Subi,
I will say in defense of what ATC did that in the last couple of years knowing where the customer came became impossible. At the same time dealers were used to get a piece of paper, a report, of ATC phone calls, and that determined its success. As a matter of fact ATC for years discriminated against radio, TV, etc by showing the phone call reports. When that ended, a solution was needed.
The solution is not easy, it actually sounds like a trick, but I have seen the same happen to CraigList--less calls but customers that come to the dealer mention CraigsList. I even see that in the magazines for low priced cars, less calls but customers come with the magazine at hand. The reality is that customers research more and call less.
An effort to track better in conjunction with a good CRM was needed starting 2 years ago.
ATC somehow came up with this solution when it is not the answer, to have faith that customers come if we advertise here ?!
While I believe that ATC still a very valid source for many dealers in many areas what probably troubled the managers of the company is that traceability equals value to pay. Without proper proof the reality os that many other sources can claim to have affected the lead and that will have in turn and effect over how much dealers are willing to pay to be on ATC.
