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#21
Mike, I know of at least 7 to 8 similar platforms/systems, but then that's my job. None of them are exactly the same, all are very similar.

I do not feel comfortable discussing any of this in detail as that is my job and what the company where I work gets paid to do.

And, no I'm not looking for any business out of this. I'm an employee and it is not my job to sell. I was involved quite extensively with consulting work in the auto industry recently, found this site (Jeff does a great job with it), and I continue to monitor it even though I do not have any projects in the industry at this moment (you never now what will come next week). I've become fascinated with the Auto Retail space as it is behind many other industries with regard to the Digital age and marketing approaches/applications.

I'm watching to see how things develop and what path the industry takes. I'm very curious to see what evolves next. This site seems to be a great indicator of the feel of those on the edge of change in the retail auto space and that is why I come here to read and ocassionally post.
 
#22
I thought Hal 9000 was burned up by the sun?
all kidding aside wouldn't you need a dealer group such as carmax to make something like that work? I could see where someone like amazon would need to buy many different keywords since they seem to stock the world but many of us only have a franchise or two.
Maybe I am wrong?
 
#23
Hey guys:

All great stuff! This is why these sites are so fantastic because we can all learn all the time from eachother.

Mike, thanks for the insight you bring to the table. We all appreciate it.

To speak to this point..."I can tell you with a high level of confidence that a manually managed program simply cannot compete with these sophisticated systems. The number of calculations and adjustments that they are capable of making in a day are inconceivable for a manually operated platform to undertake. "

The beauty about this statement is it's truth. That's why I must point out that TCD is surely a solution to that exact problem. It is a super simple, easy to use inteface for the novice internet user, that allows them to quickly and easily control the direction of exactly the complex algorythyms an calculations you speak of.

That's the beauty and simplicity of the interface which Google has been raving about during our many meetings in VT.

As always, it's a pleasure to be a part of the information sharing here.

Mike DeCecco
 
#24
Mike,
Had a rep for ReachLocal in my office today trying to sell me (someone did try to warn him)

Nothing he said to me today was very surprising except when he told me that TCD operates on their platform.

Hadn't heard this before and was curious as to your response.

To answer Albert, while there aren't that many of us in the automotive industry that do what I do, no software or system can replace the experience and the ability to operate on a "hunch" based on experience and most of all, nothing of that sort can take a risk or chance. Its impossible for the inhuman to act human in that way.

When one of those systems tells me it's adjusting my budget based on a commitment I'll make next week or because my buyer went a little overboard at the auction, I'll stand up and listen.
 
#25
Billy:

Great question. Our very successful last generation Dominator platform which we are still supporting and have hundreds of dealers using does use technology in partnership with Reach Local.

Total Control Dominator is not affiliated with Reach Local in any way.

Reach Local is a strong search company and our relationship has been and will continue to be a strong one, but TCD is 100% Dealer.com.

TCD is the culmination of years of very hard work from some very talented folks working in our headquarters.

Thanks for the post Billy
 
#26
I think there have been many good points here. In response to the above posts regarding Dealer.com and TCD, I think once someone goes through TCD they realize that it is far more than they thought it would be and far more simple too...

I may have missed some comments due to my quick read of all the posts but I wanted to point out that the TCD system does automate the bidding process and very much like artificial intelligence it gets smarter and smarter over time. It actually learns what works for your market and bids at better times and watches what keywords generate more phone calls and leads and focuses on those rather than just simple clicks. Every TCD solutions comes with built in phone tracking so we are actually basing the results off of true lead generating by watching the customer path all the way through the website and phone lines. This also makes it easy for a dealer to judge the true quality of the lead since they can see and hear the calls generated. And yes we do deploy very advanced algorithms to calculate the estimated results and bid and re-bid on behalf of dealers.

The other VERY important aspect is that the TCD system actually dynamically creates ads based on inventory in stock, removes ads as the vehicles sell and reposts new ads as they arrive into inventory. Think about this for a second..... your ads are generated for what you can sell therefor raising your conversion rates and closing rates dramatically!!! You can attempt to do this but at the end of the day you will need 12 people in a room watching hundreds of vehicles, thousands of keywords and measuring the effectiveness of every ad, daytime, nighttime, weekends and more for every dollar spent. A human just cant do it as well. With many dealers achieving 5 dollar leads on TCD and launching highly customized campaigns for specifics vehicles, parts, service and more it would be nearly nearly impossible to think it could be cost effective to go out a learn how to do this instead of taking advantage of such a proven solution that has 6 years of R&D and millions of dollars behind it.

I would love to take this offline and try to avoid the shameless sales pitch (such as above) but I am just as excited as Mike D since this truly is the holy-grail of automotive advertising.

Mark Bonfigli
President, CEO
Dealer.com, Inc
 
#27
Mark & Mike,
Let me clarify some things regarding my opinions.

While I do acknowledge the benefits of TCD and programs like it, I just don't feel they can take the place of human interaction. There are too many factors involved for any software, system or program to run a campaign the way I would.

There are so many different and unique things I do regarding SEM that I don't see anyone at all doing anywhere. Some of those are methods most of you would scoff at without trying.

While I surely won't say there's noone better, I will say noone has been doing it longer than I. My style, while unorthodox (hence the reason for most of my opinions) has allowed me to take different domestic stores in 2 very different markets in a very challenging market and perform at levels only a few of the import stores in our DG are performing at.

As with most everything else, I'm sure TCD is not for everyone. The percentage of those that would greatly benefit from your product is certainly greater than with most of the others out there.

Guess there really is an oddball in every crowd.
 
#29
Billy,
Think Hybrid.

Retain your SEM methods, ADD TCD to efforts, you'll have a 2 pronged attack that will further confound your competitors!

Personally speaking, to do SEM by hand (and do it to its fullest potential) is a full time job. H*ll, just tweaking the copy alone can triple the visits. I'll admit it... I WANT help.

Joe
 
#30
Henry Mac - you're right. It just happened that I haven't heard of any other SEM programs like Dealer.com's in the automotive industry, but I thought it was still worth talking about......and maybe raising the stakes a little more.
 

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