself by
dropping somebody right on apage.
So those are a couple of thingsthat are happening.
We're really looking at kind ofthe makeup of the advertising,
what's working and, again, leadperformance and handling are
some key things.
MC (04:19):
This is huge for me, I mean, especially being in the
marketing field myself.
To key in on something you said, I feel like it was I don't
know five, maybe even 10 yearsago.
People would say things likephone calls, outperform, web
form submissions by like five toone.
And now here we are, 2025.
And you're saying, hey, like ifyou're not paying attention to
(04:40):
phone process now, when are yougoing to do it?
And I think it's just such avaluable thing that the dealers
that are paying attention tophone process and understanding
where the customer is comingthrough through that click to
call conversion, are the ones Ifeel like are going to really
have a leg up as compared tothose that are just waiting for
(05:02):
a form submission.
Especially I'd be curious yourtake on this for those that are
starting to say do we even wantto put forms on our website
anymore?
Like there's a lot of chatconversions.
I mean, what's your take onthat?
Matt (05:14):
Yeah, I mean I would still .
I would keep the general formsubmissions, but I would follow
what you just said, which is payso much attention to the phone
calls.
I mean what you just said,which is pay so much attention
to the phone calls.
I mean first back to the volumething, like when we look at the
aggregated data and we see dataacross 16,000 dealer websites
in North America.
(05:34):
So the sample is good.
The reality is the click tocalls outweigh form submissions,
plus chat, plus trade-in, plusDR all combined.
So again, don't not look atthat Focus there for start.
And then the second thing I wasgoing to say is I think text is
(05:54):
as important as calls, and soone make sure you understand
your local TCPA regulatory rulesand regulations on do you have
permission to text somebody andwork with your provider,
especially your advertisingproviders or your website
providers, so that on you know,on submissions, you're getting
(06:16):
the right permission to textpeople.
But more and more people theywant that text.
Now I think our best practicewould be text them, call them,
email them.
But so many people I mean thinkabout you know your dentist or
your it's Valentine's day.
Do you have dinner reservationstonight?
Do you don't want to beinterrupted right now with them
(06:37):
calling you to find out ifyou're going to show up at the
store.
But if you get a text from themthat says are we going to see
you at 7 o'clock tonight, check,thumbs up, I'm in.
So we're all just used to it inour day-to-day lives.
MC (06:49):
Wow, I just can't help but think the level of intent that
somebody is making behind a textor a phone call and how that
might differ from any other typeof conversion.
To wrap our minds around, hey,this person went out of their
way to not only divulge theirphone number to you, but also to
share, like put their thumbs ona keyboard and share an
(07:12):
important message with you.
Put their thumbs on a keyboardand share an important message
with you.
It's almost to me like a giventhat this person is near the
bottom of the funnel in someregard, in some way, shape or
form.
Matt (07:22):
Yeah, so take the time for a quality response, right?
I mean, if they're looking forpricing, give them pricing.
Even better, give them monthlypayments, since that's what most
shoppers and buyers are.
But I think that qualityengagement with phone and mobile
is a difference maker right now.
MC (07:37):
I don't ask controversial questions, but obviously I know
from your vantage point the AIconversation is being had right
when.
I mean, we were just at NADAand my joke was that people
would say AI more than hello.
Where do you see things goingas far as AI?
We talk about quality response.
We know that there are some youknow response tools out there
(07:59):
that claim to be powered by AI.
Is there a place for it?
Is it something that we shouldbe paying attention to and, if
so, how should we be payingattention to it?
Matt (08:08):
Yeah, I mean absolutely and I totally hear you about
NADA, right, you know, nobodydidn't have AI all over their
advertising products.
I mean, it's almost laughable.
There's companies that have AIin their name that don't use AI,
I think.
But look, I think there is asteady progression.
And look at Shift we have over225 different digital dealer
(08:33):
providers in our programs withover 30 different automotive
brands in the US and Canada andwe end up seeing a lot of
innovation because it's eitherquarterly business reviews with
existing partners or it's up andcoming partners who want to get
access to scale programs.
And I would say last year wasdefinitely kind of a turning
(08:55):
point of just seeing, you knowchat providers that had gone to
natural language processing andgenerative AI, to more
sophisticated marketingautomation platforms that were,
you know, scraping your CRM,identifying customers like to be
in the market, then automatingoutbound messaging in order to,
(09:17):
you know, nurture people and getthem warm along the hook on you
know merchandise inventory,specific VINs and then kind of
handing that over to the rightpeople in dealerships in order
to create a connection.
So we're absolutely seeingmarketing automation providers
make advances and do good things.
(09:37):
I think it's also a neat toolon the service drive.
More and more service lanetechnology companies are
scanning products for trade-in,for dings and dashes, and
helping create tools in order todo vehicle trade-in appraisals.
There's unique and neatadvancements in other vehicle
(09:57):
merchandising providers that aretaking your VDPs and they're
highlighting why-bys customerfeatures, enhancing the creative
by scraping and putting yourdealership name on a license
plate or in the background ofthe car to make sure customers
know that certain inventories ontheir lots.
Really, I think the sky's thelimit.
(10:19):
There's a lot of goodtechnology.
I think everybody still isscared of stories from 15 months
ago where you know a chat toolsold a Tahoe to a customer for a
dollar and things like that.
And yeah, I mean I'm sure thatthere's probably you know legal
things that prevented that.
But I think companies areworking through kind of the
(10:41):
application of industrial AI andthey're putting the right
guardrails on it and creatingproprietary AI solutions that
are purpose-built for auto.
So I think it's definitelysomething to pay attention to.
I think you know one of thethings I hear is like, hey, is
my job going to be replaced by arobot?
And I think the best adviceI've heard is, if you're asking
(11:02):
that question, the answer isyour job probably isn't going to
be replaced by AI, but if youdon't figure out how to use it
and make your job functionbetter, you're going to be
replaced by somebody who knowshow to use AI.
MC (11:16):
That might be the most practical response that I've
heard to that question.
I've often thought if you'rethe one that's worried about
your job being replaced, thenthat means you've made yourself
incredibly replaceable.
Matt (11:29):
Don't be that guy.
Yeah, don't be that guy.
MC (11:32):
I mean gosh, george Jetson pushed buttons that made
sprockets, but before thatsomebody had to make those
sprockets by hand.
You know what I mean.
Somebody's job got replaced anddiluted down to pushing a
button.
Matt (11:44):
Figure out where the value creation is and make sure that
you know you're not just amiddleman, that you're adding
value.
MC (11:51):
The undertone to what I'm hearing here is that, while AI
is definitely something to payattention to, we still need to
get a job done and we needperformance to be there, and
almost and this is the way Iread into it is, if you're the
individual that thinks you justneed the tool and it's going to
(12:12):
do the thing for you, thenthat's probably the misaligned
position to be in.
We're still talking about realhumans having to do real work in
order to sell vehicles, sellmore and fixed, improve F&I
operations and processes.
What's your take?
Hey, does your marketing agencysuck?
(12:34):
Listen, before we hop back intothis episode, I know you know
me as the host of the DealerPlaybook, but did you also know
that I'm the CEO of FlexDealer,an agency that's helping dealers
capture better quality leadsfrom local SEO and
hyper-targeted ads that convert?
So if you want to sell morecars and finally have a partner
that's in it with you thatdoesn't suck, visit
(12:54):
FlexDealercom.
Let's hop back into thisepisode.
Matt (13:00):
Yeah, I mean absolutely.
I mean there is no completeeasy button that says you know,
this is just going to do it foryou and you're going to replace
the practitioners, I mean.
I think another reallyinteresting application, though,
is use it to improve yourmarketing effectiveness and
efficiency.
You know, I think one of theholy grails of marketing forever
has been let's get the rightmessage to the right customer at
(13:23):
the right time, andincreasingly, the AI tools are
helping and we're using them asa company to score customer
propensity to purchase.
Focus on the right customerwho's sending the signals of
being in market whether it be,you know, gobbling up all the
data and figuring out how manyvehicle detail page views of a
certain model someone's lookedat on your website.
(13:45):
Using these systems to createthe right audiences for
targeting.
And again, you can use it tohelp automate the messaging.
But that is one area where youknow first party data platforms,
where you know first party dataplatforms, cdps.
That was kind of like before.
Ai was cool at NADA, but thesesystems are using AI, disparate
(14:13):
data feeds, putting themtogether and make your marketing
more efficient.
So I would really encouragedealers to be exploring that,
experimenting with that, getcapability presentations from
suppliers, who will show you howthey're making your marketing
more efficient using that.
MC (14:26):
This kind of ties into what I think is the core mission of
what you do with Shift Digitalis that you get to serve as the
continuity factor across theboard, like you said, thousands
of auto dealer websites thatyou're looking at, and what was
it 230?
(14:47):
What was the number 230?
Matt (14:49):
Yeah, over 225 different digital dealer suppliers.
Everything from.
You know trade in tools, drtools, chat tools.
You know service scheduling.
MC (14:58):
You name it.
The goal isn't to make anyone'slife difficult.
It's actually to enhance theexperience all around, not just
for the car dealer, but also forthe customer, the end user, the
customer.
Matt (15:11):
Yeah, I think absolutely Like.
Our focus is helping brands anddealers improve their marketing
effectiveness and efficiencyand make the customer experience
better by putting the righttools together.
And so our philosophy is choiceis a winner and choice breeds
competition.
And our role in the ecosystemis to help dealers enable or
(15:34):
help brands enable that fordealers.
And also independentmeasurement, reporting and
analytics right, becauseeverybody kind of wants to come
into a dealership and say turnon our platform for $3.99 a
month or $15.99 a month and yourbusiness is going to go up and
to the right and then they'llcome in and they'll show you why
(15:54):
they're creating value for you.
But the reality is you knowthat independent measurement
that's saying this is who'swinning and how, is really
invaluable for dealers anddealer networks.
And that's our goal.
You know we want there to bechoice.
We want really all thesuppliers to succeed, but some
are more innovative, some catch,you know, trends earlier than
(16:15):
others and we help highlightthose in our programs.
MC (16:19):
The accountability of this is incredible to me.
You know, I often say when wework with our client partners
that we're not afraid ofaccountability.
Accountability is the thingthat I think.
It's a key component ofpartnership, and so the ability
that you have to hold a line ofaccountability across an
(16:39):
ecosystem and especially acrossthat many different programs the
way you do it, I think isnothing short of miraculous.
But in a 2025 world, what'syour opinion on the importance
of accountability in theautomotive ecosystem?
Matt (16:57):
Boy.
I mean you know, I just thinkit's fundamental.
I think, ultimately, what Iwould say advice to a friend is
measure everything and make sureyou're measuring the right
things, but then evaluate allthose choices you make.
You know dealers spend a ton ofmoney on demand creation and
conversion and you know makingsure you have your GA4 tags
(17:19):
configured and doing things sothat you understand what's
actually happening is critical.
And we play that kind of at thatprogram manager level on behalf
of brands for dealers and whatwe see and what we find is the
vast majority of these dealermarketing suppliers, website
companies, chat tools, trade andtools alike, digital
(17:41):
advertising they are sointerested in being able to see
how they stack up againsteveryone else and when they're
on a shift program, what we dois sit down with them, you know
once a quarter, and say here'show you compare to everybody
else on the program.
And there are things like, youknow, dr tools, for example.
You can have dramaticallydifferent performance on
(18:06):
appointment rates, onconversions, on things like that
, and it's a lot of times basedon you know, do you have a lead
gate?
What is the user experience?
And these independent companies?
They don't have a great sourceof understanding how they
compare to somebody else, unlessthey're getting independent
measurement, and so we're ableto provide that, and we're able
(18:28):
to see really smart companiesinnovate, change and get better
for dealers based on the datawe're able to provide them.
MC (18:35):
It makes all the sense in the world.
To me, Accountability equalsinnovation.
Innovation means move the heavyobject forward, provide better
experiences for the dealershipsand the customers alike car
buyers.
It just makes perfect sense tome why it works, and I love how
you're saying the comparisonagainst, like you have something
(18:56):
to cross-reference it against,not just a gut feeling or an
intuition.
It's like no, we've got harddata here that we can compare
against.
Matt (19:05):
Yeah, that's right.
MC (19:07):
It just means it just makes the difference in the world.
So I think that's tremendous.
As we wind up here, I want toget your thoughts.
I mean, we've talked aboutwebsites, what we need to be
paying attention to, the clickto call conversion type.
We've talked about textmessaging and the importance
there, ai who knew you could, bythe way, cram so much
(19:27):
information into just a shortperiod of time?
But that's what we do on theDealer Playbook.
As you look into 2025, 2026, weknow there's going to be more
buzz.
We know there's going to bethings that we latch onto as an
industry.
We know there's political andlegislative factors that
everyone's worried about at timeof recording.
(19:48):
We've got tariffs and things ofthat nature.
From your vantage point, whatis the thing that, if we just
made a small tweak in that area,would just make your day?
Matt (20:02):
Yeah, I think the one other thing, outside of all the
things you listed, that we kindof touched on that I would say
that is a really importantconversation we're having right
now is on overall websiteperformance and we released an
industry paper in Decemberaround basically Google core web
vitals, and I think this is aunder-talked-about issue and
(20:25):
opportunity in the industry.
Like less than 1% of dealerwebsites in North America pass
Google core web vitals andthere's like three main
functions Does it load fast whenyou poke on it with your finger
or on a mouse, does it respondquickly and does the layout
shift because elements areloading.
(20:47):
And getting those three thingsright and fast is an
underreported opportunity.
And here's the thing you can'tjust go to your website provider
and say, speed up my websitebecause they're going to say,
well, the DR tool that's loadingis really clunky or all these
other widgets you've loaded onthere, right, we've
overcomplicated and loaded themup, and then we put huge images
(21:08):
and videos and things like that.
So it really takes dealer brandtool provider, web provider
program manager working togetherto fix this.
There's some interesting newtechnical SEO solutions that are
helping, but I think focusingon how your website is
performing is huge.
The study we put out showedthat of every $100 of
(21:33):
advertising that's sendingtraffic to a dealer website
traffic to a dealer website, $30is basically paying for the
leaky bucket of bad conversionbounce rates from customers
being dissatisfied with the loadtime.
So if I leave you with anything, it's this is something you
should become familiar with Anyany dealer listing, basically
(21:54):
Google page, speedwebdev, andyou'll get Google's tool.
That is basically let you putany URL in mobile or desktop,
the page you're on or the domainand find out how your website
performs and then have the rightconversation with your provider
about how you can make thingsgo faster, increase customer
(22:17):
experience, increase conversionrank higher, better for organic
search and just improve yourperformance by fixing that leaky
bucket.
MC (22:25):
Wow, that's amazing, and I couldn't agree more.
You at least have the choir ofone right here, and I know that
many more in the audience aresaying yes.
Thank you for saying that,because it is a widespread issue
in our industry.
For sure, matt, I can't thankyou enough for joining me on the
Dealer Playbook Podcast.
How can those listening orwatching connect with you?
Matt (22:47):
Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn If you just look for my
name, Matt Van Dyke, ShiftDigital.
You can find information aboutus at shiftdigitalcom and we're
excited about the opportunitiesahead this year.
This is such a great business.
It's such a fun business to bein the entrepreneurship of
dealers.
The innovation is just secondto none in any other vertical,
(23:08):
in any other industry, and itwas a pleasure to talk to you
today, Michael.
MC (23:11):
Thank you, sir.
Thanks so much for joining meon the Dealer Playbook Podcast.
Thank you, hey.
Thanks for listening to theDealer Playbook Podcast.
If you enjoyed tuning in,please subscribe, share and hit
that like button.
You can also join us and theDPD community on social media.
Check back next week for a newdealer playbook episode.
Thanks so much for joining.
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