Huge drop off in CarGuru leads in November..

[Marc Lavoie]

I find it interesting when we're highlighting our worst months in this industry. If there's one thing for sure, there's going to be 1 worst month over the 12 month... Plus, it's going to happen to all media.

On the use car side, it's even worse because the quantity/quality of your inventory can shift rapidly ... for the worst. The best priced, good looking vehicles are always going to sell faster, leaving the others on your lot. It's really hard for car dealers to stock up on incredible inventory year-round.

We're depending on what customers are getting rid of in the end.

 

[BillVaughnKMC]

We actually saw an increase in November over October. That may have been because we did less price changes in October due to a slow market which has proven to be a mistake.

The question I would have about CarGurus is whether anyone else has seen their deal ratings get better recently. We typically have about an average of about 10 cars in the "High Price" category, but after today I won't have any.

 

[Collin Pedersen]

CarGurus went through one of their larger SEO mishaps back in February 2019 after a Google update. Their "gray hat" strategies got them into a little bit of trouble and took quite a dip in organic traffic. Rumors had it the company then took on a larger Paid SEM budget to maintain the traffic, but that is only sustainable for so long. I'm speculating here when I say this but perhaps regions of the Paid SEM budget are being scaled down which may affect the amount of traffic to VDP's on their platform in certain areas?

Screenshot of CarGurus Traffic Trends:

 

[John V.]

This is the only chart that matters to CarGurus...................Currently "Undervalued" and a is labeled as a "BUY" for inventors. I cannot think of a correlation in our crap November and their increase in stock price but the markets seem to think this is the #1 used car listings site if you read all the new articles on Yahoo Finance.

 

[CARBIZ]

We as well saw a significant decrease in CG leads for December. Off 30% from October and 20% off from November. Speaking with CG they’d have you believe it has to do with inventory levels and mix. Coincidence others are experiencing similar results or do we all have inventory issues? Btw we succumbed to the delivery listings for an additional $300/month per rooftop about six months ago so they can’t claim we’re missing anything there.

 

[ChrisR]

We as well saw a significant decrease in CG leads for December. Off 30% from October and 20% off from November. Speaking with CG they’d have you believe it has to do with inventory levels and mix. Coincidence others are experiencing similar results or do we all have inventory issues? Btw we succumbed to the delivery listings for an additional $300/month per rooftop about six months ago so they can’t claim we’re missing anything there.

Glad you took one for the team, so I can feel better about not upgrading to delivery.

 

[Marc Lavoie]

Question for you guys, has anyone here seen a lift in leads from a single source in December over the past few years?

 

[BillH]

Is it a regional thing? CG has been consistency our best source for the used side. We don’t get, nor expect much for the new side. My Cars.com goes dark on the 31st, half the performance, we rarely hear the name in the showroom and the cost is higher. I reluctantly added AT / KBB back in, to get the KBB listings. Half the cost of Cars. We’ll see how Feb goes.