- Dec 19, 2018
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- Bill
I can't imagine why anyone would be upset with getting free advertising. I can see how it might drive up the costs of your own VLA a little bit, but I can't see it being so dramatic that it offsets the gains. My only concern is how the 3rd parties don't genuinely provide the most valuable information for customers and instead prioritize the dealers willing to pay the most money. It was mentioned that if your pricing is good, then one should be less concerned with a customer going to the 3rd party's site, but when you have the lowest price and yet you're halfway down page 2 due to sponsored ads it invalidates that argument a bit. Either way, I am still left with the feeling that free advertising offsets all of this. I also agree with @Kelly Wilson. If they are going to do it anyway, why not let it be you? I would be interested to know how the 3rd party site algorithms are set up to decide which vehicles from which dealers are displayed. Does anyone have some insight on that?
