What If You’re Only Reaching Shoppers After They’ve Already Made Up Their Minds?

A customer walks into a dealership down the street. They know what they want. They’ve read the reviews, watched videos, compared payments, and narrowed it to two options.

You never had a chance.

Now multiply that by dozens, maybe hundreds, of missed opportunities each month.

The real issue? Most dealership marketing strategies are designed to show up too late.

The Real Problem: You’re Competing for Decisions That Were Already Made

Let’s be honest about what most dealers focus on:

• Retargeting
• Lead form conversions
• Search ads
• Urgency-driven offers

These aren’t bad tactics, in fact they are critical components of a solid marketing strategy. They’re just bottom-of-funnel by design. And by the time a shopper lands in one of those buckets, they’re already deep in the decision-making process.

You’re not influencing behavior. You’re reacting to it. And often, you’re left competing on price.

Why Upper-Funnel Marketing Deserves More Attention

Today’s shoppers do most of their research before they ever contact a dealership. According to Google, over 90% of auto buyers use online resources during their decision process, with around 70% focused on video, often weeks or months in advance.

That journey includes:

• Watching brand and model comparison videos
• Browsing social media content
• Reading expert and peer reviews
• Visiting OEM and third-party inventory listings

Most of that activity isn’t captured in CRM or tagged as “in-market”.

So ask yourself: Are you actively influencing the discovery phase or are you waiting for it to end?

What Smart Dealers Are Doing Instead

The best operators are moving beyond “ready-now” campaigns. They’re adopting strategies that cover the full customer journey, across all dealership profit centers, not just the last mile.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

🔹 Omnichannel Execution Across the Funnel

Integrated messaging across search, social, video, display, CTV and more, all aligned to create more market share, influence early interest, not just final decisions.

🔹 Predictive Targeting

Using real-time data signals to forecast traffic up to 90 days out, optimizing marketing opportunity to reach likely buyers before they self-identify.

🔹 Dynamic Creative

Updating offers, inventory, and incentives immediately (not 10 days into the month…) across all formats so shoppers always see something relevant to their journey.

What Happens When You Shift Upstream?

✅ You get ahead of the competition

✅ You control the narrative, not just react to it

✅ You stop spending to win deals someone else already influenced

✅ You build awareness and trust long before the shopper clicks “Get Quote”

A Final Point to Consider

“If someone is already considering two brands, and you’re just now showing up in their feed… isn’t it already too late?”

The dealers who win in the next 12 months may not have to have the best price. They’ll have had the best timing by getting there first.