AI Search Case Study: How a Florida Ford Dealer Grew Its Visibility in Google AI Results and ChatGPT

Dealers keep asking me whether AI search is real yet, or just something agencies like to talk about. Fair question. So I pulled the numbers from one of our Ford stores in Florida, where we’ve spent this year working on both sides of it: getting the store cited by Google’s AI results and ChatGPT, and building the research content shoppers (and AI tools) look for before they buy.

On July 21 we started publishing 44 model and trim research pages for the store. Here’s what happened next, in Google Search Console and GA4:

• Google Search impressions went from about 48,000 a week to about 125,000, roughly 2.6 times higher.
• Impressions in Google’s generative AI features went from 4,597 a week to 17,074, about 3.7 times higher, and the research pages earned more than half of them.
• Visits from ChatGPT and other AI assistants more than quadrupled, and most of them landed on a specific car in inventory.

Win #1: the research pages took over the store’s Google visibility

The pages answer the questions shoppers ask before they pick a trim, like “What’s the difference between the Bronco Badlands and the Outer Banks?” or “Is the F-150 Raptor R worth it?” All 44 are indexed.

• From July 21 to October 23, the 44 pages earned 607,746 Google impressions and 2,747 clicks. That’s nearly half of all the impressions the whole dealership site earned over the same dates.
• One page, the 2026 F-150 Raptor R comparison, earned 305,451 impressions and 1,674 clicks on its own.
• Site-wide, weekly clicks rose about 25%, from roughly 940 a week before launch to about 1,170 in October. Clicks grew much more slowly than impressions, which is normal for new research pages and for searches where Google answers part of the question on the results page.

Visits that started on the research pages grew every month:

Win #2: Google’s AI results started showing the store

Search Console now has a Generative AI features report, which counts how often a site appears in Google’s AI-generated results. It can only be viewed inside Search Console, not pulled through the API, so these numbers come straight from the report.

• The week the research pages went live, the store had 4,597 impressions in Google’s AI features. In the week of October 12 it had 17,074.
• From July 25 to October 24, the research pages accounted for more than half of the store’s AI-feature impressions (about 78,000 page-level impressions). The F-150 Raptor R page alone had 48,701.
• To be fair to the data: AI-feature impressions were already climbing before July, from a low base. What changed after launch is the slope, and the pages doing the work.

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Win #3: ChatGPT visits more than quadrupled

In GA4, we count a visit as “AI” when the source is an AI assistant: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Claude and so on.

September was the store’s best month on record for AI visits: more than four times June, and almost five times September 2025. About 97% came from ChatGPT.

The part that surprised me is where ChatGPT sends people. Since late July, more than half of all AI visits landed directly on a specific vehicle listing page:

Shoppers are asking ChatGPT for a particular kind of truck or SUV near them, and it’s linking them straight to a car on the lot. That’s a bottom-of-funnel visit, not a browser.

What this means for car dealers

I want to be straight about what this does and doesn’t show. AI-assistant visits are still a small slice of total traffic, under 1% of sessions in September. The ChatGPT visits mostly go to inventory, not to the research pages. Clicks grew far less than impressions. And this is one store, not a lab experiment.

But the direction is clear, and it matches what we’re seeing across our other dealers. (For the bigger picture, see our AI search benchmarks from 81 dealership websites and our guide to GEO for car dealerships.) Here’s what I’m telling our dealers now:

1. Answer the research questions. Trim comparisons and “which one should I buy” pages earned nearly half of this store’s Google impressions and more than half of its impressions in Google’s AI results.
2. Treat your vehicle listings as AI landing pages. ChatGPT is sending shoppers straight to VDPs. Make sure every listing has accurate pricing, complete specs, real photos and a clear way to contact the store.
3. Measure AI on its own. Check Search Console’s Generative AI features report every month, and set up a GA4 report for AI assistant sources so the trend doesn’t disappear inside referral traffic.

If you want to see what AI search looks like for your store, reach out. I’m always happy to look at the numbers with you.

About the data

Google Search figures are from Google Search Console (Performance › Search results, web), weekly totals Monday to Sunday, May 18 to October 18, 2026; “before launch” is the average of the two weeks starting July 13 and July 20, and “October” the two weeks starting October 5 and 12. AI-feature figures are from Search Console’s Generative AI features report (beta), which reports impressions only and starts May 18, 2026; the research-page share uses page-level impressions from July 25 to October 24, 2026. Research-page impressions and clicks (607,746 and 2,747) cover July 21 to October 23, 2026. AI-assistant visits are GA4 sessions whose source is an AI assistant (chatgpt.com, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Claude and similar). The dealership is a SmartSites client; we’ve left its name out.