Guides / Social
Short video that actually sells cars
A ninety-second walkaround with wind in the mic gets four hundred views and no leads. Then the store decides video doesn't work.
Every store gets the same advice: post more video. So somebody films a walkaround, uploads a ninety-second horizontal clip with wind blowing into the microphone, and it gets four hundred views and no leads. The store concludes that video does not work.
Video works. The version most dealerships make does not.
What actually gets watched
The first two seconds decide it. Not the intro, not the logo animation, not "hey guys, welcome back". The car, or the surprising thing about the car, immediately.
- Vertical, always — shot on a phone held upright. A horizontal video letterboxed into a vertical feed reads as an ad and gets scrolled past.
- Under 30 seconds for inventory, up to 60 for anything that needs explaining.
- Captions burned in — most of this is watched with the sound off, standing in a kitchen.
- One idea per video — the third row, the trade policy, the winter package. Not a full tour.
Nobody watches your video because they like your dealership. They watch because the first two seconds showed them something they wanted to see.
The five worth making every week
Keep the list short enough that it survives a busy week.
- A just-arrived unit, walked around in twenty seconds, price on screen.
- One salesperson answering one real question a customer asked that week.
- Something from the service drive — a seasonal check, a common failure, what a particular noise means.
- A delivery, with permission. Real customers, real reaction, no script.
- One thing about your town that has nothing to do with cars.
That last one matters more than it looks. It is the one that gets shared locally, and local sharing is the entire point in a market the size of Moncton or Truro.
Who makes them
Not an agency, and not the GM. One person on staff who does not hate being on camera, given twenty minutes twice a week and the authority to post without three approvals.
The approval chain is what kills dealership video, every time. A clip about a car that sold on Tuesday is worth nothing on Friday.
What to measure
Not views. Watch-through rate in the first three seconds, and saves. Views only tell you the algorithm showed it to people. Retention tells you whether it was worth showing, and saves tell you somebody is actually thinking about buying.