What is a 3rd Party Lead Exactly? Let's come to a conclusion.

[Bill Simmons]

"What is your Show Rate and Closing Ratio on 3rd Party Leads?" - Your show rate and closing ratio on 3rd Party Leads (as I have clarified above) shouldn't necessarily be rolled-up with the performance of your Classified Vehicle Listing Leads. Wouldn't you agree?

When asked the questions above, how do you answer and determine the difference between a 3rd Party Lead and Classified Vehicle Listing Lead, or do you roll them up as one?

This is the part of this thread that has me changing my outlook on tracking. In all of our dealerships group managers meetings, all we chat about is overall internet lead closing ratios. So, we have been "rolling them up as one" Jeff. That doesn't exactly give us a good picture of how our stores are performing. For example, one of our stores processes a ton of purchased special finance leads and only gets about a 5% delivery rate out of it, bringing their overall closing rate down. When I subtract those leads out of the total, they are crushing it and doing a better job on other leads, such as the classified listing sites, than some of our other stores. This is a little off topic to the thread so let me get back on track and answer your original questions:

1st Party leads - Forms or chat conversions from our dealership website
3rd Party Leads - Paid for leads from sources such as TrueCar, Dealix, AutoBytel etc
Classifieds - ATC, Cars.com, CarGurus.
Factory Leads from OEM sites
Special Finance Leads

Have any of you established different benchmarks for these different leads types? If so, please share.

 

[Sarah Udelhofen]

This is the part of this thread that has me changing my outlook on tracking. In all of our dealerships group managers meetings, all we chat about is overall internet lead closing ratios. So, we have been "rolling them up as one" Jeff. That doesn't exactly give us a good picture of how our stores are performing. For example, one of our stores processes a ton of purchased special finance leads and only gets about a 5% delivery rate out of it, bringing their overall closing rate down. When I subtract those leads out of the total, they are crushing it and doing a better job on other leads, such as the classified listing sites, than some of our other stores. This is a little off topic to the thread so let me get back on track and answer your original questions:

1st Party leads - Forms or chat conversions from our dealership website
3rd Party Leads - Paid for leads from sources such as TrueCar, Dealix, AutoBytel etc
Classifieds - ATC, Cars.com, CarGurus.
Factory Leads from OEM sites
Special Finance Leads

Have any of you established different benchmarks for these different leads types? If so, please share.

That is exactly why I break it down....because I'm always going to expect less from things like 2nd chance (you never really know what you are getting), 3rd party (who tend to be more likely to cross shop your brand), to have a lower closing percentage. I just think it's extremely important to understand not only the big picture but what you are doing all across the board. Although your ROI might be there with closing only a couple of the 2nd chance leads, it might hurt the bigger picture. I just personally feel like I have a better understanding of my store and market when I break it all down.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

This is the part of this thread that has me changing my outlook on tracking. In all of our dealerships group managers meetings, all we chat about is overall internet lead closing ratios.

So, we have been "rolling them up as one" Jeff. That doesn't exactly give us a good picture of how our stores are performing.

For example, one of our stores processes a ton of purchased special finance leads and only gets about a 5% delivery rate out of it, bringing their overall closing rate down. When I subtract those leads out of the total, they are crushing it and doing a better job on other leads, such as the classified listing sites, than some of our other stores. This is a little off topic to the thread so let me get back on track and answer your original questions:

1st Party leads - Forms or chat conversions from our dealership website
3rd Party Leads - Paid for leads from sources such as TrueCar, Dealix, AutoBytel etc
Classifieds - ATC, Cars.com, CarGurus.
Factory Leads from OEM sites
Special Finance Leads

Have any of you established different benchmarks for these different leads types? If so, please share.

Thanks for chiming in Bill.

You're right about the special finance leads. They can bring your overall ratios down (unless you have one hell of a 2nd chance department). I'm not saying I wouldn't include the numbers in the reports but offer a simple way to back them out of the report to see performance by lead "type".

I like how you have your lead types broken out.

BTW - check out this post form the archives with over 25 comments -- Blueprint Series: Third-Party Lead Providers

Great question on lead type benchmarks...I'm wondering if that deserves it's own thread (?). For now - check this thread out for some industry averages - http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f5/car-dealer-industry-averages-2582.html