Comments on: Generators Vs. Aggregators: Who’s got the Glenngarry Glen Ross?

By: JackalLion

JackalLion — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:52:01 +0000

Billy, your service obviously will beep the antenna of any ISM listening. So list your contact info so they know how to find you and get on the path of becoming your long term partner…

By: Billy

Billy — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:25:08 +0000

Having played on the dealers side of the fence for 15 years I understand many of the frustrations you all are currently expressing. I know how hard it is to sell a car, I’ve done it. In a perfect world 3rd party lead generation would be, 3rd party sale generation. I don’t want to speak out of turn or upset anyone on the site, but I would love to express the direction of my company. I have been in business for 5 years as a generator. Over the last 120 days I’ve started to aggressively pursue dealers for a retail relationship. Our mission is simple. If we produce SALES for our dealers at a PROFIT, they will keep us around forever. My goal is simple I want to get paid by the dealer only when they sell a car, PERIOD. I don’t feel anything else matters. So I ask many of you in the room, Does anything else matter? We sell sales not leads,not referrals, not clicks or anything in between. We generate 100% of our traffic online and will be happy to show our dealers exactly where the lead is coming from. I brand my dealers 100%, no hidden agenda. I need them to be successful and sell cars, because I get paid for SALES. Again, with my program the dealer only pays if they sell a car to my referral. We are tied to the dealers success everyday all day. If I want a raise it is there for me, I just have to send the dealer more SALES. We have just eclipsed 170 dealers and are growing everyday and have had our bumps along the way. I know it’s hard to believe but there are numerous dealers who don’t call or email leads. That is tough, when I’m putting my money where my mouth is. I front the advertising money to generate the traffic to grow their business and they let the leads hit the floor. I want long term partnerships with my dealers. I care about growing their business and sending them SALES. So in closing I ask anyone or everyone to respond, Is there a place for me in the industry?

By: Seth Winterer

Seth Winterer — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 05:59:10 +0000

Mitch, in response to your post:

“P.S.: Come talk to me in five years when all the dealers are doing as you’ve suggested, and the CPC to get in the top 3 for a term like “Pleasantville Honda Dealer” is $6.50 because there are 15 dealers competing on that query. If every dealer ran dedicated PPC campaigns, it would be anarchy. Your industry is in a very convenient spot right now.”

A positive thing about the pay per click model is that the value of a customer acquisition/conversion helps keep click costs in check because most companies who are bidding on the same terms have a similar value of a new customer/conversion. If every dealership was bidding an exhaustive amount per click then none of the dealerships would continue running PPC anyway because of the diminishing ROI. However, Google also has something called a quality score which helps keep click costs in check based on how relevant the search term is & content on the landing page. If 15 dealerships are bidding on the same term each dealership may be prompted to bid a different amount as a minimum bid based on how relevant the search term is to the content of the ad copy and most importantly the content of the webpage the traffic is being driven to.

I don’t see an issue w/ the search engines becoming over saturated w/ ads because of the measures that are already in place w/ relevancy.

By: Shaun Raines

Shaun Raines — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:21:08 +0000

Unfortunately, lead generators can still provide more leads at a very fair price than SEM campaigns run by the dealership or an agency. This trend like many within the automotive internet space will evolve, but it will take some time. If you’re a dealer that wants/needs supplemental leads, you owe it to yourself to take a good look at lead generators. The one I’m most familiar with won’t even charge you unless the lead is completely legit (valid contact method and actually in market for a vehicle).

By: Brandon Hoffmqn

Brandon Hoffmqn — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:19:32 +0000

Any company can claim results. I’m not hear claiming i’m the best or that I got any dealer 801 phone calls for $5,000 and calling each of those phone calls a lead. Meaningful case studies are backed by a name. I deal with over 100 dealers at an NY based advertising agency. Ive seen some reachlocal clients do well, ive seen others do horrendously (just like any other advertising program, no advertising works 100% of the time for anyone) but ive never seen ridiculously high results as are claimed in this case study.

Provide 1 name of a dealer that got results even close to as high as this case study.

By: Rob Murtland

Rob Murtland — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 22:46:38 +0000

I know because I see it all the time.
For you to say that ReachLocals posted case studies are likely fictitious is a bit of a slanderous stretch, don’t you think? I do.
Do you honestly think that the dealer in that case study would like to be identified so his competitors find out what their doing, then have the likes of you calling them on the phone to verify?
Get real.
I’m calling you out?..please, enough drama already..give it a break.
I would gladly wave my fees and run a $5000 campaign for any dealer out there who wants to see the highest returns possible from a paid search campaign. Then, since your the “Real SEM Vendor” you beat my results… theres a call out for you Brandon, AKA Brad, AKA xBMANx AKA????? Put your money where your mouth is.

By: Brandon Hoffman

Brandon Hoffman — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 15:26:36 +0000

“Those results are from a real dealer, and a real campaign.”

How do you know? YOU didn’t conduct the campaign!

Rob, I am calling you out, name this dealer so we can verify these results!

By: Rob Murtland

Rob Murtland — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:35:02 +0000

Brandon, or should I call you Brad?

You can call me a reseller, a vendor, an agency, call me anything but a lier. Those results are from a real dealer, and a real campaign.

Speaking of fictitious, I have copied and pasted an inquiry that came in from my website concerning this thread.

Is it just me or are there some similarities between this inquiry and Brandon’s post above?
——————————————————————————-
Email: bman46@g____.com

Name: Brad Kowal

Phone: **********

Comments: Rob, i saw your post about a dealers campaign you ran that
generated 801 phone calls for $5000. I work for a dealer and would
like to see some proof of this as we would be interested in
advertising with you. Are many of these calls to sales & service?
Please send case study via email.. Thanks
——————————————————————————-
Thankfully all the other inquires I received from this debate had phone numbers and email addresses that identified where they worked.
But I humored “Brad Kowal” anyway by responding professionally.

By: Brandon Hoffman

Brandon Hoffman — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:56:44 +0000

Yes ReachLocal is an SEM vendor but you are not. Those case studies you are pointing at are reachlocals case studies. Give us the dealer name (which you can’t because its probably fictitious) and I will call to confirm these results with them.

xBMANx

By: Rob Murtland

Rob Murtland — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:46:13 +0000

Brandon,
Proof of my stated results are available on my website.
Click on the orange link labeled Case Studies where it says “see actual campaign results here:” or on the lower left of the home page where it says Activity Reports. There you will find the all the campaign activity for the $5,000 campaign that generated 801 phone calls, along with a couple others not dealer related.
The keyword portfolio used for this campaign was focused on new and used vehicles, not parts or service. There still may be a small number of calls for parts or service. Even if only half of them were for sales, your still looking at a cost per lead lower than the $16-$21 Mitch mentioned he’s paying.
Would you consider ReachLocal a SEM vendor? Just curious.