Two franchises.
One lot. One conversation.
Internal desk. Customer sendable is look-with-me — no Jackson, no fee. Pitch toggle matches that voice.
Look at this with me. Free working look at spend, September listings results, and the Summit lot. No proposal dollars on this page.
Look at this with me
Free working look — not a package. What we can already see in Summit, what September’s listings produced, and questions only you can answer.
Sendable copy of this view: howell-motors-look-with-me.html
Who you’re talking to
| Item | Sourced fact |
|---|---|
| Legal | Howell, Inc. — MS licenses 916 GMC and 1916 Nissan. Mail: P.O. Box 528, McComb, MS 39649. |
| Trade | Howell Motors / Howell GMC / K.H. Nissan. Sites: howellgmc.com, howellnissan.com. |
| Place | 1158 Highway 51-98, Summit, MS 39666. Same pin for both brands (~31.274, −90.471). |
| Phone | One number for main / sales / service / parts: 601-276-7711. |
| Family | Opened April 9, 1964 (VW). Today GMC + Nissan. Co-owned by Krandall Howell (semi-retired, bigger-picture) and son Paige (day-to-day). Paige’s son Kran is F&I / fourth generation. MADA member; Krandall was first import dealer on the MADA board. |
| Hours (conflict) | About pages: sales Mon–Fri 8:30–5:30, Sat 9–1, Sun closed. Nissan USA dealer locator lists sales Mon–Fri 8:00–6:00, Sat 9–2. Service both: Mon–Fri 7:30–5, weekends closed. hours disagree |
Talk to Paige. Do not pitch “a group with two stores” as two campuses — it is one operation with two OEM skins.
What is actually on the lot
Counts from live SRP titles on Oct 5, 2026. Not a DMS pull.
Howell GMC
- New / CTP / demo SRP: 8 — 2 Yukon · 2 Canyon · 1 Sierra 1500 · 1 Sierra 2500 · 1 Acadia · 1 Terrain
- New specials SRP: 5
- Used SRP: 18 (shared book)
- Dealer discount on several 2026s: $1,000 + OEM cash
- Doc fee: $315
- Several used units: “Please call for price”
K.H. Nissan
- New SRP: 28 (25 × 2026, 3 × 2027) — 8 Frontier · 7 Pathfinder · 6 Rogue · 3 Sentra · 2 Kicks · 1 Altima · 1 Armada
- Used SRP: 18 (same count; overlapping VINs with GMC used)
- Offers page is the Nissan USA Jackson-MS-area national incentive board, not a store-built specials page
- Doc fee: $315
Homepage copy on both sites still says a “vast inventory.” That is template language. The real story is a small, honest rural book — and Nissan is the volume franchise.
Summit / Pike County — not Jackson
TCI heatmap (Summit/McComb): gmc dealer 1–3 · nissan dealer 5–8 · car dealer 20+.
Keyword Planner avg. searches / month for Summit city and Pike County (the county this lot sits in). Many 10s are the Planner floor. Not unique shoppers.
| On the lot | Units | Summit | Pike County |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nissan (brand) | — | 20 | 90 |
| GMC (brand) | — | 10 | 50 |
| Frontier | 8 | 10 | 20 |
| Pathfinder | 7 | 10 | 20 |
| Rogue | 6 | 10 | 40 |
| Sentra | 3 | 10 | 30 |
| Kicks | 2 | 10 | 20 |
| Altima | 1 | 10 | 50 |
| Armada | 1 | 10 | 30 |
| Sierra | 2 | 10 | 30 |
| Yukon | 2 | 10 | 20 |
| Canyon | 2 | 10 | 10 |
| Terrain / Acadia | 1 / 1 | 10 | 20 |
| kh nissan / howell gmc | — | 20 / 10 | 30 / 10 |
County-wide this is a small pond. Maps rankings and reviews matter more than buying Jackson-sized search. Altima is the fattest county term against one unit — don’t buy it.
What good looks like here
Not a lead forecast. One address (1158). Reviews that show up. Call clicks that are not 3 in a month. Nissan off the yellow band. Pages and photos for what is actually on the lot.
Who is doing the digital work today
| Layer | Who | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Websites | Dealer Inspire / Cars Commerce (DI WordPress, GMUS + Nissan core templates, AudioEye, Botdoc, Cars Commerce vehicle images — dealer IDs 110012670 GMC / 110012690 Nissan) | confirmed from sites |
| SEO | Think Creative Intelligence (Ridgeland, 601-856-2000) — September 2026 “Local SEO” report for K.H. Nissan is listing syndication + GBP-style grids, not on-page content. Sites themselves remain Dealer Inspire stock (city pages, no staff page, broken used photos on GMC). | vendor identified |
| SEM / paid | Meta: no ads for “Howell Motors Inc” or “Howell GMC Summit.” Google Transparency: 0 ads to howellgmc.com (any time). howellnissan.com has 2 policy-removed text ads (last shown Oct 4) from CCD Webstore LLC, funded by Think CIA — not a dealer RSA. Ask if that is TCI. | no dealer-branded paid |
| Social | Facebook Page Howell Motors Inc. (4.2 from 19 ratings). Occasional video posts naming both URLs. No official Instagram found. No YouTube channel found. | thin organic |
| Local listings | TCI reports 61/71 connected. Yellow Pages still lists Buick/Pontiac at the same address. TCI campaign address is 1156 vs live 1158. | NAP drift |
| Pixels / GTM | Not extracted. Direct fetch and browser hit Cloudflare on gm.websites.dealerinspire.com / retail.websites.dealerinspire.com. | blocked this pass |
Working take: they already pay a Ridgeland shop for listings. The hole is still pages, photos, reviews, and paid. Do not sell a second citation tool.
Think Creative Intelligence — September 2026 local SEO pack
Source: K.H. Nissan Local SEO Report, generated Oct 1, 2026, branded THINK CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE · 601-856-2000. Period is September. This is a directory/GBP pack (71 listings), not a website SEO audit.
| Metric | Report number |
|---|---|
| Impressions | 1,380 (92% Search / 8% Maps · 85.5% mobile) |
| Interactions | 517 |
| Website clicks | 200 |
| Direction requests | 38 |
| Call clicks | 3 |
| Listings | 71 total · 61 connected (85.9%) · 1 submitted · 1 disconnected · 8 unavailable |
| Reviews | Average 4.4 · 0 new reviews in September · “Metrics: Rating — No data found” |
| Address in charts | Report body uses 1158 US-51; charts/heatmap campaign use 1156 Highway 51 & 98 / 1156 US-51 & 98. Site and MMVC use 1158. NAP inside their own report |
TCI’s written summary says when locals search “nissan dealer,” the store “consistently appears as one of the top results across a wide geographic area.” Their own heatmap (same PDF, p.8) does not say that:
- gmc dealer — mostly green 1–3 around Summit/McComb. This is the win.
- nissan dealer — mostly yellow 5–8, some 9–15 south. Page-one-ish locally, not a wide “top result.”
- car dealer — almost all 20+. They do not exist on that query.
Campaign name on the heatmap is Howell, INC. (both brands), even though the cover says K.H. Nissan. TCI is Ridgeland: 655 Lake Harbour Dr Ste 100, 601.856.2000, thinkcreativeintelligence.com. Founder/CEO Bryan Carter. Not a listed Nissan Digital Program or GM IMR partner on the public boards we checked.
SEO — site vs listings
- Listings (TCI): citation network + local rank grids. Real work, thin outcome on calls/reviews.
- Website (Dealer Inspire): live inventory, model hubs, service schedule, finance apply, trade form, some city landers. Copy is stock. “Vast inventory” vs 8 new GMCs.
- Breaks trust: hours mismatch vs Nissan.com; Buick/Pontiac ghosts in directories; 1156 vs 1158 in TCI charts; GMC homepage reviews talking about Nissan.
- Missing: people page, real lot photography, store-written Nissan specials, priced used book on GMC, review generation, service pages that are not generic DI.
SEM
Do not tell them they spend $0. We could not see a live dealer campaign from outside.
We cannot see live dealer-branded Google or Facebook ads from outside. That is not the same as zero spend — we need the logins and the Dealer Inspire advertising question.
- Meta: no ads on “Howell Motors Inc” or “Howell GMC Summit.” Inactive commercial ads drop from the library.
- Google Transparency, any time: 0 ads to howellgmc.com.
- howellnissan.com: 2 policy-removed text ads (CCD Webstore / Think CIA, last shown Oct 4). Ask if that is yours.
If they are not in IMR / Nissan Digital Program ads today, published on-ramps are Nissan DI ads (2026 sheet: ≥ $2,500 media + 25% fee, cap $3,500) and GM DAP Digital Base ($2,000–$3,999 media on a C-4 sell sheet — not Howell’s invoice).
OEM co-op — what these two brands actually allow
Exact Howell balances and match rates live in the dealer portals. Outside sources do not publish this rooftop’s accrual. What is public:
GMC — GM In-Market Retail (IMR) / Dealer Digital Solution
- GM connects Chevy / Buick / GMC / Cadillac dealers to certified digital partners. Channels called out by approved vendors: paid media, SEO, social media management, paid social.
- Industry guides put GM IMR reimbursement in a 50–100% range by channel, typically quarterly, use-it-or-lose-it. Verify on GM SharePoint / IMR account — do not quote 50% or 100% as Howell’s rate.
- Digital Dealer (Naked Lime approval): more than 90% of GM’s ~4,300 U.S. dealers participate; GM reimburses a portion of eligible costs from approved vendors.
- Enrollment / dashboard: gmdealerdigital.com · dealer.digital@gm.com · 1-800-250-9038.
- SEO is eligible when billed by a certified DAP. Organic posting on Facebook is generally not an ad spend and is not reimbursable.
Nissan — Dealer Digital Program (not a DIY Google Ads invoice)
- Nissan runs a certified marketplace (nissandigitalprogram.com). Dealer Inspire is on the Full-Suite advertising list — which matches their website vendor.
- 2026 DI advertising sheet: $2,500 minimum media + 25% management (cap $3,500). That is the on-menu paid path, not a Coop-invented number.
- A3 Brands (agency, not OEM): they report helping Nissan dealers apply co-op to SEO; they also say many OEMs reimburse 30–50% of SEO. Treat as vendor marketing, not Nissan policy.
- A 2018–2020 Nissan Northwest Region PDF (not Mississippi, not current): dealers accrued 0.5% of wholesale, Nissan added $0.40 per $1, claims 1:1, SEM/SEO required invoices + keyword lists + screenshots, 60-day claim window. Useful as “this is how Nissan thinks,” not as Summit’s 2026 contract.
What we charge elsewhere — and what this pair can bear
Luxury rooftops in Baton Rouge and Jackson are a different product: Motive SEO pages, magazine, Acquire, GM Weekly, J&L paid at metro scale, photography as a system.
| Comparable | Number | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| BMW of Jackson paid (J&L) | Sales $7,000 → $4,500; service held $1,500 (Sep 2026 recap) | Media, not Coop retainer |
| Harris Porsche paid (J&L) | About $2,500–$3,000/mo in spring 2026 notes | Media |
| GM DAP Digital Base (C-4 sheet) | $2,000–$3,999 media | Certified GM paid, not this store |
| Nissan DI ads (2026 sheet) | ≥ $2,500 media + 25% fee | Certified Nissan paid |
| Howell lot reality | 8 new GMC + 28 new Nissan + 18 used, Sat close at 1 | One-family operation |
Recommendation (internal): they already have a listings vendor. Do not quote BR/Jackson luxury. Do not quote $800 to “keep an eye on it.” Do not stack TCI + Coop citation software. Fee is pages, photos, reviews, GBP truth, monthly with Paige — and optionally taking over listings if they want one throat to choke.
Setup $1,500 (photo day + NAP cleanup + page pass).
Paid media is extra and should ride IMR / Nissan Digital Program, not our uncertified media buy.
Floor: $2,000. Ceiling unless they ask for magazine/Acquire-class work: $3,500. Paid media not in the fee.
If we keep working
Truth layer first: NAP, reviews, photos, in-stock pages. OEM calls to see what is claimable. No second listings vendor on top of TCI.
Social
For a store this size, Instagram + GBP posts + Facebook from real lot photos beats a content calendar of stock GMC deserts.