- Nov 4, 2026
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- Ibrahim
Founder of DriveDrop here, so take it for what it's worth. Cost per sold still lies if half your buyers never filled out a form. Pause one source, watch total sold, then decide.
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Which third-party lead sources are still worth the money?
- Thread starter KennySmithAutoUnite
- Start date
✨ AI Highlights
Dealers compare ROI across third-party lead sources like CarGurus, Autotrader, Cars.com, and TrueCar, with the central debate being how to measure true incrementality rather than duplicate-inflated cost-per-sold figures. A key insight is that pausing a source for 30-45 days and watching total store sales—not just that source's attributed sales—is the only clean way to tell if a vendor is generating real demand or just intercepting buyers who would have found you anyway. Facebook Marketplace emerges as an underreported free channel, while organic search and market geography are flagged as major variables in whether any paid source is worth keeping.
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