Facebook #1 Referrer to my site???

[Marc McGurren]

You nailed it Marc. All businesses need new blood, new faces, new customers to replace the old ones don't come back. That's the reason dealers spend $300-500 in ad costs PVR to keep the dealer machine printing cash (making sales).

%76 of your autotrader visitors have not been to your website before, whereas 35% of your FB visitors are fresh faces.

I'll throw some salt on your wounds and piss you off a bit. If FB sent you 100 visitors and your bounce rate is 50% then you really have 50 visitors. If 35 of 100 visitors are fresh faces, how many of those were bounces? Gulp. Ohoh, yup, it is entirely possible that with 50 bounces, It is "numerically possible' that all 35 new faces bounced. Now, thats not whats happening, but it does reveal the DEPTH of exploration you have to do to test your ideas.

No salt - and by no means am I going to put all my eggs in the facebook easter basket. It just happened to surprise me and I think its worth taking notice. No whether you choose not to notice...that's up to you.

And here is the new FB non-bouncers. 9 minutes on my site? Yet only 5.91 pages per visit. But yes Joe - only 26.47% were new faces.

I never used the advanced segments. That's pretty slick. Definitely easier to break stuff down to how you want to look at it. I will keep you updated sir with my shiny new toy.

 

[ryan.leslie]

Marc,

Very interesting stuff here. I look forward to seeing your findings too. This thread got busy but I wanted to get your opinion on something you wrote earlier:

...the statistics look better on autotrader vs facebook. Autotrader referrals are much further down the buying funnel. FB - crap - not sure where they are at in the funnel. Just as long as the funnel keeps funneling to me....

Where they should be in the sales funnel is never more than an interval away from the oil change funnel, right?

Can't remember the stat exactly, so correct me if I'm way off base. I read that 79.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot to try to prove a point. Is it 5 trips or more through the driveway for service = 70% better chance of repeat business for variable? Doesn't matter what the exact numbers are really if we can agree that service customers make great sales prospects and more of your fans need service than a new car at any given point.

My thought is that maybe your FB strategy could effectively include FO offers. Your fans have a reason and incentive to keep coming to the site from FB and you get the opportunity to keep them engaged until they are at the bottom of your funnel. Does that make sense and more importantly would that work?

Maybe this is a different thread, but I would think any owner would accept a lower ELR out of FO if he knew it meant additional sales. Maybe now that we have “internet dealerships†instead of “internet departments†can we marry Variable and Fixed and just have Operations? I won't hold my breath.

Ryan

 

[Marc McGurren]

I like that I idea - maybe a have a specials tab on facebook that is only on facebook an nowhere else so I can track where these folks are coming from.

I just am unsure on how to market to my fans w/o being sales pitchy. I guess it comes down to a culture that I want to cultivate between me and our fans. Basically - what type of relationship do I want to have with the masses?

I have already blocked two of my friends on my personal fb page b/c all they do is talk about their sale or new order coming up for Scentsy (wickless candles that have got big down here in Texas).

I have also unliked a automotive personality as well b/c all they kept posting was go buy their book....go buy their book....go buy their book....go buy their book....

So I want to be more than friends - but don't want to be over zealous with my sales tactics...

 

[ryan.leslie]

A big push from DSES was to check out what other industries are doing. It isn't that far of a leap at all over to powersports. Have you checked out what the motorcycle dealers are doing with FB? I know it is a niche market, but some of it would translate well if repackaged for automotive, especially within the enthusiast category as they have the same "identity" needs.

I "got sold" a pair of riding glasses through FB from a dealer that doesn't even carry my make. I became a fan to research their FB strategy after going on a group ride with a buddy that they sponsored. Hey, it was a good deal and "only available to Facebook Fans." I knew exactly what they were doing and still got suckered in to lusting over that new Rocket III. Funny, there just happened to be a special on most of the bikes on the floor that day.

I was too far away when they gave away the battery tender to the first FB fan to come by the parts counter and ask for it, but I've kept them in my newsfeed and have my eye out for the heated gloves...

 

[Alex Snyder]

Some averages from Dealer.com for all of 2010 through yesterday:

facebook referrals are leading the non-search engine referral sources for most dealers. On average these visitors are viewing just under 3 pages when they visit and are spending a little over 3 minutes per visit. Just under 70% are new visitors and they bounce a little over 60% of the time. A little over 20% of the total non-search engine referrals are coming from facebook through facebook mobile apps (over 80% of those are iPhone users). The numbers improve and rise each month.*

Notice the trend?

There is a school of thought that your facebook page and presence is an entirely different venture than your actual website. This school of thought argues that you should maintain both.

Personally, I am still on the fence about how hard you should dive into facebook. Yes, I know it works and matters (just look at Checkered Flag), but I am skeptical as to whether it is a fad or not. I know I want to invest time and money into it today, but I just don't know how much time and money I want to invest in it for the future.

*This is the first time these numbers are being made public.

 

[Marc McGurren]

Some averages from Dealer.com for all of 2010 through yesterday:


Notice the trend?

There is a school of thought that your facebook page and presence is an entirely different venture than your actual website. This school of thought argues that you should maintain both.

Personally, I am still on the fence about how hard you should dive into facebook. Yes, I know it works and matters (just look at Checkered Flag), but I am skeptical as to whether it is a fad or not. I know I want to invest time and money into it today, but I just don't know how much time and money I want to invest in it for the future.

*This is the first time these numbers are being made public.

Very interesting Alex that you guys are seeing FB referral traffic increase more and more as well. Mine keeps increasing month to month - just like my mobile traffic. And yes - I am also with you and Uncle Joe on how much time dedicating to FB. At the end of the day our job is to sell cars - just gotta figure our where dedicated time to FB falls into my priority list.

It was interesting to hear what Marlboro Nissan was doing with their FB page at DSES. Makes my 1500 fans seem like peanuts especially given the ROI he was stating resulted from their FB efforts.

It also will be interesting to see if FB continues to be a juggernaute. Right now we can't afford to not pay attention to it - but myspace got really big really fast - and yet it fell faster than anyone could have imagined.
Will folks get tired of the privacy issues? Not facebook's privacy issues - but just get tired of sharing their life with people from junior high? Just as you stated - is is just a fad or something that is now infused in our lives and just is the new norm.

Interesting discussion to say the least.

PS - I just realized I said interesting way too many times....

 

[Alex Snyder]

Just as you stated - is is just a fad or something that is now infused in our lives and just is the new norm.

I would say that social media will continue to command attention in our lives. Whether that is facebook or not is a different story.

 

[ed.brooks]

Every great salesman I ever worked with back in the "olden days" kept 2 boxes of cards under or in their desk. One was filled with greeting cards, the other was a tickler file of customer's dates: birthdays, wedding anniversaries, the anniversary of their last car purchase, etc.

No one ever expected the card they sent on a Monday to sell them a car on Saturday. They did expect to stay top-of-mind with their customers, maybe get a referral or two and have a better than average shot in a year, 3 years or 5 years when their customer was ready for a new vehicle.

I'd submit that Social Media is the equivalent of those greeting cards. The ROI won't be measured in days, weeks or months, but rather in years. Is it worth the time? Every dealer has to be the judge of that for themselves.

But I'll repeat, every great salesman, back in the day, kept in touch, developed an on-going relationship, built trust and a referral business. Even if the medium is different today, why can't we do the same thing?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I too am always back and forth on Social. If I were on the sales floor I would be all over social as a sales person. Where exactly does it in the dealers "marketing" mix - my jury is still out. Not saying I don't see the value but as Joe puts it, how much resources do you place into something we are still not sure about.

Here's the deal though. When you dive deep into new/cutting edge projects, such as social media, many times you find and discover new things. You're stepping outside of the box and could possibly see something in a different light. it allows you the opportunity to grow and expand upon what you already know. I like to voyage into new avenues, it keeps me fresh and excited.

I have a Mitsu dealer and the sale manager is all over social and their facebook. He does a great job. Here is a screen shot of the advanced segmented facebook non-bounces for 1 month.

What we need to do next is track this to a lead. Which has to be possible setting "goals" in Google analytics. If you would track a unique customer coming from your facebook page, converting to a lead and carrying over this information in the lead analytics, one could track this to a sale as well.

 

[Marc McGurren]

I got to thinking about what Joe was saying with new visits coming from FB and he would take notice after a certain percentage. As I woke up wide awake at 5:45am this morning - I realized that this most likely will never occur with my facebookers. Why? Because I already have an established relationship - at least one that makes them want to "like" me on FB.

To get to a 70% new visit I would have to have some sort of marketing campaign for new customers that drives them to my FB page then hopefully send them to my site. It could work - but I would rather create a page on my site that I could drive people too rather than my FB page.

I don't think facebook for a dealer is about driving brand-new-never-done-business-with-me-before-customers to my site. This can and will happen with the virality of FB - but I think my current customers are more apt to befriend rather than strangers.

So the question becomes - do you create campaigns to drive folks to your page and build the relationship there and then drive them to your site? Do you drive your current customers to facebook site to like you so they can keep up to date with what you are doing in the community, see what you are posting that is of interest to them, and/or see the specials you might have?

Or a combination of all of the above?

I like Jeff's thinking about tracking this through Google Analytics and seeing if it will convert to a lead - but as Joe pointed out - we might be disappointed in what we find.

Ahhh....facebook. Now off to close out the month! YAHOO!!!!