How Early Lead Capture Cuts Ad Costs and Increases Sales

[Chris Leslie]

@Ilana wrote a really interesting post on the main site and thought it would make a great discussion topic.

I personally tend to agree with what she is saying as far as getting the conversion fast and early. Once you have something you can start to do something. Without it, you have nada.

Here's a quick snapshot of the post...

Conclusion: Optimize – Convert – Profit

In short, investing your time into maximizing the initial website experience with smart targeting, solid content and offers, and quick follow-up will help convert visitors early on and allow your dealership to spend less money retargeting. Ultimately, capturing leads earlier means you’ll close more monthly sales with less advertising spend. That is the purpose for conversion optimization.

http://www.dealerrefresh.com/early-lead-capture-cuts-costs-increases-sales/#

 

[ilana.zur]

@Ilana wrote a really interesting post on the main site and thought it would make a great discussion topic.

I personally tend to agree with what she is saying as far as getting the conversion fast and early. Once you have something you can start to do something. Without it, you have nada.

Here's a quick snapshot of the post...

Conclusion: Optimize – Convert – Profit

In short, investing your time into maximizing the initial website experience with smart targeting, solid content and offers, and quick follow-up will help convert visitors early on and allow your dealership to spend less money retargeting. Ultimately, capturing leads earlier means you’ll close more monthly sales with less advertising spend. That is the purpose for conversion optimization.

http://www.dealerrefresh.com/early-lead-capture-cuts-costs-increases-sales/#

Thanks for sharing, Chris! It's good to see that people in the industry are working all kinds of leads.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

But could you potentiality be capturing the leads too early? Unless you have some true warriors on the floor or a dedicated department for consistent follow-up - well into three months, most leads are only receiving treatment for one week, two weeks at the most. And even that's being pretty generous.

Closing percentage on third party leads at your average dealership, range from 4 to 8%

Closing percentages on the same third-party leads at an aggressive dealership that follow up for 90+ days typically return 15% plus closing ratio.

The reason why many 3rd party leads close at a much less average it due to when the lead is being acquired; earlier in the purchase funnel when compared to a 1st party lead.

Possible?

 

[AharonH]

Unless you have some true warriors on the floor or a dedicated department for consistent follow-up - well into three months, most leads are only receiving treatment for one week, two weeks at the most. And even that's being pretty generous.

That's the big challenge. On the one hand, the best way for a savvy dealership to really expand the pie is to build relationships with tomorrow's buyers, not only today's. On the other hand, as @Jeff Kershner points out, the human resources don't usually exist in the dealership to do this well. Short-term is much easier.

Outside of Automotive lead nurture and marketing automation is working on yearlong nurture cycles and beyond, and it's all automated until interest reaches the buying point. That brings in folks who might not re-up and visit the business on their own without the nurture. This is actually one of the most interesting business opportunities in the industry (and there are some interesting contenders).

If @Jeff Kershner 's issue can be solved it means that while the leads from these high-funnel groups may convert at a lower up front rate than end-of-funnel shoppers (i.e. someone filling out a pre-qual form, or going through a lengthy chat), over time they will bear fruit and dramatically expand the absolute number of sales.

 

[SeanW]

But could you potentiality be capturing the leads too early? Unless you have some true warriors on the floor or a dedicated department for consistent follow-up - well into three months, most leads are only receiving treatment for one week, two weeks at the most. And even that's being pretty generous.

Closing percentage on third party leads at your average dealership, range from 4 to 8%

Closing percentages on the same third-party leads at an aggressive dealership that follow up for 90+ days typically return 15% plus closing ratio.

The reason why many 3rd party leads close at a much less average it due to when the lead is being acquired; earlier in the purchase funnel when compared to a 1st party lead.

Possible?

I find it to be a very rare occurrence that we ever receive offer based/price inquiry leads where the buyer intent is 3 months out with most third parties. I encounter this way more on trade in trade up offers.

I guess this all depends what are definition of "early" is and how high in the funnel are these customers. Illana's post as far as time line goes or where the customer intent currently resides is pretty vague.

If I can capture a low funnel lead a week or even days earlier than I normally would - than that is extremely advantageous. This gives my BDC's time to nurture the leads and really build a rapport with the customer

I have found that customers that convert earlier (one to two weeks before purchase) usually end up submitting multiple leads which really shows buying intent.