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Dealer Rater Ad Policy

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T

tnt383

Lot Lizard
Aug 25, 2010
8
0
First Name
Troy
#1
Dealer Rater a website set up to provide the online shopper a voice about how we do business. In this ever growing sector of the internet, online reputation can play a key role when it comes to the consumer making a decision to buy a vehicle from that dealer. So this site can be a good thing or a bad thing for your dealership. But keep in mind you don't have a choice.

Dealer Rater has almost every dealer posted in the entire United States, a force to be reckoned with. So unless you ask for positive feedback, the only feedback you will get is when consumers are upset with your dealership. Now this is the business model, they will offer to you "Certified Dealer" status for a low monthly fee and this gives the dealership arbitration rights to correct a problem if and when a consumer decides to leave negative feedback. Not a bad thing, we do want to keep our "Reviews Page" and our ratings up.

Now what you need to be aware off. Your reviews page has a advertising box to the left of the reviews where Dealer Rater runs ads by Google on a rotation basis. I just so happened to inquire about that Box and they requested additional money for it. We just started with this endeavor so we decided to hold off for the time being. About day after my inquiry, the ad department alerted me that another dealership was interested in the box ad, Again we did not move on it, we were new to this and choose to wait again. 2 weeks later an ad appeared with a link to my competitions website on my Reviews page. OK, we made the mistake and didn't take advantage of this opportunity, however sticking your competition on your reviews page is somewhat of an insult. I don't have a problem with this type of advertising, but it should be offered as a rotating banner similar to Auto Trader or Cars.com.

This Post is a heads up for all dealers. I already confronted Dealer Rater about this and they said it's their advertising policy. It seemed to me that they went and asked my competition about the spot after we turned it down and they took it. Kudos to them... But we still feel it's wrong. We felt like we were hijacked so the speak. Take this or we will offer it to someone else!

So if you are a Certified Dealer with Dealer Rater and you have your competitions ad on your Reviews Page, DE-CERTIFY your dealership so we can send a message to Dealer Rater and maybe they will start selling the Certification Status as a package deal. Just an opinion and a warning.....
 
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#2
Re: Dealers Beware of Dealer Rater!

I'm not sure you're going to get many people on the wagon to de-certify and I just went through the same conversation with them as they look to expand north into Canada.

When they only charge 99 bucks for the service there's a red flag. There has to be a way they're making money and it's clearly the ad space, the same way most sites monetize their traffic.

Why in god's name did you not buy up the ad when they mentioned a dealer was looking at snapping it up? AND would you not be ALL OVER your competitors page if you knew you could eat their lunch and steal some of their business? I would be.

I agree it feels wrong and snaky and it feels like a can of bullshit but when you understand the rules and your in the game you gotta win.
 
#3
Re: Dealers Beware of Dealer Rater!

Mitch Gallant said:
I'm not sure you're going to get many people on the wagon to de-certify and I just went through the same conversation with them as they look to expand north into Canada.

When they only charge 99 bucks for the service there's a red flag. There has to be a way they're making money and it's clearly the ad space, the same way most sites monetize their traffic.

Why in god's name did you not buy up the ad when they mentioned a dealer was looking at snapping it up? AND would you not be ALL OVER your competitors page if you knew you could eat their lunch and steal some of their business? I would be.

I agree it feels wrong and snaky and it feels like a can of bullshit but when you understand the rules and your in the game you gotta win.
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Hey, we made the mistake, however I've called several dealers that are Certified with Dealer Rater that had an ad from the competion on their reviews page and they were not aware that their competion's ad was even on their Page (I could visualize the GM's head spinning on his shoulders). Total silence over the phone.. To top it off, they place a link on the ad back to your competitors website. Just being informative... The mistake was made, but I'm placing this grip in the forums so everyone don't make the mistake we made.
 
#4
Re: Dealers Beware of Dealer Rater!

Another point I want to make is that no one from DR contacted me about the advertising in that box. I was browsing other dealers and noticed their own ads in that box. I inquired about it and was told how much it was, and of course like every other internet department in the world, we have a budget to keep, I said we will wait and then within 3 days they emailed me again telling me that someone else is interested in the box, again we passed (we were feeling a bit extorted) and now my competitor 30 miles up the road has an ad there. If I never inquired, I feel I would have never had to post in this forum. Again, if you are a Certified Dealer and your reviews page has your competitions advertising on it, DE-Certify!!!!! Then you are less noticable!!
 
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#5
Re: Dealers Beware of Dealer Rater!

I kind of see what you are saying ,but feel that "you snooze you lose" may apply. They make money off advertising and trust me if you waited on every " we may try it in the future after our next managers meeting" you would be out of business in no time.
Like Mitch's "can of bullshit" line. May steal that..... just sayin:pics:
 
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