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AutoUSA and Dealix Lead Data

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#2
Hi Brian.
My experience with Dealix was always superb during my career with 3 different franchises (prior being w/ Cobalt) as well as after, now with my current employer. The leads had a cost between $20,50 to $19,00 depending on the Group negotiation. Crediting was never an issue especially with their 100% quality pledge. Closing ratios were on the 3rd party front lower than the website generated leads but with +8% in my favor.

I cancelled several times AutoUSA leads. Once vecause of the arrogance of the local rep, and twice the lead quality was definetively not there wher it should be, meaning the duplicate leads most of the times was already in my CRM, delivered minutes and sometimes even hours prior by Dealix.

When you were waiting too long to send these duplicates back, AutoUSA tried to "escape" and not to refund (2009) these leeds becasue of the 30 day turn-in limit time. Pricing was attractive ($13,50) but really what helps a small fee, when the lead was "too old". Time is the essence on 3rd party leads as everybody knows. The closing ratio was < 2% and therefore not worthwhile to consider any longer.

So my choice will be always Dealix first, and when necessary Autobytel second before considering AutoUSA.
 
#3
The closing ratios of 3rd party leads are in the 3-4% range. Compared to a dealer's website being more around 10-12%. Huge difference in sales closing ratios. Granted these numbers vary from dealer to dealer, and are greatly impacted by how the dealership handles leads, but these are the averages we see across all dealers.
 
#4
From my years of doing this I have tracked an "average" closing ratio on 3rd party leads to be 6-8% but then worked hard and thrown in an incentive for the lead the show, you can get into the mid double digits.

I expect my dealer website leads to close at least 20%.

I've used every lead source and in the end there is little difference between the top 3 providers.

I personally want transparency and know where the leads are coming from. ALL 3 of these providers have sent me whack and duplicate leads. I've gotten leads of all these of these companies and spoken to people on the phone that had not idea how I would've received their information.

Ok, I think I got a little off topic. Sorry.
 
#5
VJnator said:
Hi Brian.
My experience with Dealix was always superb during my career with 3 different franchises (prior being w/ Cobalt) as well as after, now with my current employer. The leads had a cost between $20,50 to $19,00 depending on the Group negotiation. Crediting was never an issue especially with their 100% quality pledge. Closing ratios were on the 3rd party front lower than the website generated leads but with +8% in my favor.

I cancelled several times AutoUSA leads. Once vecause of the arrogance of the local rep, and twice the lead quality was definetively not there wher it should be, meaning the duplicate leads most of the times was already in my CRM, delivered minutes and sometimes even hours prior by Dealix.

When you were waiting too long to send these duplicates back, AutoUSA tried to "escape" and not to refund (2009) these leeds becasue of the 30 day turn-in limit time. Pricing was attractive ($13,50) but really what helps a small fee, when the lead was "too old". Time is the essence on 3rd party leads as everybody knows. The closing ratio was < 2% and therefore not worthwhile to consider any longer.

So my choice will be always Dealix first, and when necessary Autobytel second before considering AutoUSA.
Click to expand...

My experience was the exact opposite. Switch the names around in VJ's comment and you virtually have my experience. To each his own I guess. At the end of the day I can say that I am not a fan of the 3rd party lead model in general, but it might just be a necessary evil.

My numbers were in line with Jeff's. I never saw anything as poor as what Matt is saying, but if he's averaging across his base of customers then I guess that makes sense.
 
#6
The 3-4% is no doubt higher if you did a lot of cleaning and research of the leads to ensure the customer didn't submit additional leads and purchase the car. Or the wife submitted the lead and the husband purchased it in his name... all those scenarios. The problem is we are dealing in a world of dirty data and salespeople fighting with each other. Someone could submit a dealix lead, and then drive in to the store a day later and buy a car... and dealix never received credit for it as the lead source.

All things being the same though in the dirty data world, I can 100% confirm dealer website leads close 2-3x better rate than 3rd party leads. My opinions are based on looking at ILM data for over 1,000 dealers.

All 3rd party leads = Good...
AutoTrader & Cars.com = Better
Dealer website leads = Best
 
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#7
When I was an Internet Sales Manager, I have used all of the above lead providers. I agree with Matt about the quality of lead order. But that order also goes for what stage the customer is in while shopping online also. I think the low percentages with 3rd party leads is that they are bought from different sources online and they are sold to multiple dealers without being verified and scrubbed.
 
#9
Anyone have any up to date info/results from Dealix? Autotrader.com is not performing well for us. We are pretty good with photos and comments, so the merchandising is not the issue. We have several large independents that absolutely kill everyone on price, not sure if that's what's hurting our numbers, but we just aren't getting a good ROI from ATC right now.

I feel at this point I could take that money and add a few things to my websites to help conversion, buy a few 3rd party leads, and still come out ahead.
 
#10
Aaron, when you say AutoTrader.com is not working well - can you go a little deeper into your why you think this is...

What is your average number of used cars listed on AutoTrader?
What is your number of Vehicle Display pages viewed?


I have mostly moved away from 3rd party leads, especially since Google's change to serve up more brink n motor sites.
 
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