Latest / Auto Collabs / ROI Over Reach with Chad Graves

Transcript

ROI Over Reach with Chad Graves · Auto Collabs

0:00
I'm gonna pull this out at some point during our interview with Chad Graves today. [upbeat music] This is AutoCollabs. Now, I've been- Wait... telling him for years- Excuse me [laughs]... that [laughs] What?
0:17
[laughs] That's the weirdest podcast intro ever. I've been telling him for years that he looks exactly like my brother-in-law. Wow. And I've- Wow... never shown him a picture, and I gotta dig up a picture.
0:32
If I can remember, I gotta dig up a picture. I'm gonna show him a picture of my brother-in-law and see if you guys can see it as well. Okay. [laughs] If you can't see it, then it's not real.
0:40
But if there's a any slight chance, I- Well, don't show us. Let, we need to be surprised. We'll be surprised. Okay. Okay. Let's, let's do it. Let's do it. All right.
0:47
Well, well look, [laughs] we're gonna- If you don't know who Chad Graves are, is, uh, he's one of the, I think one of the best people in this industry. One of the, one of the very first people I met. Cool, dude.
0:56
Uh, he and the team at Reunion are just, just strike me as people who are always have a smile, they're always ready to serve, and boy have they been resilient through all the changes we've seen in SEO over the last decade.
1:09
Uh, so we hope you enjoy this conversation we're gonna have with Chad Graves, and we're gonna see if he looks like Michael Cirillo's brother-in-law.
1:17
[upbeat music] Chad, you're no stranger to this show, or this ecosystem, or this audience. It's so good to be here with you again today. Absolutely, guys. So great to be here again.
1:27
I love getting on this show as, as often as I can. I feel like we're averaging, like, once a year at least right now. Um- It's a pretty steady cadence... which is, which is perfect, right? Perfect rhythm to be in.
1:35
So appreciative of being on here with you guys as always.
1:38
A- 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, I feel the need to tell the story about how at my first auto event, which was the CBT, like the full one- Oh, yeah...
1:51
not like, I was at the Auto News Retail Forum for a day. But this- Right... I was at CBT's for, in Atlanta.
1:56
I didn't know anybody, and our frien- mutual friend, Brad Paschal, he introduced me to you and Dave, and you all were so nice to me. And like, you're like, "Come to dinner with us." I didn't know anybody.
2:07
Well, it's about, man, I mean- And I remember immediately feeling like, if this is, if these are the people I've been missing out on, I can't wait to get deeper in, like, the broader industry. Right.
2:15
So I still, I literally, I remember the table. I love it. I know. I remember where everybody was sitting, and I, and ask Kyle and Michael, I'm not good with details. [laughs] I get it, man.
2:25
It's, uh- It's stuck in your mind... I remember it too. And it, gosh, probably seven, eight years ago. Easy. Eight years ago. Yeah. Easily. Yeah. Wow.
2:31
So, you know, I think it's, it's kind of just a test- a testament to what we wanna do, right? And collaborate and figure out people with like minds and go from there. Yeah.
2:39
Uh, and I think we both sensed it even from the get-go, which is, I think, even more awesome. A- and I love that we're here, like our, our, you know, obviously our lives have changed a lot.
2:47
The companies have changed a lot. Most definitely. Uh, Asota didn't even exist. Uh, we have children that didn't exist amongst all of us.
2:54
[laughs] Like, [laughs] like life, life has changed, but, um, it, I think despite all the change, despite all the, the ups and downs of business in the industry, I think it's real a testament to this undercurrent of people who are serving the industry and industry partners who are serving the industry with this like-minded, like-heartedness, um, that really is the unlock- Yeah...
3:13
to the tech developments and the progression to be able to handle the business challenges. So yeah, it's, so I don't know. I don't know if I say it every time, but- I-... I think it's worth bringing up- I, I, I'm-...
3:22
'cause it surfaces this kind of stuff... I'm not getting sick of it anytime soon, so let's, we'll keep it rolling. We'll do it again next year, and it's perfect, man. Um, but I completely agree.
3:29
It's, when you can meet like-minded people, you grow together and, uh, and you root for each other. And I think that's, uh- There you go... that's something that's always fun too about collaborating with you guys.
3:39
I, you know, being in each other's corner is a big part of this business, and I think what makes it unique and strong. I gotta get this off my chest. Uh-oh. Let's go. I'm ready. I've told Chad this before- Chad's ready.
3:50
He's like- I, I, I've said this to Chad before, and I've offered no substantial evidence of such. [laughs] But Chad looks like- Please don't guess who his father is. Yeah. Yeah.
4:03
My brother-in-law's- Where we're going with this... brother. Yeah. Your brother-in-law's brother. That's specific. Well, it's kind of- Whoa, look at that. Look at that hair. Look at that. I can see it. I can see it.
4:13
Yeah, you can see it. You can see it. That's... Okay, I'll take it. I can see the hair. Yeah. He's like your, he's like your brother, older brother that, like- [laughs]...
4:22
you went the fitness route and he ate- And he, he took it off... the Frito route. And he ate donuts. [laughs] Got a job with the Food Network. He's gonna see this episode and- [laughs]... and I'll be curious his take.
4:33
But here's- [laughs] I don't know if we're sending him the clip. Wow, we're getting, [laughs] we're getting the whole- We're getting a whole- We're getting the whole- We're getting a whole photo collage here.
4:39
A whole photo collection out. It, it's like the- Wow... the, the nose, the... [sniffs] Okay. I'm not trying to find unflattering photos of him. This is ironic coming from three guys who look a lot alike on this camera.
4:51
[laughs] This, uh, comes- That's a fair point. That's a fair point.
4:54
Well, anyways, as Nacho Libre would say- I'm, I'm asking the first question because this is, this is, like, on, on the top of my mind, and we work with, we obviously have conversations and, and, um, and, and hang out with dealers and industry partners all across the country.
5:09
But you guys have grown to be, like I, I would... You know, I don't know where you place yourself, but mid to large size agency, right? And you're dealing with clients all across the country.
5:18
Um, obviously you have ca- account managers to handle all of that. But one of the things that I find really unique about the US as a retail environment is,
5:29
like, what's going on in California, Idaho, Florida, New York, and North Carolina are wildly different- Wildly different. Mm-hmm... from a go-to-market strategy, you know, if it's urban or suburban. Yep.
5:43
When you think about, like, productizing yourself as an agency into the auto industry,
5:51
how do you reconcile, like, hey, we have a thesis, we have a way of doing things, with, oh no, in this area, for this dealer, for this thing, we have to, like, adjust- Yeah... and, and get...
6:04
That's, like, when you do that at scale, you need things that-Like, this is our thesis at scale, but how do you r- how do you get that down to the ground?
6:14
I'd love to hear, like, how you've grown to learn how to do that over the years as an agency.
6:19
Man, it's a, it's a really great question, honestly, and I think one that hon- we could spend the whole podcast talking about how to make it a little bit unique, and I think it does kind of start with that thesis.
6:30
And for us, it's a process, a proven process, especially when it comes to SEO.
6:34
And for us, you do have to have an understanding of just how are people searching at whole across the industry when it comes to Google and, uh, AI tools and the whole nine, which we can talk th- uh, talk about throughout.
6:48
But what I really believe, Kyle, is, like, it kind of takes it back to Paul's original point, is, like, the ability to care and ask that second question. Um, you know, how does this strategy go into your store?
7:00
How does this match with what you typically do? So we like to say that we come in with a blueprint, right? We have a blueprint of what is success, and it's, you know, we need to do these pages and this.
7:11
But then how do you change that, alter the blueprint based on location, size, market, all a little bit different, require different content pieces, different plans, different core models.
7:24
Uh, and then even lately, you know, the differences between prioritizing new, used, fixed operations.
7:30
So I think it's coming in with that blueprint, but then being willing to take a step back and say, "This blueprint as whole makes sense," but how do you tweak little parts of it to make sure that it's unique for Paul versus Kyle versus Michael, all in different parts?
7:46
And so, um, I think the thesis and the way you said that actually makes a ton of sense. But then the way that we roll it out is a lot of confirmation.
7:54
And I believe you gotta put that work in at the beginning of a relationship, but then never let it go.
8:00
So every couple months, every month, we're looking at it and saying, "Hey, Kyle, does this still make sense to your business? Hey, Paul, is this-" Right. "Is this still flowing?" Like, "Hey, I solved it for doing this."
8:10
That is- How do we continue to roll that in? I'll tell you what, I think that is a brilliant way to put that, asking that second question. Yep. Because everyone st- You just see it so pervasively.
8:21
People step up with a best practice, with a new piece of tech, right? With something that works somewhere else, and they say, "Here's the answer."
8:29
And, and conversely, I think, you know, a lot of dealers are looking for the answer, right? Yeah. And the most important question is that second question. 100%. How does it work here? 100%.
8:42
We, uh- Or does it even work here? We recently- Wow, that's a great way to put that. We recently,
8:48
about a year ago, started recording our, our client calls, uh, to, with that client team and, and our sales presentations, too.
8:54
And it's what we even noticed is, like, where you learn the most about a dealer is when they throw out a statement. You know, "Oh, I," you know, "I lost sales to this person." Well, why did that happen, you know?
9:04
Or, "Man, I'm getting my butts kicked on CR-V." Oh, is it by Toyota? Is it by another Honda store that's doing the same? Yeah.
9:12
That second, third question, woo, like, that's where you get into, like, the real juice of, of what's happening within the walls of the store, uh, which I think is super cool.
9:21
Are you noticing over the last month, I was actually having a conversation with a, a digital marketing director- Yeah... for, like, a 13-store group yesterday. They're mid to high line. Perfect.
9:31
And the, the, like, shift over the last, let's call it, like, mid-March through April, early May, has been, um, that they're starting to get new car leads, right?
9:45
Like, as an industry, we know that leads happen more often on used cars. Mm-hmm. There's a l- there's a little bit more interesting shopping behavior happens on new cars.
9:53
But the, the tide is shifting, and people are actually submitting lead inquiries again- Yeah... on new cars, like when we had, uh, demand issues back about three years ago. Yeah.
10:04
Are you seeing that trend switch, and is there,
10:07
uh, uh, are, are there things people should be paying at- attention to, to, like, drive that low-funnel shopping behavior when we've typically looked at, like, much higher funnel shopping behavior with new cars?
10:16
Oh, I love it. Um, yes, we have seen that switch. Um, lot, a lot of lead activity, and I mean, a lot of dealers had great close of marches. Call it tariff pin-up demand. You call it whatever it is.
10:28
I think that we capitalized on a market that was ready for people to buy cars, which is ultimately the job of the dealership, right? I mean, that's what we're supposed to be doing.
10:36
Um, I think a couple things that dealers can stay keen on as we go into this is, one, continually it, it's-- I love the expression of getting back to the basics as well, because that's what a lot of the conversation I'm hearing from digital directors, from GMs is like, "Man, I'm listening to phone scripts.
10:54
I'm, I'm sharpening what," you know, "what to say when a customer calls in from different markets." And all of those types of things I think are always gonna be the most important.
11:02
But when it comes to inventory pricing, and then for the love of God, just don't clutter up the website, right? Like- [laughs]...
11:09
it's, it's our natural tendency right now to be like- I wanna print that, I wanna print that on a T-shirt for a SOADCon. For the love of God- For the love of God, don't clutter the website...
11:17
please don't clutter the website. It's what it is. We've all talked about it, right?
11:20
But I think, to your point, dealers do, especially right now, we're looking for that, you know, well, what can I do to get one step ahead of the market, right?
11:29
And there's a tendency to be like, "Well, let's throw another trade eval tool," or, "Let's throw a, a button that tells them, you know, get your pre-tariff price," whatever it is.
11:39
Uh, we'll throw a 17th homepage banner up there that talks about it.
11:43
Um, but in reality, the easiest way to get that consumer to submit that lead that we really want is to make the process as seamless and, and frictionless as possible.
11:53
Uh, and that's a lot of what we're preaching today, is capitalize on that low funnel, and then make it easy for the customer to get to where they want and communicate with you.
12:00
This is, uh, this is making me think about a conversation I had with Michelle Denogene. I don't know if you guys remember Michelle from when she was with Roadster. Oh, yeah. Do we remember. Yeah, yeah. Do we remember.
12:13
Um- [laughs] I remember how she taught me how to pronounce her last name.Denim jeans? Did she do the denim jean thing? Denim, denim jeans. Okay. Denim jeans.
12:21
So she, she said, "There is nothing worse in marketing than making a promise online that you can't fulfill in person." Ooh. I like that. There's another- 21... T-shirt worthy quote right there.
12:31
And, and it's got me thinking about this experience that you're talking about, and not cluttering a website, and making sure that the path to getting information that the customer wants- Mm-hmm...
12:38
at whatever phase of the buying journey they're in as, as accessible as possible. And then I think about, I know I'm gonna be the one that brings in the, the AI to this conversation- Yeah...
12:47
which I think amplifies this thesis of, of marketing to operational integration. 100%. Which is,
12:56
human beings in and of themselves are okay at reasoning based on nuance and context, but when it really comes down to it, SEO and search for the last 20 plus years has been optimized around things like best car price, you know?
13:14
[laughs] New lease deals. Yeah. Because, like, when, when push comes to shove with the trillions of data points that our brains are trying to process, that is the best thing we know how to come up with. Mm-hmm.
13:24
Now you have AI that takes the reasoning away from us and just gives us the information- Yeah... we're looking for. Mm. And, and is using websites, is using the work that you're doing as an SEO- Yep... as its data lake.
13:40
And so I, I can't help but think, okay, well, now if search gener- results or GPT or whatever it is that you're using to conduct a search, if, if I can now as a human being deploy more of my search activity to,
13:55
to contextual. Yep. I'm a family of five. Yep. We play soccer twice a week. We have two dogs. We- Yep... instead of, like, what do I search to find what I want? The AIs are gonna take the reasoning from it.
14:07
They're gonna grab the information from your website, and now all the more important for you to fulfill the promise that, that AI's just made for you- Yeah...
14:17
when they come to buy and be like, "Hey, I'm the family of five that plays soccer and has two big dogs." You need to know what you've got in your inventory. You need to know what's on your website.
14:27
You need to know the content that's being created, the things you're talking about. So what's, what's your take on that? I know you guys are probably getting a million questions a day about, "Is AI killing SEO?" Yeah.
14:37
"Is SEO dead?" Yep. Um- A few. What, w- what, what's your take? A couple times a day. How do you guys- Daily... reconcile all of that together? Oh, really. [laughs] I, I think, I think you hit the nail on the head, man.
14:47
I mean, I, I think that SEO, to its point, is here, but it's rapidly changing, and anybody that doesn't acknowledge how quickly it's changing and how quickly it's going to continue to change, then that's where I would be worrisome, right, as an industry.
15:04
Um, I think that it's just gonna be phenomenal to see, and it's just a crazy, uh, uh... I worry a little. Like, p- are people just forgetting more?
15:12
Because, like, the average person on Google is googling t- over 200 times per month, but they're also going to ChatGPT another 30 times per month, and they're also going to Perplex.
15:22
And, and it's like, so the amount of just questions we have and the information that's at hand has- Mm-hmm... I mean, is only going to continue to rapidly grow.
15:32
I think right now we're in a great stage of experimentation, understanding, you know, how does ChatGPT versus Grok versus Perplexity versus Gemini, you know, how do they pull in these different 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 best SUVs for families of five with two dogs that travel every weekend, right?
15:58
Like, that's probably something that we should incorporate or will incorporate because that's where I think, and I think ChatGPT, even just my own buying journey, I just leased a new vehicle a couple months ago, and it was really eye-opening to go through it with ChatGPT and use it myself.
16:15
And where did I go to Google? Where did I go to local SEO? And, like, see- Mm... how all the pieces came into play as I was doing it as a consumer, right? And I needed ChatGPT to cut through the noise.
16:26
I needed it to tell me, uh, you know, unbiased and be able to show my wife like, "Hey, look. Like, this is what this is saying," to your point.
16:34
Let's take out the reason and really get factual, and then now how do I find the inventory, things like that, which is where, at the end of the day, when it comes down to intent and shopping, uh, for at least now until ChatGPT alters, which I think they will, um, you know, their, uh...
16:51
Google runs the intent game, right? When it, when it's time for inventory, um, you know, that's, that's where I'm going back to Google, which was, again, so interesting to see. Yeah, interesting.
17:00
Uh, the OEM sites I think will be interesting 'cause usually I would have to go to Hyundai and Kia and all those OEM sites to understand, uh, those differences, and ChatGPT did it for me in about, you know, two clicks.
17:11
Yeah, it's like the high funnel stuff is gonna lean more toward, like, the research side of stuff- I think it could... is gonna lean more toward those quicker. At least today.
17:18
But we might still see a lot of inventory happening in, like, search behavior, fa- or, or, like, like, display ads and things like that. You, uh, you all had a quite a big announcement just a couple weeks ago.
17:29
I'd like to hear a little bit about what you guys are doing and, and, uh, how you're kinda challenging the space right now. Yeah, we- Actually, before, I'm sorry to interrupt in that question. Oh, please.
17:37
But as you were talking about that, I was like, I had a little bug in my head, and I was like, I just opened GPT, and I said, "Which car do you think is best on me based on my personality and family needs?"
17:47
[laughs] Are you- "Use what you alr- use what you already know about me." I didn't say I need this. I didn't say I need that. Did it nail it?
17:55
Uh, it rec- first recommendation was a Toyota Sequoia, a new hybrid, talking about my kids and family travel and creative projects. It said, "It's practical and premium for your personality.
18:05
It's luxurious, but not pretentious, the hybrid." So it- But you can see that, right? We're like- You're like- We're like, no, but based on what it knows about me, I'm like, "I would consider a Sequoia." Yeah. Right?
18:15
And then it gave me, the next selection was a Rivian R1S.A Volvo XC90 and a Ford Expedition Max All things I think make sense.
18:22
It just doesn't- And all, I didn't- It just didn't know that you were willing to buy the chart I didn't ask for that actually.
18:26
[laughs] Like, the information as far as, like, how many doors and how many this and fuel tra- Like, that never got put into the internet anywhere. Yep. It's cool, man. I think it's- Dude... I think it's there...
18:35
it told me I should get a Lucid Air Touring, so I'm gonna do it. Hey, I- [laughs] You are ready for it, my man. I'm going for it. [laughs] He- here's the thing that slightly worries me, though. Who should I buy it from?
18:44
Next question. That's it. That's it. Here- here's the thing that slightly worries me before we get to the announcement- Yeah... what, what you guys have done.
18:50
What worries me is that I would consider us and our circles power users and probably influencing the conversation of GPT, but I think of my own dear wife, okay? Yeah. Right.
19:03
[laughs] I feel like there's a "God rest her soul" after it when you say it like that. [laughs] She's a- Good night... guys, she is an 87-year-old woman trapped in a 39-year-old's body. Yep.
19:14
[laughs] And, and I think about my own children. I just had to have a conversation with my own children last night h- where I was like, "You need to know AI. You need to know technology. It is not- Right...
19:25
going anywhere. It will be- Yeah... play a part in every job that you have." My wife, because of that statement, will refuse to use it- Went the other way... until the day she dies.
19:33
And there is probably a larger demo, I would say, in the world of eight billion people, by the time we all die, probably nine billion people- Yep...
19:42
majority of which will not even have access to it and some of which will have never even heard of it. And so I worry about, like, how people are using Google today after 30 years.
19:53
Most still don't even know how to use Google properly. Mm-hmm. My dear mother-in-law still believes that if she doesn't specifically click Sign Out from her Yahoo email, that her emails will float- Mm...
20:04
out into the ether. [laughs] Oh. So she- Yes... so, so I wonder, like, what you're seeing based- Yeah... on that. I mean, I know we have data on how Google is used and those- Total...
20:13
sorts of things, but, but I think we tend to do that as an industry.
20:16
And, uh, and it's an important piece to factor in that there are power users, and we are shaping a narrative because we're using it at, uh, l- all day, every day, that there is still a large majority of car shoppers out there who- Yeah...
20:29
won't ever get past Google. Like, there's a couple of generations here or a generation and a half of car buyers that probably will not even think to go to a GPT to even do what Paul just did.
20:42
I'll, I'll answer that, and then I'll get, I'll give to your point, Kyle.
20:45
Um, so just in our own research recently, uh, just this last month, we looked at an Audi store, progressive brand, I think we would all agree, in New York, New Jersey, big market, sophisticated market, um, and a big store.
20:59
They are averaging about 4,000 visits a month from Google Organic. Uh, last month, six people referred from ChatGPT according to- Yeah... Google Analytics. [laughs] That's less than Bing and equal to DuckDuckGo.
21:15
[laughs] And nobody told me that DuckDuckGo was gonna kill SEO, right? No. [laughs] So my point- Right... is just that, yes, I do think that we have a habit as progressive people and early adopters, right?
21:27
We are in the early adopter wave still, and we are royal in it together. I mean, like, Dave, who, uh, you know, you guys all know, uh, with Reunion, he's the most active user I know. I mean, he's in there every day.
21:39
In fact, I'm like, sometimes I'm like, "Who, which one of you am I talking to, the Dave or ChatGPT Dave? I don't even know." [laughs] And it's kind of the same guy at this point. It's great. But- [laughs]...
21:48
there's a lot, you know... So yes, I think that it's gonna continue to grow. It is growing. I mean, y- it's the fastest growing thing in the world, right?
21:56
Uh, 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? Um, they're, we're still ending back on Google, um, which I think is good.
22:06
Yeah. Um- I mean, my search right here, I said, "Who should I buy it from?" And it gave me recommendations. It recommended Carter Myers Automotive because I already collaborate- You guys do collaborate... with them.
22:15
It knows that. Yep. Ah. It, it did bring up West Herr Toyota, but it doesn't know. It said, "You've likely crossed paths with them through Isoto circles." Mm-hmm. That's great.
22:23
Um, and then it offers me, for the Expedition, interestingly enough, it offered me two stores that I've never, ever searched or typed in. I know them all from my previous business.
22:31
And it says, like, "Friendly Ford Geneva, a smaller, more community-driven store worth looking at for a personal experience." It got that information somewhere. Wow. Wow. Probably from reviews, man. What I, I- Yeah...
22:41
my sneaky th- I'm not sneaky. I, I think that ChatGPT is gonna bring back reviews, uh, stronger than anything because- Wow... I think that's, I, I, that's what I think is...
22:50
And I've done searches, you know, here with, we have local clients that I know the SEO is really good, and I know the search is really good, and sometimes it always won't, won't always recommend them because they don't have reviews equal to or better a store that's a little bit closer, even a little bit further away.
23:06
So I think it's gonna be interesting to see how it plays in. And then it says you might be able to leverage your industry lev- leverage and relationships by mentioning you know Chad Graves, so. Oh, wow. Wow.
23:15
That's amazing. Wow. How about that? Just leverage the heck out of that. Even better. [laughs] It's like, "Do you know who I'm friends with?" That's amazing.
23:20
"And he looks like Michael Cirillo's brother-in-law's brother." [laughs] Best friends' cousin. Chad, Chad, tell, tell us about what's going on. Yeah. Um, super exciting, guys.
23:28
Couple weeks ago, um, released what, uh, our biggest release to date. Um, and I'll rewind a little bit. We started visualizing SEO a couple years ago, uh, with Keylift, and it was in spreadsheets at first.
23:40
And our b- friend, Ben Hadley, I remember it like it was yesterday at NADA, he was like, "Dude, you gotta, like, get this out of spreadsheets and into, like, a, a dashboard." And I was like, "Damn, I hate a dashboard."
23:49
But- Ugh. Right... there we are. And then we added our Google Business Profile stuff, and then we added our search stuff. Uh, but just a couple weeks ago, we've officially branded it Altitude, which is really exciting.
24:01
Search beyond limits. And the reason why- Love it... it's search beyond limits, guys, is because we're also integrating, uh, sales and inventory data directly into it as well. So now- Wow...
24:12
and the w- the best quote I've heard about this from a GM, he said, "You know, I've always had to speak your language. Now you're speaking mine." Uh- Whoa. Come on now. Whoa.
24:22
And, and so, and that, that was, uh, one of the- Speed of trust right there, baby. Let's go... it was awesome. Um, and you know, that's when I knew we were onto something.
24:27
It was actually at the Carter Myers organization, and so it was great. Uh, they, they were an early adopter and beta tester for us. So, you know, now instead of saying, "Hey, Michael, how was your month last month?"
24:38
And, you know, "Leads are up," we're saying, "Hey, Michael"This is where you lost market share last month. This is who you lost it to." Wow.
24:45
"This is the model that we have the most opportunity to, and hey, uh, we're thinking about bumping up that in your content selection, and we're gonna change bid adjustments based on competition, market sales, and, and the volume of inventory you have on the lot.
24:58
Oh, by the way, you're also priced really fair, and, you know, let's put that message in the ads as well."
25:03
And so it's just really changing the narrative, bringing the data at it, uh, from a really exciting point for our team, for those client folks.
25:12
Uh, it's something we're super excited about, guys, and the user experience- So cool... just, it's, it's really top-notch. So top tier. Yeah. And it's called Altitude. I love the name too. Altitude. Thank you.
25:19
I love that name. Thank you. Gotta have a good-branded name. I appreciate that. Um, we're really excited about it.
25:25
Um, it's, it's out now today, and it just brings a, a really good sophistication level to technology that I think is very easy for dealers to get around and play with and, and understand, and it gives them value to, you know, quite frankly, what, what I think matters the most.
25:40
A leading indicator of this industry is ultimately sales.
25:43
You know, we take everything else out, uh, that's what we're judged on at the end of the day, and if we can help that, we can help our dealers do that, um, then ultimately I feel like that's our job as a, as a marketing, digital marketing agency, which is exciting.
25:54
Bang. Well, talk about bringing it full circle right into the end. We talked about SEO, we talked about AI, we talked about customer journey, and now you're able to visualize that for your partners.
26:04
I think that's tremendous. Chad, man, it's always a pleasure to hang out with you. Thanks for joining us- Absolutely, guys... here on Autocollabs. Thank, thanks so much, guys.
26:10
It's always a pleasure, and I, I look forward to continue supporting. I'll be back next year, so can't wait. [upbeat music] Okay, Michael, it was a bit of a stretch. I'm gonna say- Yeah... a seven.
26:23
A se- hey- Seven out of 10... a seven's good. Like, if we're talking Dave Portnoy, a seven's, like, a really good slice. [laughs] Right. I mean, it's- Right. It's a great slice... it can only get to an eight, right.
26:31
Yeah, yeah. That's fair. You know, the, the, the donuts verse the workout, the chiseled chin verse the, the rounded elb- you know, the rounded. Mm-hmm. You know, that's, uh, uh, yeah- Different... we'll see. We'll see.
26:41
It's close. Different. So I, I, you know what I love the, the, the fu- the funnest one for me was like, oh yeah, super progressive Audi store in a ma- major metro that's probably utilizing GPT. Six. Yeah.
26:54
Like, we're fine. Uh, I'll- Which is as many that came from DuckDuckGo. I'll caveat that just a bit, just that I don't think auto websites have caught up to the scema- schema structure necessary for GPT to understand it.
27:07
Mm. Um, or are thinking about SEO when it comes to high funnel research, which is totally fine. Um, but if you wanna get in those consideration matrix, you gotta think about technical SEO. Mm-hmm.
27:19
Um, but yeah, it's still the adoption curve of AI as a- Well-... search mechanism is so- And I don't wanna be that guy.
27:27
Like, I don't wanna be that guy or come across as that guy that's like, "It's not gonna be what it seems," but it's like, no, just acknowledging, I, I think he said it well, acknowledging, like, we're in an early adoption zone right now.
27:40
Yeah. Mm-hmm. And, uh, by nature, all of us early adopters are gonna be excited about it. We're using it a lot. We're testing it.
27:46
We're putting it through its paces, and, and we're excited about it because it's doing thing... Like, I mean, I, I don't know if I told you guys about how it saved me 200 bucks a month on my AT&T bill.
27:56
That was a, absolutely you did. You know, and now- Which is an unbelievable story...
28:00
I mean, think about the implications, I mean, chief of staff at a Soto, of bringing everyone's disc profiles in, building it, and finding who works best together and who has friction points together just based on personality types.
28:12
For it to do that- Mm... that was kind of my point about the reasoning. Uh, two years ago, I would have to sit here for hours and hours and hours and reason through- Mm... all of that.
28:22
Analyze and think and not get distracted. Yeah. And, yeah. And, and I mean, I, th- think back thousands of years ago. Why do we know about Socrates today or Leonardo da Vinci or any of these guys?
28:35
Because their ability to think and reason was just slightly better than everyone else's at the time, right? They were educated. Everyone was ignorant, not educated. Mm.
28:45
Their ability to think and reason was so much greater.
28:47
Now, I would say, based on how education works today, I bet you anything, most people in the world today actually have the ability to reason like a Socrates, but because it's the norm, it doesn't stand out. Mm.
28:59
Now, you have GPT that can reason based on gazillions of data points faster and more effectively than our brains can, which pushes us into this, this zone of, then I can just move to action faster. Mm.
29:13
I don't need to waste my time on the reasoning. I can move to action faster. I mean, I don't know that- I feel like that's a whole podcast. It is. Dangerous.
29:20
I mean, first and foremost, I don't know that I agree on the reasoning thing. I mean, have you ever been on the internet? [laughs] No, I'm talking about GPT though. Oh.
29:28
[laughs] Nobody's ability to reason- You're saying, "Oh, PO-" Hey, GPT- Using GPT... just do Socrates. Humans reason- Don't do the internet, please. That's, oh, got you. Got you. The, the be- I, okay.
29:38
I was gonna say, I, I, I thought you were talking about AI doesn't- Like, imagine if we were having this conversation in Socrates' time. People would be sitting at our feet being like, "What?" Oh, yeah. Yeah.
29:48
Now it's the norm. Like, we know everybody we have conversations with have conversations like this. So I saw, um, a, a tweet this morning.
29:56
Uh, I don't know when this podcast is gonna be released, but basically it was the announcement of the next version of Grok coming out. Mm. And basically, I think it was Elon Musk made the post.
30:06
He said, Grok 2.5, maybe it was, he says, is going to be reasoning based on first principles, and the answers and the reasoning it comes up with do not exist on the internet. Whoa. Which is a whole different- Really?...
30:22
ballgame. Oh, boy. Yeah. On that note- Well, that time went to be a lot. On that note, send 'em boys. [laughs] We hope you had a great time. This was an excellent episode of the podcast.
30:33
On behalf of Kyle Mountsier, Michael Cirillo, and myself, thank you as always for listening to Autocollabs.
30:40
Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email for a free shot of relevant news in automotive, retail, media, and pop culture. You can get it now at asotu.com. That's A-S-O-T-U.com.
30:52
If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.
30:59
[upbeat music] Welcome to Autocollabs. [laughs] Welcome to Autocollabs. [laughs] Why are we recording? Are we rolling yet?
31:18
Not yet.