If you’re reading this, you probably missed SEMA 2024 (cuz’ you were too busy making money – 😉).
Grab your favorite beverage, sit back, and let’s dive into the TLDR for SEMA 2024 highlights important for mobile tire shops.
What is SEMA? TLDR…
If you’ve been living under a rock…SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) is where anyone who’s anyone comes to meet, party, and collaborate about all things car related. It happens every year in Las Vegas, in November. Check out the SEMA website to learn more about them. Now to the juicy bits for mobile tire shops.
Reduced Competition (in some areas):
Firestone Direct leaving certain markets
Firestone Direct’s leaving of certain markets (Orlando, FL included) could potentially have the following effects:
- Firestone vans for sale for those looking to start/grow
- Lower CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) for those running paid ads since they will not be bidding against Firestone Direct anymore
For more info about CAC, check out this article: “What Is CAC and Why It Will Make Or Break Your Mobile Tire Shop“
Check out this YouTube video below that explains the scenario when one of your highest spending competitors reduces ad spend on the same Google search terms/keywords:
DISCLAIMER: I have ZERO affiliation with this guy in the video or anything associated with him – I literally searched for Google Auction Insights and his video was what I found.
BUT what he’s explaining is basically the point I’m trying to get across, without you guys having to wait for me to make the same video content with the same message 😉
Overall Interest in Mobile Tires:
- Subjectively, it looks like interest/demand is strong. I saw/overheard many brick & mortar owners talking to reps about getting into mobile.
- Some bigger players from Canada and overseas were also there speculating to get involved
- They key is understanding the Business Model, the Ideal Customer Persona, and the 3-Statement Financial Model [Profit & Loss statement, Balance Sheet, CashFlow Statement].
Gain financial confidence and the conviction to act by mastering the 3 Statement Financial Model in this article: Financial Modeling To Grow Your Mobile Tire Shop in 2025
...the van build is great, we see the value proposition.... What kind of revenue and net profits can one van, two vans, multi-van operations expect to earn?
Mobile Tire Van Builders
There was no shortage of mobile tire van displays at SEMA 2024.
- GoMobile Hunter, & Bush Specialty Vehicles all exhibited their mobile tire vans builds for sale
- GoMobile showed a tire + oil change van. I think they also posted that they sold one vehicle off the show floor at a special show rate. Also I spoke with them briefly about their mobile alignment system which looks promising to identify alignment issues to be corrected at a shop later.
- Hunter showed their modular floorboard track system so you can swap out equipment easier (tires/oil,etc)
- Bush showed their vehicle build and also are offering oil change setups.
DISCLAIMER: I have ZERO affiliation with this AlignTech vendor in the video or anything associated with them – I talked to them at their booth at SEMA and I found this video on YouTube that shows what it’s about – it’s affiliated with GoMobile in some way. (I’m not affiliated with GoMobile tires either)
Mobile Tire Equipment:
- Tons of equipment on display. I asked if the RoadForce balancer machines could be made smaller/lighter for mobile van footprint but didn’t get any definite answers.
- CEMB has some surprisingly great balancer setups that have “memory” feature on their lift-assist cradle so the wheel/tire assembly gets lifted onto the spindle centerline easily every time without hassles and bumping/scraping the spindle
- Automatic (walk-away) tire changers are great, but footprint is very large, very heavy, and it’s recommended to stay close by on expensive wheel/tire assemblies to avoid mishaps
Want to go deeper on van builds? Check out this article: The Top 7 Things Every Mobile Tire Van Needs to Grow in 2025
Tire Scanning Technology:
- Anyline was there marketing tire tread scanning tech they developed. You can scan your tire tread up to 0.5mm accuracy from your smartphone (you must develop the app using their dev kit [SDK]).
- I’ve known about this and continue to dig deeper into dev effort – will keep you guys posted ( I have some crazy ideas – book a call with me, if interested).
- Sorry I wasn’t able to get a video, I was too busy geeking out with Chris and Andrew (the reps) on the tech and it’s capabilities/limitations
- There were several drive-over tread scanning equipment on display.
- I connected with Scott Rea (Executive VP) at Traxtion and I mentioned we should install them at car wash franchises and remarket to those customers with low tread (we pay the carwash an affiliate commission for each confirmed online tire checkout completion, etc).
- If you know anyone at MisterCarWash – let’s jump on a call.
Marketing Agencies For Mobile Tire Shops:
- I searched the aisles and was vetting out automotive/tire specific marketing agencies that could serve/support small mobile tire operators, but the majority of them had services/pricing/strategies that caters to bigger established brick & mortar. No fit for smaller mobile tire guys
Public Service Announcement:
Anyone doing digital marketing should be fluent in these things:
- Google Tag Manager
- Google Business Profile setup (do NOT set your business as a mobile service region, you will not rank well with current algo).
- You MUST set up a virtual office with a physical address so you can rank in the Google “Snack Pack / Map Pack” with the current algo
- UTM tracking urls (helps with attributing an ad to a confirmed sale – so you can optimize ad spend)
- Pixel setup (Meta, etc) – for tracking user behavior on your site
- Klaviyo, Brevo or other email automation platforms (send marketing campaigns, special offers, etc)
- Campaign structuring: (Awareness, Engagement, Consideration, Purchase).
- Site behavior structuring: (Never landed on site, Viewed a tire/product, added-to-cart, started checkout),. These are all crucial to track.
- Understanding of:
- CPM (cost per thousand impressions)
- CTR (ad click through rate)
- CPC (cost per click)
- CVR (conversion rate)
- CAC (customer acquisition cost)
- LTV:CAC ratio (Lifetime Value to CAC ratio)
- CUF:CAC ratio (Cash Upfront to CAC ratio)
- ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
- MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio)
- Ad creative (5 second intro hook, address pain points, deflate objections, CTA – call to action OFFER – you MUST have an offer).
- Saying you “exist” and “we’re here when you need us…” is not going to bring you near-term cashflow.
- You need campaigns that generate cash-flow now, not 6-12 months from now.
- Optimization/Research Tools:
Want to go deeper on digital marketing for Mobile Tires? Check out this article: 10 Basics to Master Digital Marketing for Mobile Tire Shops in 2025
Mobile Tire Shop Buyer’s Alliance
- One of the largest levers to pull to lower your COGS (Cost of Goods Sold), is getting tires at a better volume discounted price.
- I’m hearing a need being voiced about potentially creating a Mobile Tire Buyers Alliance
- Everyone who joins the group buys from a SINGLE account with (ATD, TireHub, USAutoforce, etc) and we aggregate the volume and get discounts based on that
- Who this could work for:
- small operators with 1 or 2 vans
- If this is something of interest – book a spot on my calendar
- Requirements/Constraints
- We’d need 10-20 operators to join for any of the suppliers to take the volume seriously. Don’t be shy to connect – it might just save your business.
Entertainment / Hoonery:
Check out the footage on the TreadCommand Instagram account
40 min Walkthrough Video:
Check out the footage on the SEMA 2024 floor, I snagged it from TireReview
Put your Tire E-commerce on autopilot, with TreadCommand
Say goodbye to clunky & cookie-cutter tire shop management software. Grow your mobile tire shop confidently with the best-in-class automated e-commerce tire platform that customers & operators love.
Closing Remarks
So, there you have it, the inside scoop on SEMA 2024 for mobile tire shops. If you’ve got the budget, I’d highly recommend attending in 2025. Attendance costs around $100 per badge (for mobile tire shops).
If nothing else, it’s hard not to get inspired by the shear scale of the event, the innovation, the car culture, and the undying capitalist American spirit – proudly displayed! 💪 🇺🇸