YIKES! Autotrader Referral Traffic falls off a cliff in July 2018

[joe.pistell]

Thanks Kara for using all those words to say absolutely nothing.
You guys are moving at a snails pace and the changes that have been made are weak.
Saying you’re going to fix referral traffic implies something is broken.
Is something broken?

Woa dude, we're all in the same biz, easy goes it!
Mega corps like AT are not speedboats, they're giant ocean liners. Ocean liners and speedboats have strengths and weaknesses. Speadboats are fast and nimble but carry few ppl whereas ocean liners do everything slowly because they carry sooo many ppl (think inertia).

Don't look to enterprise vendors to drive innovation, all you can ask them is "please don't suck"

-Geoffrey Moore
Author, Crossing the Chasm​

 

[Chris Leslie]

I guess that’s why I shouldn’t post late at night.

But, what she is saying is no different than what anyone else has said over the last 5+ years.

They may be slow to change but they are sure quick to get paid.

 

[Alex Snyder]

@Chris Leslie don't let Joe's opinion delete your post. You are entitled to your opinion too and I think you'll find a lot of people agree with you. It is brave to take a stance publicly :thumbup:

 

[JamieS]

@Chris Leslie don't let Joe's opinion delete your post. You are entitled to your opinion too and I think you'll find a lot of people agree with you. It is brave to take a stance publicly :thumbup:

Especially because Chris' thoughts were exactly the same as mine

The main difference is I quietly rolled my eyes in a private office knowing that Kara's answer meant I wasn't actually going to get an answer. Chris probably expressed what a lot of us thought.

 

[Chris Leslie]

Its 100% how I feel. I mean if these guys want to be an "Innovative Tech Company" of some sort. they've done a piss poor job of it. I am done handing out empathy cards for web based companies who can't seem to get their crap together. We've all been listening to these same lines from AT for years and nothing has changed. They aren't the size of an oracle or IBM so as much as I respect your opinions I don't agree with you @joe.pistell on cutting them slack in this case.

Seems like everytime dealers call people out on their BS some rep from the company hops in the thread, vomits up some legal approved garbage, copied from their marketing materials and then vanishes.

I deleted the post cause I didn't want it to seem like I was personally attacking her cause im not. I'm attacking their half-assed attempt of engaging.

@Alex Snyder is there any way to undo the deleted post?

 

[Alexander Lau]

Its 100% how I feel. I mean if these guys want to be an "Innovative Tech Company" of some sort. they've done a piss poor job of it. I am done handing out empathy cards for web based companies who can't seem to get their crap together. We've all been listening to these same lines from AT for years and nothing has changed. They aren't the size of an oracle or IBM so as much as I respect your opinions I don't agree with you @joe.pistell on cutting them slack in this case.

Seems like everytime dealers call people out on their BS some rep from the company hops in the thread, vomits up some legal approved garbage, copied from their marketing materials and then vanishes.

I deleted the post cause I didn't want it to seem like I was personally attacking her cause im not. I'm attacking their half-assed attempt of engaging.

@Alex Snyder is there any way to undo the deleted post?

BINGO!

Fuck that, you should have left it. If they suck, they suck. Let's stop with the sugarcoating. Don't be pressured by anyone on this board. They're just trying to cover their lame asses, poor performance, connections and partnerships.

 

[Alex Snyder]

@Alex Snyder is there any way to undo the deleted post?

Your post is back.

 

[Baron Ringler]

Noticing a sharp drop in Referral traffic from Autotrader.com for my dealers across the country. Is everyone else seeing the same thing? Here is a YTD snapshot, with comparison to Cars.com and CarGurus.com. Have tried investigating causes, maybe their recent changes in SRPs, VDPs, etc. Any other ideas?

Case in point: I just finished reviewing the Autotrader contract for a store and found that they were charging $3500 PER MONTH for top billing in a territory that was an hour away. I cancelled it as a waste of money and lost no traffic. How did that happen? They were told to match up the contract for this store with another store owned by the same people (different brand). So because our other store was topped in THIS area for that brand they just matched up costs and added a territory that was meaningless to us. They just wanted the billing, not to take care of their customers. So that is how they are driving revenue, but they are not doing enough to drive traffic so they are starting to lose stores. As they lose stores, their revenue decreases so they increase costs to dealers, which causes more to leave, etc. Downward spiral.

The cost structure for Cargurus is much more reasonable, their advertising and branding is MUCH more effective at the moment, and Auto Trader is still wallowing in the Cox arrogance that is common with their companies.

 

[George Nenni]

Great news for dealers, Autotrader reverses decision to bury dealer website link, now returns it above the fold for both desktop and mobile! Keep an eye on your referral traffic, I'm already seeing it start to climb for my dealer-customers.

 

[Baron Ringler]

Woa dude, we're all in the same biz, easy goes it!
Mega corps like AT are not speedboats, they're giant ocean liners. Ocean liners and speedboats have strengths and weaknesses. Speadboats are fast and nimble but carry few ppl whereas ocean liners do everything slowly because they carry sooo many ppl (think inertia).

Don't look to enterprise vendors to drive innovation, all you can ask them is "please don't suck"

-Geoffrey Moore
Author, Crossing the Chasm​

He might not have been diplomatic about it, but there is a point to be made that simple things like attribution never crossed Auto Traders mind because they got arrogant and took their dealer body for granted. The a platform like Cargurus came along and they didn't respond. But now thy are being hurt, all the changes start occurring. Arrogance has been the downfall of more than one company and Auto Trader, Dominion in general, has worked in an arrogant manner. The question now is this: do they have the product enhancements coming to deal with the changing environment, are they looking beyond the short-term to avoid another instance of playing catch-up, and do they have the personnel in place that dealers will trust, when benefits are explained.