Why Dealers Need VDP Clicks

Let me start this conversation with a full disclosure of why I am writing this. I sell New/Used Car leads and VDP Clicks for Auto Dealers. Now that I have explained my agenda her is my pitch.

I really think that there is a lack of understanding of just how impactful a click-through can be to a dealer. To me, the value proposition is not fully understood. Here is what I mean by that.

20 years ago a dealership was a very simple place. Dealers attracted customers through advertising conventionally and drive by traffic, that is it… If we break this down into buckets we can see how a blend of this is what made dealers successful.

Conventional advertising. This was typically done through normal channels of TV, Radio, Newspaper and Mail. For this advertising to be effective it also needed to be paired with an offer or event such as a specific sale or giveaway. Advertising this way was very expensive and dealer never fully understood that the expense of advertising this way was derived from two sources.

The ad itself. What was the cost of the commercial, display ad etc. This cost was really to get the customer’s attention and for branding. The effectiveness of this spend was usually tied to a KPI associated with the medium. How many viewers, readers, recipients or overall eyeballs. This is the component that we provide in our traffic/click offering for FREE!!! We don’t charge a penny for the impression at all. This is huge! If a customer sees the dealer branding on one of our sites but does not follow the click path there was no charge to the dealer. This is no different than the consumer that sees or hears an ad but does not act immediately. This branding is paid for by the dealer in a conventional advertising method but not in our offering.

The offering. To compel a consumer to act on advertising there needs to be a call to action. This call to action is usually tied to a giveaway, a deep discount etc. The expense of this giveaway or the reduced profit (Sale!) to entice the consumer is an actual cost to the dealer that they generally don’t account for or consider. Click customers are generally still in the information gathering stage and are more likely to click into the VDP/Website for information gathering initially and not a “Race to the Bottom’ to start a price war. This click is most similar to a showroom visit that customers used to perform for an initial test drive and maybe to pick up a brochure. Dealers were happy to see this showroom traffic as it verified the effectiveness of the advertising spend. These customers may not buy immediately but went into the “Funnel” to be followed up for a future sale. If historically a dealer spends in excess of $300 in advertising per sale and closes at 30% math tells us that the dealer spends $100 for a showroom visit. Consider a click to be a showroom visit in today’s business climate.

Drive By Traffic. This is the most expensive traffic that a dealer can usually get considering all of the expenses associated to get a customer to visit your dealership without any previous engagement or advertising. Here are some of those costs. To engage with one of our customers the only thing needed from a dealer is a website and a vehicle for sale.

Positioning. I feel that when we discuss how we can help a dealer and specifically start to build our their offering we need to make it a two step process. We need to separate the offering into a short and long term play.

Leads. We can explain to the dealer that leads tend to close earlier and based on the overall expense we should consider a territory where a dealer can reasonably expect customer to willingly drive to the dealership to transact. To be effective I feel that the lead needs to reside or work within the dealer’s PMA or maybe one or two away at most.

Clicks. This is the tool we need to position as our growth and conquest component. When mapping out a plan with out dealer we need to position clicks as a longer sales cycle and also cast a wider net both in geography but also in makes/models. As a former dealer I will happily pay for a VDP Click into my F150 when a customer is searching for Silverado. In fact I would also be happy to pay for a click from a customer on my F150 when they were looking at a used Camry previously. Clicks=Interest…. The dealer needs to be reminded that impressions are free…

Adjusting the dealer’s mindset. Currently these dealers are getting inundated with web traffic. This is a knee-jerk reaction to the pandemic but I believe this extra traffic will sustain if the dealer works on their online presence TODAY… The is organically more online traffic today than there has ever been because the masses are working from home and have an abundance of free time online. The savvy dealer that understand this today will be set up for long term success going forward and her is how.

Finish this sentence. Two All Beef Patties Special Sauce lettuce Cheese Pickles Onions on a _________ _______ _______. Consider that the jingle you just played in your head hasn’t been on TV in 20 years. Smart dealers have an opportunity to create incredible brand awareness now while all of the traffic is online. This awareness will carry them for years if harnessed properly. Here is how.

                                                              i.     IP Addresses. Most dealers are extracting IP addresses when customers are online and using this information to re-target the same consumer on different sites.

                                                            ii.     Google ID’s If the dealer can actually compel the customer to do some additional clicking on the site after the initial VDP there are tools that will extract Google ID’s and then re-target through social media.

                                                          iii.     Email engagement. If the dealer can somehow get the customer to engage through any of these methods they will then have an opted in email address that they can use for marketing long term.

All of this for $2.00 per VDP Click.