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The Ultimate VDP Thread - Metrics, Ideas, Design, and everything VDPs

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#11
Alex Snyder said:
I should have said "I look at the stuff I put on the website like an asshole" so I set my personal expectations to something a little more realistic. I wasn't clear in that - sorry.

As for the call to action, I'm with Joe - you have too many. If you had a single one that was clearly tied to the countdown timer people would put 2 and 2 together. Or kill the timer and just work on making the call to action more clear. Either way, there is a lot of noise.

Working with Dealer.com eh? Maybe Joe or I can help there ;)
Click to expand...


Haha no worries I knew what you meant! What call to actions do you recommend? And how would you guys recommend tying the timer to a CTA?
 
#12
One idea:

AutoFair.jpg

Less CTAs and move the countdown timer to a very close proximity to the price.

Also, removed 0's from counter, chose CTA buttons with the highest avg conversion rate AND made sure they would compliment the count down theme. Reduced sizes of CarFax and Autofair CPO to give CTA's a stronger signal for the eye (aka less competition).

In a perfect world, we'd have a unique 800 # for the VDPs with the countdown number too (to track countdown time ROI AND to listen to the calls to make sure they were productive)
 
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#13
reference:

1840d1387469975t-ultimate-vdp-thread-metrics-ideas-design-everything-vdps-countdown-timer-example.jpg
 
#14
This is a big issue on sites like Cars.com and Craigslist where a customer can type anything they want as far as features go. And I believe the customers that put in specific options into their searches are further down their sales cycle and these are the customers you want your vehicles to show up to. Get the SRP to drive the VDP's. Here is a 5 minute video I just did that is shows live searches on cars.com and craigslist that show what dealers are doing wrong
Your manufactures terms are costing you search results - YouTube
 
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#15
PaulS said:
Great thread Sean.

IMO the most important VDP metric is the Lead Conversion Rate, i.e. Number of Email/Phone Leads per VDP view.

Other "absolute" metrics such as SRP or VDP Unique Page Views are more indicators of how well your off-site marketing activities are performing (PPC campaigns, classified listings, etc) rather than how well your VDP itself is performing.


The primary purpose of the dealer website is to bring online customers into your store, and the VDP is that gateway between online and physical store. It should be optimized to make it as easy as possible for the customer to get in contact with you.


I still see so many VDPs with poor call-to-actions and poorly designed user experience (e.g. asking visitor to fill in a form with 10 fields if they want to enquire).
Click to expand...

I'd like to question you a bit more around your answers and opinions. I don't necessarily disagree with you but I do believe there's come additional great conversation to be added --

1. Why is "Lead Conversion" by email form / phone call the most important VS bringing/persuading the customer into the store by offering a great experience, on the VDP by desktop AND mobile.

Since we know only a small percentage (>20%) of consumers will ever fill out an online forum (as these percentage decrease over the last few years for the most part), one would argue that the experience the consumer is receiving pre-form fill is more important in driving the conversion to SHOW.

2. I agree with poor call-to actions. Lets step back and ask "why" are they "poor"? Mostly due to being old and stale. We've been using the same call-to-actions for over 15 years now...


  • Get your price quote
  • Get your e-Price
  • Get your internet price (bad)
  • Get your trade-in value
  • Request sale price
  • Schedule test drive (less performing)
  • Check availability (this was a good one for awhile and may still have some life to it)

I may have missed a few, but I've made my point. In one way or another our Call to Actions have not changed. Most are based around PRICE - Receiving a Price from the dealership.

Most consumers are going through their 3rd, 4th, 6th purchase while using the dealership website as a shopping tool. At one point or another most have responded (more than once) to the like call-to-actions, ONLY to find the process was NO different - the experience was the same (if not worse). It's unlikely they received a real price quote after giving up their information. Instead they were called and emailed over and over with no real answer to their questions.

The only outcome was those "4 words that make sales managers sound stupid".

I propose we remove ALL lead forms and replace the CTA with the a much different one Call-To-Action - something more engaging (like a stellar chat session) or an incentive that drives the customer physically into the dealer showroom. SOMETHING Different.

One PRIMARY Call-to-Action - not 13 CTA rainbow buttons lined up along the side of a vehicle photo. ONE primary engaging CTA that's gains all of the attention for possible conversion.

We have become industry - dealers and vendors alike, that measures their performance of their website and "internet marketing departments" by lead count alone.

I hear it all the time "How can we get more leads from our website?" "We need more leads" - meanwhile they have a less than average closing ratio and are clueless to what their lead-to-show rate is, since they're not even measuring it.

Why is that?
 
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#16
Jeff Kershner said:
2. I agree with poor call-to actions. Lets step back and ask "why" are they "poor"? Mostly due to being old and stale. We've been using the same call-to-actions for over 15 years now...


  • Get your price quote
  • Get your e-Price
  • Get your internet price (bad)
  • Get your trade-in value
  • Request sale price
  • Schedule test drive (less performing)
  • Check availability (this was a good one for awhile and may still have some life to it)

I may have missed a few, but I've made my point. In one way or another our Call to Actions have not changed. Most are based around PRICE - Receiving a Price from the dealership.

Most consumers are going through their 3rd, 4th, 6th purchase while using the dealership website as a shopping tool. At one point or another most have responded (more than once) to the like call-to-actions, ONLY to find the process was NO different - the experience was the same (if not worse). It's unlikely they received a real price quote after giving up their information. Instead they were called and emailed over and over with no real answer to their questions.

The only outcome was those "4 words that make sales managers sound stupid".

I propose we remove ALL lead forms and replace the CTA with the a much different one Call-To-Action - something more engaging (like a stellar chat session) or an incentive that drives the customer physically into the dealer showroom. SOMETHING Different.

One PRIMARY Call-to-Action - not 13 CTA rainbow buttons lined up along the side of a vehicle photo. ONE primary engaging CTA that's gains all of the attention for possible conversion.

We have become industry - dealers and vendors alike, that measures their performance of their website and "internet marketing departments" by lead count alone.

I hear it all the time "How can we get more leads from our website?" "We need more leads" - meanwhile they have a less than average closing ratio and are clueless to what their lead-to-show rate is, since they're not even measuring it.

Why is that?
Click to expand...

It's tough because I think everybody can agree that our CTAs are stale and redundant and the same at every dealership, yet I haven't seen any worthwhile new ideas or solutions to this conundrum. Customers want price, so we give them ways to get pricing if we can get their info. When they call in they usually ask "is this car available?", so we give them a way to check the vehicle's availability. Every customer wants to know what their car is worth, so we give them ways to do that. Almost NOBODY clicks "Schedule Test Drive", but I think most dealers don't realize this. We need some new ideas here, and to be totally blunt, ideas that involve "removing all lead forms" are unfortunately waaay too forward-thinking to be taken seriously by any dealerships.

What about this idea? What if you removed all your CTA buttons, and had just ONE form on your VDP. The form has typical "Name", "Email", "Phone", and then the last field says "I would like to..." and then there's a drop down menu with "Check Availability", "Get Sale Price", "Schedule Test Drive", "Make an Offer", "Get Pre-Approved", and whatever else might work. Here's a mock-up I made showing what I mean. What's your feedback on this?

page with one form with drop down and no buttons.jpg
 
#18
Sean,

Consider adding a single entry lead gen form at the footer. It rocks on my old site Used 2013 CADILLAC ATS For Sale Near Syracuse at the Used Car King | W22180.

2 lead gen forms are:
UCK-lead-gen.jpg

UCK-footer.jpg

The simple footer forms out performs the multiple choice form 2:1. This maybe because:

1). The CTAs on the multiple choice suck
2). The multiple choice form is too busy.
3). Form on the footer matches the shoppers place where the shopper is ready to convert.


HTH
Joe

p.s. Another variable is my VDP model has giant pics, and I push the lead gen forms to below the fold.
 
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