Artificial intelligence is changing the way people shop for their next vehicle and that’s having a big impact on how dealerships do their marketing. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is rewriting the rules of automotive search, and many dealerships are not ready.
On this episode of Inside Automotive, we’re joined by four automotive marketing experts to break down what GEO means for dealers and what they should be doing now. Our panel includes April Simmons, Corporate Internet and Marketing Director at Horne Auto Group; Kevin Frye, Head Coach of Marketing at Jeff Wyler Automotive Family; Brooke Furniss, Founder of BZ Consultants Group; and Cody Tomczyk, Senior Vice President at Force Marketing.
GEO vs. SEO
Traditional SEO targets search engines like Google and Microsoft Bing. In the same way, Generative Engine Optimization targets AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, and Google Gemini. Those platforms pull information differently than search engines, and their share of total search volume is growing fast.
Tomczyk said LLM adoption is still a small fraction of total search but climbing quickly. “It’s about 5% as of Q1 this year, projected to go to 10% of all search volume by next year,” he said.
When it comes to car buying, shoppers are ahead of that curve. Tomczyk said roughly 30% of car shoppers use some form of AI in their path to purchase, well ahead of overall AI search usage.
While SEO and GEO share a common goal, they take very different approaches. Simmons said optimizing for AI search takes more than just the right keywords, “With AI, it’s not just about the word. You actually have to be able to answer the question,” she said.
Frye said a single AI prompt draws from far more sources than a traditional search ever did. He asserts, “We can literally see that it’s going to an average of 150 to 250 websites to pull the information to give you the answer, of which we are only one of those sites.”
Measuring success in GEO is still a moving target
No reliable tool exists yet to accurately measure GEO performance. Furniss said dealers should not read too much into any single result. “All of these AI generative ranking tools, none of them are consistent. You can put your URL, your domain, whatever page it is, you’ll get a different score every single time,” Furniss said.
Tomczyk said his team uses SEMrush for directional guidance but does not treat it as gospel. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is expected to add AI-specific measurement features within the next month or so, which may give dealers a more grounded starting point.
Content structure, Tomczyk said, is where dealers can make the most immediate impact. AI platforms favor sites built with question-and-answer formatting, short paragraphs, clear headers, schema markup, and semantic HTML. Those elements help AI find and process information quickly.
“If you just do the right things that you should have been doing anyway, you’re going to come out ahead of everybody else because there is no shortcut here,” Tomczyk said.
Why brand recognition matters now more than ever
GEO results are personalized. The same question asked by three different people can produce three different answers. That makes traditional ranking benchmarks nearly meaningless and puts brand recognition at the center of any GEO strategy.
Frye said Jeff Wyler Automotive Family has quadrupled its branding impressions this year for exactly that reason, stating, “We would rather control what we can control and take the offense, and that is raise our name recognition to the highest level it’s ever been.”
The urgency behind that strategy is tied to a broader shift in search behavior. Zero-click searches, where a user gets the answer they need without ever clicking through to a website, are accelerating.
Before the pandemic, roughly 50% of Google searches ended without a click. Today that figure is around 65%. On ChatGPT it is approximately 82%. On Perplexity it reaches as high as 93%.
“You have to have that brand visibility, that brand awareness at the point of the query or the prompt because there aren’t going to be as many clicks to get to the website,” Tomczyk said.
Simmons said brand mentions across the web compound the effect. Citations from any source, including media coverage and panel discussions like this one, feed AI visibility directly. Adding that, “The citations just from us mentioning Jeff Wyler and Horne Auto Group actually helps our AI.”
Why words, not star ratings, matter
AI platforms are surfacing reviews from channels most dealers have ignored for years. Yelp, Reddit, the Better Business Bureau, and third-party aggregators like BirdEye are all feeding AI-generated recommendations. Star ratings alone carry no weight.
“Five stars means nothing to AI. It’s looking for the words that the customer types,” Simmons said.
AI platforms are also returning individual staff members within search results, adding a new layer of discoverability for dealers who cultivate it.
“It will go so far as to say, do you want me to recommend which salesperson to talk to?” Simmons said.
Google’s EEAT framework, which stands for experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, remains the guiding standard, Frye said. Employees who create video content and establish themselves as subject matter experts can now appear directly in AI-generated results.
Furniss said dealers who have strong reviews but a weak social media presence are still vulnerable. Some AI platforms prioritize social signals before they look at reviews.
“I believe it’s Perplexity that looks more at social media before it looks at reputation. So you can do everything correctly, but if you suck there, you’re done for,” Furniss said.
From keyword research to prompt research
The nature of AI prompts is fundamentally different from traditional web search. Shoppers are not typing short phrases. They are typing paragraphs, describing the exact vehicle they want, the color, the budget, and the financing terms they have in mind.
Simmons said dealers need to study what customers are actually entering into AI tools and build content designed to answer those specific inputs. Her team uses SEMrush data to identify what shoppers are searching for and creates content to address it directly. Additionally, Tomczyk said the shift requires changing the fundamental unit of research.
“You have to get out of doing what was once keyword research, and now it’s prompt research,” Tomczyk said.
Frye said his team is posting content directly on Reddit because AI platforms are currently favoring it as a source, an early example of how GEO strategy reaches well beyond a dealer’s own website.
Beware of GEO auditors, for now
Dealers are being flooded with GEO audit reports from vendors claiming their sites are underperforming in AI search. Simmons said most of those reports are inaccurate and urged dealers not to act until any claim is properly validated.
“There’s the door. Hang up the phone,” Simmons said. She said no one has this fully figured out yet, including the panelists themselves.
“Nobody’s an expert. I’m not an expert. No one on this call is really an expert. There’s no such thing as an expert right now. We’re all working through this together,” Simmons said.
On the advertising side, Tomczyk flagged a growing tension between AI platforms and the trust they have built with users. A recent survey found 63% of adults said they would trust AI search results less if ads were present. ChatGPT began testing ads in a limited beta in late February, currently reaching about 5% of users.
Where dealers stand today and what separates those who adapt
Most dealerships are not equipped to handle GEO on their own. The typical dealer has one marketing manager handling everything. Compliance demands are consuming more bandwidth every year, leaving less room for strategic marketing work.
Frye said Jeff Wyler Automotive Family currently runs a marketing team of 10 and is continuing to grow. Even at that size, he said, the workload is expanding faster than headcount.
Notably, the FTC is adding to the pressure, with significant fines being levied on dealerships for deceptive practices. Simmons said the damage from a violation extends beyond the fine itself. FTC violations become a permanent public record, and that information will eventually find its way into what AI says about your store.
The panelists agreed that the time to start is now. The tools and measurement standards will continue to improve, but the foundational work needs to start today, Furniss said.
Tomczyk compared getting started on GEO to getting started on fitness.
“The best time to start working out was 10 years ago. The next best time is today,” Tomczyk said.
For dealers, the panel agreed the path forward is the same regardless of what the competition looks like. Quality content, active reputation management, consistent branding, and human-created expertise are what you can control. Everything else is still being figured out by everyone, including the platforms themselves.
