"For every 100 People who visit your site, what is the % who transact* and the average dollar amount per transaction"

Jay,

Thanks for your stab at defining Online Advertising, but your answer seems tailored for a site like Amazon.com.

There is a Heirarchy of Effects (google it) when it comes to purchasing a vehicle. The first visit to a website is just that, a first visit. Hopefully we convert that visit to a lead, but that's where this industry falls short. We get leads, but we sometimes loose site of the fact that buying a vehicle is still an emotional, complex purchase where the online visitor experiences the online buying process for several weeks.

I think to be successful, dealers need to go back to the basics and develop a plan for passing the ball back and forth with the visitor to keep their dealership top-of-mind.

Getting back to the lead within 1 minute is great. But in this era of 'Attention Economy' (where attention is the scarce resource), dealers need a plan to get back with the lead within 3 days, 7 days, 10 days, etc. Each customer touchpoint should advance the sell. This time, fill out this paperwork...then have them do this, then do this...keep passing the ball back and forth with the customer with the intent on doing some "deep branding" into that customer.

If these activities are performed, guess which dealership will be 'top of mind' when the customer decides to buy?

We should avoid adding new buzz words to the same old thing. Back to the basics in this economy. I'm talking 1960's basics!!! (with a 21st century Internet flavor, of course)

Thanks,

Wayne

Hi Wayne and everybody else! Your question has more relevance than you think!

Online Display Advertising is essentially a "geo-targeted Banner Ad" on any website offering shoppers. A good example s would be Kbb.com's Dealer Showcase Ad Solution. Because there is so much competition for digital ad dollars between Leads-PPC-SEO etc, many dealers are missing the pivotal "Online Branding" component.

In the very upper funnel auto buying conditions of the current climate, what could be better than placing your dealership front and center on the biggest automotive sites? And what if it was offered in an entirely exclusive fashion?

The problem created by the "Online Branding Component" is the inability of Dealers to measure the conversion of "100 Unique Visits".

Let's examine more closely:

100 Unique Visits to a Dealer Website converts to ____% of Leads

("Leads" defined as –Phone Calls---Emails---Walk Ins---Landing page visits)

Due to the various limitations of web site tracking and click stream understanding, less than 10% of dealers could answer this question if posed:

For every 100 People who visit your site, what is the % who transact* and the average dollar amount per transaction minus/versus the cost of the 100 visits?

*Transaction defined as any spend between Front end Sales-and Fixed Ops

Once this ROI criteria is understood and measurable, Dealers will start gaining traction from the thousands and thousands website visits they receive from all their media every month.

Happy Selling!

This may be a dumb question, but what exactly is Online Display Advertising?

I have been using Net Visual Results for several years with great success. They use Reach Local and provide outstanding reports, call tracking and a very low management fee. Bryan Craig is fantastic!

I am surprised Ralph hasn't chimed in on this, he loves this kind of #$%* ...

This is awesome, thanks for all your comments. I personally am using BZ Results. Maybe we can carry this forum a bit further. What are the current industry benchmarks? Specifically what should I be looking for in a conversion ratio from clicks to landing pages to actual leads? What is the benchmark for closing ratios? With a typical ad budget (hypothetically let's use $10K a month), how many leads should I receive from these campaigns?

Thanks for your reponse Brian. I guess everyone else is holding their strategy tight to the vest. LOL.

S.E.O. only here with Dealer.com handling the campaign.

Let's do a poll. What companies are you all using for SEM or are you all going the route of having only a strong SEO platform?

We have not purchased third party leads in two years, we generate between 800 and 1200 leads per month. We also cut out autotrader 4 months ago. We do no SEM. All of our advertising is aimed at name branding and it works very well for us. I have to say it is a giant leap but there really is a better way to spend the money.

I'm using ReachLocal. I believe their customer support is excellent and will bend over backwards to try to satisfy you. I must say I am pleased with the traffic that has been generated. However, it has been hard to quantify. It seems I get a TON of service and parts related traffic. I keep asking myself would these people have found me anyway? This is after removing all parts and service related search phrases...which means people are just typing in some basic search term to find our dealership.
I think paid search effectiveness will always be debatable because you can argue both sides of the coin. The funny thing is the third party companies do it to steal our customers by creating portal/landing pages like "buycarsforcheap.com" or something like that. You guys know what I'm talking about.

Leads are Weak!!!!!!!! Buy as little as you can get away with...... And remember that there are 'free' ways (Content on YouTube, social networking, blogging, inventory distribution, etc) to accelerate your search rankings without having to run PPC campaigns. At the end of the day, regardless of how/who you use.... DO IT. You're way better off having a digital budget that earmarks PPC campaigns than relying on print ads. Good thread, looking forward to what folks have to say.

Richard,

I'm using Total Control Dominator by Dealer.com. I've been through quite a few different SEM companies and am extremely impressed with the capabilities TCD has! I haven't gotten to a point where I'm ready to kill all third-party lead providers, but I have definitely dwindled that list down to a very small number.

Here's an article I wrote for Dealer.com's latest newsletter:


It doesn't talk about TCD directly, but more about why using SEM to get away from third-party lead providers can be a good thing.

Nicely, if you've still got the rental auto} out, then you definitely should nevertheless be paying for it. are you currently just trying to export your information for the new tool?        
 
more information contact to Auto Finance Leads | Special Finance Leads | Car Sales lead | 50 State Auto Loan

Sarah, not sure if this post is recent, but Eauto offers a feature rich ILM/CRM called Aeros that's an improvement on AVV. We have dealers convert from AVV now and again, including an Infiniti retailer just this week! Pricing starts at $55 / mo for ILM and it's manufacturer certified if you're a franchised retailer. Happy to help you if you have a need today... contact me if I can help: [email protected].

Are there any lead management tools out there similar to Cobalt's LMCC, in regards to the personal organization/customization/layout & broadcast (mass email) features?
We are averaging 50+ leads a day in our internet department, and our total customer database is closing in on 60,000 files in LMCC.
If we were to make a switch, some of the other lead management tools we have looked at just won't work with the volume we have, or the handling process we use.
LMCC is okay, but if there are any other tools out there similar to it, perhaps a little more up to date, I would really like to read up on them.
Any tips?

Shawn, you're exactly right, I guess I didn't complete my sentence. Contact me if you're interested in learning how. It really actually is easy once you get your arms wrapped around it.

Mike there in lies the problem "ADP CRM iLeads does work. I’ve worked with it for 8+ years, you just have to know how to work it." How many people are at a dealership for 8+ years. For a system to be effective and have buy in from the users it must be easy to use.

I am an independent consultant focused primarily on ADP w.e.b. CRM. One of my dealerships asked me to actually prove my concepts (it's easy to talk about selling cars, now show us you can do it)! They use ADP w.e.b. CRM and so we set it up and I'm currently running the internet department for one of their stores from my office.

The first month (March 2010) we had as many appointment shows and had 2 less sales than they did the months of January and February combined.

ADP CRM iLeads does work. I've worked with it for 8+ years, you just have to know how to work it.

We've been using Dealersight for almost a year now. The emailing system is kind of broken if you're running Vista/7 (we get errors constantly, but thank god for Ubuntu Linux!), but it's simplistic and works. Recommended for small-to-mid dealerships looking for a cost-effective CRM, as long as you have a separate emailing client.

You forgot one name, DealerUps, Great custom Templates, nice automated schedule set-ups. No additional user cost,Can be used for multi points or single points.It is modulated to become anything you want, DeskLog,Inbound and outbound call capture, campaigns. More than happy to give you afforable pricing [email protected]

Craig,

If you are looking for lead management tool, you can try our "DOLLAR" system. It can:
* Issue alerts when leads arrive
* Manage appointment scheduling -- even from other vendors or your own Web site
* Automatically distribute leads -- even at separate locations
* Manage follow-up efforts
* Pull credit in real time and submit to lendors via DealerTrack or RouteOne
* Customizable reporting on ROI
Contact our one of our sales reps for a demo @ 888-888-7227

Craig
Contact me and I will be happy to give you pricing on VinSolutions. Are you looking for an ILM stand alone or as part of a CRM? Some of the vendors on your list can't/wont break out the ILM...FYI
[email protected]

We use Dealer.com for our website, and we use their Lead Machine product for ILM. Prior to Dealer, I used ProMax. Both systems are difficult to set up and use. I need a system focuses on the basics and makes it simple.

It would be a huge help if someone could post pricing so I could narrow down my list before I start doing demos.

Potential interested in:
1. VinSolutions
3. CarResearch
4. IMagicLab
5. SalesForce
6. DealerSocket
7. ELeadCRM

For a low cost, easy to use CRM software program (fondly called "Jeeves") check out, DealerSoft, LLC (wwww.keepyourcustomer.com) of Hoffman Estates, IL.. For $10.00 per day for an entire dealership (per roof) with month to month agreement this is a "secure" server based CRM program (to protect data from off premise access by Identity Thief's, Hackers and disgruntled employees). Also, available is a ILM module and also an inbound "and" outbound call Telephone Call Control Module to insure more follow-up calls are made and Phone Up's are automatically entered in the CRM database.