That is very wise. I believe that we should not give up on resources. We should just look at more resources and cut back a little. In other words, do not put all of your eggs in one basket. Expand, get your name out there and let the community online know your dealership and build an awareness. This is why I believe in using both cars.com and autotrader.com instead of one or the other. This is why I believe in using Dealix and AutoBytel. Instead of focusing on one, split your budget and try a little of everything. Maybe I am wrong but I feel that the more resources you tap into the bigger your outcome with be. Get your SEO/SEM working properly and let the whole world know that you are one of the top internet dealers in the country or you are the highest volume dealer in the area or the country. Excitement and awareness brings traffic and sells cars.

He said:

“Alex, it isn’t where you advertise, it is where you’ve advertised. If you change something it will affect business for a short while until people get used to your change.”

-other post is here: http://www.dealerrefresh.com/death-internet-director/

We do have a group that manages the interactive marketing platform including two IBDM’s, a Marketing Director, our CRM/IT guru, and our Agency Representative. Sometimes the ‘layers’ can get in the way but we have found it to be largely beneficial overall.

Looking forward to your post on the subject!

Edward – marketing isn’t just one thing or one site. It is a broad picture that tells a story on many different levels at many different places. You never know what piece of the mix will be the part that motivated that consumer – even if that consumer tells you (he probably doesn’t even know). So you have to be in a number of places.

Don’t believe that cutting back on one thing caused less cars to be sold. Are you privy to all of the dealership’s marketing expansions, schedules, and cuts? Did a radio spot end a few days before something was cut on a website? Did your television ad change?

We, as an industry, have siphoned these “Internet Departments” off into their own little corners and are either pulling the rugs out from under them now with major cuts or just doing anything the “Internet Manager” says to do because “he knows that online thing”. We need to bridge the gap. I think dealerships need a person, or group of in-house people, to handle their entire marketing platform: traditional, online, and internal (yes, internal: PR, CRM, IT). In fact, I think this is going to be the next article I write.

Sorry Edward, I got off on a tangent and didn’t even conclude the tangent. The answer about what part of the per car advertising cost should be directed toward online resources is a personal one. It requires someone with the complete picture to figure out what works best for your dealership.

I actually envy you getting to listen to Cory go on a “tangent about something about something else”…he is always ahead of the curve! And the rest of the assembled group – must have been a real treat – kudos to Cars.com for their choices!

My 2 cents on the measurement thing…I can totally see the metrics working in the new car arena – those of leads/sales/ratios/costs etc. We have invested an incredible amount of time and effort in making that information as accurate as possible at our dealerships.

I don’t think that it tells the whole picture pertaining to pre-owned advertising, however. A funny thing hapened on the way to the internet…we attribute more and more sales to “the internet”, but we don’t ever seem to sell more cars overall.

If you just look at the traditional metrics for pre-owned, the cost per sale is astronomical for the two big players, Auto Trader and Cars.com…it even led some of our stores to drop features from both (which did ultimately cost us sales). We ceratinly look at the traditional measures as one component of evaluating our pre-owned online spend, but we have slowly come to the realization that we don’t spend significant $$ anywhere else to advertise our pre-owned cars.

I guess my question is this…does anyone else (outside of AutoTrader.com – I must’ve drunk the KoolAid) look at it this way? If so, what percentatge of the traditional $300 – $450 advertising cost per car should be attributed to internet in pre-owned?

I also think that there is a great post/discussion lurking about the whole “lead scoring” / “microtargeting” topic – I am looking forward to that one!

Dan Perry
SEO Manager
Cars.com