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Inverse Relationship Between CarGurus and Cars.com SRP/VDP Conversions?

Haha, at first I was like this is too complicated to think about #otherpriorities #attribution...hehe
The secondary part is what do I do with this information. To me that is where this effort is mute.


@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.
 
@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.

 
Haha, at first I was like this is too complicated to think about #otherpriorities #attribution...hehe

Then I was like yeah but what's the actual correlation. If it was high aka negative correlation <-.60 it would be worth more of an inspection as we have a ton of this data.

Dan I give you credit for posing the question it's definitely a unique thought experiment. The secondary part is what do I do with this information. To me that is where this effort is mute. What these two companies do to drive traffic and move customers through the shopping process mater, however are they linked in a way that would create a mirror effect? Even if we knew what governs that it I dont think it's something that helps me find new value.
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.
 
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...
 
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 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.
 


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.