As a builder of automotive video solutions for over 10 years I've been behind the scenes on selling video products to automotive businesses. Much of the sales process is technical because I have to explain the value behind the video, how to integrate it, etc. but a lot of it is in the data and the content itself.

It doesn't matter if it's the dealer down the street or the gambit of third-party automotive sites that I’ve worked with... these questions always come up:

• What are the metrics and KPIs?
• How many more cars am I going to sell?
• What's the video ROI?

These are some of the most dreaded questions to be asked because my answer is always: it depends. I know that sounds like a cop out but it's true! Everyone has a different goal and you can’t prove a video was the sole reason for a conversion.

Video is one of many influential touchpoints in a multi-touch attribution world.

A good video strategy is about selling something without selling. It's about engaging and influencing a car shopper by enhancing an existing process. It's also about creating a better experience for the customer. If you don't believe in that then video (or any content strategy) isn't right for you.

I'm happy to see a handful of providers pushing video but most of these companies are just selling a tool and not the content. They leave it up to the dealer to figure out the content piece because they themselves know it's hard, and that’s falling short on providing value to the dealer.

Here's the thing... dealers aren't all content creators by trade. They’re good at what they do, and what they do is sell cars... and content creation isn't easy! I studied video production in college, and I've been doing this for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things as I go!

The bottomline for dealers? The content is more important than the tool.

I won't dive into content strategy itself, but I will conclude this post with the most important signal to a good video content: video metrics. You need to know how and where the data is collected, how to read it, and how to act on it to make better videos (and better business decisions).

Here’s a short list of common video metrics, what they mean, and what to ask your video providers:

• Video Views: It's the favorite video metric every provider loves to tout and every dealer loves to see. A view is typically counted the instant the video begins, but what if the user clicks out after one second? Should that really count as a view? Video ads require a certain time period be met before a view is counted so why shouldn’t it be the same for organic content? We're not selling ad time but we are measuring engagement and utility. Ask your video provider how they're measuring video views because 1,000 one second video views per month (0% completion rates) is not a good thing.
   
• Autoplay or Manual Play: Are your users forced to watch a video they didn't intend to watch? If so, that's not a win... that's an annoyance. However, if they click a “play video” button then that means they intend to start seeing a video play. Ask your video provider to turn autoplay off for embedded players and to turn it on for video plays that come from some sort of call to action.
   
• Completion Rate: This is the percentage of watch time a video receives. A completion rate of 50% is average but it can depend on the length of content. If you've got 70%+ completion rates for 4-5 minute videos, it's a testament to having engaging and relevant content. If it's below 50% for one minute videos, you might want to rethink your content strategy. Ask your video provider what their average completion rates are for different types of content so you can see what's working and what is not.
   
• Play Rate: Play Rate has to do with how many times a video gets played when a video option is available (e.g. video views divided by player loads or page views). A good play rate is a testament to user intent: which percentage of users saw a video button and clicked to watch? Ask your video provider how your play rate is performing for autoplay vs. non-autoplay content.
   
• Bounce Rate: This is an old school metric but video has a huge influence on a page's overall bounce rate. Google Analytics likes to measure video stats (e.g. video views, player loads, etc.) as events, and these are categorized as "non-interaction" or "interaction" events. If a user clicks on a "play video" button an interaction event will fire. If a user loads a page and a "player load" event fires, that's a non-interaction event. Pages with lots of interaction events means lower bounce rates. But if your video provider doesn’t make a distinction between the two types of events they may be skewing your bounce rate numbers to look better than they really are. Ask your video provider which stats are interaction vs. non-interaction events so you know if your bounce rates are being calculated honestly.
   
• Data Transparency: Not a metric but a practice that needs to be preached and adopted. There's no reason whatsoever why your provider shouldn't be sending all of the video metrics into your Google Analytics account. You deserve full data transparency on everything that's happening. Summarized reports are helpful and easy to read, but you should also be able to verify the same data in Google Analytics. Ask your video provider to add a GA tracker using your GA ID so you can view the same data they see within your GA account (assuming they send data to GA in the first place, which they should!).

I hope this post helps you stay more informed about your video solutions and how to measure your video metrics. Send me a connection request, feel free to leave a comment, or send me a message if you want to dig deeper on any of this. I'd like to hear your struggles or success with video and how to measure it.

Numbers are down for dealerships across the nation, and a recent story in the says that auto dealerships are being hit harder than anyone in the current–and we should stress mild—economic slump.

But does that have to mean a dry spell for your dealership?

We won’t lie to you and say there’s something your dealership can do to significantly increase demand. If people are buying fewer cars for a few months, that’s just the way things are. That doesn’t mean you have to take this lying down, though. There might be fewer people buying cars, but if you can bring more of them to your dealership, you can even things out for you and your sales staff and make the higher ups very happy indeed.

The best way to counter the slump, of course, is bump up your outreach efforts with the fastest-growing type of marketing media around. Which, according to both consumer data and marketers and business owners, is video.

Why is Video Growing So Fast?

First of all, video provides both sound and images, which most consumers have already preferred over just one or the other—or text—ever since video first came along. Video engages the senses we use the most, and that keeps consumers the most engaged. That’s the underlying reason for all of video’s success.

Second, we’re in a perfect technological storm that makes video easier to produce, publish, and view. Affordable high-quality cameras, cheap server space for storing videos on websites and “in the cloud,” fast networks to make uploading and most importantly viewing a breeze, and mobile devices that can play video any time, and place have all led consumers to not only prefer but expect video almost everywhere.

Savvy marketers across all industries are catching on in a big way. That’s why there’s a growing amount of video competing for their attention.

How Can Your Dealership’s Videos Stand Out?

There’s a lot of video out there, yes. But that’s doesn’t mean there’s a lot of good video out there, and chances are there’s a lot of headway to be made when it comes to video outreach by dealerships in your area.

First and foremost, your videos need to give consumers what they’re looking for. On a dealership’s website, that’s mostly going to mean information. Videos that answer common questions and explain vehicle features in a quick, understandable, and friendly way should be the foundation of your video marketing efforts. Videos should also only be as long as they need to be to get the message across, and if they run more than two minutes should be easily navigable so viewers can find the exact information they’re looking for.

Next, make sure your videos are properly encoded so they load quickly, and properly tagged for search engines to find them. With all that—and proper localization and SEO for your site altogether—your video outreach can cause your traffic, your phone calls, and your sales to skyrocket!

For a little over a year now, according to J.D. Power, Millennials have been an ever-more-important segment of car buyers, overtaking their older Gen X counterparts by 2% in new car sales for the first time in July of 2014—a trend that has only continued.

While Baby Boomers—born between 1946 and 1964—remain responsible for more new vehicle purchases than any other age group, the percentage of sales attributed to this generation has been in a steady decline for several years. Gen X buyers—those born between 1965 and 1976—had been responsible for filling that gap, but it appears that Millennials/Gen Y buyers—whippersnappers born between 1977 and 1994, according to this study—have jumped the line and overtaken their mid-career counterparts.

The data was collected by J.D. Power's Power Information Network (PIN). Here's how PIN's vice president Thomas King summed up the findings:

"As Gen Y consumers enter new life stages, earn higher incomes and grow their families, their ability and desire to acquire new vehicles is increasing. As new-vehicle demand among Gen Y consumers increases, it will be important for automakers to respond to the needs of these consumers, not only in terms of the vehicle design, but also the marketing, sales and service experience."

Note how King makes sure to highlight the need for vehicle marketing to adapt to the younger consumer. We couldn't agree more.

Millennials Do Everything Online—Including Car Shopping

There's a wide age range covered by this study's definition of a Millennial or a member of Gen Y, but the fact is that folks under 40 are the first people in history to have used computers for a substantial part of their education and/or careers. The youngest millennials grew up in a world where Amazon always existed (it was founded in 1994), and where the Internet is the obvious choice for entertainment, communication, and learning.

And yes, this means they do a lot of their car buying there, too. But having an effective web presence for your dealership doesn't just mean being accessible to younger car buyers on the web, and it doesn't mean you should stop at giving them just the information they need. It means providing the information they want over the Internet in a way that's as seamless as everything else they do online.

It means being the Netflix of auto dealerships.

Seriously. If you can offer a better, faster, and more intuitive experience online than your competitors, you'll reap the rewards as younger car buyers—and the majority of today's older car shoppers, who also tend to include online searches in their car shopping practices—flock to your site and your dealership.

Getting set up with great web content and seamless delivery is easier than you might think, too.

For a little over a year now, according to J.D. Power, Millennials have been an ever-more-important segment of car buyers, overtaking their older Gen X counterparts by 2% in new car sales for the first time in July of 2014—a trend that has only continued.

While Baby Boomers—born between 1946 and 1964—remain responsible for more new vehicle purchases than any other age group, the percentage of sales attributed to this generation has been in a steady decline for several years. Gen X buyers—those born between 1965 and 1976—had been responsible for filling that gap, but it appears that Millennials/Gen Y buyers—whippersnappers born between 1977 and 1994, according to this study—have jumped the line and overtaken their mid-career counterparts.

The data was collected by J.D. Power's Power Information Network (PIN). Here's how PIN's vice president Thomas King summed up the findings:

"As Gen Y consumers enter new life stages, earn higher incomes and grow their families, their ability and desire to acquire new vehicles is increasing. As new-vehicle demand among Gen Y consumers increases, it will be important for automakers to respond to the needs of these consumers, not only in terms of the vehicle design, but also the marketing, sales and service experience."

Note how King makes sure to highlight the need for vehicle marketing to adapt to the younger consumer. We couldn't agree more.

Millennials Do Everything Online—Including Car Shopping

There's a wide age range covered by this study's definition of a Millennial or a member of Gen Y, but the fact is that folks under 40 are the first people in history to have used computers for a substantial part of their education and/or careers. The youngest millennials grew up in a world where Amazon always existed (it was founded in 1994), and where the Internet is the obvious choice for entertainment, communication, and learning.

And yes, this means they do a lot of their car buying there, too. But having an effective web presence for your dealership doesn't just mean being accessible to younger car buyers on the web, and it doesn't mean you should stop at giving them just the information they need. It means providing the information they want over the Internet in a way that's as seamless as everything else they do online.

It means being the Netflix of auto dealerships.

Seriously. If you can offer a better, faster, and more intuitive experience online than your competitors, you'll reap the rewards as younger car buyers—and the majority of today's older car shoppers, who also tend to include online searches in their car shopping practices—flock to your site and your dealership.

Getting set up with great web content and seamless delivery is easier than you might think, too.

Whether or not you pay attention to the latest tech trends, you probably know that mobile is a pretty big deal. Not only did Google recently roll out an update to their search algorithm that gives mobile-friendly sites and content a major boost in search engine rankings (while dropping everything else all but out of sight), but more and more web browsing, email reading, and yes, even video watching is taking place on mobile devices.

In fact, mobile Internet traffic—online access by smartphones, tablets, and similar mobile devices—overtook traffic headed to non-mobile devices like desktop and laptop computers in early 2014, and while non-mobile Internet use is slowing down and starting to flatline mobile access is growing as fast as it ever was. Everything people do online is something they're now more likely to do from a mobile device, and that includes shopping for their next car.

Making it Big on the Small Screen

At first glance, it makes sense to think that video content would be the exception to the mobile rule: with smaller screens and oftentimes slower connections, mobile devices seem less suited to providing viewers with the video experience they're after. Due to some technical details we won't bore you wth, though, many videos and video sites are actually better optimized for mobile use than desktop computer access, and many users express a strong preference for watching videos on their phones as opposed to reading articles on the same devices.

The lesson is clear: your customers are using their phones and tablets to shop for cars, and they're looking for videos more than they're looking for static images, text, and other content. Putting videos on your site that provide the car-buying information customers are looking for will give you a tremendous competitive advanatge over other less-savvy dealers, help customers find you and your cars faster and easier, and keep them on your site longer with the valuable information they need in a format they find it easy to digest.

The more reasons you can give them to stick with you, the less they'll be inclined to shop anywhere else.

Now, not just any video will do; you need to supply videos that users actually find engaging and that reliably deliver the facts and figures they want to see. Making it big in the world of mobile video isn't as simple as embedding a YouTube video on your site or slapping a few links here and there, and in fact that strategy can lead to a more frustrating mobile experience and open the door for your potential customers to exit.

Natively hosted videos that load quickly and can be easily navigated are your best bet. We just happen to have a few (OK, more than a few) lying around that we think you might find useful.

Whether or not you pay attention to the latest tech trends, you probably know that mobile is a pretty big deal. Not only did Google recently roll out an update to their search algorithm that gives mobile-friendly sites and content a major boost in search engine rankings (while dropping everything else all but out of sight), but more and more web browsing, email reading, and yes, even video watching is taking place on mobile devices.

In fact, mobile Internet traffic—online access by smartphones, tablets, and similar mobile devices—overtook traffic headed to non-mobile devices like desktop and laptop computers in early 2014, and while non-mobile Internet use is slowing down and starting to flatline mobile access is growing as fast as it ever was. Everything people do online is something they're now more likely to do from a mobile device, and that includes shopping for their next car.

Making it Big on the Small Screen

At first glance, it makes sense to think that video content would be the exception to the mobile rule: with smaller screens and oftentimes slower connections, mobile devices seem less suited to providing viewers with the video experience they're after. Due to some technical details we won't bore you wth, though, many videos and video sites are actually better optimized for mobile use than desktop computer access, and many users express a strong preference for watching videos on their phones as opposed to reading articles on the same devices.

The lesson is clear: your customers are using their phones and tablets to shop for cars, and they're looking for videos more than they're looking for static images, text, and other content. Putting videos on your site that provide the car-buying information customers are looking for will give you a tremendous competitive advanatge over other less-savvy dealers, help customers find you and your cars faster and easier, and keep them on your site longer with the valuable information they need in a format they find it easy to digest.

The more reasons you can give them to stick with you, the less they'll be inclined to shop anywhere else.

Now, not just any video will do; you need to supply videos that users actually find engaging and that reliably deliver the facts and figures they want to see. Making it big in the world of mobile video isn't as simple as embedding a YouTube video on your site or slapping a few links here and there, and in fact that strategy can lead to a more frustrating mobile experience and open the door for your potential customers to exit.

Natively hosted videos that load quickly and can be easily navigated are your best bet. We just happen to have a few (OK, more than a few) lying around that we think you might find useful.

The research is in, and if your auto dealership doesn't have a strong social media presence you're missing out on some major sales opportunities. It isn't enough to just set up a Facebook page and have your junior sales associate hammer out a few Tweets a day, either—you've got to deliver more, and you've got to do it better than the competition if you want it to make a difference.

Social Media is the New Hot Spot for Car Buying Research

Crowdtap, a brand consultancy and marketing firm that engages directly with real consumers to find out what people want in the companies they do business with, recently conducted a survey of self-identified "car buyers"—anyone who purchased a vehicle in the past year, or was planning on purchasing a vehicle in the coming year. While previous research made it clear that social media was an important part of most modern car-buyer's decision process, the results were surprising even to the survey makers. An astounding 87% of car buyers said they conducted social media research as a part of their car buying process, making social media platforms among the most widely-used avenues for selecting a vehicle model prior to purchase. In addition, close to 70% of survey respondents said they purchased a car they discovered on social media—more than two-thirds of all buyers found what they wanted via social media searches and found no need to go elsewhere. A lot of social media use in the car-researching and -buying process came from discussing cars with family and friends in respondents' social networks, including asking for advice about specific car models, features, and dealerships, but that isn't the only way people got the information they wanted from their favorite social media platforms. While peer endorsements and customer satisfaction are important parts of driving an effective social media presence, dealerships can take even greater control by providing the information people want on their social media channels.

Social Media Users Thrive on Content, and Car Buyers Are No Different

We think of social media platforms as places for people to interact, and they certainly work in that regard, but without original content most social media users would find little to interact with or talk about. Delivering high-quality and informative content that can be easily shared and discussed on social media is the most effective way to make your online marketing efforts a success, and no content does it better than video. Video delivers both entertainment and information in a semi-passive way that people find easy to tune into, and social media provides the interactivity they crave—and that can help your video content spread like wildfire. Posting videos about your cars to your social media properties makes it easy for a car buyer's friends and family to find and share answers to their network's car questions, and that means you'll be tapping into the largest car buying market around.

The research is in, and if your auto dealership doesn't have a strong social media presence you're missing out on some major sales opportunities. It isn't enough to just set up a Facebook page and have your junior sales associate hammer out a few Tweets a day, either—you've got to deliver more, and you've got to do it better than the competition if you want it to make a difference.

Social Media is the New Hot Spot for Car Buying Research

Crowdtap, a brand consultancy and marketing firm that engages directly with real consumers to find out what people want in the companies they do business with, recently conducted a survey of self-identified "car buyers"—anyone who purchased a vehicle in the past year, or was planning on purchasing a vehicle in the coming year. While previous research made it clear that social media was an important part of most modern car-buyer's decision process, the results were surprising even to the survey makers. An astounding 87% of car buyers said they conducted social media research as a part of their car buying process, making social media platforms among the most widely-used avenues for selecting a vehicle model prior to purchase. In addition, close to 70% of survey respondents said they purchased a car they discovered on social media—more than two-thirds of all buyers found what they wanted via social media searches and found no need to go elsewhere. A lot of social media use in the car-researching and -buying process came from discussing cars with family and friends in respondents' social networks, including asking for advice about specific car models, features, and dealerships, but that isn't the only way people got the information they wanted from their favorite social media platforms. While peer endorsements and customer satisfaction are important parts of driving an effective social media presence, dealerships can take even greater control by providing the information people want on their social media channels.

Social Media Users Thrive on Content, and Car Buyers Are No Different

We think of social media platforms as places for people to interact, and they certainly work in that regard, but without original content most social media users would find little to interact with or talk about. Delivering high-quality and informative content that can be easily shared and discussed on social media is the most effective way to make your online marketing efforts a success, and no content does it better than video. Video delivers both entertainment and information in a semi-passive way that people find easy to tune into, and social media provides the interactivity they crave—and that can help your video content spread like wildfire. Posting videos about your cars to your social media properties makes it easy for a car buyer's friends and family to find and share answers to their network's car questions, and that means you'll be tapping into the largest car buying market around.

Whether it's customers coming in to haggle over the price or corporate checking in to see how your team compares, in our industry it's all about the numbers. Volume, margin, financing, and more: you have to track all the stats in order to keep your dealership on track.

Yet even with this number-centric mindset, many car dealerships have resisted diving into video marketing despite the numbers showing video to be a clear winner over other marketing types. We're here with three stats to show you just why this resistance to video is wrong, and what you can expect when it comes to attracting and converting customers with the right video marketing for your new and used cars.

Video Marketing More than Doubles Sales Conversions

StacksAndStacks.com, an online retailer for home goods, recently implemented site-wide video marketing across their product lines, and compared their sales rates among viewers who saw a video to those who didn't. What they found was that customers were 144% more likely to purchase after seeing a product demo video than when they simply saw the item's image and text description.

This simple housewares retailer more than doubled their sales conversions simply by adding videos that gave their customers the information they wanted in an easy-to-view format. Imagine what a sales bump of just 100% or even 50% would do for your dealership—and all you have to do is display a video test drive of every model in your inventory.

Get people more primed to buy, and you'll save time while boosting sales.

Video Delivers a Higher ROI Than Any Other Online Marketing

A wide ranging study involving hundreds of companies found that 71% of marketer saw higher conversions from video than any other marketing content, and 82% saw enough success with video marketing to warrant the money spent on creating and hosting the video messages. Another study found that nearly half of marketers agree that video marketing ROI is still improving as well.

Even self-produced marketing videos pay for themselves, and with a service that provides videos for your dealership you'll see an even bigger ROI. Getting three marketers—let alone hundreds—to agree on anything is tough, so when 4 out of 5 say video marketing is the way to go, it's time to sit up and listen.

More Shares Means Wider Marketing Reach for Video Content

A Tweet with a video URL receives 28% more retweets than similar tweets linking to articles and static pages, according to one recent study, and other social media platforms show similar trends. Having a video for people to share means they can crowdsource opinions and make recommendations for their auto-interested friends with ease, and with videos embedded on your site it will be your URL getting passed around.

Whether it's customers coming in to haggle over the price or corporate checking in to see how your team compares, in our industry it's all about the numbers. Volume, margin, financing, and more: you have to track all the stats in order to keep your dealership on track.

Yet even with this number-centric mindset, many car dealerships have resisted diving into video marketing despite the numbers showing video to be a clear winner over other marketing types. We're here with three stats to show you just why this resistance to video is wrong, and what you can expect when it comes to attracting and converting customers with the right video marketing for your new and used cars.

Video Marketing More than Doubles Sales Conversions

StacksAndStacks.com, an online retailer for home goods, recently implemented site-wide video marketing across their product lines, and compared their sales rates among viewers who saw a video to those who didn't. What they found was that customers were 144% more likely to purchase after seeing a product demo video than when they simply saw the item's image and text description.

This simple housewares retailer more than doubled their sales conversions simply by adding videos that gave their customers the information they wanted in an easy-to-view format. Imagine what a sales bump of just 100% or even 50% would do for your dealership—and all you have to do is display a video test drive of every model in your inventory.

Get people more primed to buy, and you'll save time while boosting sales.

Video Delivers a Higher ROI Than Any Other Online Marketing

A wide ranging study involving hundreds of companies found that 71% of marketer saw higher conversions from video than any other marketing content, and 82% saw enough success with video marketing to warrant the money spent on creating and hosting the video messages. Another study found that nearly half of marketers agree that video marketing ROI is still improving as well.

Even self-produced marketing videos pay for themselves, and with a service that provides videos for your dealership you'll see an even bigger ROI. Getting three marketers—let alone hundreds—to agree on anything is tough, so when 4 out of 5 say video marketing is the way to go, it's time to sit up and listen.

More Shares Means Wider Marketing Reach for Video Content

A Tweet with a video URL receives 28% more retweets than similar tweets linking to articles and static pages, according to one recent study, and other social media platforms show similar trends. Having a video for people to share means they can crowdsource opinions and make recommendations for their auto-interested friends with ease, and with videos embedded on your site it will be your URL getting passed around.