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A quick jaunt through our reports in January proved most fruitful.  I was very excited to see that more than 20% of our customers enjoyed 30 or more appraisal leads for the month of January. The start of a new year tends to be a beleaguered time for dealerships, especially in the Northern states.. As consumers make dates at the health club, and place light wallets (fresh off holiday spending splurges) on the shelf… car purchases are usually not quite top-of-mind; especially with tax season around the corner when dealerships do see a nice boost in web traffic and sales.

While 2012 showed a small rise overall in reported sales and transactions across the country, we know that it’s still very much a ‘wild-west’ and not back to pre-recession rates. And when things are thin in the showroom, lead generation is the crucial key to making or breaking your business.

With that being said, we know just how important it is then, to convert the web traffic (which ain’t cheap!)  into qualified leads. And for 1 out of every 5 dealership partners using TradeInVelocity… seeing between 32-124 leads in a slow month has only led to good things.

We reached out to some dealers to find the HOW and the WHY behind their success. For more on what we learned, check out out blog here.

Happy Friday!

Google Enters New Car Lead Generation Business

Another prediction that I wrote about has come true.  Change is in the air again at Google.  Paid Search just took a big step forward or backwards, depending on how you think.  It's called "Google Cars"

In November 2011, I wrote about a product called "Google Advisor" which will change the landscape of paid search marketing for new car sales.    It has taken a very long time for this product to get off the ground.  This type of product has been around in the mortgage lead generation business for years.

Well the Google Advisor product for automotive leads is here and it has a name: Google Cars.

I finally was able to see the product live today and so can you.  Just change your browser location to Zip Code 94301 and conduct a search on Google with this phrase:

Palo Alto Toyota

What you will see might shock you, as Google has clearly entered into the new car lead generation business.  I created a few screen shots to explain how the model works, and I am sure this will be evolving.  I would love to get your opinion on this strategy and if you would be interested in testing this new service.

San Francisco Bay Beta Test of Google Cars

Currently, this product is only available in the San Francisco Bay area.  We will find out when this will open up to other markets.   This is only for new cars and it requires a dealer to provide and inventory feed of their new cars.

Google Cars Inventory Model Results Page

When you Click on the first photo of the Toyota Camry in the red box above, you will be shown this page 

Google Cars Pricing Info

If you click on the "Google Price Info" link, you might get a chill down your spine, like TrueCar did for car dealers.  

The Google Price popup box is shown on the right.  If you click on the "Learn More" link, you can read about how these prices are determined.

The "regional price paid" data according to Google comes from data shared by dealers to the DMV in their state.   Here is what Google says:

Regional price paid tells you how much the vehicle you want tends to sell for in your area. It is calculated from real new car sales in your area over the past 90 days, as reported by dealers to the DMV.

Regional price paid is specific to the make, model, trim, packages, and options shown. It includes destination charge; it excludes taxes and fees. It may include incentives and other promotions running at that time that may have impacted the average price paid."

Google Cars VDP

When you you click on a specific vehicle, you will be taken to a VDP page that looks like this:

Google Cars Email Contact Options

And when you click to contact the dealer, you have three options.  Clicking on the "Email Dealer" choice reveals this screen.

Notice that the consumer can easily select other local dealers to quote on the same vehicle.  Today, I have no details on how this advertising product works and the costs associated with it.  Give me a few days.

Source - http://www.dealerelite.net/profiles/blog/show?id=5283893%3ABlogPost%3A305517&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post

http://www.dealersynergy.com

CarWoo! is an online new-car buying service and marketplace. Buyers come to CarWoo!, state which car they are looking for and CarWoo!’s network of over 5000 dealers compete to sell the buyer the car.

Technically the product is an semi-anonymous (first name, last initial, zip code) engagement tool. The buyer’s personal contact information (address, phone number, email) are kept private until the buyer accepts an offer from the dealer they want to buy the car from. This helps the consumer avoid spam emails and unwanted phone calls that are common when people buy new cars using “Request a Quote” processes many other online sites use.

CarWoo! has two plans for car buyers. CarWoo! Basic, a $19 plan, offers buyers a search for a vehicle and guarantees 2-3 dealers will compete. CarWoo! Plus, a $49 plan, offers buyers a search for a vehicle and guarantees 5 dealers will compete, but is not capped and as many as 15 dealers have participated in many deals. Both plans offer the buyer privacy protection and CarWoo!’s 100% Happiness Guarantee.

For car dealers, CarWoo! offers the highest quality online car buyers to the dealer for no charge. Dealers are offered the opportunity to engage with car buyers in an online setting that is social and non-threatening to the car buyer. A dealer that uses CarWoo! has an online dashboard where they can engage with all car buyers near them, make them firm offers on cars they have for sale and see how their offer’s stack up competitively against dealer’s vying for the buyers business.