- Apr 28, 2009
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Joe, love this tool! I am getting ready to start doing some pay per click and Compete.com is going to really help me dominate. Thanks for sharing another Uncle Joe tool.
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Cars.com and Yahoo split? Someone please explain
- Thread starter AWW_Spencerport
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Joe, love this tool! I am getting ready to start doing some pay per click and Compete.com is going to really help me dominate. Thanks for sharing another Uncle Joe tool.
- Apr 7, 2009
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- Joe
- Dec 30, 2009
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- Yago
Traffic has been up and down so far this year but lately everything has been in a downward outlook. Being a CL guy like Joe calls me... it is also a little down for now which is a reflection of the market.
- May 22, 2012
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- Linda
Hello everyone,
Just to clear up any confusion around this, we're always taking a look at our partnerships and the value they provide to our customers. As part of that process, we did indeed end our tenure as the exclusive provider of used-car listings on the Yahoo! Autos site, effective Jan. 1, in line with our strategic focus on investing heavily in extending the Cars.com audience and innovating our products and services for consumers, dealers and other advertisers.
After the end of the exclusive contract period with Yahoo, we ramped up our SEO and SEM efforts, including reconfiguring our site and investing in other partnerships to optimize our search presence and raise our profile with in-market car shoppers. One example of these changes is our increased focus on SEO landing pages, which means that users can find vehicles on Cars.com without always starting with a homepage search, leading to deeper consumer engagement and a more quality audience for our dealer partners.
As a result, most dealers were unaffected by the end to our contract with Yahoo, and in many cases, saw more leads and higher conversion rates. In fact, our leads site-wide were up 14% in Q1 2012 compared to 2011.
Ryan, my apologies that you haven’t gotten the information you need from your sales rep – I’ve asked the sales manager in your market to reach out to you. If you would like to contact me directly (or if anyone has any additional questions on the Yahoo! Autos relationship or SEO/SEM efforts I’ve outlined above), please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or 312.601.5749.
Linda Bartman
Vice President, Marketing
Cars.com
- Dec 30, 2009
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- Yago
Linda,
If you mind me asking, what other partnerships?
Quote: "and investing in other partnerships"
If you mind me asking, what other partnerships?
Quote: "and investing in other partnerships"
Hi Linda,
Thank you for responding and thank you for the information. Our sales rep did finally get in contact with us, so thank you for that as well. We had to go down to the $350/month plan. We simply couldn't justify the $800/month we were spending and getting nothing in return but poor leads.
Cars.com WAS the PREMIER lead source for us for many years. We were getting 30-35 leads per month, and at least 2-3 sales per month, from Cars.com. But since December of 2012 we have steadily dropped. Were down to about 10-12 leads per month and haven't sold a single car from Cars.com in 136 days.
- May 22, 2012
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- Linda
Hi Yago,
It’s difficult to provide a comprehensive list because our partnerships are pretty fluid and vary by segment and location – maintaining a quality audience is key, so we’re constantly monitoring performance. That said, some examples include expanded relationships with USA Today, Car Talk and Consumer Guides. We’re also investing more heavily with our media partners this year (particularly in reaching sports audiences – if you’re a hockey fan, you may have seen the Cars.com logo on the boards during the Kings’ win last night over the Coyotes), as well as some more innovative plays like Spotify and our sponsorship of the NFL’s Ultimate Fan Road Trip.
While our SEO/SEM program doesn’t technically fall into the “partnership” bucket, I think it’s still worth mentioning here. On the SEO side, we’ve got a dedicated team here in Chicago who continues to work hard on our organic traffic, which we’ve seen grow 20% year over year for the past 5 years. Our SEM operations in Santa Monica have $14 million more to work with this year compared with last year’s investment, and we expect to see 75 million clicks and 20 billion impressions as a result. To my knowledge, we’re among the top SEM investors in our industry (if not the top), including the manufacturers.
Thanks for the question.
Linda
- May 1, 2005
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- Jeff
Linda, wanted to take a second to than you for jumping in and communicating with our community. It not only means a lot but speaks volume about yourself and the Cars.com operation as a whole. Much appreciated.
✨ AI Highlights
Dealers report that Cars.com leads have dropped dramatically following Yahoo's partnership transition to TrueCar (beginning January 1st), with one dealer noting a collapse from 20-25 leads monthly to just 5. The broader consensus is that TrueCar's $50 million annual Yahoo deal has underperformed, with traffic declining sharply after their TV advertising was reduced, prompting dealers to consider reallocating their Cars.com budgets toward more effective channels like Google PPC or SEO-driven sites like U.S. News.
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