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Hey everyone,
We’ll still be airing Daily Dealer Live live from Vegas this week.
For tomorrow’s episode, come find us at the LotLinx booth (2743W) if you’re on the ground and want a behind-the-scenes look! For everyone else, we’ll be streaming at 1 p.m. EST on all CDG channels.
— CDG
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Welcome to the Market Pulse—your cheatsheet to auto retail, built to help dealers price right, stock smart, and stay ahead.
Consumers’ car shopping searches are evolving: Roughly ~30% of buyers now use AI tools like ChatGPT to narrow options before visiting a single dealer website.
OpenAI is rolling out ads inside ChatGPT: However, Google is still driving the vast majority of dealer traffic, making this an interesting move, but not an immediate ROI.
But clean, updated dealership websites are holding as a must: Fast sites, clean inventory data, and complete Google Business Profiles continue to do the heavy lifting on conversions.
(Source:Demand Local / SeoProfy / Ekho / Cox Automotive / CarGurus / CarEdge / Cars.com )
AI search evolution is changing when and how dealers get discovered by shoppers.
In 2025, a growing share of car shoppers stopped starting their search on traditional search engines and began using AI tools to narrow options before visiting dealer websites.
The findings: Multiple studies show about 30% of buyers using tools like ChatGPT or Gemini during early research, often to answer basic questions like budget fit, body style, or nearby availability.
That completely shifts how dealers should be thinking about website visibility.
And here’s why:
AI tools don’t browse dealer sites the way shoppers do. Instead, they rely on structured inventory data, clear location signals, and direct answers to common buyer questions to decide which dealers to reference at all.
Which makes sense. Because these systems surface what they can read clearly and confirm quickly.
Despite that, fewer than 1% of dealership sites pass Google’s Core Web Vitals, with mobile load times over 3 seconds especially common on vehicle and inventory pages.
NOTE TO DEALERS:
There’s no upside to AI visibility if your dealership gets filtered out in the first round of buyer questions.
So start here:
Get mobile load times under 3 seconds on vehicle and inventory pages.
And replace copied OEM text with plain answers buyers search for (“SUVs under $40K,” “lease vs finance,” “hybrid vs gas”).
Those are table stakes at this point.
ChatGPT ads are forcing a reset on dealers ad spend expectations.
Joining the latest round of “what the hell is AI doing to dealership ad spend,” OpenAI recently announced it will begin rolling out ads inside ChatGPT based on user conversations.
Naturally, this caught plenty of dealers’ attention, because it sounds like a new way to buy visibility inside what may become the next version of search.
However, it’s worth noting that these ads don’t influence ChatGPT’s answers.
OpenAI has been explicit that responses stay neutral, and ads appear in clearly marked boxes alongside them, not baked into the recommendations themselves.
Which is key: Because if this were a pay-to-rank setup, the play would be to throw budget at it and buy your way ahead of other dealers.
But it’s not pay-to-rank. And these ads work more like display placements, with visibility next to the answer, not in place of it.
WHY IT MATTERS:
ChatGPT ads are the latest change dealers need to understand before assuming it’s the next great ROI channel.
And as George Nenni of Generations Digital pointed out, most dealers today see roughly 150 clicks/mo from ChatGPT vs ~10K organic search clicks from Google.
That tells us this: If your dealership’s Google Business Profile isn’t complete and current (including hours, photos, services, and responses) that should be fixed this week, before worrying about new ad channels.
A quick word from our partner
Capital One Auto’s ProtectID is an AI-driven fraud detection network designed to help dealerships minimize risk and close deals with confidence.
By providing real-time alerts, AI-powered two-factor authentication, and a one-click escalation process, it helps stop fraudulent activity before it impacts the bottom line.
With risk assessments, ProtectID empowers dealers to make informed decisions on whether to proceed with a sale, investigate further, or escalate the case.
As AI search behavior keeps evolving, Nenni says the operators paying closest attention are adjusting how clearly their dealerships explain who they are, what they offer, and why they should be trusted.
Here are his visibility Dos and Don’ts:
Do: Be explicit about who you are and why you matter locally.
Nenni emphasized that AI responds well to confidence and clarity, especially on dealership identity outlined in the “About Us” section.
“Take your about us page and expand that into at least three pages of community involvement, philanthropy, donations, all the things that you do…And you can even ask the AI engine, ‘What awards, accolades, community involvement do you know about this dealership that's not on their website,’ and they'll show you the exact delta, so you'll know where where you need to go.”
George Nenni
His reasoning: “AI loves chest thumping.” And by giving it a stronger “About Us” with awards + community pages, dealers offer AI cleaner inputs to pull from.
Do: Improve what’s already getting traffic before guessing.
Rather than creating new pages from scratch, Nenni recommends starting with more traditional analytics, and using those to look at where AI-driven traffic is already landing.
“Just go into Google Analytics, go in the reports menu, and and click on the traffic acquisition report. It'll default [to] a little search bar. Just put ChatGPT in there and see how much traffic you get.”
Even if it’s small, his advice is to experiment with improving the tiny details on those pages first via clearer images, simpler language, etc.
Don’t: Assume AI understands your local market better than Google does.
“It’s not great at location,” he said, noting that AI can list dealers in a region but often can’t identify which store is actually closest or most relevant.
As he sees it: Local intent still converts on Google, which means dealers who stop prioritizing local SEO, reviews, and location signals risk disappearing right when shoppers are ready to act.
This edition is running the same week as NADA, which means by the time most of us leave Vegas, we’re all going to be a little tired of hearing about AI.
That’s not a knock on AI. It’s what happens every time one idea gets momentum, then turns into the headline, the booth signage, and the buzzword of the moment.
But my point is this: Moments like these are useful if you treat them as a mirror, not a mandate.
If ChatGPT is rolling out ads, and other dealers are talking about investing there, the real question should be “What does this reveal about how my store is operating right now?” Not, “Should I jump in?”
And I say that, because my (imo) flashy new AI tools stop being fun the moment a dealership is paying for visibility before fixing basics like how fast the site loads, how easy it is to book service, or whether buyers can get clear answers without friction.
I am curious though…
Does your store plan on paying for ChatGPT ads?
Missed yesterday’s episode of Daily Dealer Live?
Presented by:
Benstock on Online Parts, Steenbergh on Affordability, Steinberg on Dropped Data
Featured guests:
David Steinberg, CEO of Foureyes
Brian Benstock, Vice President and General Manager Paragon Honda and Paragon Acura
Robert Steenbergh, CEO of AutoPayPlus
The latest updates to the CDG Buy/Sell Tracker.
Pablo River Partners acquires Hyundai dealership in South Carolina from Dick Smith Automotive
