Which 3rd Party Lead Companies Are You Using?

[ajholland]

I apologize if this has been brought up in another thread, but I thought it would be interesting to get a feel for which online sites/companies we all choose to use. With the tremendous amount of vendors we all hear from weekly, maybe it would be helpful to share our experiences.

Currently we are only using AutoTrader.com. We have a couple Partnerships and the rest of our stores are Feature Plus. It is working OK, not great, but not bad enough to warrant a cancellation. We were on Cars.com but cancelled it earlier this year.

How about you guys?
Cars.com?
Dealix?
AutoUSA?
Autobytel?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I've used them all - in the end, most of them are about the same really. You will sometimes find some spots of real success at times.

The worse are the 3rd Party Leads that the manufacturers get involved with. These are usually the bottom fed leads that result in a low conversion.

I'm currently using AutoBytel and AutoUSA at my dealers by default. All accounts were established when I go there. I initially was going to go with 1 provider to keep it simple since there was no real different in the closing ration between the 2. But it hasn't been a top priority so I continue to use both.

I have used Dealix in the past with success as well.

Of course measurement of success with 3rd party leads can be a gray line.

I view 3rd party lead providers and inventory listing services as 2 different mediums. AutoTrader and cars.com do not fall under my definition of 3rd party leads providers.

All my dealers are on AutoTrader and Cars.com. Overall we have success and a positive ROI with each as an advertising medium.

Most 3rd Party Leads are higher in the purchase funnel, therefore take longer to close. Get these customers on your dealers website asap (if your dealer website is up to par). Also consider incentivising these leads to SHOW.

 

[ajholland]

I would agree, ATC and Cars.com should be viewed differently from Dealix, Autobytel, etc. Different types of services.