Thanks for taking the time to stop by our booth and giving us the honorable mention. Good review of the show. You’ve got a great working knowledge of the Internet. The question you asked the “gentleman” from @utorevenue.com makes that very clear. Thanks again, and keep in touch.

-Blake

I’m in line with your thinking. I’ve been considering dropping back down to the
featured listings.

From 2005, working the (lesser) Premium package, to 2006 working the Partner
package, my accredited AutoTrader sales increased ONLY 1.4 vehicles
a month. Was this due to being a Premium partner or due to having a larger
selection of used car inventory in 2006?

Thinking about this, I dug a little deeper and compared JUST my Pre-Owned
Mercedes vehicles sold from 2005 to 2006. I did this because we are a Partner
with ONLY Mercedes-Benz, this means my non Mercedes vehicles are listed in the
Premium displays and not the Partner (top) displays. I recorded a .3%
(basically none) increase in Mercedes Pre-Owned sales on the 2006 Partner
package over using the 2005 Premium package.

So what about my Non-Mercedes-Benz? From 2005 to 2006 my increase in AutoTrader
accredited sales increased .45. I looked at this for the simple fact that maybe
my Partner Mercedes listings helped filter customers into our Non-Mercedes
inventory. This obviously was not the case.

I also tracked the average gross of our Pre-Owned Mercedes-Benz over Non
Mercedes-Benz AutoTrader accredited sales. My Pre-Owned Mercedes sales gross
averaged $200.00 over my Non Mercedes sales gross. An increase, but not a huge
one.

So..according to my reports, spending another $1,000 or so more for the Partner
Listings is not making much sense.

AutoTrader would be quick to argue this due to the fact that you get a Banner Ad
with the Partner and not the Premium. How valuable is that banner ad, especially
when dealers and consumer have to deal with

stuff like this? I track my banner ad CTR (click through rate) every month
and if I were paying just 200.00 per month for my banner ad on AutoTrader, I
would be averaging around $3.77 per click (Ouch!). I believe that the
banner ad has some branding value to it but I’m not sure what price tag you
place on it and there really is no way of tacking it unless you are sending the
customer to your dealer website from your banner ad and you are able to track
the conversion form there.

If I’m not mistaken the Partner package also allows you more then 9 photos
and this could be a benefit that gives you a slight advantage over other
dealers, though most dealers paying for the Partner listings still only display
9 photos or less. I would always use this as an excuse to get a customers email
address. “Mr. Smith, share with me your email address, I have 15 more photos of
this car I can send you.” Then send them a link to the photos on your website.

Now AutoTrader is offering their

2007 products and I’m sure they have all new pricing to go along. I know it
seems like I’m hard on AutoTrader but I guess when you’re one of the “Big Guys”
everyone has their eyes on you. Overall my ROI makes total sense with AutoTrader
and I’m not looking to drop them unless they price themselves so far out of the
market, though that seems to be their trend, especially for smaller dealers like
mine.

(I might make this into a separate posting)

All this talk about Autotrader.com. I have been a big believer of “featured listings”. About 1/2 the cost of premium listings. If you actually put search criteria that an actual car shopper would use (example Mercedes-Benz C230 in a 25 mile radius), Your featured listing will still show on the first page of listings. You can use the $1,000 you save monthly on Dealix or another lead provider. Just some thoughts from an old-school ISM.
-Pete

Thanks for the, ah, forthright review of Amy Auto. That’s the great thing about the internet.

I understand how you feel about avatars. I’ve seen some that were really creepy. However, we are creating a new kind of avatar to make the online process more human and humane.

And we had a tremendous response at NADA, receiving hundreds of business cards, and had hundreds of people who scanned their badge in our gizmo and said they love Amy and the whole concept.

Many dealers want something fresh in their business, a way to reach out to more potential customers, and differentiate their website. They literally want to present a new “face” to the world.

Dealers’ first request is to make it easier for people to find the info they want, with a responsive, friendly, intelligent interface. Eventually, dealers want consumers to be able to take the online purchase process as far as the consumer likes: info > comparison > customization > price > tax > insur., without having to talk with a pushy salesperson. (This is coming from dealers, not us.)

Cheers,
Glenn Sanders
__________________
Offc: 650-964-4112
Cell: 650-996-9904
glenn@amyauto.com

There seemed to be a good number of new pricing features on the floor this year. Maybe that is because it was on my radar, but many of the inventory and F&I providers were highlighting some sort of pricing convenience feature in their systems. I didn’t really take good notes of who, but I do recall seeing a good bit of this in many booths.

eBay has done a good job with the PR of their new Local product and an even more impressive job coordinating their pilot program with all their certified providers. I have every confidence that eBay’s new program will succeed because of how it is being approached.

I had the chance to speak with a gentleman at Autobase CRM about Microsoft and it seems that MS could have a beta product as early as this summer. This is definitely something to keep an eye out for.