See You Later Autotrader!

[jon.berna]

After a full year year review of Autotrader vs. Cars.com vs. my tier 1 digital advertising it was apparent that Autotrader was costing 2-3x more per opportunity (calls/leads) compared to Cars.com and our other tier 1 advertising. I do not and will not subscribe to the notion that Autotrader or any 3rd party site produces large amount of showroom traffic. I brought in the Autotrader reps under the condition that I would not go over anything but cost per opportunity. However they tried to convince me that this was a not a fair way to review their product and my review didn't include the showroom traffic. My rebuttal was that all things being equal Cars.com, Autotrader and our tier 1 ads would produce within a marginal variance a relatively similar amount of showroom traffic however I was spending 2-3x more per opportunity with them. Aka you are charging too much! (If anyone went to NADA and saw their booth you can see where the extra profits go. Not to mention all of their recent acquisitions, advertising etc.)

During the meetings they tried to call my bluff and said if you don't like it go ahead and submit your 30 day cancellation notification. One meeting they walked out after 5-10 minutes because I refused to buy in to the fluff. Keep in mind we are a 10 store account spending serious money with them. I called the Autotrader regions sales director who defended the reps and again wouldn't budge at all.

So I did what they advised and what I have wanted to do for years. I cancelled all 10 stores. I am reinvesting the money in tier 1 and very excited to see real results. I have been with Moore and Scarry since last year and have created a plan that should help me forget about Autotrader all together.

Never before have I seen a vendor that thinks we are here for them to the level I did over the last 2 months in dealing with them.

 

[john.quinn]

Do you/did you have any "impression" comparisons or analysis? As in, "My inventory was viewed X times" on AT vs. Cars?

 

[jon.berna]

Do you/did you have any "impression" comparisons or analysis? As in, "My inventory was viewed X times" on AT vs. Cars?

I measured it at it's simplest level cost/opportunities.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

My company listens to 2000 calls a month from various dealers across the country and I can tell you that we are hearing AutoTrader an awful lot when salespeople ask, "how did you hear about us?" AutoTrader is second only to dealer website. Cars.com is 5th on the list. In my opinion, this will cost you sales. The question is can you generate them in other ways. We started tracking this data 2 months ago. Take a look at the graph below:

 

[JillB]

You sound like I'd probably walk out on you too!

In all seriousness, each will perform differently for different markets. I have found that through my own Google Analytics though, Cars.com typically balloons their numbers significantly. We run similar reports but run it as cost as a percentage of gross. If your salespeople aren't sourcing your customers on top of the hard leads you're getting then you're not even close to being accurate.

Is cars.com selling out your vehicle detail pages? We had to cancel our contract recently due to this. They're putting competing dealer banner ads on vehicle detail pages, and you have to pay more to reclaim the space that should have been yours in the first place!

 

[john.quinn]

Very interesting, Jerry. Kinda gels with my perception that Autotrader, while a viable automotive venue, is not as close to bottom-funnel shoppers as dealers would like.

You can't argue that a whole-lotta people "shop" on Autotrader. Whether it's consumer behavior or AT's set-up (or combo of both) that limit traditionally measurable results, "Shoppers" seem to step away from AT before becoming "buyers;" something "else" gets inserted in the middle there.

Does that mean Dealers should step away from AT? More likely, I thing the conversation needs to lean toward bottom-funnel pricing vs. the cost (& premise) of branding.

 

[jon.berna]

Jerry are your numbers based on a human asking and sourcing or based on technology? I included all calls from phone tracking plus all leads in case you thought I only included logged traffic.

In addition, number of calls for a source is only half of the equation. If you are paying 2-3 times more per opportunity it doesn't make sense. Also, every market is different. Our group receives more than 2500 tracked (w/ technology), monitored and measured calls (in our market) each month. As you can also see in your graph dealer website is #1.

Another argument out there is that customers will go to your site after they see your vehicle on Autotrader and come in through another source. You can track the majority of these as referrals, but there will be those that come through as a direct traffic, SEM or SEO separately.

At the end of the day I made the decision to go against the grain and choose to dominate in one medium rather than being average in another. Also, Tier 1 gives you much much more flexibility as well as a more holistic focus. You can drive traffic for all profit centers not just used cars.

 

[bzweifel]

you forgot to mention, "All of the people we push to your website, that is our goal afterall."

 

[jon.berna]

Another factor to consider is conversion of 1st party leads vs 3rd party. You wont need as many to replace 3rd party...

 

[eddyshaf]

It never ceases to amaze me that there are still people in our industry who try to value the impact of an online advertising partner with only one or two metrics. Never in the history of the car business has it been so incredibly inexpensive to advertise your used car inventory...never. And yet people who used to spend $5K a WEEKEND in the dang newspaper get all bent out of shape when they see a bill for $5K a month for the opportunity to get your name and inventory in front of where, by conservative estimates, 85% of shoppers look for cars! It boggles the mind!!

Who freaking cares if your advertising spend is dominated by one of the players in the internet space??!!?? Look at the traffic - there are 2-3 times more unique visitors to AutoTrader.com each month as compared to Cars.com - of course they can command a larger price.

Read some articles about ZMOT, take a look at some of the articles and data by Brian Pasch related to attribute tracking on visitors to your own website, and let me know how shutting down AutoTrader does for you in 2-4 months...