After a few topsy-turvy years marked by rising inflation, an increased price for both new and used cars, and the newly saturated EV market, the automotive landscape is shifting in 2025. However, the scarcity of inventory and, at times, buyers has led to increased competition in the automotive industry.
In response, marketers have been forced to rethink where they’re spending their budgets and the tools they rely on to stay connected to their customers and drive results. In 2025, based on research and feedback from our auto industry clients and anonymized call data, automotive marketers indicate they’ll be shifting gears between re-allocating channel spend to keying into new AI use cases.
Here are 5 key automotive marketing predictions based on current trends to help prepare your business for the year ahead.
Understanding what channels are performing the best and why is a challenge for many marketers. As one auto dealership shared in our survey, “tracking effectiveness continues to be difficult.” From knowing what offline channels are driving customers to call into your business to analyzing which keywords are bringing visitors to your site, automotive marketers will need deeper insights into their top-of-funnel activity to stay competitive and keep wasteful spend down.
Prediction 2: Paid digital channels will be the top area of marketing investment in 2025
In 2025, automotive marketers will be focused on paid digital channels with their spending. Our automotive customers ranked paid social media ads and PPC ads as their top channels to invest in. Data from our auto industry customers shows that the most qualified leads and sales appointments tend to come from Google Ads, Google My Business profiles, and organic search, while online search remains the most popular channel to discover automotive businesses.
As auto marketers double down on digital channels, clear lead attribution insights will be needed to keep spending in these channels efficient. CallRail’s Call Tracking technology can deliver those desperately needed lead attribution insights thanks to its ability to track at the source and visitor level from calls and form fills, revealing what keywords, billboard, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, or print fliers led a customer to convert. You’ll know faster than ever how effective your campaigns are, allowing you to adjust spend on the fly and remain agile in your marketing approach in 2025.
Prediction 3: AI adoption in automotive will grow in 2025, but big opportunities may still be missed
Automotive businesses will be embracing AI for more tasks in 2025, but according to our customers, the primary use cases remain copy and content generation plus lead generation and qualification. As Darren Weigl from Evan’s Auto Care shared, “Being a one-person marketing team, I see AI as a time-saving tool to get items created. Right now, there are still plenty of bugs with free programs that we've tested, but I do see the content generators improving over time in both speed and accuracy.”
Over the past few years, tools like ChatGPT have been shown to be effective aids for generating content, but those use cases have become par for the course across every industry. For auto businesses stretching already tight sales and marketing budgets, adopting more AI use cases for lead follow-up or customer service training in 2025 can deliver a competitive edge. With CallRail’s latest AI features, including Convert Assist, auto businesses can easily add AI through a trusted platform rather than free generators.
With Convert Assist, automotive businesses can leverage AI to:
- Automatically generate an action plan from every conversation to capture every-to-do item from a sales or customer service conversation
- Get in-depth call coaching for every call, with feedback on what went well and what needs improvement
- Analyze phone conversations and automatically draft a personalized follow-up message
These are just a handful of the use cases for AI — and the companies that go beyond ChatGPT for marketing will have an edge in the coming year.
Prediction 4: Automotive businesses will turn to data to stand out in competitive markets
Standing out from the competition will require more than outspending other businesses — companies will need to find the right messages in ads and copy to truly stand out from their competitors. Knowing what customers want isn’t always apparent, though, as market conditions and consumer preferences change. You need to be able to track the trends in the moment.
Our call data shows that the industry-wide top keywords driving consumers to automotive businesses were:
For your own auto business, however, these keywords will look different. With Premium Conversation Intelligence from CallRail, you can mine every call for keyword insights to keep up with the trends that matter to your prospects and customers. With those insights, you can reflect those interests and concerns in your marketing and sales messaging. Our customers typically see a 10% increase in leads from improved marketing from these insights.
Prediction 5: Video marketing is the new top tactic to try
Automotive marketers won’t just be sticking with tried-and-true tactics in 2025. New-to-the-industry tactics like video marketing and influencer marketing are the top reported ways auto businesses will be experimenting. That’s what Darren Weigl with Evan’s Auto Care plans to do: “We embraced more video production in 2024 and look to build from there. We have invested in editing software and look to continue in-house production.”
Experimenting doesn’t have to be wasteful or without insights, however. Using CallRail’s lead attribution features, you can still get source-level tracking for any new marketing tactic you choose this year. For example, you can track which channels your videos perform best in and how they drive form fills and calls to your business.
Rev up your auto business in 2025 with CallRail
No matter what happens in 2025, from the predictable to the unpredictable, auto businesses need the tools to measure and insights to act.
CallRail’s platform can help your auto business stay efficient and effective. Try it for yourself today when you sign up for a free 14-day trial.
