Honda's 3rd Party Lead Program?

[Alex Magnan]

Looking to get some more information from the Honda guys on here about this " new " 3rd party lead program that Honda is throwing out there. At our store we've been taking in the free Honda Website and Quick Note leads. I wanted to see if anybody is currently using this? From what I'm gathering is that when you sign up your going to see more leads from " top tier " 3rd party providers (Can anyone confirm from where?). With Honda managing the duplicates, filtering, and qualifying of the leads before they hit your CRM. Oh and its at $18 a shot. Any input would be great. Thanks

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Interesting. After all there years Honda now gets into the lead business.

 

[Dave Erickson]

Perhaps it's the same 3rd party partner lead program VW uses which is really from Urban Science? I think the cost is $17/lead. If you don't buy the leads then you have to pay for your VW brand site leads. The 3rd party leads that Urban Science provides VW are from Autointegrity, Autobytel, Detroit Trading and a few others. By far the worst performing lead source we have. I've been thinking of opting out of paying for the VW brand site leads for a few months now. We pick up a few sales from this lead source, but it would free up the guys to focus on the higher quality leads with higher quality responses leading to us pick up those extra deals and a few more on top.

 

[Alex Magnan]

Perhaps it's the same 3rd party partner lead program VW uses which is really from Urban Science? I think the cost is $17/lead. If you don't buy the leads then you have to pay for your VW brand site leads. The 3rd party leads that Urban Science provides VW are from Autointegrity, Autobytel, Detroit Trading and a few others. By far the worst performing lead source we have. I've been thinking of opting out of paying for the VW brand site leads for a few months now. We pick up a few sales from this lead source, but it would free up the guys to focus on the higher quality leads with higher quality responses leading to us pick up those extra deals and a few more on top.

Dave, thanks for the input. Right now as I mentioned were getting the free leads through the Honda site now. Which are decent quality leads. Honda is saying their going to be " top quality leads " with them doing the leg work before they hit our system. So I'm interested to see how they are especially since Jeff mentioned Honda hasn't dipped into the lead game before. I'm hoping their not coming from places like Autobytel because when we had those they were awful quality and we eventually dropped them all together.

 

[Sean Peoples]

While I don't have a whole lot of first hand knowledge of what's going on today. The last time I was involved with it (which was a year ago when I worked for Edmunds.com) the "free leads" portion of Honda's program did include leads from higher quality sites like Edmunds.com, and KBB. I am not sure who else, but they did seem to want to keep it pretty limited, especially since they were footing the bill for the leads from the providers and seemed to be genuinely trying to help move more cars.

I have heard that Honda has had a good relationship with Urban Science, so if they are rolling out something it is most likely with them, but like I said I don't have any first hand knowledge of what's going on now. I do know some OEM programs that have been run by Urban Science have had some less than spectacular results, but even if it is Urban Science running Honda's program it doesn't necessarily mean similar results since lead source is generally controllable by the OEM. Basically Urban Science is brought in to run the operations of the program and to make recommendations, but isn't typically given carte blanche authority to do whatever they want. I hope for Honda (and your) sake that they stick with only the higher quality providers as Honda has done in the past, but honestly you'll only know by watching the close rates over time (no matter who is running the program).

 

[funjabi]

Alex,

Were you able to find some info. on the Honda 3rd Party Lead Program? I curious and wanted to know more. Any info. will be greatly appreciated.

Looking to get some more information from the Honda guys on here about this " new " 3rd party lead program that Honda is throwing out there. At our store we've been taking in the free Honda Website and Quick Note leads. I wanted to see if anybody is currently using this? From what I'm gathering is that when you sign up your going to see more leads from " top tier " 3rd party providers (Can anyone confirm from where?). With Honda managing the duplicates, filtering, and qualifying of the leads before they hit your CRM. Oh and its at $18 a shot. Any input would be great. Thanks

 

[Alex Magnan]

I did. We've been using this program for a couple months now. Basically the customer selects the dealership they want information from on one of ten third party sites that Honda is affiliated with. Honda is responsible for deduping the leads and making sure that the contact information is accurate. From the results I've seen their a more decorated Autobytel lead IMO. Its $18/lead with no refund policy, most of the leads were getting are way out of our buying area, and you have no control of modifying your lead radius or picking zip codes like other 3rd party providers I've worked with.

Alex,

Were you able to find some info. on the Honda 3rd Party Lead Program? I curious and wanted to know more. Any info. will be greatly appreciated.

 

[GrantG]

I did. We've been using this program for a couple months now. Basically the customer selects the dealership they want information from on one of ten third party sites that Honda is affiliated with. Honda is responsible for deduping the leads and making sure that the contact information is accurate. From the results I've seen their a more decorated Autobytel lead IMO. Its $18/lead with no refund policy, most of the leads were getting are way out of our buying area, and you have no control of modifying your lead radius or picking zip codes like other 3rd party providers I've worked with.

I have been using the Acura Leads program since inception back in May. They say these leads will out perform other 3rd party leads. My results paint a different picture altogether.

6 months-- 87 leads x $18 = $1566 spent in program

15 of these leads were duplicates of another 3rd party source (great filter) causing a loss of $270 in potential credit for dup's.

drum roll please ............ ONE Direct Sale associate with program.

Note: It was a 4500 deal front and back but does not make up for the other crappy leads.

#FAIL and soon to be forgotten.

 

[funjabi]

Thanks for the quick response, guys.

One more question: Are you guys familiar with Dealix and/or Trilogy? If so, what do you think about them?

I have been using the Acura Leads program since inception back in May. They say these leads will out perform other 3rd party leads. My results paint a different picture altogether.

6 months-- 87 leads x $18 = $1566 spent in program

15 of these leads were duplicates of another 3rd party source (great filter) causing a loss of $270 in potential credit for dup's.

drum roll please ............ ONE Direct Sale associate with program.

Note: It was a 4500 deal front and back but does not make up for the other crappy leads.

#FAIL and soon to be forgotten.

 

[GrantG]

Thanks for the quick response, guys.

One more question: Are you guys familiar with Dealix and/or Trilogy? If so, what do you think about them?

I think we've all used Dealix at some point. Results will vary from store to store. Keep in mind, 3rd party leads close at a much lower rate than 1st party or classified leads. Have you exhausted your spend in those areas yet?

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