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Which third-party lead sources are still worth the money?

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#11
The "cut one and didn't miss it" question is the most useful one in here and I'd almost run it on purpose. Cost per sold still gives a source credit for buyers who would have found you anyway, especially with duplicates where the same person shows up from three places and whoever fires last gets the credit. Pausing one source for 30 to 45 days and watching total sold, not that source's sold, is the only clean read I've found. Usually a chunk of what looked like it was producing turns out to be intercepting demand that already existed.
 

✨ AI Highlights

A GM and automotive group leader opens the thread asking peers to share real performance data on third-party lead sources — Cars.com, CarGurus, Autotrader/KBB, TrueCar, and others — measured by cost per sold unit rather than raw CPL. Contributors push back on CRM-only analysis, urging GA4 referral traffic reviews and call audits before cutting any source, since poor process (unanswered price questions, weak appointment asks) often masquerades as poor source performance. Practical ROI frameworks using gross profit per source emerge as the consensus measurement standard, while a tangential discussion surfaces around AutoUnite, a new platform the OP is developing to pass buyer research context to dealers alongside the lead form.

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