Yago, I worked in both Phoenix and Dallas where AutoNation has a strong presence. Among all of those stores, there isn't a market leader in either market. In Dallas, there are family owned stores that kill them. Am I wrong? Can someone tell me about an AutoNation store that dominates the market?
My entire dealer group just canceled Cars.com. More lead providers to come!
- Thread starter SeanWoodruff
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- Dec 30, 2009
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- Yago
A discussion for another time but I think Autonations goal is not to be the leader on every little market but combined nationally.
The obvious long term goal would be driving as much of direct traffic to your website/brand as possible. A LA carmax
However our marketing budget comes nowhere near close to cars.com. Hence, if you have the "perfect" inventory with some attractive pricing, these third parties would be extremely beneficial.. Cars.com is a no-brainer for us when you compare the marketing dollars spent to the amount of vdp's generated. (which also helps push some organic traffic)
Cheers
However our marketing budget comes nowhere near close to cars.com. Hence, if you have the "perfect" inventory with some attractive pricing, these third parties would be extremely beneficial.. Cars.com is a no-brainer for us when you compare the marketing dollars spent to the amount of vdp's generated. (which also helps push some organic traffic)
Cheers
- Apr 7, 2009
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- Joe
IMO "PPC done right can't fail".
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/...-marketing-best-practices-1934.html#post15735
PPC is easy, 'Done Right' is all about strategy.
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/...-marketing-best-practices-1934.html#post15735
PPC is easy, 'Done Right' is all about strategy.
Joe, How many dealerships do it right? How many stores are building landing pages like you suggested for the handicap vans? ...1 in 100 maybe 500? We are still talking about stock photos vs. real pictures. You said that you were spending 10% of your budget for PPC while the Dataium/Cars/com study suggests that dealerships are spending over 50% of their internet budgets. They are spending half of their budgets to bring customer to websites that aren't sticky?
The top position, in paid search, will get 6% of the clicks on the page. I believe that the top three positions, in paid search, is only 10% combined but obviously nobody is going to click the back arrow and click on all three. If anyone clicks on any of the positions on the far right, they ring a bell at Google.
If their website sucks, which is often the case, what does it matter? Dealerships will continue to spend huge amounts of money on paid search but not invest the time and effort on their websites.
I'm visiting a Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram store where I built a description library for their new vehicles. I met a couple that was looking for a Wrangler to pull behind their Motorhome. They had an older Wrangler and we talked, briefly, before I called one of the sales managers for a salesperson. I had told them some of the improvements (there are many) to the new Wrangler. When the salesperson arrived, one of the first things he said was they didn't have any manual shift Wrangers, I pointed to one that was on the lot. I knew because it was a suggestion that they order some stick shifts. The whole time that he was with the customers, he had both of his hands in his pockets. He never test drove them in a Wrangler and told the Sales Manager that they had to first buy a Motorhome, first, which was a lie. These people were eating the paint off of that Wrangler.
This salesperson was not trained. The only thing worse, is thinking that you can hire "tour guides" to replace salespeople which has come into vogue even on DealerRefresh. In Biblical times, people had eunuchs to run their households. I understand why they wanted these people, with their many wives. I don't understand why you would want them running a dealership.
The top position, in paid search, will get 6% of the clicks on the page. I believe that the top three positions, in paid search, is only 10% combined but obviously nobody is going to click the back arrow and click on all three. If anyone clicks on any of the positions on the far right, they ring a bell at Google.
If their website sucks, which is often the case, what does it matter? Dealerships will continue to spend huge amounts of money on paid search but not invest the time and effort on their websites.
I'm visiting a Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram store where I built a description library for their new vehicles. I met a couple that was looking for a Wrangler to pull behind their Motorhome. They had an older Wrangler and we talked, briefly, before I called one of the sales managers for a salesperson. I had told them some of the improvements (there are many) to the new Wrangler. When the salesperson arrived, one of the first things he said was they didn't have any manual shift Wrangers, I pointed to one that was on the lot. I knew because it was a suggestion that they order some stick shifts. The whole time that he was with the customers, he had both of his hands in his pockets. He never test drove them in a Wrangler and told the Sales Manager that they had to first buy a Motorhome, first, which was a lie. These people were eating the paint off of that Wrangler.
This salesperson was not trained. The only thing worse, is thinking that you can hire "tour guides" to replace salespeople which has come into vogue even on DealerRefresh. In Biblical times, people had eunuchs to run their households. I understand why they wanted these people, with their many wives. I don't understand why you would want them running a dealership.
- Dec 30, 2009
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- Yago
Harry,
I strongly agree with that point.
Not every failure is the result of the 3rd party site but also that the inventory we have needs to match the average user of that site.
- Nov 20, 2010
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- Frank
