Every time I sit down to review the numbers with Cars.com and AutoTrader.com, this is exactly what we do- glad you brought this up. My total vehicle searches in my market has decreased over the last 90 days for both AT & Cars, yet my trackable traffic has only decreased a total of 3 leads in November and increased in December 25 per advertising source...The first thing I would do is compare your dealership to others in your market that are of similar size and inventory, and who you think is your competition.
Ask your ATC or Cars rep to provide you with the "Appeared in Search Results" or SRP, and the "Clicked for details page" or VDP. Since each dealership is different, divide the VDP by the SRP to get a click through rate. While not an exact science, it will start you with a good baseline for comparison to your store.
If one store had a drastically higher click rate then your, find out what that store is doing different.
You will also be able to see if the whole market is down (it is) or just your perception. Tough market now. The dealers that make themselves different through custom and unique comments, photos, and video will come out ahead - and you might even see this in the resutls your reps provide.
--Drew
Last edited: