The store had thirty-six used units on the lot with an average days-in-stock north of fifty. The BDC was answering leads inside an hour — sometimes two — and the VDP pages were generic "shop our inventory" templates that made buyers bounce before they ever saw the actual VIN photos. The dealership group three towns over was posting daily and turning the same shoppers off Cars.com before they ever hit our lot.
We took over the store's social content operation in week one. The work started upstream — the third-party listings had to stop going stale, and the VDP pages had to be VIN-specific with the actual photos, price, and payment for that car. From there we built a daily cadence: new-arrival launch post the morning a car hit the lot, price-drop post the day a sticker got reduced, keys-handoff feature post the night a buyer drove off.
The category audit on Google Business Profile added "used car dealer," "certified pre-owned," and "auto repair shop" — three searches the store had been invisible on but was actually suited for. Photos rotated monthly, weighted toward front-three-quarter shots with the price sticker visible, service-drive shots after detail, and delivery-day moments.
By week four VDP traffic from social had roughly doubled. By week eight the BDC was responding inside ten minutes — inside five for any post that had a direct CTA — and lead-to-appointment conversion lifted from 18% to 31%. Inventory turn compressed from over fifty days average to thirty-one. Floorplan interest carry dropped. Three of the cars that had been sitting longest were gone before the end of the calendar month.
The sales floor kept selling. The service drive kept turning. The inventory kept moving.