#truth
Like -- this is not the NSA, or Kentucky Fried Chicken ... post your not so super secret sauce.
At least come up with a better hook if you are fishing for sales calls.
Boycott the Third Party Sites like it's 2010!
- Thread starter Ryan Everson
- Start date
#truth
Like -- this is not the NSA, or Kentucky Fried Chicken ... post your not so super secret sauce.
At least come up with a better hook if you are fishing for sales calls.
- Apr 7, 2009
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- Joe
@DigitalCarguy, Here's a lil' DealerRefresh sarcasm*
2 Car Shoppers walk into the bar, one shopper says to the other "I hate how those car shopping aggregator sites pool all that inventory into a single UI and make it easy to narrow my consideration set. Oh, and that radius setting around my zip, damn that's so annoying" The other car shopper responds "did you hear about the dealer specific data lake? It gets rid of all of that quick comparing stuff and limits you to one dealer's inventory! I love to grab my legal pad and record each dealer's YMMT/features/packages/miles/Prices!"
The puzzled bartender pulled the drink menus off the bar "clearly you like less choices, here's a can of Bud"
*welcome to the club
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- Apr 20, 2009
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@joe.pistell I asked Bard to make your sarcasm "funny." Enjoy!
Two car shoppers walk into a bar. The first one says, "I hate how those car shopping aggregator sites pool all that inventory into a single UI and make it easy for me to narrow my consideration set. Oh, and that radius setting around my zip, damn that's so annoying."
The second car shopper says, "I know, right? It's like they're trying to help me find the perfect car as quickly and easily as possible. What a pain in the neck."
They both take a sip of their beers. Then the second car shopper says, "Did you hear about the dealer specific data lake? It's like the opposite of a car shopping aggregator site. It gets rid of all of that quick comparing stuff and limits you to one dealer's inventory. You have to grab your legal pad and record each dealer's YMMT/features/packages/miles/prices! It's amazing!"
The first car shopper laughs. "That sounds like a nightmare."
"It is!" the second car shopper says. "But it's also the purest form of car shopping. You have to really earn your car."
The bartender, who has been listening to the conversation, shakes his head. "Clearly you two like less choices," he says. "Here's a can of Bud for each of you."
The two car shoppers laugh and clink their beers together. "Thanks," they say. "We'll drink to that."
Two car shoppers walk into a bar. The first one says, "I hate how those car shopping aggregator sites pool all that inventory into a single UI and make it easy for me to narrow my consideration set. Oh, and that radius setting around my zip, damn that's so annoying."
The second car shopper says, "I know, right? It's like they're trying to help me find the perfect car as quickly and easily as possible. What a pain in the neck."
They both take a sip of their beers. Then the second car shopper says, "Did you hear about the dealer specific data lake? It's like the opposite of a car shopping aggregator site. It gets rid of all of that quick comparing stuff and limits you to one dealer's inventory. You have to grab your legal pad and record each dealer's YMMT/features/packages/miles/prices! It's amazing!"
The first car shopper laughs. "That sounds like a nightmare."
"It is!" the second car shopper says. "But it's also the purest form of car shopping. You have to really earn your car."
The bartender, who has been listening to the conversation, shakes his head. "Clearly you two like less choices," he says. "Here's a can of Bud for each of you."
The two car shoppers laugh and clink their beers together. "Thanks," they say. "We'll drink to that."
- Apr 20, 2009
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Slightly off topic...
For what it's worth... I just "earned my car" this weekend. I'd guess I perused no less than 1000's of classified listings and dealer's VDPs over the last 9 months to find a Ram 2500 Laramie 4x4 with a manual transmission. I know that I was hunting a unicorn, but the only way to do it was to pull each piece of hay from the stack and click through the images. Head out to the classified site of your choice and replicate my search if you'd like my hairdo.
Aggregation doesn't help when the data is flawed.
For what it's worth... I just "earned my car" this weekend. I'd guess I perused no less than 1000's of classified listings and dealer's VDPs over the last 9 months to find a Ram 2500 Laramie 4x4 with a manual transmission. I know that I was hunting a unicorn, but the only way to do it was to pull each piece of hay from the stack and click through the images. Head out to the classified site of your choice and replicate my search if you'd like my hairdo.
Aggregation doesn't help when the data is flawed.
Chat GPT will play as well...
"Two car shoppers stroll into a bar, and one of them looks like they've just discovered a hidden treasure. They turn to the other shopper and exclaim, "You know what really grinds my gears? Those car shopping websites that try to make things easy by showing us all the options in one place! And that pesky radius setting around my zip code? Ugh, it's like they're plotting against us!"
The second shopper raises an eyebrow and leans in, "Oh, but have you heard of the mystical dealer-specific data lake? It's like a magical realm where your choices vanish into thin air, and you're left with just one dealer's inventory! I can't resist the thrill of scribbling down YMMT, features, packages, miles, and prices on my trusty legal pad!"
The bartender, utterly confused by this bizarre conversation, decides to ditch the fancy drink menus and offers a deadpan response, "Well, well, well, looks like we've got a fan of fewer options here. How about a can of Bud? It's the pinnacle of simplicity!"
The car shoppers burst into laughter, realizing the irony of their quest for less choice. As they clink their cans together, they raise a toast to the bartender who clearly knows their preference for streamlined decision-making."
- Apr 7, 2009
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- Joe
- Apr 7, 2009
- 4,634
- 2,122
- Awards
- 10
- First Name
- Joe
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- Mar 21, 2012
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When we report monthly on our third-party performance we have a section at the bottom dedicated to showing the ROI of the past 12 months (the rest of the report is dedicated to the prior month performance).
This helps prevent a store from making a rash decision to cancel / keep a third party because of one really bad or really good month, which is often the result of merchandising.
This helps prevent a store from making a rash decision to cancel / keep a third party because of one really bad or really good month, which is often the result of merchandising.
I keep coming back to this 12-month report and appreciate the perspective it provides over a long timeline. I have a small regional third-party listing service and I'm the low man on the advertising totem pole. I don't require contracts, and when dealers have a slow month, I'm at risk. I had one cancel recently. Their cost per VDP for the previous 30 days is $0.11. I don't have the mechanics to attribute calls and walk-ons, it's tough for me to show value beyond SRP ($0.24 CPM) and VDP ($0.11 CPC). Of course, the dealers that I work with also don't trust CG or AT when they claim attribution either.
Our VDPs go up when a dealer gets new inventory. If we keep showing the same vehicles to the same people month after month, CTR is gonna drop.
Anyway, It's cool that you include this and it probably saves monthly debates on who gets the axe.
- May 19, 2022
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I think it is interesting how Cars.com especially steals your VINs for Google VLAs.
I understand they bring in traffic to your vehicles with this, however due to Google VLA running on a VIN level it makes you unable to run these yourself and with them being so powerful that's can be a huge gap in your website's marketing.
I understand they bring in traffic to your vehicles with this, however due to Google VLA running on a VIN level it makes you unable to run these yourself and with them being so powerful that's can be a huge gap in your website's marketing.