Best lead sources today for internet leads

[BDCMGR]

What are the best lead sources for ya'll for internet leads? How is Cars.com and AutoTrader performing?

 

[Alex Snyder]

This depends heavily on your market and whether people in it frequent certain sites.

For example, my old dealer group sold nicer foreign new & used vehicles, from Hyundai to Porsche, in Virginia Beach and Norfolk, VA.

I found that our volume-oriented brands like Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, VW, etc. did better on Autotrader while our luxury brands (BMW, Audi, Jag, Land Rover, etc.) did better on Cars.com. The reason wasn't the brand. It was a price point. It took me a while to realize that Autotrader attracted shoppers looking for less expensive used cars. Cars.com attracted shoppers willing to spend a bit more in our market.

I had to test them all and hunt for the patterns. There isn't an easy answer. However, I can tell you that if you work with your own database and use the right tools, you can get quick conversions.

 

[DanMorgan]

in the Jurassic era when Skroob was still retailing (also when I first met him ) Cars was definitely for the pinky in the air types. I'm in Maryland in the heart of the competitive DMV madness and I see most dealers locked-in/strong-armed/stuck-with/have-to be with Autotrader and Cargurus who battle for 1st and 2nd and Cars.com comes in 3rd.

 

[SheanKirin]

I am late replying here, but here is what our dealers see.

1. Your website. Focus specifically on keeping it clean. SRP with a Quick Contact or Get More Details is preferred followed by a Trade and either a soft credit or DR form. You are wiser to put money into tools that make your site perform better as this should be your largest spend. All sites are not created equal when it comes to lead a call conversion.
2. Be on top of your DigAd provider - They are NOT the same. Good providers are concerned with how many phone call and lead conversions you have. If they only talk about clicks, you should probably shop around.
3. Chat/Text providers come next. Be careful because they want to take over your site. Keep your site clean and you sell more cars.
4. We generally see better results from using two third parties unless you have extremely aggressive used car pricing. This is VERY dependent upon your used car pricing. If you're not aggressive from day 1, this is going to perform poorly. The rest of that spend should be allocated to or DigAd spend.
5. OEM 3rd party leads when close to the dealership. Watch this because the ones that work are the ones that are close to your store. It is a waste to pay for more outside your immediate area.
6. Most of these other "lead sources" you can add on top just break your BDC people because they close so poorly.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Our website still comes in at #1.

At #2 are our 3rd party listing sites (cars.com & CarFax - mostly even)

 

[JayKelly]

Let me fix your question. If you have to rely on third party sites to fill a shortfall of opportunities which do you prefer and why?

 

[jmc11]

The data supports what everyone is saying: there is no universal “best” lead source. Lead performance depends on the market, customer demographics, vehicles and price points, brand mix, local competition, geographic radius, website experience, response time, and how consistently the team follows up.

LotIQ™ analyzed more than 900,000 leads and found that third-party sources closed between 1% and 7%, while referrals and repeat customers closed above 34%.

Carvana’s growth shows the other side: scale comes from connecting logistics, customer care, technology, and teams—not simply adding more tools or lead sources.

Measure each provider by cost per sale and market fit, but first make sure the website, CRM, DMS, follow-up, and dealership team work together. Otherwise, more leads just create more leakage.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Third-party listing sites data. Autotrader... wow!

A person who wishes to stay anonymous thought these numbers would be helpful in this thread. This data comes from about 6,500 stores, aggregated by the CRM they all use. Sample size = 4.4 million leads.

 

[BillVaughnKMC]

I don't have all of these numbers right off, but I do have our closing %. This is since I got back in May.

AutoTrader = 16%
CarFax = 5%
CarGurus = 14%
Cars = 9%

 

[joe.pistell]

this is eye popping info @Alex Snyder Talk about the mother of all baselines. wow