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

[MakaiMorais]

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.

 

[Ralph Ebersole]

Going through our lead bills again and wanted to compare notes.

Cars.com, CarGurus, Autotrader/KBB, TrueCar, OEM leads, whatever you have in the mix.

Not looking to beat anybody up. Some of these work in one market and fall flat in another.

What are you guys running right now?

Roughly what are you paying, and what are they really producing after the duplicates?

I’m less interested in CPL than appointments, shows, sold units and cost per sold.

Which sources are still worth the money?

Which ones are on the bubble?

Anybody cut one recently and realize you didn’t miss it or cut one and regret it?

Rough numbers are fine.

You will find for 3rd party it is market driven. Cars is stronger in some-many are the old newspaper markets; Trader in others, etc.