i know this won't be a popular post but i believe in a well rounded marketing campaign and 3rd party providers are part of it. If I was back at a dealer I would run my own analytics, SEO, SEM, and pay the guys I know to generate leads for the market I can't reach. Will I compete in some arena's, yes but I will also gain. Yeah, I agree selling impressions sucks and I don't care if it doesn't change my bottom line I don't want it. Keep in mind sites like cars.com and AT.com are driven by price, placement, inventory, and pictures. If I was a dealer I would love for you to cancel it in my area because I knew how to work them.
Take this for example.....
I was a new car internet guy. One year i met a really savvy used car manager that bought a lot of really nice clean cars right off lease. He was use AT.com and Cars.com to price his cars. He showed me a lot but the process sold me cars. I sold 20+ used cars a month from calls and emails from at.com and cars.com. Keep in mind this is a store that only kept 40 to 50 used cars on the lot. Atlanta is a competitive market but this guy knew the science.
My suggestion, learn what the science is in your market. Make it work! If you have a good rep ask him/her what you can do to improve the leads. Why would someone click your ad over the others? Thats what you have to ask. I think we all know that form leads are on the decline and thats why these guys are adding chat. I have dealers getting 500+ chats a month from 1 provider. You can't tell me they don't feel they are getting their money's worth. That doesn't even include calls and emails.
Another thing I don't understand is why don't some dealers count calls from 3rd parties as leads? they only judge based on email leads. On the same note....are you entering all the calls in the CRM?
There are so many working parts that it is easy to blame someone else but if your machine isn't working properly their won't (for you). I have been on the dealer side and on this side. I find myself standing up for dealers a lot but one thing I have noticed is if something isn't working maybe it isn't the source. It could be a broken process. We are so willing to do A/B testing on our sites but not on our vendors. try new things....test it.
When it comes down to it you will never get as much traffic to your site as cars.com and AT.com.
Thats my two cents....I love you but its the truth.
