See You Later Autotrader!

[Stefan]

Forget about the notion of "leads" for a sec...

Imagine there's a brand-new TV Channel: the CAR CHANNEL. All they do on this channel is show cars. They advertise the hell out of this channel, and attract millions and millions and millions of people who are interested in cars.

How much would you be willing to pay to advertise your store on this channel?
How much would you be willing to pay to have them show YOUR cars on this channel?

Last month on http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f21/autotrader-cars-com-kbb-2320-6.html I posted:

We purchased almost all Alpha Positions and Power Positions available in our market. When I asked for the increase in budget, I asked two questions:

What is the value of 1000 people seeing your ad/name/inventory?

What is the value of 1000 people LOOKING FOR A CAR seeing your ad/name/inventory?

People go to this websites to look for cars. I want my ad/name/inventory everywhere.

I still think this is are questions that we must ask ourselves all the time, however, lets not forget #UncleJoe and D I S C

Let me go on record and say: I DO NOT encourage any dealer to cancel Cars.com, AutoTrader.com, Craigslist or any other major player that lists our inventory! I did it because in my market I cant find a way to justify it.

 

[kcar]

Forget about the notion of "leads" for a sec...

Imagine there's a brand-new TV Channel: the CAR CHANNEL. All they do on this channel is show cars. They advertise the hell out of this channel, and attract millions and millions and millions of people who are interested in cars.

How much would you be willing to pay to advertise your store on this channel?
How much would you be willing to pay to have them show YOUR cars on this channel?

Depends on how much value there is... If there's hundreds of dealers count me in, if there's tens of thousands of dealers count me out. Not going to pay $10K/month (for example) for that if I can spend the $10K elsewhere and see better returns. (As that method failed already, time warner cable's auto on demand.. And their CarSoup was it? Which also failed..) But besides the point.. That's like putting your name in a business card bowl and having hope that out of the hundreds in there someone will see yours.. But you're also paying to be in the fish bowl.. So you pretty much lose every time and a few times you'll get lucky.

 

[kcar]

I'm all for branding though.. I'll put the dealership name out there a million times to ingrain it into people's heads, even if it means I won't so much benefit in the short term. Long term goals always appeal more to me.

 

[john.quinn]

Depends on how much value there is... If there's hundreds of dealers count me in, if there's tens of thousands of dealers count me out. Not going to pay $10K/month (for example) for that if I can spend the $10K elsewhere and see better returns. (As that method failed already, time warner cable's auto on demand.. And their CarSoup was it? Which also failed..) But besides the point.. That's like putting your name in a business card bowl and having hope that out of the hundreds in there someone will see yours.. But you're also paying to be in the fish bowl.. So you pretty much lose every time and a few times you'll get lucky.

Kcar, I believe I went on-record a while back and identified you as a very bright young man.

This is certainly not one of your more lucid moments.

So the schmucks down the street and across town determine the "value" of the property?




The "value" is determined by the amount of people viewing the property -- as is all advertising -- and was discussed in the original scenario.

And as the point of the question obviously zoomed right on by like Carl Edwards' qualifying lap, let me simplify:

Dealers spend $5k, $10K, $20K +++ per month on TV ads on Sports programs, Prime Time dramas, Evening News, etc without a prayer of tracking leads, traffic, sales, etc. Soooo.... if they had the opportunity to place their spots on a wildly popular channel that attracts nothing but people who are interested in Cars, would they deem those same dollars as well-spent?

If you need additional paint for this picture, see Stefan's excellent assertions above.

 

[ddavis]

This is certainly not one of your more lucid moments.

John, did you say lucid and Kcar in the same thread?

If your looking at comscore or some other AT supplied marketing material, they will fail to point out some key differences. 1.) Cars.com syndicated inventory across a network of sites that don't get rolled up in standard 3rd party reporting tools. 2.) Cars.com mobile business now accounts for 30% of our total site reach and also doesn't reside in 3rd party tools as most analytical tools report server side data that doesn't include the mobile web or apps. The best source would be to compare VDPs - and by my quick math I estimate that Park Place is paying in the neighborhood of $0.12 per VDP.

12 cents per VDP? I think most dealers could live with that. While I am still working on the marketing on my websites, AutoTrader and cars.com, could I just pay ya'll 12 cents per VDP? If you agree, I can use it as leverage to get the same from AutoTrader.

Shhhhhh ...one of my friends on AutoTrader said she was reading this.

 

[joe.pistell]

Fact: you cannot attach a sale to a single ad source,
(THINK sales PATH, and, there are MANY paths to your store.)

Fact: closing the path from 1or2 of the largest automotive classified sites will cost you sales.
(quantity unknown)

Fact: you won't begin to see the full impact for 4-6 months
(closing automotive shopping cycle path)

Fact: if you're wrong, it'll take 4-6 months before your error is corrected
(opening automotive shopping cycle path)

Fact: you'd better be right, you're talking 52 weeks to un-wind your error

 

[Stefan]

Fact: you cannot attach a sale to a single ad source, (THINK sales PATH, and, there are MANY paths to your store.)Fact: closing the path from 1or2 of the largest automotive classified sites will cost you sales.(quantity unknown)Fact: you won't begin to see the full impact for 4-6 months(closing automotive shopping cycle path)Fact: if you're wrong, it'll take 4-6 months before your error is corrected(opening automotive shopping cycle path)Fact: you'd better be right, you're talking 52 weeks to un-wind your error

 

[ddavis]

Fact: you cannot attach a sale to a single ad source,
(THINK sales PATH, and, there are MANY paths to your store.)

Fact: closing the path from 1or2 of the largest automotive classified sites will cost you sales.
(quantity unknown)

Fact: you won't begin to see the full impact for 4-6 months
(closing automotive shopping cycle path)

Fact: if you're wrong, it'll take 4-6 months before your error is corrected
(opening automotive shopping cycle path)

Fact: you'd better be right, you're talking 52 weeks to un-wind your error

Still less than two months in my new gig. I have spent a lot of time on my display advertising. I am just now getting all of the new AutoTrader packages online. Still having issues with my pictures and videos. New CRM and call tracking not set up. Doubled my internet staff. Met my Cars.com rep and was impressed. My AutoTrader rep is also great. Lots of start up issues but that was expected. Already, I see an increase in the amount of traffic that is coming from the display advertising. It is in the form of leads, phone calls and walk-in traffic. At this point, I just want to see traffic. Lexus has the worst website in the industry. It's the roadblock to a sale.

Joe, Considering your time table, I'm looking forward to the next couple of months. Will have a lot more new and used car inventory to sell from. Lexus was crushed by the disaster in Japan. Looks like a big allocation next month.

Obviously, display advertising doesn't work for everyone. The real key to it is voodoo.

 

[ryanabbott]

Still less than two months in my new gig. I have spent a lot of time on my display advertising. I am just now getting all of the new AutoTrader packages online. Still having issues with my pictures and videos. New CRM and call tracking not set up. Doubled my internet staff. Met my Cars.com rep and was impressed. My AutoTrader rep is also great. Lots of start up issues but that was expected. Already, I see an increase in the amount of traffic that is coming from the display advertising. It is in the form of leads, phone calls and walk-in traffic. At this point, I just want to see traffic. Lexus has the worst website in the industry. It's the roadblock to a sale.

Joe, Considering your time table, I'm looking forward to the next couple of months. Will have a lot more new and used car inventory to sell from. Lexus was crushed by the disaster in Japan. Looks like a big allocation next month.

Obviously, display advertising doesn't work for everyone. The real key to it is voodoo.

Could this be because it's the end of February, almost March? Traffic should be picking up everywhere around this time. Heck, our traffic is through the roof right now, and it's not because of a certain vendor. It's because it's almost March! Every market is different. Losing a vendor is not going to make or break your business. With the money saved (it's a LOT by ditching Autotrader), you can make up that traffic easily somewhere else.

 

[ddavis]

Ryan, weather in Phoenix only effects traffic in the summer when it is incredibly hot. We have an seperate indoor showroom to present cars during the summer. One of my stores, on Saturday, had the best day they have had in two years. No seperate advertising.

I am getting a lot more traffic from my display ads than I can identify through the ROI report. Let us know how you "make up that traffic easily somewhere else" You might read Joe's comments above.