1. Managing for Profitability
Tracking and Measuring Media Value in the Online Age
Ralph Ebersole
Director, Automotive Consulting and Dealer Training
2. Today’s Presenter
• Ralph Ebersole
• Director, Automotive
Consulting and Dealer
Training, Cars.com
• 30 years automotive
industry experience
• Featured speaker at
industry conferences
4. Today’s Objectives
• In today’s workshop, we’ll discuss:
• Identify what to track and why
• Develop a strategy for tracking your
investments
• Assess and calculate ROI for various
marketing channels
• Compare value across various online
advertising mediums
• Determine next steps
5. Define Your Media Goals
• Identify clear goals for
each marketing
activity
• Define the metrics
associated with each
media channel
• Branding
• Traffic now
7. Great Ads Build on Great Process
• Streamline
merchandising with
an established
process for:
• Uploading
inventory
• Taking and posting
photos
• Pricing vehicles
• Writing sell copy
8. Process
Steps to a Sale-Walk-in Steps to an Internet Sale
• Greeting • Greet the Customer
• Needs Analysis/Manager intro • Open inventory/Needs
• Brand Value Story Analyses
• Select the right vehicle • Obtain name and contact
• Vehicle presentation information
• Demo Ride/Trial close • Build Dealership Value
• Trade Appraisal • Sell the Appointment
• Ask for the sales • Make Appointment
• Intro to F&I • Confirm Appointment
• Delivery /into to service
9. Branding
• Frequency
• Reach
• Cost per thousand (CPM)
• Effective CPM (ECPM)
• Use earnings to compare
different types of online
ads
• Earnings are the great
equalizer
10. Traffic Now
• SEM
• Cost per sale
• Click to site - site to
store - close
• Cost per click X site
conversion rate X
close ratio
11. Traffic Now
• Pay per lead
• Cost per sale
• Quantity and quality
• Cost per lead X close
ratio
12. Traffic Now
• Virtual Inventory
• Listing sites, dealer web
site, etc.
• Cost/detailed page view
• Five links to the store:
• Phone
• Email
• Website transfer
• Walk-in
• Chat or text
13. Set Media Expectations
• Before you can measure performance,
you must define what you want to
achieve
• Align objectives with expectations
• Communicate program goals within the
store and with your marketing partners
14. Objective-Based Measurement
• Know what to measure
• Traffic, sales, impressions
• Quantity, quality
• Measure all of what you are getting and
all of what you are spending
• All forms of traffic
• Ad costs, creative costs, management
costs
21. Compare Costs
• Average cost per vehicle sold: $610*
• Cost per sale from leads
• Sales from electronic leads
• Cost per sale from SEM
• Cost per click X conversion rate X close ratio
• Cost per sale from inventory display
• Sales from internet leads, phone, walk-in
* NADA Data, May 2008
24. Tracking Tools
• Lead Management /
CRM
• Phone monitoring, Congratulations! You’ve just purchased a new vehicle! Please take this time to help us better reach our future
customers by telling us about yourself:
recording, tracking tools Date: _______________________
Did you purchase:
New
Used
1. Please tell us about yourself:
Zip Code
• Post-sale surveys
City
2. Which Website(s) did you visit/shop online for your vehicle before coming to us? (Check as many as
applicable)
Cars.com KelleyBlueBook.com MSNAutos.com Manufacturer
Site
AutoTrader.com Edmunds.com Dealer Website
Other Sites Visited:
• Ad views, map prints 3. Which radio station(s) do you listen to?
1.
2.
3.
6am-10am
6am-10am
6am-10am
10am-3pm
10am-3pm
10am-3pm
3pm-7pm
3pm-7pm
3pm-7pm
7pm-10pm
7pm-10pm
7pm-10pm
4. Which local new channel(s) do you watch?
• Website tracking
1. AM Noon 4pm 5pm 6pm 9pm
2. AM Noon 4pm 5pm 6pm 9pm
3. AM Noon 4pm 5pm 6pm 9pm
5. Did you consult the automotive ads in the newspaper before shopping for your vehicle?
Yes
• Third-party reports
No
Which Newspapers?
6. Which cable network(s) do you watch?
25. Estimating Walk-in Traffic
• 1 in 3 shoppers on a
used-vehicle site will
visit your store versus
calling or sending an
email*
* J.D. Power and Associates, Dealer Satisfaction With Online Buying Services Study, August 2008
27. Tracking Implementation
• Who will manage the tracking process?
• Internal staff (e.g., GM, SM, BDC, ISM)
• External agency
• How will metrics be tracked?
• How will the information be shared?
• Audience, frequency, format
28. What to Calculate
• Sales opportunities created
• Cost per vehicle sold
• Total and by source
• Closing percentage
• Dealership total and by traffic source
• Sales gross
• Dealership, source and individual sales rep
29. Steps to Improve ROI
• Align ad buys with opportunities
• Branding
• Traffic now
• Rank advertising opportunities for cost
effectiveness
• Determine point where cost of
additional traffic exceeds its value
30. Fine-Tune Your Process
• Use
measurement
data to identify
areas in your
process that
need to be:
• Refined
• Replaced
31. Develop Staff
• Use measurement
data to:
• Evaluate salespeople
• Motivate team
members
• Improve sales results
• Either change the
person—or change the
person
32. Optimize Campaigns
• Improve marketing effectiveness by:
• Increasing spend with partners and channels
that drive business results
• Eliminating spend with vendors who
repeatedly fall short of expectations
• Reallocating spend with partners and
channels that allow you to economize without
compromising results
33. Review
• “You can’t manage what you can’t
measure.”
• If it moves track it.
• If you track it measure it.
• If you measure it—hold your people
accountable
• Either change the process or change the
person
