The technology is fundamentally the same, they perform millions of search terms, store the results and determine the sampled value. They also lower the ctr for all of us, so kind of toxic
- May 1, 2005
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@Jon Berna this is a conversation I have all the time with dealers... WHAT IS THE VALUE?
All these reports..
WTF are you going to do with it?
What changes are you going to make to... "to make a difference in what you do?"
Change providers..
Changes pay structure..
Change employees..
Stop asking for all this irreverent BS reporting at the end of the month if it's not data you can FOR CHANGE.
I wrote a whole thing about the 4 levels of analytics and how dealerships are stuck in descriptive (what happened). Next is diagnostic (why it happened). Then predictive (what is going to happen). Finally prescriptive (how do I make it happen). Each level requires the foundation of the previous and build in both difficulty and value.
These aren't my levels either. These have become the clear standards that define business intelligence across all industries.
Prescriptive Marketing
There are four widely-recognized levels of data analytics. By progressing along through the levels of analytics, businesses gain better insights into why things happened in the past. With the assistance of Driven Data, you can be a leader at the top level of analytics.
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You're a nerd @Jon Berna. That's a high praise complement. Reading through I do want to make sure that everyone knows that my numbers are Conversions from SRP to VDP click conversion, nothing further than that (no Conversion from VDP to customer action). The visual trigger of seeing the mirror set off my "hey now" reaction. Just curious if that trend, inverse trend that is mostly consistent, has anything to do with something that is measurable. Same inventory, same price, consistent vendor packages, same time period; just odd to me.
More of a street smart guy that got lucky a long time ago working for someone who mentored me in a new direction. But I'll take the compliment
It's odd for sure, I can honestly say I have never thought about this phenomenon before.
The reason this came up was that I review our Classifieds performance; compared to each other (this whole conversation seems similar to a Refresh Friday a while back ). I run two at a time and so am reviewing performance against each other as well as others that I have recently added (AutoTrader and enhanced Edmunds at a couple locations). One of my measures is SRP to VDP conversion. I felt that gave me a view into which vendor gave my cars the best chance to convert to a VDP. I look at a number of other factors including leads/calls, referral conversion, multi-channel, cohort, etc. So, what will I do with the data @Jeff Kershner ? I don't friggin know but was wondering if anyone had a great answer to the inverse relationship that may discredit my weight on SRP/VDP conversion...
). I run two at a time and so am reviewing performance against each other as well as others that I have recently added (AutoTrader and enhanced Edmunds at a couple locations). One of my measures is SRP to VDP conversion. I felt that gave me a view into which vendor gave my cars the best chance to convert to a VDP. I look at a number of other factors including leads/calls, referral conversion, multi-channel, cohort, etc. So, what will I do with the data @Jeff Kershner ? I don't friggin know but was wondering if anyone had a great answer to the inverse relationship that may discredit my weight on SRP/VDP conversion...
I used to just calculate SRP/VDP conversion as a single number over a period of time; QTR. Not sure why I mapped it out this time.The reason this came up was that I review our Classifieds performance; compared to each other (this whole conversation seems similar to a Refresh Friday a while back
I am curious what your used vehicle aging looks like on those months that Car Gurus SRP to VDP ratio was high.
I know your operation, and know you guys run a tight ship. I am in Columbus, NE and grew up between Columbus and Grand Island.
This is what I see with Car Gurus. When my inventory gets twisted up and ages, we drop prices. As we drop prices, our SRP>VDP>Leads go way up. The down side of this is of course that Gross Profit goes way down as Car Gurus leads go up. I don't have the ability to systematically analyze this. I simply have to look at each lead individually. Generally speaking, my fresh inventory leads (units with Gross in them) on Car Gurus are more commonly non responsive leads.
So, yes I do get inventory views and leads from Car Gurus. Unfortunately they aren't typically leads that convert to much Gross Profit. But hey, they are better than a loss at the auction!
Cars on the other hand hasn't proven to be a good Lead source. There is certainly more to it than Lead count alone. My SRP to VDP percentage runs about 1.25% on Cars. Car Gurus runs about 4%.
I do not see the reverse correlation between the two like you do. You hate to write it off as coincidence because you have such a large pool of data supporting something otherwise. Interesting to me.
