May 29, 2025 • 31 mins
Chad Graves, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Reunion Marketing, joins the Auto Collabs crew to talk shop about what really moves the needle in automotive marketing. With over a decade of experience guiding digital strategy for dealerships across the country, Chad breaks down how his team is pushing past surface-level metrics to deliver true business outcomes. Spoiler: it’s not about the flashiest dashboards—it’s about asking the right questions and making sure your SEO works just as hard as your sales team.
In this episode, the crew digs into Reunion's newly launched platform, Altitude, and how it's helping dealers connect marketing actions directly to sales and inventory performance. Chad offers a grounded take on the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT, arguing they enhance—but don’t replace—the fundamentals of solid SEO. The conversation gets real about shifting consumer behavior, the surprising persistence of Google search dominance, and why making your website frictionless is more important than ever.
Takeaways:
0:00 – Intro with Paul J Daly, Kyle Mountsier, and Michael Cirillo
6:19 – Chad explains how Reunion balances a scalable SEO blueprint with localized customization by asking deeper questions
10:17 – The team discusses the resurgence of new car leads and the importance of simplifying website experiences
14:44 – Chad shares insights on how AI tools like ChatGPT are influencing consumer research and the continued relevance of SEO
17:34 – Reunion’s new Altitude platform integrates sales and inventory data to provide dealers with actionable insights
23:07 – The conversation turns to the growing importance of online reviews in influencing AI-driven search results
Learn more about Chad Graves and Reunion Marketing:
- LinkedIn: Chad Graves
- Company: Reunion Marketing
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michael Cirillo (00:00):
I'm gonna pull this out at some point during
(00:02):
our interview with Chad gravestoday.
Kyle Mountsier (00:09):
This is Auto Collabs.
Michael Cirillo (00:11):
I've been telling him for years that what
Paul J Daly (00:19):
weirdest podcast intro ever. Have been
Michael Cirillo (00:21):
telling him for years that he looks exactly like
my brother in law. Wow. And I'venever shown him a picture, and I
gotta dig up a picture, if I canremember, I gotta dig up a
picture. I'm gonna show him apicture of my brother in law and
see if you guys can see it aswell. Okay, if you can't see it,
then it's not real. But ifthere's any slight, don't
Paul J Daly (00:42):
show us. Let we need to be surprised. We'll be
surprised. Okay, let's, let's doit. Let's, well, look, we're
good. If you don't know who Chadgraves are, is, he's one of the,
I think, one of the best peoplein this industry, one of the,
one of the very first peopleI've met. He and the team at
reunion are just, just strike meas people who are always have a
smile. They're always ready toserve and boy, have they been
(01:05):
resilient through all thechanges we've seen in SEO over
the last decade. So we hope youenjoy this conversation we're
gonna have with Chad graves, andwe're gonna see if he looks like
Michael Cirillo, his brother inlaw, Chad. You're no stranger to
this show or this ecosystem orthis audience, it's so good to
be here with you again today.
Absolutely,
Chad Graves (01:25):
guys, so great to be here again. I love getting on
this show as often as I can. Ifeel like we're averaging like
once a year at least right now,which is perfect, right? Perfect
rhythm to be in. So appreciativeof being on here with you guys
as always.
Paul J Daly (01:38):
And I can't say this is this for sure. I have to
go back and check the record,but I'm pretty sure every time
I'm with you on a podcast, Ifeel the need to tell the story
about how at my first autoevent, which was the CBT like
the full, yeah, not like I wasat the auto news retail forum
for a day, but this was at CBTsfor in Atlanta. I didn't know
anybody. And our friend, mutualfriend, Brad Pascual, he
(02:00):
introduced me to you, and Dave,and you all were so nice to me
and like, you're like, Come todinner with us. I didn't know
anybody, man, I mean, and Iremember immediately feeling
like, if this is, if these arethe people I've been missing out
on, I can't wait to get deeperin, like, the broader industry.
So I still, I literally rememberthe table. I remember where
everybody was sitting, and Iasked Kyle and Michael, I'm not
(02:21):
good with details.
Chad Graves (02:24):
I get it, man.
It's, I remember too, gosh,probably seven, eight years ago.
Yeah, easily. So, you know, Ithink it's, it's kind of just a
test, a testament to what wewant to do, right and
collaborate and figure outpeople would like minds and go
from there. And I think we bothsense that even from the get go,
which is, I think, even moreawesome,
Paul J Daly (02:43):
and I love that we're here like our you know,
obviously our lives have changeda lot. The companies have
changed a lot. ASOTU didn't evenexist. We have children that
didn't exist amongst all of us,like life, life has changed. But
I think despite all the change,despite all the ups and downs of
business in the industry. Ithink it's real testament to
(03:04):
this undercurrent of people whoare serving the industry and
industry partners who areserving the industry with this
like minded, like heartednessthat really is the unlock to the
tech developments and theprogression to be able to handle
the business challenges. Soyeah, it's so I don't know, I
don't know if I say it everytime, but I think it's worth
bringing up, because I'm notgetting
Chad Graves (03:23):
sick of it anytime soon. So let's we'll keep it
rolling. We'll do it again nextyear, and it's perfect, man, but
I completely agree. It's whenyou can meet like my people, you
grow together and and you rootfor each other. And I think
that's that's something that'salways fun, too, about
collaborating with you guys. Youknow being in each other's
corner is a big part of thisbusiness, and I think what makes
it unique and strong,
Michael Cirillo (03:45):
I gotta get this off my chest. Oh, let's go.
I'm ready. I've told Chad thisready. He's like, I've said this
to Chad before, and I've offeredno substantial evidence of such,
but Chad, please
Paul J Daly (04:00):
don't guess who his father is, yeah,
brother, yeah, your brother inlaw's brother, that's specific.
Oh,
Chad Graves (04:10):
look at that. I can see it, yeah, you can see it,
okay, I can see the hair. Yeah,he's
Michael Cirillo (04:18):
like your brother, older brother, that
like you went the fitness routeand he
Paul J Daly (04:25):
donuts
Chad Graves (04:27):
the Food Network.
He's gonna see this episode andand I'll be curious his take
a whole photo call.
Michael Cirillo (04:40):
It's like the nose the Okay, trying to find
this is ironic,
Chad Graves (04:46):
coming from three guys who look a lot alike on
this camera.
Paul J Daly (04:52):
That's a fair point. That's a fair point. Well
anyways, as natural firstquestion, because this is, this
is like on on the. Top of mymind, and we work with, we
obviously have conversations andand and hang out with dealers
and industry partners all acrossthe country. But you guys have
grown to be like I would, youknow, I don't know where you
place yourself, but mid to largesize agency, right? And you're
(05:13):
dealing with clients all acrossthe country, obviously, you have
account managers to handle allof that. But one of the things
that I find really unique aboutthe US as a retail environment
is like what's going on inCalifornia, Idaho, Florida, New
York and North Carolina arewildly different, wildly
(05:36):
different from a go to marketstrategy. You know, if it's
urban or suburban, when youthink about, like, productizing
yourself as an agency into theauto industry, how do you
reconcile like, hey, we have athesis. We have a way of doing
things with Oh no in this area,for this dealer, for this thing,
(05:59):
we have to, like, adjust and andget that's like, when you do
that at scale, you need thingsthat, like, this is our thesis
at scale. But how do you, how doyou get that down to the ground?
I'd love to hear, like, howyou've grown to learn how to do
that over the years as anagency.
Chad Graves (06:19):
Man, it's a it's a really great question, honestly.
And I think one that on we couldspend the whole podcast talking
about how to make it a littlebit unique. And I think it does
kind of start with that thesis.
And for us, it's a process, aproven process, especially when
it comes to SEO. And for us, youdo have to have an understanding
of just how are people searchingat whole across the industry
(06:40):
when it comes to Google and AItools and the whole nine, which
we can talk, talk aboutthroughout. But what I really
believe Kyle is like it kind oftakes it back to Paul's original
point is, like the ability tocare and ask that second
question. You know, how doesthis strategy go into your
store. How does this match withwhat you typically do? So we
(07:02):
tend to say that we come in witha blueprint, right? We have a
blueprint of what is success,and it's, you know, we need to
do these pages and this. Butthen how do you change that?
Alter the blueprint based onlocation, size, market, all a
little bit different. Require,different content pieces,
different plans, different coremodels, and then even lately,
(07:23):
you know the differences betweenprioritizing new used fixed
operations. So I think it'scoming in with that blueprint,
but then being willing to take astep back and say this blueprint
as whole makes sense, but how doyou tweak little parts of it to
make sure that it's unique forPaul versus Kyle versus Michael,
all in different parts. And so Ithink the thesis and the way you
(07:47):
said that actually makes a tonof sense, but then the way that
we roll it out is a lot ofconfirmation, and I believe you
got to put that work in at thebeginning of a relationship, but
then never let it go. So everycouple months, every month,
we're looking at and saying,Hey, Kyle, does this still make
sense to your business? Hey,Paul, is this? Is this still
flowing like, Hey, I saw thatFord doing this. How do we tell
Paul J Daly (08:11):
you what? Roll that in. I think that is a brilliant
way to put that, asking thatsecond question, because
everyone you just see it sopervasively, people step up with
a best practice, with a newpiece of tech, right? With
something that works somewhereelse, and they say, here's the
answer. And conversely, I think,you know, a lot of dealers are
(08:33):
looking for the answer, right?
And the most important questionis that second question, 100%
How does it work here? 100% orDoes it even work here? We
recently, wow, that's a greatway to put that. We
Chad Graves (08:46):
recently, about a year ago, started recording our
client calls to with that clientteam, and our sales
presentations too. And it's whatwe even noticed, is like, where
you learn the most about adealer is when they throw out a
statement, you know, oh, youknow, I lost sales to this
person. Well, why did thathappen? You know? Or, man, I'm
getting my butts kicked on CRV.
Oh, is it by Toyota? Is it byanother Honda store that's doing
(09:10):
the same? That's second, thirdquestion. Whoo, like, that's
where you get into, like, thereal juice of of what's
happening within the walls ofthe store, which I think is
super cool. Are
Paul J Daly (09:21):
you noticing over the last month, I was actually
having a conversation with adigital marketing director for
like, a 13 store groupyesterday, they're mid to high
line. And the like shift overthe last let's call it like mid
March through April, early May,has been that they're starting
(09:42):
to get new car leads right. Likeas an industry, we know that
leads happen more often on usedcars. There's there's a little
bit more interesting shoppingbehavior happens on new cars,
but the tide is shifting, andpeople are actually submitting
lead inquiries again on newcars. Cars, like when we had
demand issues back about threeyears ago. Are you seeing that
(10:04):
trend switch, and is there? Arethere things people should be
paying attention to, to, like,drive that low funnel shopping
behavior when we've typicallylooked at like, much higher
funnel shopping behavior withnew cars? I love it.
Chad Graves (10:17):
Yes, we have seen that switch. Lot, a lot of lead
activity. And, I mean, a lot ofdealers had great close up
marches. Call it tariff, pinupdemand. You call it whatever it
is. I think that we capitalizedon a market that was ready for
people to buy cars, which isultimately the job of the
dealership, right? I mean,that's what we're supposed to be
doing. I think a couple ofthings that dealers can stay
(10:39):
keen on as we go into this isone continually. It's, I love
the expression of getting backto the basics as well, because
that's what a lot of theconversation I'm hearing from
digital directors from GM, islike, Man, I'm listening to
phone scripts. I'm I'msharpening what you know, what
to say when a customer calls infrom different markets, and all
(10:59):
of those types of things, Ithink are always going to be the
most important. But when itcomes to inventory, pricing, and
then, for the love of God, justdon't clutter up the website,
right? Like it's it's ournatural tendency right now to be
like, print
Paul J Daly (11:13):
that I want to print that on a t shirt for a
soda con. For the love of God,don't clutter
Unknown (11:17):
what it
Chad Graves (11:18):
is. We've all talked about it, right. But I
think, to your point, dealers doespecially right now. We're
looking for that, you know,well, what can I do to get one
step ahead of the market right?
And there's a tendency to belike, well, let's throw another
trade vow tool, or let's throw abutton that tells them, you
know, get your pre tariff price,whatever it is. We're throwing
17th homepage banner up therethat talks about it. But in
(11:42):
reality, the easiest way to getthat consumer to submit that
lead that we really want is tomake the process as seamless and
frictionless as possible. Andthat's a lot of what we're
preaching today is capitalize onthat low funnel and then make it
easy for the customer to get towhere they want and communicate
Michael Cirillo (12:00):
with you. This is a this is making me think
about a conversation I had withMichelle Dano Jean. I don't know
if you guys remember Michellefrom remember,
Paul J Daly (12:10):
yeah. Do
Michael Cirillo (12:11):
we remember?
Paul J Daly (12:14):
I remember how she taught me how to pronounce her
last name,
Michael Cirillo (12:18):
denim jean. Did she do the denim jean thing?
Okay? She said, There is nothingworse in marketing than making a
promise online that you can'tfulfill in person like that.
There's another t shirt thinkingabout this experience that
you're talking about and notcluttering a website, and making
sure that the path to gettinginformation that the customer
wants at whatever phase of thebuying journey they're in as
(12:40):
accessible as possible. And thenI think about, I know I'm going
to be the one that brings inthat the AI to this
conversation, yeah, which Ithink amplifies this thesis of
of marketing to operationalintegration, which is human
beings in and of themselves areokay at reasoning based on
nuance and context. But when itreally comes down to it, SEO and
(13:05):
search for the last 20 plusyears has been optimized around
things like best car price, youknow, new lease deals, because
like when, when push comes toshove, with the trillions of
data points that our brains aretrying to process, that is the
best thing we know how to comeup with. Now you have AI that
(13:25):
takes the reasoning away from usand just gives us the
information we're looking forand and is using websites, is
using the work that you're doingas an SEO as its data lake. And
so I can't help but think, Okay,well now if search general
results or GPT or whatever it isthat you're using to conduct a
(13:47):
search, if, if I can now, as ahuman being, deploy more of my
search activity to tocontextual. I'm a family of
five. Yep. We play soccer twicea week we have two dogs. We
instead of like, what do Isearch to find what I want? The
AIS are going to take thereasoning from it. They're going
(14:08):
to grab the information fromyour website, and now all the
more important for you tofulfill the promise that that
AIS just made for you. Yeah,when they come to buy and be
like, Hey, I'm the family offive that plays soccer and has
two big dogs, you need to knowwhat you've got in your
inventory. You need to knowwhat's on your website. You need
to know the content that's beingcreated, the things you're
(14:30):
talking about. So what? What'syour take on that? I know you
guys are probably getting amillion questions a day about
killing us.
Yeah, is a co dead? Yep, a fewwhat's your take?
Chad Graves (14:44):
How do you guys together? I think you hit the
nail on the head, man. I mean, Ithink that SEO, to its point, is
here, but it's rapidly changing.
And anybody that doesn'tacknowledge how quickly it's
changing and how quickly it'sgoing to continue to change, I.
That's where I would beworrisome, right? As an
industry, I think that it's justgoing to be phenomenal to see,
(15:06):
and it's just a crazy worry, alittle like, are people just
forgetting more? Because, like,the average person on Google is
googling to over 200 times permonth, but they're also going to
chat GPT another 30 times permonth, and they're also going to
perplex, and it's like so theamount of just questions we have
and the information that's athand has, I mean, is only going
(15:27):
to continue to rapidly grow. Ithink right now, we're in a
great stage of experimentationunderstanding, you know, how
does chat GPT versus grog versusperplexity versus Gemini? You
know, how do they pull in thesedifferent pieces? And then, how
do you alter your SEO plan,adjust your strategy to
incorporate those things, right?
(15:48):
To your point, like, those,that's a heck of a blog post,
right? Like, what are the bestSUVs for families of five with
two dogs that travel everyweekend, right? Like, that's
probably something that weshould incorporate, or will
incorporate, because that'swhere I think, and I think chat
GPT even just my own buyingjourney. I just leased a new
(16:08):
vehicle a couple months ago, andit was really eye opening to go
through it with chat GPT and useit myself. And where did I go to
Google? Where did I go to localSEO and like, see how all the
pieces came into play as I wasdoing it as a consumer, right?
And I needed chat GPT to cutthrough the noise. I needed it
to tell me, you know, unbiased,and be able to show my wife
(16:31):
like, hey, look like this iswhat this is saying. To your
point, let's take out the reasonand really get factual. And then
now, how do I find the inventorythings like that, which is
where, at the end of the day,when it comes down to intent and
shopping for at least now, untilchat GPT alters, which I think
they will, you know, thereGoogle runs the intent game,
(16:52):
right when it when it's time forinventory, you know, that's,
that's where I'm going back toGoogle, which was, again, so
interesting to See. The OEMsites, I think, will be
interesting, because usually Iwould have to go to Hyundai and
Kia and all those OEM sites tounderstand those differences.
And chat GBT did it for me inabout, you know, yeah, it's like
Paul J Daly (17:11):
the high funnel stuff is gonna lean more toward,
like, the research side of stuffis gonna lean more toward those
quicker. At least today, mightstill see a lot of inventory
happening in like, searchbehavior, or like, like display
ads and things like that. Youyou all had a quite a big
announcement just a couple ofweeks ago. I'd like to hear a
little bit about what you guysare doing and and how you're
(17:33):
kind of challenging the spaceright now. Yeah,
actually, before I'm startinginterrupting that question, but
as you were talking about that,I was like, I had a little bug
in my head, and I was like, Ijust opened GPT, and I said,
Which car do you think is beston me based on my personality
and family needs? Use? What youall use, what you already know
about me? I didn't say I needthis. I didn't say I need that.
(17:53):
Did it nail it? Uh, it record.
First recommendation was aToyota Sequoia, a new hybrid,
talking about my kids andfamily, travel and creative
projects. It said it's practicaland premium for your
personality. It's luxurious, butnot pretentious, the hybrid So,
but you can like that, right?
Like, no, but based on what itknows about me, I'm like, I
(18:13):
would consider a Sequoia, yeah,right. And then it gave me the
next selection was a rivian R1s, again, Volvo XC 90, and
afford expedition Max,
Chad Graves (18:21):
all things, I think make sense. It just I didn't
know that you were willing
Paul J Daly (18:26):
to Charlie the information as far as, like, how
many doors and how many this andfuel trade like that never got
put into the internet anywhere.
Chad Graves (18:33):
It's cool, man. I think it's dude. I think it told
Paul J Daly (18:36):
me I should get a Lucid Air touring. So I'm gonna
do it. I'm
Unknown (18:42):
going for it.
Michael Cirillo (18:45):
Here's the thing that slightly worries me
before we get to theannouncement, what you guys have
done, what worries me is that Iwould consider us and our
circles power users and probablyinfluencing the conversation of
GPT. But I think of my own dearwife,
Paul J Daly (19:03):
right? I feel like there's a God rest her soul
after when you say it like that,
Michael Cirillo (19:09):
guys, she is an 87 year old woman trapped in a
39 year old's body and and Ithink about my own children. I
just had to have a conversationwith my own children last night
where I was like, You need toknow AI. You need to know
technology. It is not goinganywhere. It will be play a part
in every job that you have. Mywife, because of that statement,
(19:31):
will refuse to use it. And thereis probably a larger demo, I
would say, in the world, of 8billion people by the time we
all die, probably 9 billionpeople, majority of which will
not even have access to it, andsome of which will have never
even heard of it. And so I worryabout like, how people are using
Google today. After 30 years,most still don't even know how
(19:54):
to use Google properly. My dearmother in law still believes
that if she doesn'tspecifically. Specifically click
Sign out from her Yahoo email,that her emails will float out
into the ether. So I wonder,like, what you're seeing based
on that. I mean, I know we havedata on how Google is used and
those sorts of things, but, butI think we tend to do that as an
(20:16):
industry, and it's an importantpiece to factor in that there
are power users and we areshaping a narrative because
we're using it all day, everyday, that there is still a large
majority of car shoppers outthere who won't ever get past
Google, like there's a couple ofgenerations here, or a
generation and a half of carbuyers that probably will not
(20:37):
even think to go to a GPT toeven do what Paul just did. I'll
Chad Graves (20:42):
answer that, and then I'll get to your point,
Kyle. So just in our ownresearch recently, just this
last month, we looked at an Audistore, progressive brand. I
think we would all agree, in NewYork, New Jersey, big market,
sophisticated market, and a bigstore, they are averaging about
4000 visits a month from Googleorganic. Last month, six people
(21:07):
referred from chat GPT,according to Google Analytics,
that's less than Bing and equalto DuckDuckGo. And nobody told
me that DuckDuckGo is going tokill SEO, right? So my point is
just that, yes, I do think thatwe have a habit as progressive
people and early adopters,right? We are in the early
(21:28):
adopter wave still, and we areroyal in it together. I mean,
like Dave, who you know, youguys all know, with reunion, is
that most active user I know. Imean, he's in there every day.
In fact, I'm like, sometimes I'mlike, which one of you am I
talking to the Dave or chatgpt?
Dave, I don't even know. It'skind of the same guy at this
point. It's great, but there's alot, you know. So yes, I think
(21:49):
that it's going to continue togrow. It is growing. I mean,
it's fast growing thing in theworld, right? But, yeah,
Michael, to your point, like,the it hasn't trickled all the
way down to people, you know,buying a car off of it yet,
right? We're still ending backon Google, which I think is
good.
Paul J Daly (22:06):
Yeah. I mean, my search right here, I said, Who
should I buy it from? And itgave me recommendations. It
recommended Carter, Myers,automotive, because I already
collaborate. Yeah, it did bringup West her Toyota, but it
doesn't know. It said you'velikely crossed paths with them
through ASOTU circles. And thenit offers me for the expedition.
Interestingly enough, it offeredme two stores that I've never,
(22:28):
ever searched or typed in. Iknow them all from my previous
business. And it says, like,friendly for Geneva, a smaller,
more community driven storeworth looking at for a personal
experience. It got thatinformation somewhere. Wow,
probably from
Chad Graves (22:39):
reviews. Man, what I yeah, my sneaky. I'm not
sneaky. I think that chat GPT isgoing to bring back reviews
stronger than anything, becausethat's I that's what I think is.
And I've done searches, youknow, here with we have local
clients that I know the SEO isreally good, and I know the
search is really good, andsometimes it always, won't,
won't, always recommend thembecause they don't have reviews
(23:01):
equal to or better a storethat's a little bit closer, even
a little bit further away. So Ithink it's going to be
interesting to
Paul J Daly (23:07):
and then it says you might be able to leverage
your industry level leverage andrelationships by mentioning, you
know, Chad graves. So wow,leverage the heck yeah. It's
like,Do you know who I'm friends
with? That's amazing. Looks likeMichael Cirillo, brother, best
brand. Tell it. Tell us aboutwhat's going on. Yeah,
Chad Graves (23:27):
super exciting, guys. Couple weeks ago, release,
what our biggest release todate? And I'll rewind a little
bit. We started visualizing SEOa couple years ago with key
lift, and it was in spreadsheetsat first. And our bit friend,
Ben Hadley, I remember, like itwas yesterday at nada. He was
like, Dude, you got to, like,get this out of spreadsheets and
into like, a dashboard. And Iwas like, damn, I hate a
(23:49):
dashboard, but there we are. Andthen we added our Google
Business Profile stuff, and thenwe added our search stuff. But
just a couple weeks ago, we'veofficially branded it altitude,
which is really exciting, searchbeyond limits. And the reason
that search beyond limits, guys,is because we're also
integrating sales and inventorydata directly into it as well.
(24:10):
So now, and the best quote I'veheard about this from a GM, he
said, You know, I've always hadto speak your language. Now
you're speaking mine. Come onnow,
so, and that was out of trust,right there, babe. And
you know, that's when I knew wewere onto something. Was
actually at the Carter, Myersorganization, and so it was
great. They were an earlyadopter and beta tester for us.
(24:34):
So you know, now, instead ofsaying, Hey Michael, how was
your month last month? And youknow, leads are up, we're
saying, Hey, Michael, this iswhere you lost market share last
month. This is who you lost itto. This is the model that we
have the most opportunity toand, hey, we're thinking about
bumping up that in our contentselection, and we're going to
change bid adjustments based oncompetition market sales and the
(24:55):
volume of inventory you have onthe lot. Oh, by the way, you're
also priced really. Fair. Andyou know, let's put that message
in the ads as well. And so it'sjust really changing the
narrative, bringing the data atit from a really exciting point
for our team, for those clientfolks, it's something we're
super excited about, guys andthe user experience. It's really
(25:16):
tough. Yeah,
Paul J Daly (25:17):
that's called altitude. I love that.
Chad Graves (25:20):
Thank you.
Paul J Daly (25:20):
Good branded name.
I appreciate that. We're
Chad Graves (25:23):
really excited about it. It's out now today,
and it just brings up a reallygood sophistication level to a
technology that I think is veryeasy for dealers to get around
and play with and andunderstand, and it gives them
value to you know, quitefrankly, what, what I think
matters the most, the leadingindicator of this industry is
ultimately sales. You know, wetake everything else out. That's
(25:45):
what we're judged on at the endof the day. And if we can help
that, we can help our dealers dothat, then ultimately, I feel
like that's our job as amarketing digital marketing
agency, which is
Michael Cirillo (25:54):
exciting. Well, talk about bringing it full
circle right into the end. Wetalked about SEO, we talked
about AI, we talked aboutcustomer journey, and now you're
able to visualize that for yourpartners. I think that's
tremendous. Chad man, it'salways a pleasure to hang out
with you. Thanks
Chad Graves (26:08):
for joining us.
Thanks so much, guys. It'salways a pleasure, and I look
forward to continue supporting.
I'll be back next year, so can'twait.
Paul J Daly (26:19):
Okay, Michael, it was a bit of a stretch.
I'm gonna say seven.
Michael Cirillo (26:24):
Like, if we're talking Dave Portnoy, a seven
is,
Paul J Daly (26:27):
like a really good right,
right, yeah, yeah. That's fair.
You know the donuts first, theworkout, the chiseled chin
versus the rounded elbow. Youknow the rounded you know
that's, yeah, we'll see. We'llsee. It's close. So I, you know
what? I love the the the funnestone for me was like, Oh yeah,
super regressive Audi store anda major metro that's probably
(26:49):
utilizing GPT
Unknown (26:52):
six. Like, we're fine.
Paul J Daly (26:56):
It came from Duck Duck. I'll
caveat that just a bit, justthat I don't think auto websites
have caught up to the schemastructure necessary for GPT to
understand it, or are thinkingabout SEO when it comes to high
funnel research, which istotally fine, but if you want to
get in those considerationmatrix, you got to think about
(27:17):
technical SEO. But yeah, it'sstill the adoption curve of AI
as a search mechanism. And Idon't want
Michael Cirillo (27:26):
to be that guy, like, I don't want to be that
guy or come across as that guy.
That's like, it's not gonna bewhat it seems. But it's like,
no, just acknowledging, I thinkhe said it well, acknowledging,
like, we're in an early adoptionzone right now, and by nature,
all of us early adopters aregoing to be excited about it.
We're using it a lot. We'retesting it, putting it through
its paces, and we're excitedabout it because it's doing
(27:48):
things like, I mean, I don'tknow if I told you guys about
how it saved me 200 bucks amonth on my T bill. Absolutely
you did. You know. And now, Imean, think about the
implications. I mean, chief ofstaff at ASOTU, of bringing
everyone's disc profiles inbuilding it and finding who
works best together and who hasfriction points together, just
(28:10):
based on personality types. Forit to do that, that was kind of
my point. About the reasoning.
Two years ago, I would have tosit here for hours and hours and
hours and reasons,
Paul J Daly (28:21):
analyze and think and not get distracted. Yeah,
and,
Michael Cirillo (28:26):
and, I mean, I think back 1000s of years ago.
Why do we know about Socratestoday, or Leonardo da Vinci or
any of these guys? Because theirability to think and reason was
just slightly better thaneveryone else's at the time,
right? They were educated.
Everyone was ignorant, noteducated. Their ability to think
and reason was so much greater.
(28:47):
Now, I would say based on howeducation works today. I bet you
anything, most people in theworld today actually have the
ability to reason like aSocrates, but because it's the
norm, it doesn't stand out. Nowyou have GPT that can reason
based on gazillions of datapoints faster and more
effectively than our brains can,which pushes us into this, this
(29:09):
zone of then I can just move toaction faster. I don't need to
waste my time on the reasoning.
I can move to action faster. I
Paul J Daly (29:17):
mean, I don't feel like that's a whole podcast. It
is dangerous, first andforemost, I don't know that I
agree on the reasoning thing. Imean, have you ever been on the
internet? No, I'm talking
Michael Cirillo (29:27):
about GPT.
Paul J Daly (29:31):
Oh, GPT. Just do Socrates. Don't do the internet,
please. Got you, got you the iOkay. I was gonna say I thought
you were talking about,
Michael Cirillo (29:40):
imagine if we were having this conversation in
Socrates time, people would besitting at our feet being like,
Whoa, yeah. Now it's the norm.
Like we know everybody we haveconversations with have
conversations like this.
Paul J Daly (29:52):
So I saw a tweet this morning. I don't know when
this podcast is going to bereleased, but basically it. Was
the announcement of the nextversion of grok coming out. And
basically, I think it was ElonMusk made the post. He said,
grok 2.5 maybe it was. He says,is going to be reasoning based
on first principles, and theanswers and the reasoning it
(30:15):
comes up with do not exist onthe internet. Whoa, which is a
whole different ball
Unknown (30:21):
game. Oh boy, yeah. On that note. On that note, we
Chad Graves (30:28):
had a great
Paul J Daly (30:30):
time. This was an excellent episode of the podcast
on behalf of Kyle Mountsier,Michael Cirillo and myself.
Thank you, as always, forlistening to Auto Collabs.
Kyle Mountsier (30:39):
Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email
for a free shot of relevant newsand automotive retail media and
pop culture. You can get itnow@asotu.com that's asotu.com
if you love this podcast, pleaseleave us a review and share it
with a friend. Thanks again forlistening. We'll see you next
time you
Chad Graves (31:10):
welcome to Article.
Last recording you.
I'm gonna pull this out at some point during
(00:02):
our interview with Chad gravestoday.
Kyle Mountsier (00:09):
This is Auto Collabs.
Michael Cirillo (00:11):
I've been telling him for years that what
Paul J Daly (00:19):
weirdest podcast intro ever. Have been
Michael Cirillo (00:21):
telling him for years that he looks exactly like
my brother in law. Wow. And I'venever shown him a picture, and I
gotta dig up a picture, if I canremember, I gotta dig up a
picture. I'm gonna show him apicture of my brother in law and
see if you guys can see it aswell. Okay, if you can't see it,
then it's not real. But ifthere's any slight, don't
Paul J Daly (00:42):
show us. Let we need to be surprised. We'll be
surprised. Okay, let's, let's doit. Let's, well, look, we're
good. If you don't know who Chadgraves are, is, he's one of the,
I think, one of the best peoplein this industry, one of the,
one of the very first peopleI've met. He and the team at
reunion are just, just strike meas people who are always have a
smile. They're always ready toserve and boy, have they been
(01:05):
resilient through all thechanges we've seen in SEO over
the last decade. So we hope youenjoy this conversation we're
gonna have with Chad graves, andwe're gonna see if he looks like
Michael Cirillo, his brother inlaw, Chad. You're no stranger to
this show or this ecosystem orthis audience, it's so good to
be here with you again today.
Absolutely,
Chad Graves (01:25):
guys, so great to be here again. I love getting on
this show as often as I can. Ifeel like we're averaging like
once a year at least right now,which is perfect, right? Perfect
rhythm to be in. So appreciativeof being on here with you guys
as always.
Paul J Daly (01:38):
And I can't say this is this for sure. I have to
go back and check the record,but I'm pretty sure every time
I'm with you on a podcast, Ifeel the need to tell the story
about how at my first autoevent, which was the CBT like
the full, yeah, not like I wasat the auto news retail forum
for a day, but this was at CBTsfor in Atlanta. I didn't know
anybody. And our friend, mutualfriend, Brad Pascual, he
(02:00):
introduced me to you, and Dave,and you all were so nice to me
and like, you're like, Come todinner with us. I didn't know
anybody, man, I mean, and Iremember immediately feeling
like, if this is, if these arethe people I've been missing out
on, I can't wait to get deeperin, like, the broader industry.
So I still, I literally rememberthe table. I remember where
everybody was sitting, and Iasked Kyle and Michael, I'm not
(02:21):
good with details.
Chad Graves (02:24):
I get it, man.
It's, I remember too, gosh,probably seven, eight years ago.
Yeah, easily. So, you know, Ithink it's, it's kind of just a
test, a testament to what wewant to do, right and
collaborate and figure outpeople would like minds and go
from there. And I think we bothsense that even from the get go,
which is, I think, even moreawesome,
Paul J Daly (02:43):
and I love that we're here like our you know,
obviously our lives have changeda lot. The companies have
changed a lot. ASOTU didn't evenexist. We have children that
didn't exist amongst all of us,like life, life has changed. But
I think despite all the change,despite all the ups and downs of
business in the industry. Ithink it's real testament to
(03:04):
this undercurrent of people whoare serving the industry and
industry partners who areserving the industry with this
like minded, like heartednessthat really is the unlock to the
tech developments and theprogression to be able to handle
the business challenges. Soyeah, it's so I don't know, I
don't know if I say it everytime, but I think it's worth
bringing up, because I'm notgetting
Chad Graves (03:23):
sick of it anytime soon. So let's we'll keep it
rolling. We'll do it again nextyear, and it's perfect, man, but
I completely agree. It's whenyou can meet like my people, you
grow together and and you rootfor each other. And I think
that's that's something that'salways fun, too, about
collaborating with you guys. Youknow being in each other's
corner is a big part of thisbusiness, and I think what makes
it unique and strong,
Michael Cirillo (03:45):
I gotta get this off my chest. Oh, let's go.
I'm ready. I've told Chad thisready. He's like, I've said this
to Chad before, and I've offeredno substantial evidence of such,
but Chad, please
Paul J Daly (04:00):
don't guess who his father is, yeah,
brother, yeah, your brother inlaw's brother, that's specific.
Oh,
Chad Graves (04:10):
look at that. I can see it, yeah, you can see it,
okay, I can see the hair. Yeah,he's
Michael Cirillo (04:18):
like your brother, older brother, that
like you went the fitness routeand he
Paul J Daly (04:25):
donuts
Chad Graves (04:27):
the Food Network.
He's gonna see this episode andand I'll be curious his take
a whole photo call.
Michael Cirillo (04:40):
It's like the nose the Okay, trying to find
this is ironic,
Chad Graves (04:46):
coming from three guys who look a lot alike on
this camera.
Paul J Daly (04:52):
That's a fair point. That's a fair point. Well
anyways, as natural firstquestion, because this is, this
is like on on the. Top of mymind, and we work with, we
obviously have conversations andand and hang out with dealers
and industry partners all acrossthe country. But you guys have
grown to be like I would, youknow, I don't know where you
place yourself, but mid to largesize agency, right? And you're
(05:13):
dealing with clients all acrossthe country, obviously, you have
account managers to handle allof that. But one of the things
that I find really unique aboutthe US as a retail environment
is like what's going on inCalifornia, Idaho, Florida, New
York and North Carolina arewildly different, wildly
(05:36):
different from a go to marketstrategy. You know, if it's
urban or suburban, when youthink about, like, productizing
yourself as an agency into theauto industry, how do you
reconcile like, hey, we have athesis. We have a way of doing
things with Oh no in this area,for this dealer, for this thing,
(05:59):
we have to, like, adjust and andget that's like, when you do
that at scale, you need thingsthat, like, this is our thesis
at scale. But how do you, how doyou get that down to the ground?
I'd love to hear, like, howyou've grown to learn how to do
that over the years as anagency.
Chad Graves (06:19):
Man, it's a it's a really great question, honestly.
And I think one that on we couldspend the whole podcast talking
about how to make it a littlebit unique. And I think it does
kind of start with that thesis.
And for us, it's a process, aproven process, especially when
it comes to SEO. And for us, youdo have to have an understanding
of just how are people searchingat whole across the industry
(06:40):
when it comes to Google and AItools and the whole nine, which
we can talk, talk aboutthroughout. But what I really
believe Kyle is like it kind oftakes it back to Paul's original
point is, like the ability tocare and ask that second
question. You know, how doesthis strategy go into your
store. How does this match withwhat you typically do? So we
(07:02):
tend to say that we come in witha blueprint, right? We have a
blueprint of what is success,and it's, you know, we need to
do these pages and this. Butthen how do you change that?
Alter the blueprint based onlocation, size, market, all a
little bit different. Require,different content pieces,
different plans, different coremodels, and then even lately,
(07:23):
you know the differences betweenprioritizing new used fixed
operations. So I think it'scoming in with that blueprint,
but then being willing to take astep back and say this blueprint
as whole makes sense, but how doyou tweak little parts of it to
make sure that it's unique forPaul versus Kyle versus Michael,
all in different parts. And so Ithink the thesis and the way you
(07:47):
said that actually makes a tonof sense, but then the way that
we roll it out is a lot ofconfirmation, and I believe you
got to put that work in at thebeginning of a relationship, but
then never let it go. So everycouple months, every month,
we're looking at and saying,Hey, Kyle, does this still make
sense to your business? Hey,Paul, is this? Is this still
flowing like, Hey, I saw thatFord doing this. How do we tell
Paul J Daly (08:11):
you what? Roll that in. I think that is a brilliant
way to put that, asking thatsecond question, because
everyone you just see it sopervasively, people step up with
a best practice, with a newpiece of tech, right? With
something that works somewhereelse, and they say, here's the
answer. And conversely, I think,you know, a lot of dealers are
(08:33):
looking for the answer, right?
And the most important questionis that second question, 100%
How does it work here? 100% orDoes it even work here? We
recently, wow, that's a greatway to put that. We
Chad Graves (08:46):
recently, about a year ago, started recording our
client calls to with that clientteam, and our sales
presentations too. And it's whatwe even noticed, is like, where
you learn the most about adealer is when they throw out a
statement, you know, oh, youknow, I lost sales to this
person. Well, why did thathappen? You know? Or, man, I'm
getting my butts kicked on CRV.
Oh, is it by Toyota? Is it byanother Honda store that's doing
(09:10):
the same? That's second, thirdquestion. Whoo, like, that's
where you get into, like, thereal juice of of what's
happening within the walls ofthe store, which I think is
super cool. Are
Paul J Daly (09:21):
you noticing over the last month, I was actually
having a conversation with adigital marketing director for
like, a 13 store groupyesterday, they're mid to high
line. And the like shift overthe last let's call it like mid
March through April, early May,has been that they're starting
(09:42):
to get new car leads right. Likeas an industry, we know that
leads happen more often on usedcars. There's there's a little
bit more interesting shoppingbehavior happens on new cars,
but the tide is shifting, andpeople are actually submitting
lead inquiries again on newcars. Cars, like when we had
demand issues back about threeyears ago. Are you seeing that
(10:04):
trend switch, and is there? Arethere things people should be
paying attention to, to, like,drive that low funnel shopping
behavior when we've typicallylooked at like, much higher
funnel shopping behavior withnew cars? I love it.
Chad Graves (10:17):
Yes, we have seen that switch. Lot, a lot of lead
activity. And, I mean, a lot ofdealers had great close up
marches. Call it tariff, pinupdemand. You call it whatever it
is. I think that we capitalizedon a market that was ready for
people to buy cars, which isultimately the job of the
dealership, right? I mean,that's what we're supposed to be
doing. I think a couple ofthings that dealers can stay
(10:39):
keen on as we go into this isone continually. It's, I love
the expression of getting backto the basics as well, because
that's what a lot of theconversation I'm hearing from
digital directors from GM, islike, Man, I'm listening to
phone scripts. I'm I'msharpening what you know, what
to say when a customer calls infrom different markets, and all
(10:59):
of those types of things, Ithink are always going to be the
most important. But when itcomes to inventory, pricing, and
then, for the love of God, justdon't clutter up the website,
right? Like it's it's ournatural tendency right now to be
like, print
Paul J Daly (11:13):
that I want to print that on a t shirt for a
soda con. For the love of God,don't clutter
Unknown (11:17):
what it
Chad Graves (11:18):
is. We've all talked about it, right. But I
think, to your point, dealers doespecially right now. We're
looking for that, you know,well, what can I do to get one
step ahead of the market right?
And there's a tendency to belike, well, let's throw another
trade vow tool, or let's throw abutton that tells them, you
know, get your pre tariff price,whatever it is. We're throwing
17th homepage banner up therethat talks about it. But in
(11:42):
reality, the easiest way to getthat consumer to submit that
lead that we really want is tomake the process as seamless and
frictionless as possible. Andthat's a lot of what we're
preaching today is capitalize onthat low funnel and then make it
easy for the customer to get towhere they want and communicate
Michael Cirillo (12:00):
with you. This is a this is making me think
about a conversation I had withMichelle Dano Jean. I don't know
if you guys remember Michellefrom remember,
Paul J Daly (12:10):
yeah. Do
Michael Cirillo (12:11):
we remember?
Paul J Daly (12:14):
I remember how she taught me how to pronounce her
last name,
Michael Cirillo (12:18):
denim jean. Did she do the denim jean thing?
Okay? She said, There is nothingworse in marketing than making a
promise online that you can'tfulfill in person like that.
There's another t shirt thinkingabout this experience that
you're talking about and notcluttering a website, and making
sure that the path to gettinginformation that the customer
wants at whatever phase of thebuying journey they're in as
(12:40):
accessible as possible. And thenI think about, I know I'm going
to be the one that brings inthat the AI to this
conversation, yeah, which Ithink amplifies this thesis of
of marketing to operationalintegration, which is human
beings in and of themselves areokay at reasoning based on
nuance and context. But when itreally comes down to it, SEO and
(13:05):
search for the last 20 plusyears has been optimized around
things like best car price, youknow, new lease deals, because
like when, when push comes toshove, with the trillions of
data points that our brains aretrying to process, that is the
best thing we know how to comeup with. Now you have AI that
(13:25):
takes the reasoning away from usand just gives us the
information we're looking forand and is using websites, is
using the work that you're doingas an SEO as its data lake. And
so I can't help but think, Okay,well now if search general
results or GPT or whatever it isthat you're using to conduct a
(13:47):
search, if, if I can now, as ahuman being, deploy more of my
search activity to tocontextual. I'm a family of
five. Yep. We play soccer twicea week we have two dogs. We
instead of like, what do Isearch to find what I want? The
AIS are going to take thereasoning from it. They're going
(14:08):
to grab the information fromyour website, and now all the
more important for you tofulfill the promise that that
AIS just made for you. Yeah,when they come to buy and be
like, Hey, I'm the family offive that plays soccer and has
two big dogs, you need to knowwhat you've got in your
inventory. You need to knowwhat's on your website. You need
to know the content that's beingcreated, the things you're
(14:30):
talking about. So what? What'syour take on that? I know you
guys are probably getting amillion questions a day about
killing us.
Yeah, is a co dead? Yep, a fewwhat's your take?
Chad Graves (14:44):
How do you guys together? I think you hit the
nail on the head, man. I mean, Ithink that SEO, to its point, is
here, but it's rapidly changing.
And anybody that doesn'tacknowledge how quickly it's
changing and how quickly it'sgoing to continue to change, I.
That's where I would beworrisome, right? As an
industry, I think that it's justgoing to be phenomenal to see,
(15:06):
and it's just a crazy worry, alittle like, are people just
forgetting more? Because, like,the average person on Google is
googling to over 200 times permonth, but they're also going to
chat GPT another 30 times permonth, and they're also going to
perplex, and it's like so theamount of just questions we have
and the information that's athand has, I mean, is only going
(15:27):
to continue to rapidly grow. Ithink right now, we're in a
great stage of experimentationunderstanding, you know, how
does chat GPT versus grog versusperplexity versus Gemini? You
know, how do they pull in thesedifferent pieces? And then, how
do you alter your SEO plan,adjust your strategy to
incorporate those things, right?
(15:48):
To your point, like, those,that's a heck of a blog post,
right? Like, what are the bestSUVs for families of five with
two dogs that travel everyweekend, right? Like, that's
probably something that weshould incorporate, or will
incorporate, because that'swhere I think, and I think chat
GPT even just my own buyingjourney. I just leased a new
(16:08):
vehicle a couple months ago, andit was really eye opening to go
through it with chat GPT and useit myself. And where did I go to
Google? Where did I go to localSEO and like, see how all the
pieces came into play as I wasdoing it as a consumer, right?
And I needed chat GPT to cutthrough the noise. I needed it
to tell me, you know, unbiased,and be able to show my wife
(16:31):
like, hey, look like this iswhat this is saying. To your
point, let's take out the reasonand really get factual. And then
now, how do I find the inventorythings like that, which is
where, at the end of the day,when it comes down to intent and
shopping for at least now, untilchat GPT alters, which I think
they will, you know, thereGoogle runs the intent game,
(16:52):
right when it when it's time forinventory, you know, that's,
that's where I'm going back toGoogle, which was, again, so
interesting to See. The OEMsites, I think, will be
interesting, because usually Iwould have to go to Hyundai and
Kia and all those OEM sites tounderstand those differences.
And chat GBT did it for me inabout, you know, yeah, it's like
Paul J Daly (17:11):
the high funnel stuff is gonna lean more toward,
like, the research side of stuffis gonna lean more toward those
quicker. At least today, mightstill see a lot of inventory
happening in like, searchbehavior, or like, like display
ads and things like that. Youyou all had a quite a big
announcement just a couple ofweeks ago. I'd like to hear a
little bit about what you guysare doing and and how you're
(17:33):
kind of challenging the spaceright now. Yeah,
actually, before I'm startinginterrupting that question, but
as you were talking about that,I was like, I had a little bug
in my head, and I was like, Ijust opened GPT, and I said,
Which car do you think is beston me based on my personality
and family needs? Use? What youall use, what you already know
about me? I didn't say I needthis. I didn't say I need that.
(17:53):
Did it nail it? Uh, it record.
First recommendation was aToyota Sequoia, a new hybrid,
talking about my kids andfamily, travel and creative
projects. It said it's practicaland premium for your
personality. It's luxurious, butnot pretentious, the hybrid So,
but you can like that, right?
Like, no, but based on what itknows about me, I'm like, I
(18:13):
would consider a Sequoia, yeah,right. And then it gave me the
next selection was a rivian R1s, again, Volvo XC 90, and
afford expedition Max,
Chad Graves (18:21):
all things, I think make sense. It just I didn't
know that you were willing
Paul J Daly (18:26):
to Charlie the information as far as, like, how
many doors and how many this andfuel trade like that never got
put into the internet anywhere.
Chad Graves (18:33):
It's cool, man. I think it's dude. I think it told
Paul J Daly (18:36):
me I should get a Lucid Air touring. So I'm gonna
do it. I'm
Unknown (18:42):
going for it.
Michael Cirillo (18:45):
Here's the thing that slightly worries me
before we get to theannouncement, what you guys have
done, what worries me is that Iwould consider us and our
circles power users and probablyinfluencing the conversation of
GPT. But I think of my own dearwife,
Paul J Daly (19:03):
right? I feel like there's a God rest her soul
after when you say it like that,
Michael Cirillo (19:09):
guys, she is an 87 year old woman trapped in a
39 year old's body and and Ithink about my own children. I
just had to have a conversationwith my own children last night
where I was like, You need toknow AI. You need to know
technology. It is not goinganywhere. It will be play a part
in every job that you have. Mywife, because of that statement,
(19:31):
will refuse to use it. And thereis probably a larger demo, I
would say, in the world, of 8billion people by the time we
all die, probably 9 billionpeople, majority of which will
not even have access to it, andsome of which will have never
even heard of it. And so I worryabout like, how people are using
Google today. After 30 years,most still don't even know how
(19:54):
to use Google properly. My dearmother in law still believes
that if she doesn'tspecifically. Specifically click
Sign out from her Yahoo email,that her emails will float out
into the ether. So I wonder,like, what you're seeing based
on that. I mean, I know we havedata on how Google is used and
those sorts of things, but, butI think we tend to do that as an
(20:16):
industry, and it's an importantpiece to factor in that there
are power users and we areshaping a narrative because
we're using it all day, everyday, that there is still a large
majority of car shoppers outthere who won't ever get past
Google, like there's a couple ofgenerations here, or a
generation and a half of carbuyers that probably will not
(20:37):
even think to go to a GPT toeven do what Paul just did. I'll
Chad Graves (20:42):
answer that, and then I'll get to your point,
Kyle. So just in our ownresearch recently, just this
last month, we looked at an Audistore, progressive brand. I
think we would all agree, in NewYork, New Jersey, big market,
sophisticated market, and a bigstore, they are averaging about
4000 visits a month from Googleorganic. Last month, six people
(21:07):
referred from chat GPT,according to Google Analytics,
that's less than Bing and equalto DuckDuckGo. And nobody told
me that DuckDuckGo is going tokill SEO, right? So my point is
just that, yes, I do think thatwe have a habit as progressive
people and early adopters,right? We are in the early
(21:28):
adopter wave still, and we areroyal in it together. I mean,
like Dave, who you know, youguys all know, with reunion, is
that most active user I know. Imean, he's in there every day.
In fact, I'm like, sometimes I'mlike, which one of you am I
talking to the Dave or chatgpt?
Dave, I don't even know. It'skind of the same guy at this
point. It's great, but there's alot, you know. So yes, I think
(21:49):
that it's going to continue togrow. It is growing. I mean,
it's fast growing thing in theworld, right? But, yeah,
Michael, to your point, like,the it hasn't trickled all the
way down to people, you know,buying a car off of it yet,
right? We're still ending backon Google, which I think is
good.
Paul J Daly (22:06):
Yeah. I mean, my search right here, I said, Who
should I buy it from? And itgave me recommendations. It
recommended Carter, Myers,automotive, because I already
collaborate. Yeah, it did bringup West her Toyota, but it
doesn't know. It said you'velikely crossed paths with them
through ASOTU circles. And thenit offers me for the expedition.
Interestingly enough, it offeredme two stores that I've never,
(22:28):
ever searched or typed in. Iknow them all from my previous
business. And it says, like,friendly for Geneva, a smaller,
more community driven storeworth looking at for a personal
experience. It got thatinformation somewhere. Wow,
probably from
Chad Graves (22:39):
reviews. Man, what I yeah, my sneaky. I'm not
sneaky. I think that chat GPT isgoing to bring back reviews
stronger than anything, becausethat's I that's what I think is.
And I've done searches, youknow, here with we have local
clients that I know the SEO isreally good, and I know the
search is really good, andsometimes it always, won't,
won't, always recommend thembecause they don't have reviews
(23:01):
equal to or better a storethat's a little bit closer, even
a little bit further away. So Ithink it's going to be
interesting to
Paul J Daly (23:07):
and then it says you might be able to leverage
your industry level leverage andrelationships by mentioning, you
know, Chad graves. So wow,leverage the heck yeah. It's
like,Do you know who I'm friends
with? That's amazing. Looks likeMichael Cirillo, brother, best
brand. Tell it. Tell us aboutwhat's going on. Yeah,
Chad Graves (23:27):
super exciting, guys. Couple weeks ago, release,
what our biggest release todate? And I'll rewind a little
bit. We started visualizing SEOa couple years ago with key
lift, and it was in spreadsheetsat first. And our bit friend,
Ben Hadley, I remember, like itwas yesterday at nada. He was
like, Dude, you got to, like,get this out of spreadsheets and
into like, a dashboard. And Iwas like, damn, I hate a
(23:49):
dashboard, but there we are. Andthen we added our Google
Business Profile stuff, and thenwe added our search stuff. But
just a couple weeks ago, we'veofficially branded it altitude,
which is really exciting, searchbeyond limits. And the reason
that search beyond limits, guys,is because we're also
integrating sales and inventorydata directly into it as well.
(24:10):
So now, and the best quote I'veheard about this from a GM, he
said, You know, I've always hadto speak your language. Now
you're speaking mine. Come onnow,
so, and that was out of trust,right there, babe. And
you know, that's when I knew wewere onto something. Was
actually at the Carter, Myersorganization, and so it was
great. They were an earlyadopter and beta tester for us.
(24:34):
So you know, now, instead ofsaying, Hey Michael, how was
your month last month? And youknow, leads are up, we're
saying, Hey, Michael, this iswhere you lost market share last
month. This is who you lost itto. This is the model that we
have the most opportunity toand, hey, we're thinking about
bumping up that in our contentselection, and we're going to
change bid adjustments based oncompetition market sales and the
(24:55):
volume of inventory you have onthe lot. Oh, by the way, you're
also priced really. Fair. Andyou know, let's put that message
in the ads as well. And so it'sjust really changing the
narrative, bringing the data atit from a really exciting point
for our team, for those clientfolks, it's something we're
super excited about, guys andthe user experience. It's really
(25:16):
tough. Yeah,
Paul J Daly (25:17):
that's called altitude. I love that.
Chad Graves (25:20):
Thank you.
Paul J Daly (25:20):
Good branded name.
I appreciate that. We're
Chad Graves (25:23):
really excited about it. It's out now today,
and it just brings up a reallygood sophistication level to a
technology that I think is veryeasy for dealers to get around
and play with and andunderstand, and it gives them
value to you know, quitefrankly, what, what I think
matters the most, the leadingindicator of this industry is
ultimately sales. You know, wetake everything else out. That's
(25:45):
what we're judged on at the endof the day. And if we can help
that, we can help our dealers dothat, then ultimately, I feel
like that's our job as amarketing digital marketing
agency, which is
Michael Cirillo (25:54):
exciting. Well, talk about bringing it full
circle right into the end. Wetalked about SEO, we talked
about AI, we talked aboutcustomer journey, and now you're
able to visualize that for yourpartners. I think that's
tremendous. Chad man, it'salways a pleasure to hang out
with you. Thanks
Chad Graves (26:08):
for joining us.
Thanks so much, guys. It'salways a pleasure, and I look
forward to continue supporting.
I'll be back next year, so can'twait.
Paul J Daly (26:19):
Okay, Michael, it was a bit of a stretch.
I'm gonna say seven.
Michael Cirillo (26:24):
Like, if we're talking Dave Portnoy, a seven
is,
Paul J Daly (26:27):
like a really good right,
right, yeah, yeah. That's fair.
You know the donuts first, theworkout, the chiseled chin
versus the rounded elbow. Youknow the rounded you know
that's, yeah, we'll see. We'llsee. It's close. So I, you know
what? I love the the the funnestone for me was like, Oh yeah,
super regressive Audi store anda major metro that's probably
(26:49):
utilizing GPT
Unknown (26:52):
six. Like, we're fine.
Paul J Daly (26:56):
It came from Duck Duck. I'll
caveat that just a bit, justthat I don't think auto websites
have caught up to the schemastructure necessary for GPT to
understand it, or are thinkingabout SEO when it comes to high
funnel research, which istotally fine, but if you want to
get in those considerationmatrix, you got to think about
(27:17):
technical SEO. But yeah, it'sstill the adoption curve of AI
as a search mechanism. And Idon't want
Michael Cirillo (27:26):
to be that guy, like, I don't want to be that
guy or come across as that guy.
That's like, it's not gonna bewhat it seems. But it's like,
no, just acknowledging, I thinkhe said it well, acknowledging,
like, we're in an early adoptionzone right now, and by nature,
all of us early adopters aregoing to be excited about it.
We're using it a lot. We'retesting it, putting it through
its paces, and we're excitedabout it because it's doing
(27:48):
things like, I mean, I don'tknow if I told you guys about
how it saved me 200 bucks amonth on my T bill. Absolutely
you did. You know. And now, Imean, think about the
implications. I mean, chief ofstaff at ASOTU, of bringing
everyone's disc profiles inbuilding it and finding who
works best together and who hasfriction points together, just
(28:10):
based on personality types. Forit to do that, that was kind of
my point. About the reasoning.
Two years ago, I would have tosit here for hours and hours and
hours and reasons,
Paul J Daly (28:21):
analyze and think and not get distracted. Yeah,
and,
Michael Cirillo (28:26):
and, I mean, I think back 1000s of years ago.
Why do we know about Socratestoday, or Leonardo da Vinci or
any of these guys? Because theirability to think and reason was
just slightly better thaneveryone else's at the time,
right? They were educated.
Everyone was ignorant, noteducated. Their ability to think
and reason was so much greater.
(28:47):
Now, I would say based on howeducation works today. I bet you
anything, most people in theworld today actually have the
ability to reason like aSocrates, but because it's the
norm, it doesn't stand out. Nowyou have GPT that can reason
based on gazillions of datapoints faster and more
effectively than our brains can,which pushes us into this, this
(29:09):
zone of then I can just move toaction faster. I don't need to
waste my time on the reasoning.
I can move to action faster. I
Paul J Daly (29:17):
mean, I don't feel like that's a whole podcast. It
is dangerous, first andforemost, I don't know that I
agree on the reasoning thing. Imean, have you ever been on the
internet? No, I'm talking
Michael Cirillo (29:27):
about GPT.
Paul J Daly (29:31):
Oh, GPT. Just do Socrates. Don't do the internet,
please. Got you, got you the iOkay. I was gonna say I thought
you were talking about,
Michael Cirillo (29:40):
imagine if we were having this conversation in
Socrates time, people would besitting at our feet being like,
Whoa, yeah. Now it's the norm.
Like we know everybody we haveconversations with have
conversations like this.
Paul J Daly (29:52):
So I saw a tweet this morning. I don't know when
this podcast is going to bereleased, but basically it. Was
the announcement of the nextversion of grok coming out. And
basically, I think it was ElonMusk made the post. He said,
grok 2.5 maybe it was. He says,is going to be reasoning based
on first principles, and theanswers and the reasoning it
(30:15):
comes up with do not exist onthe internet. Whoa, which is a
whole different ball
Unknown (30:21):
game. Oh boy, yeah. On that note. On that note, we
Chad Graves (30:28):
had a great
Paul J Daly (30:30):
time. This was an excellent episode of the podcast
on behalf of Kyle Mountsier,Michael Cirillo and myself.
Thank you, as always, forlistening to Auto Collabs.
Kyle Mountsier (30:39):
Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email
for a free shot of relevant newsand automotive retail media and
pop culture. You can get itnow@asotu.com that's asotu.com
if you love this podcast, pleaseleave us a review and share it
with a friend. Thanks again forlistening. We'll see you next
time you
Chad Graves (31:10):
welcome to Article.
Last recording you.
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