Anyone using iHeart's XVin solution - looking for feedback

[Ryan Everson]

Hey guys, I clearly didn't mean to hijack the thread and for that I apologize. I am extremely passionate about my product. I never intended to relay any miss information. Xvin definitely has a place in the marketplace and at the end of the day it's about what a dealer feels comfortable using. Do I think my product has its advantages. Absolutely and we have many dealers you feel the same. I appreciate reading everybody's comments.

No worries, there's nothing wrong with being passionate about your product offering!

 

[Alex Snyder]

No worries, there's nothing wrong with being passionate about your product offering!

and in this particular case, your company is getting called out! I wish more people from LotLinx were posting in this thread with their perspectives. DealerRefresh isn't a bunch of YouTube-commenting trolls - we're rational people looking to make informed decisions. It goes a long way when you're open and honest with this community. Thank you for posting, @Ebenn.

 

[Dave Lemmon]

Running AIA and retargeting carousels with a little bit thrown at Google Display Network isn't revolutionary, it isn't AI driven, it is just a much more expensive way to advertise on those channels because of "magic".

 

[Ryan Everson]

Running AIA and retargeting carousels with a little bit thrown at Google Display Network isn't revolutionary, it isn't AI driven, it is just a much more expensive way to advertise on those channels because of "magic".

Dealers love to feel in control of their advertising. Love them or hate them, LotLinx has tapped into that innate desire by providing dealers the ability to adjust their budget and vehicles targeted on the fly.

 

[Dave Lemmon]

Dealers love to feel in control of their advertising. Love them or hate them, LotLinx has tapped into that innate desire by providing dealers the ability to adjust their budget and vehicles targeted on the fly.

I mean, I get the appeal of the story. I don't get the appeal of paying 80% management fees to run AIA.

 

[Ryan Everson]

I mean, I get the appeal of the story. I don't get the appeal of paying 80% management fees to run AIA.

Agreed!

Below is a screenshot of a presentation I gave at AAAS a few years ago. Still fairly accurate today, but Google VLA's have substantially driven the cost / vdp view down on Google Ads to make it a viable direct-to-vdp traffic source again.

Cost / VDP view is only one metric to look at - but does a LotLinx VDP view (which is often generated via Facebook AIA) perform 26x better than a standard Facebook AIA campaign? Our Google Analytics would suggest no.

We, of course, also evaluate the more concrete metrics of cost / lead, cost / sale, total gross, and sold / leads %. Third-party performance always varies across markets, inventory mix, and merchandising strategies, so we take all metrics into account. The lowest cost / vdp view doesn't necessarily equate to the highest ROI.

It would be interesting to apply LotLinx's preferred attribution model of days from vehicle promoted to vehicle sold across other traffic sources to see how they compare.

 

[Dave Lemmon]

What's wild to me, every other industry on earth trusts Facebook's catalog advertising algorithm to just work and do it's thing.

Only in automotive, would we be like "oh hey...you're matching these items in my catalog too frequently to shoppers and not these items enough" and then proceed to break the algorithm by reducing the catalog (which is what this does).

Imagine Target putting a click limiter on certain SKU's because Facebook was driving too much traffic to them...

 

[Ryan Everson]

What's wild to me, every other industry on earth trusts Facebook's catalog advertising algorithm to just work and do it's thing.

Only in automotive, would we be like "oh hey...you're matching these items in my catalog too frequently to shoppers and not these items enough" and then proceed to break the algorithm by reducing the catalog (which is what this does).

Imagine Target putting a click limiter on certain SKU's because Facebook was driving too much traffic to them...

I have seen instances where certain "eye-candy" vehicles capture a lion's share of the clicks when dealers run a single AIA campaign for their entire catalog and are optimizing for content views or clicks, so it is certainly something to be cognizant of.

We run a variety of AIA campaigns - some for the entire catalog, others for segmented vehicle sets. This ensures we still have a level of control over where our AIA budget goes.

For new cars, we typically create sets for each model and then the body style category. For used cars, we will create sets for different price ranges, body styles, inventory age, CPO, etc. This strategy also allows us to tailor the ad copy and creative to each set's typical buyer persona, all while being able to direct the budget according to our objectives.

And it doesn't hurt to create catalog filters to exclude specific vehicle models (high ends sports cars) or vehicle years (classic cars) that don't need the traffic yet tend to receive a lot of it.

 

[Ryan Everson]

What's wild to me, every other industry on earth trusts Facebook's catalog advertising algorithm to just work and do it's thing. Imagine Target putting a click limiter on certain SKU's because Facebook was driving too much traffic to them...

Here's the crucial difference between Target and car dealers - Target can use Facebook's ROAS (return on ad spend) algorithm to optimize dynamic catalog campaigns to generate the highest ROI.

Since car dealers aren't an e-commerce business, we are relegated to using Facebook's other optimization strategies (content views for example) that don't always translate into sales.

And I'm sure Target is still segmenting their catalog across product categories, among many other attributes, to really tailor their ads and generate demand where they see fit.

 

[Dave Lemmon]

Here's the crucial difference between Target and car dealers - Target can use Facebook's ROAS (return on ad spend) algorithm to optimize dynamic catalog campaigns to generate the highest ROI.

Since car dealers aren't an e-commerce business, we are relegated to using Facebook's other optimization strategies (content views for example) that don't always translate into sales.

And I'm sure Target is still segmenting their catalog across product categories, among many other attributes, to really tailor their ads and generate demand where they see fit.

There's some segmenting, certainly, if for no other reason that creating ad copy that's relevant to the segments.

I don't think they have a segment for "least interesting sku's" to try and force traffic on items that aren't particularly well received.

All the things we're describing, however, are how AIA is still designed to work (and as far as ROAS, you CAN optimize for lower funnel on site actions and see a little more of it).

The companies who are now in the selling VDP business aren't making it work better, they're just creating a sizzle story for insanely overpriced AIA.