One Thing a Dealership Can Do to Increase Web Leads
I wrote a post back in the summer comparing two similar dealers in the same market to illustrate the impact of web design on lead generation. One dealer was doing a lot better than the other in generating web leads despite similar traffic numbers. After listening to a year of complaints about how bad business is, I finally convinced the dealer with the “worse” website to take my advice and redesign it according to my recommendations. The site content was not changed much at all, only the page layouts, some graphics, etc. It’s amazing how small changes can impact business so much. Here are the actual numbers from the three-week period immediately before the change compared to the three-week period immediately following the change:
Before:
Site Visitors: 1452
Pageviews: 10,212
Contact Forms Submitted: 7
Credit Apps Submitted: 9
Overall: 1 lead for every 91 visitors
After:
Site Visitors: 1599
Pageviews: 10,716
Contact Forms Submitted: 24
Credit Apps Submitted: 41
Overall: 1 lead for every 25 visitors
The site statistics have not changed much at all, but by making some adjustments to the site layout, this dealer has increased his conversion rate to 4 times the amount it used to be. We run into these sort of problems on a daily basis. A dealer may want to do something on his/her site that they think is a good idea, but I wish more dealers would listen to those of us who have been in the online media industry and have seen how much business these type of “mistakes” can cost. Going off the last 3 weeks stats, let’s assume this particular dealer had 27,716 visitors for the last 52 weeks. If they had the same conversion rates they see since the redesign, that would be 1108 leads. With the old conversion rates it would only be 304 leads, a difference of 804 for the year. As a dealer you know your closing ratios, so would it be worth it for you to make a small change and have a crack at an extra 804 car shoppers over the year?
Best Used Car Classified Site #8
Previous post on this topic
Which Classified Site Works Best to Sell Cars #7
Lead #9: Another lead from Craigs List came in yesterday. This shopper said they ready to buy immediately but had a few questions. They want to know the VIN, location, maintenance records, financing ability, and “more information”. I supplied them with the info they requested so we’ll see what happens.
Autotrader.com – 1
CraigsList.org – 4
Cars.com – 2
AutoExtra.com – 0
Google Base – 0
A Dealership Website – 1*
Kijiji – 1
* Denotes the lead originated from an affiliated site not listed above
Autotrader Producing Smaller Returns, Raising Rates
Once a year there is a post that comes up on Dealer Refresh about Autotrader.com raising rates again, and it always causes a lot of dealer discontent to surface. I’ve made it clear in the past that I’m not a dealer, and I also worked for Autotrader.com for about two years. There are always people who think dealers should stop complaining about the constant rate hikes, but I am not one of them. Some dealers say the ROI from Autotrader.com is flat at best. Nothing speaks louder than facts and figures, so I decided to take a look at three random dealerships and compare a five-month period from last year to the same five-month period this year, and the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.
The three dealerships chosen at random are in different areas of Virginia between Virginia Beach and the Washington, DC area. Since each has a different number of vehicles on the lot and use different packages with Autotrader.com, I’ve tried to break everything down to a common denominator: leads per vehicle per month. Here’s what I found for these dealerships:
|
June through October
|
||||
|
2006
|
2007
|
Change
|
||
| Total Emails: |
428
|
291
|
(137)
|
|
| Total Calls: |
1634
|
1292
|
(342)
|
|
| Credit Apps: |
151
|
67
|
(84)
|
|
| Total Leads: |
2213
|
1650
|
(563)
|
|
| Total Vehicles: |
1111
|
849
|
(262)
|
|
| Leads/Car/Mo: |
1.99
|
1.94
|
(0.05)
|
|
Big difference? Not really, but over the course of the 5 months examined it does add up. For a dealer with 50 vehicles on the lot each month this translates into 12 less leads over the same period last year. A dealer with 100 vehicles on the lot would see 25 fewer leads over that period. Like I said, not huge numbers, but fewer nonetheless. The important thing to consider is that with fewer leads from the previous year, how is a rate increase justified by Autotrader.com? I submit to you that it is NOT justified, but as the 800-pound gorilla they’re doing what they want until the 900-pound gorilla shows up. Is the 900-pounder a Googlerilla? A Cars.comorilla? Time will tell, but it will happen.
Best Used Car Classified Site #7
Previous post on this topic
Which Classified Site Works Best to Sell Cars #6
Lead #8: Another lead from Craigs List today. This shopper was definitely looking for a deal. They supposedly drove 100 miles to look at another one yesterday – same year/make/model with similar miles. They asked me if they could buy mine for $5500 which is about $2000 below asking price. The justification: they didn’t want to drive 100 miles back to conduct the transaction on the other one.
Autotrader.com – 1
CraigsList.org – 3
Cars.com – 2
AutoExtra.com – 0
Google Base – 0
A Dealership Website – 1*
Kijiji – 1
* Denotes the lead originated from an affiliated site not listed above
Which Classified Site Works Best to Sell Cars #8
Traditional Media Generates More Buyers than Online?
I received my usual newsletter this morning from Auto Remarketing and one article really caught my eye. It says that according to a recent study, traditional media translates into more buyers than online advertising. These results are shocking to me, so I’m curious about the details of their research methodology. What cities/towns did they conduct their research in, and how exactly were certain markets weighted differently?
“Art Spinella, of CNW Research, found that used-car dealers are spending more money on the Internet than ever before. However, overall, most of the marketing funds are still going into traditional media, such as newspapers, spot TV and local radio”. This makes sense to me based on cost alone. Traditional media has been losing market share for years while online media has been gaining. The newspapers, TV, radio, etc. have had to combat this loss using significant rate hikes just to maintain flat revenue gains.
What surprises me is the finding that “more than 44 percent of people who entered a dealership and purchased a car or truck indicated traditional advertising methods were what drove them to a store”.
I’d like to learn a little more about this research, because frankly, I can’t believe some of the claims.
Best Used Car Classified Site #6
Which Classified Site Works Best to Sell Cars #5
Autotrader.com – 1
CraigsList.org – 2
Cars.com – 2
AutoExtra.com – 0
Google Base – 0
A Dealership Website – 1*
Kijiji – 1
* Denotes the lead originated from an affiliated site
Best Used Car Classified Site #5
Another day, another lead. I think I just found a vehicle for a third experiment so I’d like to get this one off the “lot” soon.
Lead #6: This guy was looking at the vehicle on the dealer’s website and called me direct. Of course I asked him how he got to the dealer’s site (which most dealers fail to do) and he said Cars.com. He was looking for a Jeep in the $7000 to $8000 range, had bad credit, and didn’t want to put a penny down on the purchase. Perhaps I should become a bookie with all these people calling who can’t get financed.
Autotrader.com – 0
CraigsList.org – 2
Cars.com – 2
AutoExtra.com – 0
Google Base – 0
A Dealership Website – 1*
Kijiji – 1
* Denotes the lead originated from an affiliated site
Which Classified Site Works Best to Sell Cars #6
Best Used Car Classified Site #4
Pricing has been reduced across all sites to $7599 to see what that does for leads.
Lead #4 Update: The person who I spoke with the other evening did finally submit a credit application through the dealer website, however it was for a different vehicle. Not surprising since a large percentage of shoppers end up in a different vehicle from the one they first inquired about.
Lead #5: Another Craigs List response. This woman called yesterday and told me her entire story about why her credit was bad and that she needed financing. I referred her to the dealer site for an application just like I did for Lead #4, so we’ll see if she gets sidetracked into another vehicle too. So far she has not submitted an application, but from what she was telling me it sounds like she should be approved (significant down payment, no repo’s, $45k annual salary).
Autotrader.com – 0
CraigsList.org – 2
Cars.com – 1*
AutoExtra.com – 0
Google Base – 0
A Dealership Website – 1*
Kijiji – 1
* Denotes the lead originated from an affiliated site
Which Classified Site Works Best to Sell Cars #5
Best Used Car Classified Site #3
Which Classified Site Works Best to Sell Cars #2
Lead #3: Someone found my vehicle on InternetAutoGuide.com, which is apparently one of the affiliates of Cars.com. I wasn’t aware of this site in the Cars.com network, but apparently others are. This person thought the price was a little high (no surprise there) but said he would like to check out the car on Friday when he’s in my area. We all know how “be-backs” usually turn out, even though he’s technically not a be-back, but I am changing the price and re-posting anyway.
My thoughts are that I’m getting some looks, and with a more competitive price it should sell fairly quickly. I’ll classify this lead as a Cars.com lead since it wouldn’t have come in without Cars.com, just like a Yahoo! Autos lead would be considered MSN. I’ll note the lead with a Barry Bonds asterisk as well.
Lead #4: Another person called this evening who saw the ad on Craigs List. Seemed to be legit, but had some credit issues and wanted to finance the car with $400 down. I told him to submit an application on the dealer site I also have the vehicle listed with. If he’s approved I’ll consign it with the dealer and let him make his money on the back end.
Autotrader.com – 0
CraigsList.org – 1
Cars.com – 1*
AutoExtra.com – 0
Google Base – 0
A Dealership Website – 1*
Kijiji – 1
* Denotes the lead originated from an affiliated site
Best Used Car Classified Site #2
Which Classified Website Works Best to Sell Cars #1
Lead #1: Kijiji sent a lead my way, someone who wanted to trade a motorcycle for the Jeep straight up. There’s a reason I don’t own a bike (30+ speeding tickets over the years) and I’d like to stay out of trouble.
Lead #2: The second lead came through the website of the dealer who allowed me to list the Jeep on his site. Someone applied for financing and was willing to pay $375/month for it. I was a little excited since there was room to work a deal, but the dealer pulled the person’s credit and they’ve had 2 repo’s (one in the last month), a bankruptcy, and an existing car loan. I was curious where the lead #2 originated from, so I did a little digging. This person didn’t actually see the Jeep prior to visiting the dealer’s site. He found a link to the site from another third party site, basically a local directory of car dealers.
My original plan was to feel the market out by starting high. It’s been two weeks and I think I should have received more than 2 leads for this vehicle, so I’m going to drop the price to $7599 and see what happens. I’m also reposting on Craigs List since I have a hard time even finding the vehicle on there after 2 weeks.
Autotrader.com – 0
CraigsList.org – 0
Cars.com – 0
AutoExtra.com – 0
Google Base – 0
A Dealership Website – 1
Kijiji – 1
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