- Apr 7, 2009
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"The biggest thing that's stands out to me is the referrals to the website..."
And those are just the DIRECT referrals - not sure what market you are in, but that is hitting it out of the PARK!
And those are just the DIRECT referrals - not sure what market you are in, but that is hitting it out of the PARK!
I didn't see this when I posted. Must have been the same time. Those are some surprising numbers.
- Apr 7, 2009
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- Joe
I saw those numbers and RAN right to his site. 203 used units with 100 referrals... woa! Hes in Broken Arrow OK, outside of Tulsa. Map and Directions to Ferguson Buick GMC located in 1601 N Elm Place Broken Arrow OK 74012 888-735-9621 Only a handful of cars under $10k. No exotics or sports cars (aka dreamers).
Puzzled.
Puzzled, what do you mean?....I've ran these kind of numbers with autotrader for awhile...Is this high for the inventory mix?
Joe, they are an AutoTrader Alpha Premium dealer. Just looking at a couple of vehicles Sierra C1500 and the Acadia they appear to be using market-based pricing. Lots of pictures but no videos. Descriptions tell about the store and not the vehicle.
I used to do business with the Ford dealership down the road. Nice area and good people. The economy was not devastated. Oklahoma is a right to work state with low taxes and low unemployment. OU and OSU can afford to buy the best high school football players from Texas and Louisiana.
Doug,
We are Alpha with only GMC......doesn't do much to affect numbers(or I wouldn't think it would). Only when someone searches for a GMC...The picture of our store is on the loading page and the first page of the GMC searches.
We are Premium for Early models, GMC, Chevy, and Kia. All other makes are featured. We are featured on new kia, subaru, suzuki, buick and featured frontline on GMC.
We are Alpha with only GMC......doesn't do much to affect numbers(or I wouldn't think it would). Only when someone searches for a GMC...The picture of our store is on the loading page and the first page of the GMC searches.
We are Premium for Early models, GMC, Chevy, and Kia. All other makes are featured. We are featured on new kia, subaru, suzuki, buick and featured frontline on GMC.
Stephen, I didn't search anything but GMC. I bought about ever package that AT offered and it always was justified by our ROI. Obviously, it is working for you and there is no reason that you should expect it to go backwards.
Ed – Sorry about the delay in getting back to you on this. I’ll have someone reach out to you directly, but I wanted to also respond publicly, not only to answer your question - but to also keep the title of this thread alive in the DR communitiy. 
We often get questions regarding our metrics versus those of other sites, and I think it’s important to note that because the consumer experience differs from site to site, the metrics also often vary. We created a document explaining our methodology last year that can be found here. We realize that our methodology differs from some, but we always try to provide the most relevant metrics that we can.
As you probably know, we don't blend our search results to cite stronger new car intention in the marketplace. We know were a leader in the new car market vis a vis other brands. The request to break out Used VDPs specifically is a recurring request and one we hope to address within the next few months, and we’re also looking at a way to report on both unique and repeat used-car VDP impressions, which will hopefully be implemented sometime this year. Ultimately, we feel strongly that there is value in knowing your total number of VDPs, as repeat VDP impressions indicate a greater intent to buy. However, we recognize that it’s not always easy for dealers to measure their performance in a uniform way across the board and hope these changes alleviate those issues.
Questions about new-car metrics, on the other hand, are more difficult to answer at this point because we are two weeks away from rolling out the first wave of changes to the site experience for new-car shoppers, as well as launching significant enhancements to our online ad package.
In the research we’ve done around the new-car shopping process, we found that consumers care about more than just price – they’re evaluating your brand and reputation. Our goal is to align the experience on our site with that real-life behavior, giving you much more power to communicate your brand’s value and reputation to shoppers on Cars.com beyond a specific vehicle in your inventory. From a reporting perspective, that means that VDPs aren’t telling the whole story – how your brand performs in terms of exposure and engagement matters, as does how well your dealership stacks up against your competitors. Our goal is to offer metrics that tell the bigger story with the new Market Intelligence Report, which you’ll hear more about next month.
We often get questions regarding our metrics versus those of other sites, and I think it’s important to note that because the consumer experience differs from site to site, the metrics also often vary. We created a document explaining our methodology last year that can be found here. We realize that our methodology differs from some, but we always try to provide the most relevant metrics that we can.
As you probably know, we don't blend our search results to cite stronger new car intention in the marketplace. We know were a leader in the new car market vis a vis other brands. The request to break out Used VDPs specifically is a recurring request and one we hope to address within the next few months, and we’re also looking at a way to report on both unique and repeat used-car VDP impressions, which will hopefully be implemented sometime this year. Ultimately, we feel strongly that there is value in knowing your total number of VDPs, as repeat VDP impressions indicate a greater intent to buy. However, we recognize that it’s not always easy for dealers to measure their performance in a uniform way across the board and hope these changes alleviate those issues.
Questions about new-car metrics, on the other hand, are more difficult to answer at this point because we are two weeks away from rolling out the first wave of changes to the site experience for new-car shoppers, as well as launching significant enhancements to our online ad package.
In the research we’ve done around the new-car shopping process, we found that consumers care about more than just price – they’re evaluating your brand and reputation. Our goal is to align the experience on our site with that real-life behavior, giving you much more power to communicate your brand’s value and reputation to shoppers on Cars.com beyond a specific vehicle in your inventory. From a reporting perspective, that means that VDPs aren’t telling the whole story – how your brand performs in terms of exposure and engagement matters, as does how well your dealership stacks up against your competitors. Our goal is to offer metrics that tell the bigger story with the new Market Intelligence Report, which you’ll hear more about next month.
✨ AI Highlights
A dealer questions Autotrader's value after comparing cost-per-opportunity metrics across Autotrader, Cars.com, and first-party advertising, finding AT 2-3x more expensive while generating similar showroom traffic. The thread debates whether traditional performance metrics (calls/leads) fairly measure Autotrader's value, with disagreement over whether AT's high traffic volume justifies its cost versus its actual conversion to sales, and whether dealers should account for branding impact or focus purely on bottom-funnel ROI. Multiple dealers report canceling Autotrader subscriptions based on similar cost-per-lead analyses and in-house customer surveys showing minimal attribution to the platform.
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