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Aftermarketing |
10 June 2026 · Issue 0002
Hey hey, fellow aftermarketer
Welcome to the second issue of the Aftermarketing newsletter.
I’m really glad to have all of you here, and thank you to everybody who has subscribed since the first issue. I can’t actually quite believe how many of you have joined already, but there are definitely no complaints from me.
For anyone who missed the first issue, or signed up and then completely forgot what you actually signed up to, here’s exactly what we’ll do each week.
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Every single week, I’m going to bring you the latest updates in search, social and digital marketing, but with an aftermarket filter on it.
Once I give you the news, I’m then going to give you some homework on exactly how you can apply one thing that week, based on what we’re either testing with clients or advocating for our own clients.
Then, once a month, I’m going to send a limited edition issue that goes deeper into one specific topic. This month’s topic is going to be zero-click marketing, so make sure you stick around for that.
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Right, let’s jump in. (Spoiler: it’s not been the most thrilling week ‐ which can be a good thing?)
Google
Zero-click search is getting harder to ignore.
A recent Search Engine Land report shared that 68.01% of Google searches in the US ended without a click in the first four months of 2026.
| 68.01% |
of US Google searches ended without a click in the first four months of 2026 |
This is huge because it essentially means nearly 70% of people are getting what they need directly from the search result, without ever visiting your website.
For example, if you sell diagnostic tools, parts, garage equipment, garage management software, technical support or anything that takes a bit of trust before someone buys, and you’ve typically used your website content to build that trust, this changes how you need to think about visibility.
You are still going to need your website, obviously.
Please do not go and bin the website.
But it does mean the previous way a lot of brands thought about SEO has become a bit harder. The SEO foundations are still the same, but there are now more places being pulled into AI Overviews, including LinkedIn posts, YouTube videos, Google Business Profiles and even Instagram content.
So we’re no longer only looking at SEO through the lens of “are we getting more traffic?”
We’re also asking, “are we showing up in the places our buyers are already looking?”
Google has also made it clear that a lot of the advice around GEO, AEO and any other kind of AI optimisation label still comes back to SEO basics.
The only additional advice I’d give is that aftermarket brands now need to be taking YouTube and social content seriously as part of that wider search presence.
YouTube has been a big driver for our clients because it allows you to build a full library of content that answers buyer questions in a natural way. That content can then be discovered through YouTube, shown in search, referenced by AI tools and used by buyers who are trying to understand what they need before they ever speak to sales.
YouTube
From a YouTube perspective, YouTube is ending its product tag experiment in community posts.
This means creators can no longer tag products in new community posts, and any existing product tags will stop showing from 3 July.
For most B2B aftermarket brands, this probably isn’t the biggest loss on earth. I doubt many of you were relying on community post shopping tags to actually sell a product or service.
However, the reason I picked this as something to pay attention to is because it is useful to understand how platforms are testing these features.
YouTube is clearly still figuring out how shopping fits into the platform, especially compared with how TikTok and Instagram have built shopping and product discovery into their ecosystems.
Even with that, YouTube is still one of the strongest platforms for community engagement and for posting both long-form and short-form content.
If you are using YouTube purely as somewhere to upload videos and then leave them there, you are missing a lot of the opportunity.
For example, if you’ve uploaded a buyer’s guide on diagnostic setups, you could use your community tab to ask:
| What is the biggest thing stopping your workshop from investing in OEM diagnostics? |
That gives you market research, engagement and future content ideas without needing another full video shoot.
Facebook
AI is moving into customer conversations.
Meta recently launched Meta Business Agent, which is an AI tool designed to help businesses respond to customers through WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram.
According to Meta, this tool can answer business-specific questions, recommend products from a catalogue, book appointments, qualify leads, hand them over to a team member when needed, and support customer conversations 24/7.
For aftermarket brands, this is obviously more useful than a generic AI content tool.
There is a lot of opportunity in this industry, not just in getting more enquiries, but in handling those enquiries properly once they come in.
Something we see very often, and one of the reasons we have a ManyChat-style feature inside V8 CRM, is that the turnaround time for enquiries on social can be very slow from aftermarket brands.
That is where tools like this could help.
LinkedIn
You can now see whether your posts are reaching new people.
LinkedIn has recently rolled out more detailed post performance insights, including a breakdown of in-network and out-of-network reach.
This essentially means you’ll be able to see whether your content is mostly being seen by people who already follow you or are connected with you, or whether it is reaching people outside your current network through recommendations, reshares, search and other discovery surfaces.
What makes this interesting is the wider direction LinkedIn is heading in.
You may have noticed they recently relaunched their video feed, and you may also be seeing more suggested posts from people you are not connected to. There is also more feedback being gathered around whether a post or video is interesting to you.
All of this points towards LinkedIn moving further towards an interest-based algorithm, similar to what platforms like TikTok, Facebook and YouTube have been doing for years.
They haven’t quite nailed it in the same way yet, but it will be interesting to see how that shift allows brands to gain more reach for their products and services.
If I was going in on anything right now, it would definitely be LinkedIn.
Not necessarily the video feed yet, because I don’t think the reach there is delivering what the platform would like us to believe just yet. But LinkedIn itself is a great opportunity for anybody working with larger garages, fleets, motor factors, suppliers, distributors or senior decision makers in the aftermarket.
Instagram
You can now rearrange your profile grid.
Instagram has released profile grid rearranging, which means you can now reorder posts on your main profile grid.
Honestly, this is one that everybody has been asking for for decades, so although it is not the most groundbreaking aftermarket update in the world, I thought I would add it in to make some of you smile.
Enjoy!
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Your homework
Build a library of content that answers buyer questions.
If I could give you one task this week, I would focus on AI Overviews and start building a proper library of content that answers buyer questions.
If we can’t rely on clicks in the same way anymore, we need to rely on content that can be watched, found, referenced, shared and trusted.
Long-form content is where I would currently focus.
Short-form content is great for reach and attention, but long-form content tends to convert much better because it gives you more time to explain the problem, build trust, show expertise and answer the questions buyers have before they make a decision.
We’ve recently launched a full video on exactly how to run through a marketing plan, and it comes with a free marketing workbook.
So when it comes to your homework this week, go through that plan first.
It is completely free, and it will help you come up with the ideas, concepts and content that can turn into successful YouTube videos, stronger social posts and a much clearer marketing strategy.
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PS: The link to that video is here: youtu.be/WEhPvhJnMps
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