Edmunds as 3rd-Party Lead Provider -- Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?

[john.quinn]

We got on-board with the new program 4 months ago, Premium Territory (yada-yada -- and don't even get me started on the data sharing thing!!).

Results have been poor. I've always viewed Edmunds as more of a mid-funnel type research platform -- not a bottom-funnel "choice" selector.

Agree, disagree? Anyone seeing good results evaluating Edmunds as a 3rd-party lead provider?

 

[john.quinn]

Anybody playing with Edmunds in the 3rd-party lead program?

 

[sweece]

Haven't tried edmunds; however from my understanding, they're one of those lead providers that encourage users to price shop multiple dealers at a time. I try to stay away from those.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

*bump*

Was in a meeting today with a few others the and the conversation around Edmunds.com third-party leads came up. I continue to hear dealers are struggling with the quantity of leads Edmunds is able to produce.

Are any DealerRefresh readers hearing or witnessing the same?

 

[yagoparamo]

Jeff,

Not to be rhetoric but,

are dealer happy about ANY source nowadays?

 

[kcar]

Refuse to use them.. Never will.
Horrible territory radius planning, too expensive for what they really offer.

 

[DealerMarketing]

IMO.. All Dealers are better served by advertising their own brand over paying for 3rd party leads. As a former affiliate new car lead provider to many of those 3rd party web portals I can say that Edmunds does provide better quality than quantity of leads.

 

[ddavis]

Cost per lead is very expensive. They had it at one of my Lexus stores.

The customer builds a vehicle like it's the new car buffet. I would see a lead where the customer wants a RX 350 with navigation. Edmunds will allow the customer to build the vehicle without the premium package, that is a prerequisite to having navigation. Edmunds has a disclaimer that they do not add for manditory local dealer advertising but customers rarely see this. In my RX 350 example, the actual cost is over $3K more than what the customer has printed out as my invoice. The lead comes with a "target price" that is less than that. I don't remember any of these leads coming with a phone number and it is very difficult to make the customer understand in a series of emails. They simply don't want to believe you.

I don't know if Edmunds is more accurate for other franchises but I couldn't cancel it fast enough. Like most, you have to give them 30 days.

 

[jssimonton]

In our area, the unsold new GM brand leads submitted on Edmunds appear to go to Dealix ($22) and then to the GM 3rd Party lead program ($16) before going directly to the dealer (free). That just seems like a penalty for playing. As a bonus, Edmunds encourages customers to submit their leads to ALL 5 of the closest stores (for obvious reasons.)

 

[Jeff Kershner]

In our area, the unsold new GM brand leads submitted on Edmunds appear to go to Dealix ($22) and then to the GM 3rd Party lead program ($16) before going directly to the dealer (free). That just seems like a penalty for playing. As a bonus, Edmunds encourages customers to submit their leads to ALL 5 of the closest stores (for obvious reasons.)

Doesn't seem right does it?