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Autoybytel, Dealix, AutoUsa, all three?

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isales

isales

Rust & Dust
Mar 23, 2013
28
2
First Name
Chris
#1
I understand that this question may be pointless since we are all in different markets and the outcome for each of these services will vary but I would like to get some feedback from those of you who are using Autobytel, Dealix, or AutoUsa for new car or used car leads. Furthermore, the majority of my time, budget, and effort is geared towards generating more and better quality traffic to our dealer website since this is where we want to receive the majority of our leads. I use Autotrader and Cars.com as well as GM 3rd party already. I also believe in a diversified Internet marketing / advertising strategy.

The bottom line is ... I need more leads. We have to procedures in place to take care of the leads, and we sell about 12% to 15% of the leads we currently get. Yes, we could do a little better which we will as we implement new ideas and strategies.

Is any one of these three provide better leads than the others? Are they all about the same, or is there any others that are better. Any of these I should stay away from? Your comments are much appreciated.
 
#3
Hi Chris,
It's really tough to say what will work for you. At the store I'm at now we've had our best results with Autobytel and canceled Dealix and Autousa. I've found that with 3rd party new car leads it's best to keep the radius within the area you normally sell to. It keeps the costs lower and gives you more time to focus on leads with the highest appointment percentage. Also, I like to check the see what other dealers I compete with by creating a lead every few months. You might also want to check into Truecar and Carwoo
 
#5
ddavis said:
It has been a couple of years since I have been in a store but I haven't purchased leads in years. Own organic search in your market and adjacent markets and you will have all of the leads that you need.
Click to expand...

This couldn't be more true. Like I stated in my original post, this is a top priority of mine. However, I've had success with 3rd party leads. In my opinon those who has not had success with 3rd party leads doesn't have the correct follow up procedures in place to make contact with the leads and ultimately turn that lead into a sale. Now I know that not all 3rd party vendors will always produce the ROI one is looking for no matter what procedures are in place. This varies by market and Mr. Erickson is correct, it's hard to say which vendor is going to work best for us.

Speaking of organic search, yesterday I had a discussion with our local advertising agency who is doing some SEM for us and they are telling me that the CPC seems to be very high for some of the generic keywords related to our dealership's name and geo. They think that they are competing with our SEM program with Cobalt. However, Cobalt tells me we are not doing any SEM with them. But I konw that GM runs campaigns on our behalf as they do with all the other GM dealers that take part in the IMR digital marketing package. At this point I'm wondering if I should pull away from the local advertising agency and match what GM is doing through Cobalt, or should I put more money into my local guys. The local guys claim they keep a better eye on our campaigns and that they can get us better results since Cobalt.

Mr Erickson, thanks for the info. Autobytel was one I was leaning towards. I've dealt with Carwoo in the past and I just don't like the model. It just seems that a customer who uses something like Carwoo is a customer that doesn't like dealers or dealing with salespeople and no matter what you do for this customer they are going to give you a bad CSI and we all know what that can cost you in the long run. I looked into TrueCar a while back and ultimately I decided against them because of their web traffic. TrueCar doesn't even show on the radar compared to some others in terms of web visits per month. That was my observation back in December of last year so maybe I should check them once more.
 
#6
Dave Erickson said:
Hi Chris,
It's really tough to say what will work for you. At the store I'm at now we've had our best results with Autobytel and canceled Dealix and Autousa. I've found that with 3rd party new car leads it's best to keep the radius within the area you normally sell to. It keeps the costs lower and gives you more time to focus on leads with the highest appointment percentage. Also, I like to check the see what other dealers I compete with by creating a lead every few months. You might also want to check into Truecar and Carwoo
Click to expand...


We've actually canceled Dealix and Autobytel over the years. Right now we still use Autousa, but have it capped per month. Like Dave mentioned, we currently have the radius tailored to customers in our area for new car leads. I didn't care for the CarWoo model either and we do a lot of True Car business per month. In the end your best leads are going to come from your website. So before investing in more 3rd party, look in to ways to drive more traffic to the site.
 
#7
Alex, If I may ask, what region are you located? You say that you've had success with True Car. Are they providing leads that you have to follow up with, or is it similar to CarWoo where a customer inputs the vehicle they want and you offer up your best price?

Driving traffic to the website is my main focus at this time. I would like to add one more lead provider since we I do have success with 3rd party leads. However, I'm on a mission to get my share of the market through organic search and paid search. I'm in a delimma at the moment on wether to stick with my local advertising agency to handle our SEM , or have Cobalt handle it for us. I also found out that GM is buying our name and geo but not the models. Therefore, my local ad rep doesn't want to compete with the Cobalt / GM campaign since it drives up the CPC.

So the question is, do I drop SEM with the local ad rep and put money into SEM with cobalt to match what GM is doing for us through the IMR digital marketing package. And put the money we spend with the local ad agency into behavorial targeting to serve display ad's within our market.
 
#8
Reading through this thread, I feel like I've entered the Twilight Zone.

Alex, are you in one of those areas where you pay Truecar other than $300 per new car sale? They have access to your DMS?

Chris, What is your closing ratio (sales vs. Leads on third party leads? You have your ad agency doing your SEM? Are they charging you a 15% agency commission? Does Robert still use Moran? Does Cobalt charge a set fee to handle your SEM or is it a percentage of the spend? Did you read the Dataium Cars.com study? Link.
 
#9
isales said:
Alex, If I may ask, what region are you located? You say that you've had success with True Car. Are they providing leads that you have to follow up with, or is it similar to CarWoo where a customer inputs the vehicle they want and you offer up your best price?
Click to expand...


We're in the Newport, RI and we do quite a bit of business with USAA because we are located next to the US Naval War college. So that provides a strong flow of traffic. As others have mentioned, some have had success with certain lead providers and others haven't. So just see what works for you. But TrueCar does provide us with leads to follow up.

ddavis,

Yes we are in the area where you pay $300 per new car sale.
 
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