If You Dropped AutoTrader - Where would you put the Money
- Thread starter Eley Duke
- Start date
My PM box is quite empty. Feel free to reach out with any question that comes to mind - would love to show you what we've been doing.
- Jul 6, 2010
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- Baron
I just came in to a store and launched Auto Trader out so far that Jesus couldn't find them with a telescope. The first thing I do is run the metrics on all sources, THEN I look at the costs.
Auto Trader's big thing is VDP's and such. Well, the referral traffic we got from them was garbage. The deals attributable solely to them as a source was abysmally low, and the real kicker was that they had been gouging this store for years to the tune of $7100 per month with a total of 10 spotlights. Our cost per sale on Auto Trader leads was $1800 per car, and the total gross didn't cover the monthly fee.
Our AT rep wouldn't return my calls, when I first started. When I finally got him in the door here to discuss costs and Spotlights, he told the owner in passing that he had no idea why I wanted him there. Complete arrogant ass, and HIS superior wasn't much better. They were completely convinced that I wouldn't be able to pull the plug.
But then I showed the owner the numbers.
I sent the cancellation and they came RUNNING in here to save it...and I mean RUNNING! They offered to cut the fee by 40% AND give an extra 60 Spotlights, and that's when the owner and GM got really ticked off, because it was a tacit admission that the store was being way over-charged.
Auto Trader is a group of arrogant bad actors who are losing their grip on the market, their dealers and their ethics. I will never work with them again.
Auto Trader's big thing is VDP's and such. Well, the referral traffic we got from them was garbage. The deals attributable solely to them as a source was abysmally low, and the real kicker was that they had been gouging this store for years to the tune of $7100 per month with a total of 10 spotlights. Our cost per sale on Auto Trader leads was $1800 per car, and the total gross didn't cover the monthly fee.
Our AT rep wouldn't return my calls, when I first started. When I finally got him in the door here to discuss costs and Spotlights, he told the owner in passing that he had no idea why I wanted him there. Complete arrogant ass, and HIS superior wasn't much better. They were completely convinced that I wouldn't be able to pull the plug.
But then I showed the owner the numbers.
I sent the cancellation and they came RUNNING in here to save it...and I mean RUNNING! They offered to cut the fee by 40% AND give an extra 60 Spotlights, and that's when the owner and GM got really ticked off, because it was a tacit admission that the store was being way over-charged.
Auto Trader is a group of arrogant bad actors who are losing their grip on the market, their dealers and their ethics. I will never work with them again.
- Dec 2, 2009
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- John
$7,100 a month - what was the average inventory size for used? what about for new?
- Apr 30, 2019
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- Matt
Which 3rd party provider, has the best ROI for you? Are 3rd party listings still necessary?
- Jul 24, 2019
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- Zach
We're putting the money we were giving to AutoTrader (cancelling this month) into dynamic inventory ads, more traditional Google/Facebook Ads, and tools/products to better support our website. When we get potential customers to our actual dealer site, we have a much higher show/close rate than any other third party. Autotrader had the worst leads overall, and CarGurus seems to have the best for us.
- Apr 13, 2012
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- George
Great discussion, and remember to also look at assisted conversions for 3rd party referral traffic. TPC referral traffic good for initial introduction to dealership, not always last click conversion.
My benchmarks for TPC’s:
Cost per VDP < $1.00, ideally 50 cents
Cost per conversion (email, call, chat) < $50 (less than $100 for ATC)
Extra $$, are you running new/used Catalog Ads in Facebook?
My benchmarks for TPC’s:
Cost per VDP < $1.00, ideally 50 cents
Cost per conversion (email, call, chat) < $50 (less than $100 for ATC)
Extra $$, are you running new/used Catalog Ads in Facebook?
Hi Eley!
I can definitely help you with this.
Would you be interested in meeting with me to go over my marketing strategy? It’s pretty simple and I think you’d find it really valuable. I am an automotive marketing specialist based in Southern California.
- Jan 31, 2018
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- Dane
Wow! What to say that hasn't already been said?
I think people hit the nail on the head with reallocating that into Google Ads and paid social media. Before you determine how to do that, consider reviewing your internal goals, then see if where you're spending your budget on those platforms aligns with that.
Google Ads: Look at the Quality Score of your ads to make sure that you're getting the most out of every dollar spent. Look at the way the Ads account is structured: is it granular enough? Are you hitting on different intents? Are the audiences built out well? Are you implementing best practices for Responsive Search Ads and Expanded Text Ads? Do you have the proper extensions filled out, so Google can deliver them when relevant?
Social Media: Do you have audiences built out so you can couple Facebook's machine learning with data from sources like Oracle? You can have a social media strategy that mirrors political campaigns (and is granular like your paid search): unique ads with tailored creative based on the various audiences that you can create and speak to specifically.
Once you know that you have the right strategies in place, where does that money make the most sense? Maybe you want to bolster some bids for specific Ads, maybe apply it to an Ad group, maybe test out new social media ads -- this might be a great opportunity to do some tests.
Let me know if you'd like to chat more. I'd be happy to provide my email and/or phone number.
Cheers,
D.
