Tag: video for car dealerships

Part II: Enhance Your Virtual Showroom with Multimedia and Measure it’s Effectiveness with LESA Stats Reports

Written on January 3, 2023. Posted in Uncategorized.

In Part I, we discussed the importance of having a great virtual showroom as online car shopping continues to soar in popularity. Static photos won’t be enough to engage online car shoppers, and a multimedia website experience continues to be dynamic and beneficial for car dealerships.

LESA’s overall stats portal helps offers a comprehensive view to how your vehicle videos are performing on your website. Part II of the LESA stats report has numerous other statistics that continue to prove the effectiveness of multimedia and give dealerships insight into viewer behavior.

Let’s take a look at the type of insights your dealership can get with our custom report. Below is a stats report from one LESA dealership, but we see similar patterns across our thousands of dealership analytics.

Part II : Multimedia Results in Higher Website Engagement

By Viewer

Completion Chart: How much of the video watched was completed before moving on to the next video or leaving the website. 0-24%, 25-49%, 50-74%, and 75+ %.

If a customer watched 75% of a vehicle video, one count would be added to the 75-100% column. Across our data from thousands of LESA dealerships, the completion chart is typically U-shaped with 0-24% being high, and 75%+ being high.

Viewer Makeup Chart: This chart represents the number of times a video was watched per unique viewer. If a unique viewer watched 4 videos they would be counted as a four-time viewer.

What does this mean? Very few people watch half the video. People either quickly determine they are not interested in the car, or they will watch the entire video. In this dealership, we see that slightly more than 20% of people watched 6 or more videos. This is very common across the board from the data we have analyzed from all of LESA dealerships. Videos are very engaging and can help consumers stay focused on your website

By Time Period

View Engagements by days of the week: The total number of Video View Engagements that occurred on each Monday – Sunday for that month of reporting. This may help car dealership understand which days they have the most engagement each week, prompting them to post new content on these days.

View Engagements by days of the month: The total number of Video View Engagements that occurred on each day of the month. If you see a spike, it could be due to a holiday such as July 4^th. Usually, there is a spike on the weekends when people have time to shop for cars. This is common and can help you tailor promotions around peak days and hours.

What Does This Mean? Spikes can happen due to holidays or weekends which helps car dealerships determine which days they should publish content and promotions.

Video Engagement By Vehicle Characteristics

Top 6 Vehicle Years: The top 6 Vehicle Years measured by view engagements. This should continue to trend upward over time as video continues to gain popularity. Our data continues to show that new vehicle videos are very popular! The data trending over time as shown that new vehicle videos are actually some of the most popular.

Top 6 Makes Viewed: The top 6 vehicle makes measured by views engagements. This can help car dealerships determine which cars are the most popular on their website.

Top 6 Models Viewed: The top 6 Models, and all other models shown as ‘Other’, measured as percentages on a pie chart. The totals are from by view engagements for that Model. This can help car dealerships determine which models are the most popular on their car dealership website.

What Does This Mean? It allows the dealership to do direct measurement of vehicles. For example, if the dealership has any doubt that showcasing new cars is necessary, the data will show you that new models are the most viewed (see below) and shooting new car videos is necessary. It can also help show which models were most viewed helping dealerships properly merchandise and stock cars that people want.

Stats example - viewers by vehicle characteristics

Top 6 Vehicles: The top 6 Year/Make/Model measured in view engagements. Also included is the ‘other’ category which includes the number of engagements for the rest of the year/make/ models outside of the top 6. This can help car dealerships gauge which vehicles were the most viewed and popular on their website which could signal which cars are in highest demand.

Top 6 Stock Numbers: The top 6 Stock Numbers measured in view engagements. Also included is the ‘other’ category which includes the number of engagements for the rest of the models outside of the top 6.

What Does This Mean?. Dealerships can clearly see if having vehicle videos helped certain cars sell faster compared to those, they did not feature video for (based on hundreds of reports from LESA dealerships- the answer is yes! It does help.)

By Interactivity

Spotlight Activity: Tracks the total number of times each spotlight category was hit. This can be helpful to car dealerships in understanding which features of the vehicle are most important to the car shoppers.

Ultra Spin

Ultra- Spin 360 Engagements- # of swipes tracked when a user is spinning through Ultra- Spin.

Time on Ultra-Spin 360- The total time users spent interacting with Ultra-Spin in the LESA video player on the dealership’s website(s), Cars.com, and anywhere else our LESA video player is interacted with, for that dealer.

What Does This Mean? Based on the data from a dealership below, there were over 10 hours of Ultra Spin views on their website. Not only are consumers engaging on video, but they are also spending a lot of time engaging with Ultra Spin. This highlights that multimedia is an important element of any successful website. It means that your dealership needs a multimedia experience with videos, photos and ultra-spin. They want to learn as much about the car in a multimedia experience.

The Bottom Line:

LESA stats report helps you track engagements and user behavior and measure which vehicles have more views, which models shoppers are more interested in, and which days/hours vehicles are more likely to sell. Stats help dealerships understand which vehicles the consumers are more drawn towards leading to more effective merchandising.

Most importantly, LESA stats portal shows that a multimedia experience is what helps engage consumers, which results in increased time on your dealership website. Video, photos, and ultra-spin are all important elements in helping consumers get a full sense of the vehicle they want to buy. The stats from LESA’s reports and across thousands of dealerships prove that multimedia is what gives your digital showroom a competitive advantage to selling vehicles online.

Get Started With Video Today

In the competitive automotive industry, your car dealership is falling behind if you don’t integrate multimedia throughout your website. Connect with a representative today to get started.

Featured Videos Help Online Car Shoppers Make Purchase Decisions

Written on August 10, 2022. Posted in News.

Online car shopping continues to grow rapidly in acceptance. Millennials are fueling a major part of the online sales growth. Many car dealerships have pivoted in creating websites that aid online car shoppers with information, at-home test drives and digital paperwork. In fact, a survey conducted by Progressive showed that 78% of buyers were highly satisfied with buying a car online, while only 58% of in-person shoppers registered the same pleasure.

Most dealerships understand the importance of showcasing photos and videos of their inventory on their website, but there are extra steps dealerships can take to stand out and educate their consumers as much as possible. Featured videos have numerous benefits to online car shoppers, increase time and engagement spent on website, and are easy to implement on your car dealership website.

What are Featured Videos?

Automotive manufactures provide featured videos to help shoppers understand the car in more detail. Although walk around videos can help give car shoppers great insight into the desired vehicle, featured videos provide in depth details about numerous elements of the car without having to search the Internet. The number of feature videos available varies by make and model. There are numerous video types including:

How-to videos
Vehicle feature highlight
Vehicle overview

LESA has partnered with numerous manufacturers to provide feature videos, including:

Volvo
Volkswagen
Toyota
Subaru
Nissan
Mitsubishi
Mercedes-Benz
Mazda
Land Rover
Jaguar
Hyundai
Honda
GMC
Ford
Chrysler
Dodge
BMW
Audi
Acura
Chevrolet
Infiniti

What are the Benefits of Adding Featured Videos to Your Dealership Website?

Car shoppers rely on video to make informed purchasing decisions, but it’s not just walk-around videos they’re searching for. Our convenient feature videos combine OEM vehicle videos with your walk-around videos in the same player.

Now your shoppers can find all the vehicle info they need in one place, making you the automotive authority and increasing the likelihood of an in-person visit and sale. Video views are tracked so you can customize your follow-up based on what videos your customers are interested in. Other benefits include:

Decrease bounce rate: when you have all the videos your customers need to inform their choices, there is less reason for them to leave your site to find the info elsewhere.

Increase Time on Site: Studies prove that the more time a shopper spends on a site, the more likely they are to buy from it. LESA feature videos help you provide shoppers with the useful, relevant video content they need to stay put on your site.

Plug and Play: Your feature videos can be installed immediately after you order it. It’s simple, effective and ready to go when you are.

Available Right Away: It’s not easy to shoot a walk around video of the vehicle right away, so until your team has a chance to upload, we can add featured videos so car shoppers have something to look at.

It’s Easy to Implement: Adding featured video to your search results page and vehicles details page is extremely easy to implement with the help of LESA team, and requires no maintenance.

Examples of Featured Videos

The Bottom Line:

Most car dealerships have evolved and showcase photos and videos of their inventory on their car dealership website. Studies continue to prove that people enjoy shopping for cars online and the numbers are expected to grow. Your dealership needs to provide as much information as possible to help car shoppers make online purchasing decisions. Featured videos are a great way to make your car dealership stand out, and increase time spent on your website.

Get Started with Featured Videos on Your Car Dealership Website Today!

LESA featured video library includes numerous makes and models across multiple manufactures. Videos are easy to implement and involve no complicated maintenance from the car dealership. Let’s get started today!

Video on Your Car Dealership Search Results Page

Written on July 13, 2022. Posted in Uncategorized.

Video is an important element to any website in 2022. Especially for car dealerships looking to sell cars online, it’s essential to have information in the right place. Studies have shown that shoppers prefer to engage with dealerships off of the search results page compared to the vehicles details page. Your car dealership can increase engagement and incoming leads by adding a video button to the search results page when browsing for vehicles.

What are the Benefits of Vehicle Walk Around Videos on Your Website?

Videos are an essential part of any website where consumers are trying to learn and shop. Here are just some of the benefits of employing video on your car dealership website:

Walk around Videos can help shoppers make buying decisions leading to increased sales.
Videos engages the consumers more and results in increased time spent on site.
Walk around videos along with their accompanying text and photos provide the consumer with a better sense of the vehicle than just photos alone especially when they prefer to shop online.
Videos are ideal content to promote in most social media venues.

Most Car Dealerships Currently Aren’t Implementing Video on The Search Results Page

For years, dealerships have wanted car shoppers to go to the vehicles details page (VDP) on their websites. In fact, website providers would be incentivized for getting consumers to the VDP as they would measure how much traffic was being driven there.

A recent study conducted by Dealer-E-Process, who has over 2500 dealership websites, showed that this common website tactic actually does not align with consumer shopping behavior. Although numerous leaders in the automotive industry don’t implement video on the search results page, they SHOULD be based on new data. Here’s why…

How Can Video on the Search Results Page Increase Engagement?

When shopping for a car on a website, you typically are browsing through multiple listings of cars. Car shoppers need to click through to a vehicle details page for more information. However, recently, websites have allowed car shoppers to gather more detail from the search results page, so shoppers don’t have to click back and forth between pages when they want more information. This simplifies the shopping process while still providing shoppers with the information they need.

In fact, the study conducted by Dealer-E-Process showed that 64% of shoppers prefer to engage off the search results page compared to the vehicle details page. This resulted in increased time spent on website and increased conversions. Having the right information in the right place is key.

Dealerships should not incentivize website providers based on traffic sent to the vehicle details page, as engagement increases when you keep consumers on the search results page giving them access to the information they need to learn about the car.

Adding a video button on the search results page that allows the consumer to click for a lightbox to appear showing a walk around video of the vehicle is proven to increase engagement on the search results page.

What is Driving This Major Change in Website Layout?

Consumer behavior is making dealerships rethink the strategic layout of their website. The data proves that consumers prefer browsing from the search results page rather than click in and out of the vehicle details page. Car dealerships need to tailor their strategies to the methods that consumers prefer, not what the traditional standard has been in the past. Shopping behaviors continue to evolve and its essential your car dealership can stay on top of new trends to convert car shoppers into car buyers.

LESA Can Help Implement Videos on the Search Results Page

LESA is the largest dealer video inventory provider and help dealerships nationwide implement video tools throughout their website. Adding simple video tools to your website can help empower consumers in making purchasing decisions without multiple trips to the dealership.

In fact, LESA analyzed Google Analytics data from car dealerships to evaluate the effectiveness of video on the car dealership websites to discover if it was helping car dealerships sell cars. The quick answer is YES, websites with video capabilities were increasing the website conversion rate drastically. Check out our study here.

LESA’s New Technology, Ultra 360 spin, Offers Important Advantages Over Traditional 360 Spin

Written on April 26, 2022. Posted in News.

Online car shopping has grown exponentially during the last two years pushing car dealerships to create a stronger online presence. This trend does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon as car shoppers prefer to visit the car dealership less and to use online tools when looking for a new car.

So how can a car dealership display it’s inventory on their website? Buying a car is a huge purchase for most consumers, and it is important dealerships equip shoppers with all the information they need to make such a large purchasing decision. LESA’s new feature, Ultra 360 spin, is an innovative technology compared to traditional 360 spin that is helping consumers view the car as if they were there in person thanks to the use of video.

Let’s take a look at traditional 360 spin vs. Ultra 360 spin and the advantages Ultra 360 spin has in helping consumers make important purchasing decisions.

What is Traditional 360 spin and How Does It Work?

Although traditional360 spin is not technically video, numerous car dealerships have added it to their websites. Traditional 360 spin offers interactive images that allow your customers to view the exterior of a vehicle from every angle.

Traditional 360 spin works similar to a flip book, and is a collection of consecutive photos that creates the illusion of a spin allowing you to view multiple angles of the car. If a consumer views a traditional 360° spin image on their computer, they can drag their mouse to rotate the vehicle. If the image is viewed on a tablet or mobile device, all it takes is a swipe of the finger to rotate the image.

What Is Ultra 360 spin and How Does It Work?

Ultra 360 spin uses video technology to provide seamless and smooth visibility into the condition of the vehicle on the outside and the inside of the car. Ultra 360 spin technology scrubs video footage back and forth giving the car shopper the ability to view numerous angels of the vehicle with the swipe of a finger or click of a mouse.

The AI spotlight technology allows shoppers to easily zoom on important car details such as cup holders, buttons, tires, steering wheel, navigation and more. Ultra 360 spin technology offers a completely different and more transparent view of the vehicle making it easier than ever to successfully shop for a car from the comfort of your home, without missing any important details.

For Ultra 360 spin to be implemented, walk around videos must be recorded of each vehicle. Once the walk around vehicle videos are recorded, your dealership can benefit from both vehicle videos and Ultra 360 spin.

The Advantages of Ultra 360 spin over Traditional 360 Spin?

Traditional 360 spin is broken down into exterior and interior photos. The exterior photos can be rough or smooth depending on the exterior spin is constructed, which could lack the detail needed to view the car. With regards to the interior traditional 360 spin, it is just a 360 photo that is fixed on the arm rest, which allows for minimal detail to be seen since you are spinning from a fixed location. The consumers then must rely on hotspot photos, which they have likely already viewed in the photo gallery.

Ultra spin, on the other hand, uses video technology to provide a new smooth and seamless view of the car almost as if you were viewing the car in person with the swipe of a finger. Spotlight features allow the consumer to easily view features that matter most in detail. compared to just a photo gallery or a fixed location. The visibility into the interior allows the consumers to see different angles as if you were shopping in person. Hot spots in traditional 360 spin are nothing more than photos that the consumer has already looked at, therefore providing no additional value to help them making important purchasing decision.

Why Multimedia Features Are Important for Dealerships in 2022?

In 2022, it is time for car dealerships to elevate and innovate with multimedia. Multimedia combines text, graphics, audio, 360 spin and video that let the user navigate, interact, create, and communicate. LESA multimedia player takes on a custom and innovative approach to having multimedia on a car dealership website. The LESA player allows the dealership to have numerous different features for each vehicle, with little effort. The simple tool can help empower consumers to make purchasing decisions without numerous trips to the dealership.

Data from a LESA study which analyzed dozens of car dealerships showed users that interacted with multimedia spent 3x the amount of time on a website then users that did not. Additionally, data from the study showed that car dealerships that implemented video features on their website saw an 400% increase in conversions on their website. Implementing video really can be the difference in turning car shoppers into car buyers.

The Bottom Line

In 2022, photos won’t be enough to sell cars online. In a competitive environment such as the automotive industry, it is essential car dealerships tailor an online strategy to the preferences of the consumers they serve. Consumers continue to prove that multimedia is the most effective medium to learning and digesting information making Ultra 360 spin an attractive option for car dealerships looking to sell cars online.

Speak with a LESA Representative Today!

Interested in learning more about LESA Video Technology for Car Dealerships? Get Started and talk to a representative today! sales@lesautomotive.com