Blueprint Series: Third-Party Lead Providers

[Alex Snyder]

What do you want from your 3rd Party Lead Vendors?

A.  ROIB.  ConversionC.  MarketingD.  All of the above

Here is another Blueprint Series to discuss those exact things.  Tell your third party lead provider exactly what you want! Tell your third party lead provider what they're doing wrong.  Yes, this includes anyone who sends you a lead, except your own website or direct ventures.

This one is for, but not limited to:  AAA, AOL, Adtel, AutoExtra, AutoMart, AutoUSA, AutoTrader.com, Jumpstart, CarFax, Cars.com, CarsDirect, Dealix, Edmunds, KBB, NewLeadsPlus, OEM's, Vehix, Yahoo, USAA, ZAG, etc.

 

[JL]

WOW Alex, stirring up the pot on a Friday? This should be a well read topic with all of the vendors on this site!

I read here daily and generally choose not to post, but I came across the autodealermonthly.com Dealer's Choice Awards last week and instantly wondered what Jeff, Alex, Joe and the others from the DR community thought about it. I hope I'm not off topic. But how do DR reader's wants and needs from a provider line-up with the "results" of these awards?

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www.autodealermonthly.com

Looking forward to following this one,
JL

 

[Chris Hawley]

I would say all of the above. Like everything lately, third party lead providers are evolving. Companies like Autotrader seem to be making a stand that they are advertising, just like newspapers, t.v. and radio. They, according to my rep, do not provide leads.
Others, like Vehix and the like, count leads as the way they prove their worth. But, unlike most of them Vehix used to come to the dealership to go through the leads to see which ones actually sold.

Going forward:

I don't care about unique hits, page views or search impressions. I care about how many people I received and of those people how many I sold. To me, that is the purest form of ROI.

Website click throughs and maps are subjective.

I would love to see these companies develop a way in their tools to track the sold, the price point, days in stock etc. I also would love to see 3 rd party vendors get away from roof top pricing. I have 23 vehicles at one store and 300 at another, why are they charged the same thing?

Charge per vehicle uploaded. Allow the dealers to be more unique. Offer BHPH products. Don't say that you are a partner, then sell the same package to everyone else.

Last thing; develop a secure credit application that can be sent to a CRM or lead management tool. Having to log into a separate account to retrieve a finance application not in your format is a pain.

To summarize; get better at the little things. These companies are like the yellow pages; they tried so hard to make it easier that the average person of intelligence doesn't get it.

 

[Paul Rushing]

The classified vendors, AT Car.com Vehix, need to remove the leaks from their sites or change their pricing models. Dealers are being taken advantage of in these relationships and most do not realize it.

The maxim in online marketing is "Content is King and Traffic is Supreme" and they are charging dealers to provide them content to monetize the traffic it brings in above and beyond the fees collected from the dealer.

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

"Last thing; develop a secure credit application that can be sent to a CRM or lead management tool. Having to log into a separate account to retrieve a finance application not in your format is a pain."

Great suggestion Chris. I have been against having numerous unnecessary systems for a long time.

I'd like to see these companies move to a more fluid business model. So many of these third party lead providers get stuck in their ways. I think Jeff is going to comment on this further, but in a nutshell, times are changing and most of these companies are not.

 

[Mike (blog)]

I want more activity, more eyeballs on my cars and less features that don't bring any value or ROI to my bottom line from having them. Banner ads are worthless, it's all about the cars. I'll pay for better placement as it makes sense but stop adding crap that does absolutley nothing to increase our ROI with the product we've purchased. Spend into partnerships with other large websites that WILLl deliver more eyeballs to my vehicles. Stop quoting JD Powers, nobody cares. When I'm selling the same amount of units off of craigslist for zero spend than I'am with cars.com/autotrader, what's that telling me as a dealer? Sure the cheap stuff & trades work on craigslist but for free they are delivering the audiemce/eyeballs to these cars for me. I believe there is about to be a considerable shake up in the online classified advertising world for us as dealers. I'm not seeing the ROI we once achieved from them, not do I have the confidence that we will ever attain the levels we once did in utilizing them. Big question is why are we paying exponentially more for less?

 

[Joe Pistell]

Great comments Chris. It's easy to tell you're right in the middle of the battlefront at your biz.

re: Classified sites
Chris, I'll take the other side of the argument. In my world (a marketing director) all the points of measurement are important. Click-thrus, printed pages, emails, phone calls, all are signs left from shoppers who prefer to remain anonymous.

Although these activities do not directly correlate to sales, they trickle down to floor traffic. If you improve your classified presentations and activities are up 20% year over year, then floor traffic should be seeing a similar increase in Mr. anonymous internet classifieds shopper.

Joe

 

[Joe Pistell]

From Classified Sites, what do I need? I want *Web 2.0! I need them to give me tools to create content, then get out of my way!

*Web 2.0 is web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users Web 2.0 - Wikipedia

Look what happens at MySpace and Facebook. Personality rules! Nothing plain and boring there! Marketing leaders (like me will create all kinds of fun stuff to make that shopper hang around just a little longer.

What am I talking about?
Why don't we have a personal video from the hard working and passionate ISM rather than "YOU MUST PRINT THIS PAGE AND ASK FOR PAUL H JOHNSON FOR YOUR TRUE INTERNET PRICE". Just like on MySpace, Small Entrepreneurs could offer widgets to implant all forms of fun widgety stuff.

If I am Chip Perry, and I can add a platform and tools to empower our dealer base with a goal to create UNIQUE content that will retain visitors longer, its a win-win-win. The last win would be keeping shoppers off competing sites like cars.com.

Joe
(yes.... it's me again)

 

[Jeff Kershner]

"What do you want from your 3rd Party Lead Vendors?"

Better Leads…EXCLUSIVITY, real people, real leads, lead scoring, no reselling

I’m only referring to the 3rd party lead resellers like AutoUSA, Dealix, Autobytel, the infamous iMotors and the others that sell the dealers generic new vehicle leads.

Antiquated: - no longer used; obsolete or obsolescent: The spinning wheel is an antiquated machine.

The 3rd party lead business is an antiquated machine, basically a scam. These companies are scrambling. They were used to making the big bucks back in the days when the Internet was “new” and a higher percentage of consumers converted with “get your price quote”.

The 3rd party lead business was one of the first services to dealers in the “digital/internet marketing arena. Dealerships without websites were buying leads from Stoneage, hell the leads were sent to me via fax because there was no internet connection at the dealer (remember those days?). IT WAS SOMETHING NEW!

It’s now no longer new and consumers have been stained in the past with a no better experience form the “get your price quote” websites then walking through the front door.

Who’s to blame? The 3rd party leads vendors AND yes, the dealers.

I’m not saying 3rd party leads don’t have their place, and yes there are consumers that will answer to “get your price quote” (you honda buyers). But the revenue these companies have been used to making quickly changed. I’m know it was a sweet ride while it lasted but admit it’s time to change. Quit regurgitating and reselling junk leads to several dealers.

The smart dealers know where the good leads come from and are adapting ways to gauge and take advantage of this.

 

[Pete]

Great discussion and here is what I will add;

This paying to vendors for "drive to traffic" amounts to a toll both on the (very old term) internet super-highway.

Everyday there is new and a better means for customers to travel to a dealers website and paying for how many people drive by is soon to be gone, but maybe not because dealers are slow to realize things most of the time.

The money is better spent on a speed pass which is what Cars.com is.

Autotrader better get it together fast because they are getting stomped on by Cars.com

Ebaycars, was great to brand in the past but to sell a late model car not so sure unless its a 1978 Pontiac TransAm...still cool to me but it was my childhood dream car so I would look there to find it.

Hey who turn the spring weather off here in Chicago, brrrrrr!!!