Carfax Advantage Dealer

[PKStore]

Hello,
We are an independent dealer specializing in European Cars. We predominantly run classified ads to generate traffic to our store. We already have Cargurus, Autotrader, Edmunds, Carsforsale, Cars.com etc.

Now looking into Carfax.com as well. We were recently pitched with a $999/ Month for ADVANTAGE PLAN program with an additional $899/ Month for USED CAR LISTINGS as an Add-on.

Seems a little bit excessive for a 50-60 inventory store but would appreciate any feedbacks regarding the pricing on this.

Thanks in advance.
-PK

 

[Ryan Everson]

Hello,
We are an independent dealer specializing in European Cars. We predominantly run classified ads to generate traffic to our store. We already have Cargurus, Autotrader, Edmunds, Carsforsale, Cars.com etc.

Now looking into Carfax.com as well. We were recently pitched with a $999/ Month for ADVANTAGE PLAN program with an additional $899/ Month for USED CAR LISTINGS as an Add-on.

Seems a little bit excessive for a 50-60 inventory store but would appreciate any feedbacks regarding the pricing on this.

Thanks in advance.
-PK

Third-party listing performance varies significantly by market, inventory mix, and merchandising.

In some markets, Cars.com is our #1 third-party; in others CarGurus or Autotrader is.

I will say that Carfax typically performs very well, just with a lower volume of traffic and leads. I would give it a shot.

 

[Dan Sayer]

Hello,
We are an independent dealer specializing in European Cars. We predominantly run classified ads to generate traffic to our store. We already have Cargurus, Autotrader, Edmunds, Carsforsale, Cars.com etc.

Now looking into Carfax.com as well. We were recently pitched with a $999/ Month for ADVANTAGE PLAN program with an additional $899/ Month for USED CAR LISTINGS as an Add-on.

Seems a little bit excessive for a 50-60 inventory store but would appreciate any feedbacks regarding the pricing on this.

Thanks in advance.
-PK

All day, CarFax listings are great unless you typically inventory salvage title units? Here are our YTD USED numbers by 3rd party. We cancelled CarGurus earlier this year because performance and support were headed into the ground. I handed selection and budget of 3rd party to our CMO last year but my policy was always "2 + a cheap one" when it came to 3rd party classifieds. He replaced CarGurus with AutoTrader, kept Cars.com, Edmunds is dirt cheap and since we expense CarFax out by reports and listings, that is a second cheap listing with a very high ROI. Like what @Ryan Everson said, each market and inventory mix will perform different regionally. We have no luxury imports and are small market mid-west so take that into context.

Lead Source▲	Good Leads	Duplicate Leads	Sold in Timeframe	Sold in Timeframe %	Appts Set	Appts Set %	Appts Shown	Appts Shown %	Total Visits
AutoTrader.com	648	116	72	11.11%	192	29.63%	128	81.01%	141
Carfax, Inc	818	127	62	7.58%	216	26.41%	118	70.24%	139
Cargurus	297	30	11	3.70%	28	9.43%	17	80.95%	22
Cargurus Pre-Qualified	35	9	0	0.00%	2	5.71%	1	50.00%	1
Cars.com	500	77	32	6.40%	94	18.80%	64	81.01%	68
Cars.Com Credit App	35	10	0	0.00%	9	25.71%	3	75.00%	4
Cars.Com Finance Intent	125	46	7	5.60%	17	13.60%	10	66.67%	14
Edmunds	149	9	8	5.37%	46	30.87%	24	77.42%	24

 

[Jeff Kershner]

All day, CarFax listings are great unless you typically inventory salvage title units? Here are our YTD USED numbers by 3rd party. We cancelled CarGurus earlier this year because performance and support were headed into the ground. I handed selection and budget of 3rd party to our CMO last year but my policy was always "2 + a cheap one" when it came to 3rd party classifieds. He replaced CarGurus with AutoTrader, kept Cars.com, Edmunds is dirt cheap and since we expense CarFax out by reports and listings, that is a second cheap listing with a very high ROI. Like what @Ryan Everson said, each market and inventory mix will perform different regionally. We have no luxury imports and are small market mid-west so take that into context.

Lead Source▲	Good Leads	Duplicate Leads	Sold in Timeframe	Sold in Timeframe %	Appts Set	Appts Set %	Appts Shown	Appts Shown %	Total Visits
AutoTrader.com	648	116	72	11.11%	192	29.63%	128	81.01%	141
Carfax, Inc	818	127	62	7.58%	216	26.41%	118	70.24%	139
Cargurus	297	30	11	3.70%	28	9.43%	17	80.95%	22
Cargurus Pre-Qualified	35	9	0	0.00%	2	5.71%	1	50.00%	1
Cars.com	500	77	32	6.40%	94	18.80%	64	81.01%	68
Cars.Com Credit App	35	10	0	0.00%	9	25.71%	3	75.00%	4
Cars.Com Finance Intent	125	46	7	5.60%	17	13.60%	10	66.67%	14
Edmunds	149	9	8	5.37%	46	30.87%	24	77.42%	24

Strong tracking @Dan Sayer. Appreciate the Lead to Show stats.

 

[northwayauto]

what system/crm you are using if you dont mind to show suhc a good stats
Thank You

 

[Dan Sayer]

what system/crm you are using if you dont mind to show suhc a good stats
Thank You

VinSolutions for the CRM. Getting sales people to take 3rd party leads as serious as our 1st party sites is a constant exercise in process and accountability. I don't think our numbers are at their best based on the holes we have in our follow-up pursuit process. I am running an AI tool, Impel, at one location on top of Vin but layering solutions isn't ideal as it creates more admin for sales people. Looking at expanding our use of AI for the specific task of pursuit this fall.

 

[DrewAment]

All day, CarFax listings are great unless you typically inventory salvage title units? Here are our YTD USED numbers by 3rd party. We cancelled CarGurus earlier this year because performance and support were headed into the ground. I handed selection and budget of 3rd party to our CMO last year but my policy was always "2 + a cheap one" when it came to 3rd party classifieds. He replaced CarGurus with AutoTrader, kept Cars.com, Edmunds is dirt cheap and since we expense CarFax out by reports and listings, that is a second cheap listing with a very high ROI. Like what @Ryan Everson said, each market and inventory mix will perform different regionally. We have no luxury imports and are small market mid-west so take that into context.

Lead Source▲	Good Leads	Duplicate Leads	Sold in Timeframe	Sold in Timeframe %	Appts Set	Appts Set %	Appts Shown	Appts Shown %	Total Visits
AutoTrader.com	648	116	72	11.11%	192	29.63%	128	81.01%	141
Carfax, Inc	818	127	62	7.58%	216	26.41%	118	70.24%	139
Cargurus	297	30	11	3.70%	28	9.43%	17	80.95%	22
Cargurus Pre-Qualified	35	9	0	0.00%	2	5.71%	1	50.00%	1
Cars.com	500	77	32	6.40%	94	18.80%	64	81.01%	68
Cars.Com Credit App	35	10	0	0.00%	9	25.71%	3	75.00%	4
Cars.Com Finance Intent	125	46	7	5.60%	17	13.60%	10	66.67%	14
Edmunds	149	9	8	5.37%	46	30.87%	24	77.42%	24

Are these just "leads" (ADF/XML, etc), or does that count include phone calls? If includes phone calls, do your salespeople manually input the call into VIN, or part of your call tracking and you match to source?

 

[joe.pistell]

do your salespeople manually input the call into VIN

Eeek! Human created source = Noisy data source.

 

[Dan Sayer]

Are these just "leads" (ADF/XML, etc), or does that count include phone calls? If includes phone calls, do your salespeople manually input the call into VIN, or part of your call tracking and you match to source?

Those are just ADF leads. Phone calls don't push a lead and they manually enter those as a Phone Up. Don't ask me if they mark the source accurately lol. I don't use tracking phone numbers either. Went from 176 tracking numbers for marketing to zero. Best thing I've ever done when considering that true attribution is a myth.

 

[Ryan Everson]

VinSolutions for the CRM. Getting sales people to take 3rd party leads as serious as our 1st party sites is a constant exercise in process and accountability. I don't think our numbers are at their best based on the holes we have in our follow-up pursuit process. I am running an AI tool, Impel, at one location on top of Vin but layering solutions isn't ideal as it creates more admin for sales people. Looking at expanding our use of AI for the specific task of pursuit this fall.

Experiment: Modify the lead source name of your website leads to have third-party lead source names, and modify your third party lead source names to have website lead source names.

What would happen to your closing ratios? Lead source bias among salespeople is real, and often based on one negative experience ingrained in their memory. They are often trigger happy to prove their bias true by clicking lost or bad lead much more freely.