Inventory vs Marketing: Here's What the Data Shows Us

Dealerships across the country can sit back, relax and turn their core model inventory faster than ever before. But the uptick in turn rate on core models can provide a false sense of security and means dealers could be overlooking other important items like: 

• Pricing: Could you be selling your CR-V for more money? Could you move that 2015 Rogue if you dropped the price? 
• Non-Core New Vehicles: Do you have a plan for finding buyers for your slower turning inventory? 
• Marketing Strategy: Are your marketing dollars going to the inventory that needs help? Or is your current provider still continuing to spend on vehicles that are flying off the lot? 

Over the last six months, auto inventory suffered from supply chain nightmares and shortages in crucial items like semiconductors and seat foam. It’s easy to assume that an ever-shrinking vehicle pipeline spells trouble for the auto industry, and it does for factories, but those same shortages have created a cashflow increase for a lot of dealerships. 

Like the stock market, the automotive market has its highs and its lows.  When things are going well, it can seem risky to make a change in strategy or in marketing tactics. Your inner monologue probably tells you things like, “it’s going to be a lot of work” or “sales might go down” but that voice in your head doesn’t make much sense when technology like MarketAI is involved.  

MarketAI takes human decision making out of the equation and provides precise, effortless, AI-driven improvements using real-time data and machine learning. As time passes, MarketAI only gets more intelligent, which makes it uniquely qualified to run strategic marketing campaigns to our active shopper audience in all situations – including inventory droughts.  

Take for example one of our dealers that has less than 100 new vehicles on their lot right now. Last year during the same time period they had 500+ new vehicles and were able to sell 270 units. Even with the drop in vehicle volume, they are outpacing last year's sales number thanks to MarketAI's ability to optimize to different market environments. 

With inventory shortage looming, now is the perfect time to make a change to a platform that focuses on the vehicles that truly need help and throttles spend accordingly. Traditional, stagnant marketing tactics built around only core models don’t have a place in the automotive industry anymore.  

With MarketAI, dealers can skip the top-of-the-funnel guess work and see 24/7 adjustments made to the most important aspects of their marketing campaign including the inventory being shown, the ad creative designed, and the budget spent.  

In real time, that looks something like all ads for Jettas turning off when you sell your last one. Or the inverse, new ads turning on when you get a shipment of F-150s. These MarketAI driven adjustments mean no wasted spend and no targeting buyers looking for vehicles you don’t have. 

But the inventory world doesn’t always prove to be so fruitful. Instead of a Ford Escape or a Ram 1500, sometimes all we have is a Toyota Prius and a Dodge Journey. Rough luck, but there are buyers out there for those vehicles and our tech will find them. As your inventory fluctuates, MarketAI makes sure each new ad version is delivered to the active shopper most likely to respond to it.   

Paired with the competitor inventory and vehicle pricing data within the platform, dealers can continue to turn their core models quickly but also see where they can bump up their pricing to increase gross profit. For their less popular, slower turning models the insights in MarketAI can also show pricing opportunities and exactly how the tech is working to move those units thanks to VIN-level attribution.  

With its ability to change and adapt to the market, there’s no bad time to make the switch to using MarketAI.