What Did You Pay for Your Dealer Websites?

[Alexander Lau]

I think the big issue is that most of the dealerships are competing on the same level. When you add the general public distrust of dealerships and the fact that people would rather go to the dentists office than go into a finance office, it really comes down to rethinking the focus on VDPs. Not to mention, the third-party lead sites are killing the dealerships when it comes to paid and organic VDP ranking.

The more benefit-driven the webpages are, specific to what ads the customers have clicked on, the higher chance the customer will buy from you.

I don't think it should be this one mammoth site. All these flashing banners pitching different vehicle packages and services... I can't see how that can convert traffic at a good rate. There's hundreds of other dealerships in my city that have websites like that, so you're only differentiating yourself based on your inventory when you do that.

When you talk about subprime, the focus on VDPs with no explanation of the process is going to confuse people and may even piss them off. They apply because they are interested in a specific vehicle, and then they learn that they can't get approved for the vehicle that you advertised on your site (let alone at the given bi-weekly price or an "OAC" interest rate).

I think the webpage should begin the sales process. The marketing team and the salesteam should work very closely with one another. Most dealerships, I see them outsourcing their marketing or hiring an in-house marketer who hasn't done sales and expecting them to take the reigns on everything.

Btw, does anybody know the industry standard for conversion rate when somebody reaches a dealer website?

You bring up valid points and I totally agree with you on the distrust level and hatred for finance offices (can be painful journeys).

I'm not really sure what you mean by organic VDP ranking though...?? There's no point in attempting to get a VDP ranked, they rarely index and never stay indexed (Google's organic strategy doesn't jive with it / it's not looked at as beneficial content per se). It's a dynamic page, here one day, gone the next (the nature of it). I'd focus around SRP's and building those correctly within a platform. Some providers create them well; some don't. Some 3rd party agencies create quality content on them and SEO essentials around them; some don't.

Agreed, on "The more benefit-driven the webpages are, specific to what ads the customers have clicked on, the higher chance the customer will buy from you." That is a fact and it's been proven through many studies.

I'm big into automotive attribution. Companies like Clarivoy and Transparency.ai are crushing it, delivering sales attribution reports to dealerships. Essentially, they are using multi-touch attribution models, not just last-touch attribution.

You mention internal marketing, at the tier-3 level (dealer). The talent / resources, recruitment process (HR knowing what to look for, in the first place) and culture, it just isn't there [yet]. IMO, it's starting to grow and some dealer groups do it well. However, it's just too easy and ultimately more affordable for a dealer to outsource it, with an internal resource overlooking or managing it. The best process, probably not, but...

Are you looking for benchmark numbers on how well websites convert organically? Which KPIs... Cost Per Lead (CPL) or Cost Per Acquisition / Sale (CPA)?

 

[Ryan Hartigan]

You bring up valid points and I totally agree with you on the distrust level and hatred for finance offices (can be painful journeys).

I'm not really sure what you mean by organic VDP ranking though...?? There's no point in attempting to get a VDP ranked. It's a dynamic page, here one day, gone the next (the nature of it). I'd focus around SRP's and building those correctly within a platform. Some providers create them well; some don't. Some 3rd party agencies create quality content on them and SEO essentials around them; some don't.

Agreed, on "The more benefit-driven the webpages are, specific to what ads the customers have clicked on, the higher chance the customer will buy from you." That is a fact and it's been proven through many studies.

I'm big into automotive attribution. Companies like Clarivoy and Transparency.ai are crushing it, delivering sales attribution reports to dealerships. Essentially, they are using multi-touch attribution models, not just last-touch attribution.

You mention internal marketing, at the tier-3 level (dealer). The talent / resources, recruitment process (HR knowing what to look for, in the first place) and culture, it just isn't there [yet]. IMO, it's starting to grow and some dealer groups do it well. However, it's just too easy and ultimately more affordable for a dealer to outsource it, with an internal resource overlooking or managing it. The best process, probably not, but...

Are you looking for benchmark numbers on how well websites convert organically? Which KPIs... Cost Per Lead (CPL) or Cost Per Acquisition / Sale (CPA)?

Thanks for the great reply. You definitely know your stuff.

I didn't realize there were companies specific to the automotive space doing multi-touch attribution models. I use something called WickedReports to do my multi-channel attribution.

I totally agree that the talent, HR, and culture is lacking to really match up the sales process with the marketing process.

At one point, I was sending my dealerships very specific leads based on landing page design and ad creatives, where customers were looking to be treated differently or looking for different services (whether that be a credit consultation, a focus on customer service, automotive finance questions answered, a bad credit approval, a trade-in evaluation, or a focus on a specific vehicle).

The idea was for the dealership to measure the ROI on their own and let me know which ones they want more or less of - but I returned to just giving them the usual "bad credit approval" leads because they were easier for the salespeople to deal with.

There's definitely some really innovative ways to do the marketing in the automotive space but you also need to have the sale coordinate with the marketing strategies.

Yes though, looking for benchmark numbers on how dealer websites convert in general (how much of the traffic filled out a form or did a click-to-call)

If you have cost per lead and cost per sale, that would be fantastic!

 

[Alexander Lau]

Thanks for the great reply. You definitely know your stuff.

I didn't realize there were companies specific to the automotive space doing multi-touch attribution models. I use something called WickedReports to do my multi-channel attribution.

I totally agree that the talent, HR, and culture is lacking to really match up the sales process with the marketing process.

At one point, I was sending my dealerships very specific leads based on landing page design and ad creatives, where customers were looking to be treated differently or looking for different services (whether that be a credit consultation, a focus on customer service, automotive finance questions answered, a bad credit approval, a trade-in evaluation, or a focus on a specific vehicle).

The idea was for the dealership to measure the ROI on their own and let me know which ones they want more or less of - but I returned to just giving them the usual "bad credit approval" leads because they were easier for the salespeople to deal with.

There's definitely some really innovative ways to do the marketing in the automotive space but you also need to have the sale coordinate with the marketing strategies.

Yes though, looking for benchmark numbers on how dealer websites convert in general (how much of the traffic filled out a form or did a click-to-call)

If you have cost per lead and cost per sale, that would be fantastic!

Cool, thanks!

Yeah, so if you're driving quality leads and you're able to provide and determine a low (or industry low) cost per lead service for a dealer, it's valuable. I think you're going to find that there is little you can do to increase closing rates for a dealer. You aren't in the business of training their BDC or salespeople, creating a strategy for follow-up processes, ensuring which CRM to use and why, etc. You might be able to make suggestions on CRMs or AI-based chat, text or E-mail follow-up tools such as Conversica, etc., but it usually comes down to cost. There are quite a few.

IMO (and I probably should use the word "unfortunately"), a typical dealer isn't going to measure the ROI or ROAS on their own. That's what they are going to want you to do as their vendor. They might pluck your service ROI and punch that in to a greater overall ROI calculation, but...

You should be able to measure your CPL or CPA using a simple formula or with API access to 3rd party vendor services / products using software like VistaDash (used to be ROI-BOT), where the logic is in-app. You'll need to pluck sold vehicle information from CRM and understand costs (uploads into).

Check out these:
https://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/cost-per-lead-whats-yours.4925/
http://www.autodealermonthly.com/ch...in-calculating-advertising-cost-per-sale.aspx
https://www.drivingsales.com/forums/general-mgt/what-is-an-averagenormal-cost-per-lead-sold

 

[Ryan Hartigan]

Cool, thanks!

Yeah, so if you're driving quality leads and you're able to provide and determine a low (or industry low) cost per lead service for a dealer, it's valuable. I think you're going to find that there is little you can do to increase closing rates for a dealer. You aren't in the business of training their BDC or salespeople, creating a strategy for follow-up processes, ensuring which CRM to use and why, etc. You might be able to make suggestions on CRMs or AI-based chat, text or E-mail follow-up tools such as Conversica, etc. There are quite a few.

IMO (and I probably should use the word "unfortunately"), a typical dealer isn't going to measure the ROI or ROAS on their own. That's what they are going to want you to do as their vendor. They might pluck your service ROI and punch that in to a greater overall ROI calculation, but...

You should be able to measure your CPL or CPA using a simple formula or with API access to 3rd party vendor services / products using software like VistaDash (used to be ROI-BOT), where the logic is in-app. You'll need to pluck sold vehicle information from CRM and understand costs (uploads into).

Check out these:
https://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/cost-per-lead-whats-yours.4925/
http://www.autodealermonthly.com/ch...in-calculating-advertising-cost-per-sale.aspx
https://www.drivingsales.com/forums/general-mgt/what-is-an-averagenormal-cost-per-lead-sold

Awesome! Thank you a ton!

 

[Alexander Lau]

One of the best ways for dealers to truly understand PPC (paid search, display and video pre- | mid- | post-roll) value, set-up an attribution process using competent software. You (more than likely) already know your spend, learn to calculate your cost / lead and cost / acquisition by pulling sales numbers against it. You'll know if your spend is working and / or if good leads are there w/o the sales, there's a larger issue at hand. If a dealer sees great cost per lead numbers, yet poor sales it's usually an issue with their internal sales process. Bad BDC, CRM or Sales Teams (or all of the above), so there is value in understanding that as well, I would think.

@Ryan Hartigan from a previous post, dude.

 

[Alexander Lau]

@Ryan Hartigan, the funny thing about all of this, I do find some of the Automotive WP theme inventory functionality to be superior to some of the largest providers. Such as the SRP-style pages at http://demo.themesuite.com/automotive-wp/boxed-fullwidth/?listing_order=year&listing_orderby=ASC, with the ability to sort views, very "responsive", etc.

However, the problem that I find, VDP page functionality lacks far too many best practice / core components (http://demo.themesuite.com/automotive-wp/listings/2014-porsche-boxster-type-s-convertible/, etc.) and (again) the lack of ability to speak with major inventory provider formats. How does these inventory mechanisms actively absorb feeds and can the feed sources be switched out with ease? Does the developer have this thought out or is a custom script like a Cron job required? I'm not so sure...

That said, I'm sure you could find a decent WP development team and they could put this all together for you the right way (against best practices). There are plenty of Automotive WP theme and plugin development groups out there that are super successful, such as Dealer Inspire and DealerX, etc.

Marketing it (once completed), well that's another story.

 

[AdamMurray]

I get good, high quality leads at a lower cost than my competitors and I don't do anything fancy with a big, fully-fleshed out website. I try my hardest to do minimal design, decrease the top-bar navigation (usually - I don't have any), and make sure that the "next step" is always the only step they can take next

Mind sharing a few examples?

 

[Alexander Lau]

@Ryan Hartigan you'll need to take the following style components, etc. into consideration for VDPs, if you're building this out form scratch. That's no easy task. Plenty of 3rd party integrations (if not custom builds). These are lead generation mechanisms.

 

[Ryan Hartigan]

@Ryan Hartigan you'll need to take the following style components, etc. into consideration for VDPs, if you're building this out form scratch. That's no easy task. Plenty of 3rd party integrations (if not custom builds). These are lead generation mechanisms.

Oh man, I would never ever ever show somebody that many call-to-actions at once.

I don't care about industry standard. I have a Neuroscience background. I care about human psychology. The paradox of choice. The abundance of research on digital behaviour that shows if you give people more choices then they won't make any.

Is anybody expected to find their way through a VDP like that? I can't believe that's from PCG.

Send them all to a contact form or a click-to-call. When people fill out the short contact form, send them through a fast-track pre-approval process and split test the copy to see what works the best for the second screen.

This? Maybe automotive standards - completely against digital and design standards.

 

[Alexander Lau]

Oh man, I would never ever ever show somebody that many call-to-actions at once.

I don't care about industry standard. I have a Neuroscience background. I care about human psychology. The paradox of choice. The abundance of research on digital behaviour that shows if you give people more choices then they won't make any.

Is anybody expected to find their way through a VDP like that? I can't believe that's from PCG.

Send them all to a contact form or a click-to-call. When people fill out the short contact form, send them through a fast-track pre-approval process and split test the copy to see what works the best for the second screen.

This? Maybe automotive standards - completely against digital and design standards.

I just wanted to show you some of the "best practice" components that are applied to VDPs. I should've blurred out the PCG image. It's actually from an article @ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/false-positive-signals-e-price-buttons-brian-pasch?trk=prof-post. In fact, he's supporting your theory on too much is bad news. I'm in agreement with him and you, overkill hurts the user experience. There are too many platforms that do not test their VDPs well enough.