Enough is enough. I can't take it anymore. After looking at yet two more of my dealer's Google Ads (Formerly Adwords) accounts, I've lost it.
I've threatened to do this for awhile, now I'm going to do it.
No more getting screwed by the OEM and their overpriced vendors.
No more spending 80% of your budget on your name/competitor's names/regional terms at greatly inflated costs and getting no leads from people actually interested in buying your cars.
No more bullshit vendor meetings.
For a fixed fee of $200 a month for DealerRefresh dealers, I'll manage buying your dealership name, your competitor's names, and your regional search terms. You'll own the account. You'll control the account. You'll pay for the account yourself so you know you're not being overcharged and all your spend is actually buying ads. You'll have complete visibility of what you're paying for in both Google Ads and Google Analytics.
And, because you're paying a fixed rate, no vendor reps telling you you have to spend more every month.
Here's the deal.
You're getting screwed.
Your OEM gives you Co-op money, but says you have to spend it with approved vendors. So you use the OEM approved vendor to do your search marketing. Then they spend 80% of your budget buying your name and some competitor's names and regional search terms. They do a lousy job of it because all they care about is getting you to spend more money with them.
And you don't get any leads from people that are actually interested in buying your cars.
When you meet with your reps, they tell you you have to spend more. So you do, but you don't really get any real leads or see any increase in sales.
Why?
Because they're screwing you.
So here's the plan.
I used to spend about $2,000 a month per store covering all of Southern California buying my dealership's name, my competitor's names and regional search terms for two stores that sold about 800 cars a month. The reason it was so cheap is because I controlled the account. No OEM markup. No Vendor markup. In a lot of cases I spent $.36 cents per click while other dealers were spending $3.60 with an agency.
However I did spend over $100,000 a month on search. It's just that I spent it on ads targeted at people who were in-market and looking for cars I had in inventory. So as you can see, I know search works if you know what you're doing and don't overpay.
What most people don't know is that if you know what you're doing, once you set up and tune these campaigns, you don't really have to do anything except check them once or twice a month to see what your competitors are up to. Your name doesn't change. Your competitors don't change. Your regional keywords don't change.
So there's really not much to manage.
Now here's the really good part.
You get to stick it to your OEM and their ripoff worthless vendors. Because you're already doing the easy stuff, you can tell them to do what you've wanted them to do all along, generate leads for people who actually want to buy your cars!
Think about that for a moment, since they can't waste your money buying your name, they'll have to actually do their jobs! No more hiding. No more bullshit. No more excuses.
Just imagine what would happen if all the dealers did this?
The OEMs and their agencies will have to earn their keep. If they don't generate any real leads with your co-op, there's no reason for you to spend any more of your money with them. They won't be able to justify it.
They'll go insane!
Now I know some people are going to say that I'm doing this so that when dealers decide they want a real search agency I hope they'll pick me.
Can't happen.
I don't have the time.
Real search takes work and I don't have the time nor do I want to build a search agency at this stage of my life/career. My consulting practice already keeps me busy enough thank you.
But I've been doing search so long I can put these accounts together really fast. And I can use automated reporting tools to check up on them. But I just don't have the bandwidth to do search properly when it comes to generating car sales leads because that is hard and it takes time.
Of course I'll be happy to refer some good agencies, and at least you'll know they'll be focused on the one thing you really want, selling more cars.
So that's it.
If you want to save a bunch of money, actually force your OEM vendors to do their jobs and actually sell more cars, give me a call at 949.910.0421 or email me at [email protected].
I've threatened to do this for awhile, now I'm going to do it.
No more getting screwed by the OEM and their overpriced vendors.
No more spending 80% of your budget on your name/competitor's names/regional terms at greatly inflated costs and getting no leads from people actually interested in buying your cars.
No more bullshit vendor meetings.
For a fixed fee of $200 a month for DealerRefresh dealers, I'll manage buying your dealership name, your competitor's names, and your regional search terms. You'll own the account. You'll control the account. You'll pay for the account yourself so you know you're not being overcharged and all your spend is actually buying ads. You'll have complete visibility of what you're paying for in both Google Ads and Google Analytics.
And, because you're paying a fixed rate, no vendor reps telling you you have to spend more every month.
Here's the deal.
You're getting screwed.
Your OEM gives you Co-op money, but says you have to spend it with approved vendors. So you use the OEM approved vendor to do your search marketing. Then they spend 80% of your budget buying your name and some competitor's names and regional search terms. They do a lousy job of it because all they care about is getting you to spend more money with them.
And you don't get any leads from people that are actually interested in buying your cars.
When you meet with your reps, they tell you you have to spend more. So you do, but you don't really get any real leads or see any increase in sales.
Why?
Because they're screwing you.
So here's the plan.
I used to spend about $2,000 a month per store covering all of Southern California buying my dealership's name, my competitor's names and regional search terms for two stores that sold about 800 cars a month. The reason it was so cheap is because I controlled the account. No OEM markup. No Vendor markup. In a lot of cases I spent $.36 cents per click while other dealers were spending $3.60 with an agency.
However I did spend over $100,000 a month on search. It's just that I spent it on ads targeted at people who were in-market and looking for cars I had in inventory. So as you can see, I know search works if you know what you're doing and don't overpay.
What most people don't know is that if you know what you're doing, once you set up and tune these campaigns, you don't really have to do anything except check them once or twice a month to see what your competitors are up to. Your name doesn't change. Your competitors don't change. Your regional keywords don't change.
So there's really not much to manage.
Now here's the really good part.
You get to stick it to your OEM and their ripoff worthless vendors. Because you're already doing the easy stuff, you can tell them to do what you've wanted them to do all along, generate leads for people who actually want to buy your cars!
Think about that for a moment, since they can't waste your money buying your name, they'll have to actually do their jobs! No more hiding. No more bullshit. No more excuses.
Just imagine what would happen if all the dealers did this?
The OEMs and their agencies will have to earn their keep. If they don't generate any real leads with your co-op, there's no reason for you to spend any more of your money with them. They won't be able to justify it.
They'll go insane!
Now I know some people are going to say that I'm doing this so that when dealers decide they want a real search agency I hope they'll pick me.
Can't happen.
I don't have the time.
Real search takes work and I don't have the time nor do I want to build a search agency at this stage of my life/career. My consulting practice already keeps me busy enough thank you.
But I've been doing search so long I can put these accounts together really fast. And I can use automated reporting tools to check up on them. But I just don't have the bandwidth to do search properly when it comes to generating car sales leads because that is hard and it takes time.
Of course I'll be happy to refer some good agencies, and at least you'll know they'll be focused on the one thing you really want, selling more cars.
So that's it.
If you want to save a bunch of money, actually force your OEM vendors to do their jobs and actually sell more cars, give me a call at 949.910.0421 or email me at [email protected].
