Inventory Strategies for Impact Campaigns
An inventory strategy will determine which VINs are selected for advertising within a dealership’s inventory-based campaign.
VIN IQ’s strategies are designed to dynamically prioritize the vehicles most in need of exposure. Less-engaged VINs are promoted first, while VINs receiving higher engagement are temporarily removed from the campaign until additional visibility is required.
VIN IQ automatically adds or removes VINs every hour based on real-time engagement data. This continuous optimization ensures advertising spend has the greatest impact.
Inventory Filters
All strategies must be paired with inventory filters to segment vehicles per campaign.
Common filters include: vehicle status (New, Certified, or Used), year, make, model, trim, price range, days on lot, photo count or type, and specific VIN selections.
Each strategy can also be configured to limit the maximum number of vehicles advertised at any given time, ensuring controlled exposure and efficient budget use.
Automatic Strategy
The Automatic Strategy promotes VINs with the lowest engagement within a campaign, comparing each vehicle’s performance against similar VINs. This strategy advertises a vehicle only until it reaches the 80th percentile of popularity.
This is the default - and most widely applicable - strategy; ideal for a hands-free approach to optimizing campaign inventory. Typical use cases include broad segmentation, such as all new inventory, all used inventory, or model-specific new vehicle campaigns.
Aging Strategy
The Aging Strategy focuses on the oldest vehicles in the dealership’s inventory, matching the selected filters. Unlike other strategies, it does not consider the popularity or engagement of similar VINs—instead, it continues to promote the most aged units regardless of ranking.
This strategy is often paired with a maximum unit limit to control how many vehicles are actively promoted at once. It is most effective when there is an excess of aged inventory which require additional visibility and engagement to help move those vehicles.
Fresh Strategy
The Fresh Strategy focuses on newly listed vehicles in the dealership’s inventory matching the selected filters. Unlike other strategies, it does not factor in the popularity or engagement of similar VINs; instead, it continually promotes the newest units regardless of ranking.
This strategy is often combined with a maximum unit limit or a days-on-lot threshold to control how many vehicles are actively promoted at any given time.
The Fresh Strategy is recommended for all dealers, as most digital advertising platforms delay visibility for newer vehicles until they have already gained sufficient exposure—typically around 20 to 25 days on lot.
Priority Exposure Strategy
The Priority Exposure Strategy emphasizes promoting VINs with the lowest engagement within a campaign. Similar to the Automatic Strategy, it evaluates each vehicle’s performance against comparable VINs and continues advertising a vehicle only until it reaches a defined popularity threshold. In this case, vehicles remain active in the campaign until they reach the 90th percentile of popularity.
This strategy is most effective when overall inventory engagement is already strong, when limited units qualify for inclusion due to filter restrictions, or when certain vehicles are slow to move and need sustained visibility.
Unique Units Strategy (New VINs Only)
The Unique Units Strategy focuses exclusively on New inventory.
The Unique Units Strategy groups all VINs sharing the same Year, Make, Model, and Trim (and optionally, Exterior Color) to ensure that only one vehicle from each combination is promoted at a time, until that VIN achieves sufficient engagement.
Within each Year/Make/Model grouping, the unit most in need of engagement is prioritized and will be promoted until engagement improves. Once engagement improves on the promoted unit, another unit from the same group will replace it.
This strategy is most effective when there is a high volume of identical or near-identical new vehicles on the lot, helping ensure balanced exposure across similar inventory.
Strategic Boost Campaigns (Used & CPO VINs Only)
The Strategic Boost Campaign focus exclusively on Used and Certified inventory.
This unique campaign type targets the most distressed units on the lot and continues promoting them until they are sold—regardless of popularity or prior exposure.
These campaigns allocate a higher budget per VIN and are configured to advertise a limited set of vehicles (1 to 10 VINs at a time), to maximize visibility and impact.
This strategy is best suited for moving aged and/or hard-to-sell inventory requiring concentrated advertising effort to move.
Unsure how to proceed? Our VIN IQ team would be happy to review your inventory and advise. Contact your Customer Success Manager or email us at clientcare@viniq.io.
