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Have you been blitzed by team ATC yet?

Brian, I believe Mr. Gillrie's statement is regarding "hardware & systems" versus autotrader.com which is strictly "advertising".

Our philosophy is that all sources of advertising are measured and tracked as accurately as we possibly can (really, we do try and track everything) and they stand or fall on the merits of the ROI generated from them. Last month we had 2 leads from autotrader.com and neither of them bought yet we sold about 22 from our website alone.

Back to the blitz issue with autotrader, our dealership realizes the discounts of these "sales blitzes" dog & pony shows they roll into town every year with but I gotta say that even w/the offers they had, we weren't about to spend any additional funds because the ROI from them has dropped so significantly in the past couple of years.
 
Brian,

Is my computer busted or what- I don't see "the table."

Where is he getting that number ($7.74) from?

"It turns out that a dollar saved actually has the same effect as earning $7.74 in gross profit.

The below calculations are based on NADA-published 2006 U.S. dealer averages (as published in Auto Executive Magazine, March 2007. The table to the right summarizes the actual effort required to pay for excessive DMS charges:"
 
I'll share some basic info...

In the last 30 days:

CarsDirect.com sent us 1500+ visitors...
AutoTrader.com sent us 600+ visitors...
Our blog sent us 400+ visitors...

If you're not familiar w/CarsDirect - they're cheap.

AutoTrader isn't...

Our blog is free...

[the C.R.'s for the 1st two are nearly the same; blog is obviously lower]

Where would you spend your time & money...?
 
Alex- I drink the truth...if you want to pass- that is your call. No doubt there are alternatives....alternatives to traditional media. I think all dealers should be as agressive as their understanding & budget takes them. My dealers are not stupid...they pay more every opportunity they can because it works..Seriously- why do people spend 30 minutes average per search to find a car? its because they need a car and we are the most comprehensive site with the most amount in market car buyers....and we are FREE unlike the alternative of hopping in the truck for a drive across town on a saturday...or wherever.

yesterdays showroom traffic is todays internet traffic- it should be studied..every single number should be taken into consideration.

Phil- How to you accurately measure billboards? the amount you spend in radio? tv? local promos? the problem is that because internet is so trackable we are held to a standard that is incredibly high... but when you measure all advertising...directly in comparison to REACHING BUYERS there is no better alternative better than the INTERNET. There is no bigger selection on the internet than autotrader.com.
Look at the amount of times your inventroy came up in the searches...then look at how many people responded to your ads. that is where the ROI measurement should start with the exposure.

Eric- here is a pretty basic question to go along with your facts about what is cheap.

of all of the "vendors" you want to compare autotrader.com to....which one can say to you they are spending 70 plus million to drive traffic?

answer: NONE

We do SEO, SEM, , Blogs, Nada, edmunds, msn, univision, trade publications, monday night football, final 4, have 7 major league baseball team promotions...1.2 billion tv impressions this year...etc. all to drive traffic to us which in turn is designed to drive traffic to you.

so if you are buying something because its cheap...then its probably not as good. that has been my experience with cheap...always.

One more thing...

one of my dealers uses tracking id's on his ads on the site...so that he is able to determine where the customer goes directly after leaving autotrader.com and goes to his site.

since august of 2006...70% of the time when there is a click through to him from atc...they do 3 things:
1. request a quote
2. vehicle locator
3. contact the store

you think those clicks 600 clicks to your site dont mean a thing? perhaps they do..

I sound like a jerk sometimes in written communication...and am not out to offend anyone. so please dont take it personal. I am in the battlefield all day long with yall and sometimes i feel like people get caught up in the quantity of the leads instead of the quality.

Right now is critical and we can all make a huge difference...but yall have to relax and trust that people care about your success as much as you do.

eitherway- i really enjoy this blog and welcome the opportunity to be honest with yall.

bring it
 
The real deal Amy is the use of platforms similar to AT et al is that the dealer is paying for the right to provide content to your site and you monetize it other ways.

The only brand a dealer is building by using your service is yours, not theirs. It is a loser for your advertisers long term.

Of those 600 clicks that you speak of from that banner how many did they miss due to the onsite leaks and did those banner clicks come when a consumer was visiting another dealers inventory item?

With so many other ways to get eyes on inventory why contribute to the AT brand and not your own?
 
I was approached by a vendor today with a strange offer. He offered to let me post all of my used car inventory on his site for free, in return I get a link back to my website, a call tracking number, and he only wants to charge $19 for valid email leads that have been scrubbed. It sounds like such a foreign concept, I only pay for actual email leads and any phone calls or links into my site are free.

It would be great to see Autotrader or Cars.com adopt this type of pricing structure, but of course they won't since it would make way too much sense for the dealer to have a cost per lead of $19 versus the $80 cost per lead I pay now. I guess someone has to pay for their nice convention booths and plasma screens.
 
RE: Amy

I find it funny that Amy says "Alex- I drink the truth...if you want to pass- that is your call. No doubt there are alternatives....alternatives to traditional media."

This is the typical first counterpoint of every ATC rep, they bring up Traditional media as if every dealer is still spending the same amount they were 5, 10 yrs ago. They are not, look at the stock market lately? Newspapers are losing market share, revs, and laying off people. The other thing that amazes me about this statement is ATC is one division of Cox Enterprises that consists of Cox Media (TV), Cox Radio, and the Atlanta Constitutional newspaper which is how it was started. So dealers coming from the internal horses mouth itself you should stop doing all that?

Amy also says "trade publications, monday night football, final 4, have 7 major league baseball team promotions...1.2 billion tv impressions this" So I guess its ok for ATC to invest in Print and TV, and their Christian Slater Radio ads but not dealers?

The first 3 she mentions that ATC uses "We do SEO, SEM, , Blogs,"

Where is ATC blogs that help dealers by the way? Just curious... Never heard of that eventhough I know ATC spends a ton on SEM, meanwhile if a dealer does it themselves, it takes people right to their site vs. ATC site with all their competition.

RE: AMY
"of all of the "vendors" you want to compare autotrader.com to....which one can say to you they are spending 70 plus million to drive traffic?"

Cars.com internet ad budget this year per someone from Cars.com was 200 million this year. 3x ATC, and guess what they aren't wasting it on trying to recreate the company into a "New car comparable search site"

Another Amy point:
"the problem is that because internet is so trackable we are held to a standard that is incredibly high... but when you measure all advertising...directly in comparison to REACHING BUYERS there is no better alternative better than the INTERNET. There is no bigger selection on the internet than autotrader.com."

So being accountable is a problem for ATC? Or is the problem they now have no excuse on a low ROI that they can't hide from?

And why can't you track a billboard, TV, or Radio ad? Last time I heard you can use the same phone call tracking vendor ATC uses Whos Calling or Call Source and put it on a billboard, in a TV or Radio ad?

RE: Amy:
"I sound like a jerk sometimes in written communication...and am not out to offend anyone. so please dont take it personal. I am in the battlefield all day long with yall and sometimes i feel like people get caught up in the quantity of the leads instead of the quality."

Amy you don't sound like a jerk, you sound burned out and like you just came out of an quarterly sales meeting where they teach you "Exposure", "compare vs. traditional media instead vs. other internet ad solutions", and that you are dealing with a lot of cancellations on the "battlefield".

RE: Amy
"Right now is critical and we can all make a huge difference...but yall have to relax and trust that people care about your success as much as you do."

So in critical times do you think ATC cared when they raised rates on every dealer nationwide 4 months ago?

BTW if that "yall" accent wasn't to cover your tracks so ATC mgt thinks your in their Southern Region and you are really somewhere in NY or some other area - keep it up I think ATC can use some more people like yourself with Southern hospitality that CARE, and CONSULT dealers. I think your energy is good, but your "jerk sometimes in written communication" is evident.. But love your feedback so ...

"Bring it"
 
Paul- you are incorrect. atc has built strong brand...but people (13 MILLION a MO) come to find a car...your car....and spend the most of their time on the search results page...where your inventory, logo, map & phone number are. If they are in market car shoppers, looking for what you sell...how is this not good long term?

Jon- your "strange offer"...not a new concept...where were you 10 years ago?

we are not a lead provider. period. Consider all the numbers or ask your rep to take away the consumers ability to get a map to your store. if its not important take it away. otherwise- it has value.

ACCOUNTABILITY.

TTT- you dont know me. I have had 0 dealers cancel in 6 months and maintain less than 2% for the year. year over year. I am afraid you have mistaken my passion for something else. I love my job & more importantly the relationships i have with dealers.

Cars.com is spening 200 million this year? who is cutting that check- are you sure it isnt bundled in with all their other media companies advertising they own to make it SOUND big? Are you sure they aren't keeping their costs fixed so that can control your perception and re-capture that "other" money that you used to spend in their newspapers, tv stations?

inspect what you expect.
 
Amy, the cost per closed deal sourced from autotrader has gone up considerably in the past three years, tripled on average in fact. Dealers are finding other sources of wide exposure for their dealerships and inventory that source more closed deals for less than 25% of the costs associated with autotrader(SEO, SEM, PPC campaigns that work!).

Traffic, exposure, etc. that's great, but what about the bottm line costs associated with the closed deals sourced from autotrader? We measure and the math just doesn't add up anymore.

BTW, we use no newspaper, billboard, direct mail, television because they are not effective, the in market car audience is online, we know that, but the ratio of cost per closed deal with you has become severly lopsided in the past couple years. It's not all about "cheap" it's about effetiveness and real results with affordable costs per closed sourced deals, other companies & strategies have surfaced that smart dealerships are utilizing, remember it's 2008 now, not 2003.