- May 1, 2005
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- Jeff
I often get emails like the following from the different vendors. I thought I would post this one
Anyone using AutoMart and having good results?? Leave your feedback!
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Have you tried AutoMart.com and if not, why?
- Thread starter Jeff Kershner
- Start date
I often get emails like the following from the different vendors. I thought I would post this one
Anyone using AutoMart and having good results?? Leave your feedback!
- May 1, 2005
- 5,999
- 1,913
- Awards
- 12
- First Name
- Jeff
Melanie, thanks for reading dealerrefresh. It's great to hear from you.
You asked "I was wondering if you have tried AutoMart.com and if not, why?"
A simple questions is, WHO IS AutoMart? Other then the flyer/magazine and a rare show in the search engines (paid or natural) then how does the consumer find AutoMart? I have never seen any advertising for AutoMart in my region and if I have it was not impressionable enough to stick in my head.
It really comes down to a dealers budget. If given a strict budget like most internet departments are, you want to maximize your money as best as possible. This means advertising with the top dogs like AutoTrader and Cars.com. If a dealers has their inventory on Cars.com and AutoTrader what percentage of consumers are visiting AutoMart and NOT the other sites?
Don't get me wrong, I think AutoMart is a great site for the consumer. The vehicle detail pages are a little busy and the dealers phone number is easily overlooked but overall the site does a decent job of merchandising the dealers inventory.
"AutoMart.com ranked 5th in close ratio" That's a great achievement but again at the end of the day and given a budget to work with why would I bank my money on 5th place?
Jeff
You asked "I was wondering if you have tried AutoMart.com and if not, why?"
A simple questions is, WHO IS AutoMart? Other then the flyer/magazine and a rare show in the search engines (paid or natural) then how does the consumer find AutoMart? I have never seen any advertising for AutoMart in my region and if I have it was not impressionable enough to stick in my head.
It really comes down to a dealers budget. If given a strict budget like most internet departments are, you want to maximize your money as best as possible. This means advertising with the top dogs like AutoTrader and Cars.com. If a dealers has their inventory on Cars.com and AutoTrader what percentage of consumers are visiting AutoMart and NOT the other sites?
Don't get me wrong, I think AutoMart is a great site for the consumer. The vehicle detail pages are a little busy and the dealers phone number is easily overlooked but overall the site does a decent job of merchandising the dealers inventory.
"AutoMart.com ranked 5th in close ratio" That's a great achievement but again at the end of the day and given a budget to work with why would I bank my money on 5th place?
Jeff
We use Automart at one of our locations, and it measured almost dead last for overall ROI for year to date (for internet leads). Beep Beep beat it, Dealix beat it, AutoTrader beat it, etc. I can only share our experience, and we pay close attention to measuring our ROI for all sources and Automart has not been a good performer for us. Kevin Frye/eCommerce Director/Jeff Wyler Automotive Family
Touting Dealer Satisfaction figures seems to be the norm these days with classified dot coms. The size of the in market audience is where the rubber hits the road. How many eyeballs are being exposed to my vehicles and in turn how many phone calls are being generated from them. I personally don't even consider an email a serious part of measurable metrics anymore, the phone call is it in converting a web shopper to an up and in turn increasing our ROI with a classified advertising product. For us Autotrader.com & Cars.com have been in a consistant dead heat in phone call generation for at least the past year and a half. What I'm wondering is why Autotrader.com charges us twice the rate we pay Cars.com for virtually the same ROI? anyone else in the same box w/Autotrader.com?
TJ - we have been asking that same question for over 6 months... Same amount of impressions, emails, and phone calls, but serious discrepancy in price... Since the significant majority of dealers never even measure their ROI, I don't think they (the vendors) know how to handle these types of questions.... Kevin Frye/eCommerce Director/Jeff Wyler Automotive Family
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to weigh in...
We distribute 8 million photo guides of cars for sale from car dealers every month which are free for car buyers to pick up at major retail locations across the country. Those offline copies drive a ton of traffic to AutoMart.com of active car buyers who are looking for more information about the cars that dealers have for sale. We have a very aggressive search engine marketing campaign which contributes to the over 1.5 million car buying visitors to AutoMart.com each month.
What AutoMart.com does best is drive traffic from our website directly to dealer websites. Late stage car buyers want to visit a dealer website when they are making their buying decision- we facilitate that connection. So when measured against other vendors email leads- we won't win, but that's because that's not what we do. We let consumers and dealers connect in any way they choose- whether that be by instant message, phone, email or visiting the dealer's website.
Our best customers tell us that our traffic converts to sale better than any of our competitors. Sounds clique, but we focus on quality not quantity. I belive that is why we are privileged to call thousands of dealers, and top automotive players such as Toyota Certified, GM and AutoNation our customers.
Dealers who use both our targeted print and innovative online packages together enjoy the best results and the most attractive ROI. We believe that it is the two mediums working in tandem that creates the business efficiencies that dealers are looking for.
Melanie Kovach, General Manager AutoMart.com
We distribute 8 million photo guides of cars for sale from car dealers every month which are free for car buyers to pick up at major retail locations across the country. Those offline copies drive a ton of traffic to AutoMart.com of active car buyers who are looking for more information about the cars that dealers have for sale. We have a very aggressive search engine marketing campaign which contributes to the over 1.5 million car buying visitors to AutoMart.com each month.
What AutoMart.com does best is drive traffic from our website directly to dealer websites. Late stage car buyers want to visit a dealer website when they are making their buying decision- we facilitate that connection. So when measured against other vendors email leads- we won't win, but that's because that's not what we do. We let consumers and dealers connect in any way they choose- whether that be by instant message, phone, email or visiting the dealer's website.
Our best customers tell us that our traffic converts to sale better than any of our competitors. Sounds clique, but we focus on quality not quantity. I belive that is why we are privileged to call thousands of dealers, and top automotive players such as Toyota Certified, GM and AutoNation our customers.
Dealers who use both our targeted print and innovative online packages together enjoy the best results and the most attractive ROI. We believe that it is the two mediums working in tandem that creates the business efficiencies that dealers are looking for.
Melanie Kovach, General Manager AutoMart.com
Automart.com is a waste of time and money. Don't let them fool you with BS metrics of how many eye balls they get to view your inventory. How many cars does it sell you? Zilch, nada, nunca!
Stay away from this one and spend money driving traffic to your dealer web sites or micro sites.
Stay away from this one and spend money driving traffic to your dealer web sites or micro sites.
Melanie pointed out the reason that AutoMart has an edge...
"What AutoMart.com does best is drive traffic from our website directly to dealer websites. Late stage car buyers want to visit a dealer website when they are making their buying decision- we facilitate that connection."
This is something that you won't get from AutoTrader or Cars.com--they will suppress and restrict your website address so every lead has to pass through their funnel.
This increases the effectiveness of the AutoTrader.com website, but not the effectiveness of your advertising dollar.
Also, the fact that they found your blog and used it to market their site tells me they aren't idiots.
Gary's comment is contradictory...
"Stay away from this one and spend money driving traffic to your dealer web sites or micro sites."
Then you don't want to stay away from this one...right?
"What AutoMart.com does best is drive traffic from our website directly to dealer websites. Late stage car buyers want to visit a dealer website when they are making their buying decision- we facilitate that connection."
This is something that you won't get from AutoTrader or Cars.com--they will suppress and restrict your website address so every lead has to pass through their funnel.
This increases the effectiveness of the AutoTrader.com website, but not the effectiveness of your advertising dollar.
Also, the fact that they found your blog and used it to market their site tells me they aren't idiots.
Gary's comment is contradictory...
"Stay away from this one and spend money driving traffic to your dealer web sites or micro sites."
Then you don't want to stay away from this one...right?
I must ask then how do you rate lead providers?
What is most important for your dealership?
Quality of the leads...
Inventory specific
Qulified customers
or
Quantity...
Sheer numbers
Generic New leads
Build a car
or
ROI - but how do you measure it?
Sales vs Cost
Sales vs leads
Other?
What is most important for your dealership?
Quality of the leads...
Inventory specific
Qulified customers
or
Quantity...
Sheer numbers
Generic New leads
Build a car
or
ROI - but how do you measure it?
Sales vs Cost
Sales vs leads
Other?
I disagree with the idea that Auto Mart is a waste of money. I've supported the print piece for a number of years and can't argue the number of calls it's producing. The fact that our consumers only find listings from dealerships makes it stand out from some of the others. The one thing they're lacking is mass media recognition. The product works.
