Your sources for Car Sales Leads are vast.  You are solicited constantly with the next best way to get a car buyer.  So how do you pick the best source or combination of sources that work for you?  Well, this decision is based solely on your internal business process for handling leads, and what type of customer you choose to target.  Having a really good feel for both of these is necessary or your leads will be wasted.    We have found that if a car dealership focuses on an effective process for their handling and/or generating leads, they will sell more cars than the competition.

Need more car sales leads?  The best way is to advertise, or buy leads directly.

If you are a franchise store or an independent store with an advertising budget, paid advertising is probably the number one way to generate more Car Sales leads.  Again, your process for handling these car sales leads will tell you if the cost is worth it.  Buying leads and skipping the advertising is also a good option.  Doing both is most beneficial, and can give you a good idea as to what works the best with your dealership and process.

TV Advertising

The most expensive to buy and not easy to measure, especially, if commercial does not have a call to action, i.e., call now, go the website, etc.  For franchise dealers co-op funds usually cover the expense, but if you do not know if it is generating a customer, what good is it?  Branding, maybe?  You can achieve that with less expensive methods.  Cable channels and OTT ads are low cost, but we have found that lead generation numbers are low, probably due to lack audience in the streaming community.  And for this type of advertising, you will need an experienced media buyer.  This is key or these dollars will be wasted.

Digital Advertising

If you are not dedicated at least 50% of your advertising budget to this medium, you should be.  Lead generation online is cost effective, and reaches more audience than TV, and this tread will more than likely continue.  It is also better for targeting and measurement.  In other words, just more flexible.  And there are so many choices, which will warrant another post to address this topic.   You can do this on your own if you have the staff (marketing department).  Or you can hire an agency with a proven track record.  Word of caution:  if you decide to advertise your inventory, make sure you can track activity.  Some of the big guys direct traffic to bigger fish leaving you hanging.

Radio Advertising

Still an effective way to advertise like TV, and audience reach is really good.  It is expensive, but some ad agencies sell quite a bit of radio and their customers sell a lot of cars.  My issue with radio is like TV, in that you cannot directly attribute the lead to the radio commercial unless you screen all your customers.  Some car dealerships just like the increase in sales and do not care.   This type of advertising usually requires an agency to get the best rates and to make a really good ad.  Radio stations like TV claim they can do this for you, but I would not recommend it.  If you are going to spend money on radio, make sure it works.

Third Party Leads

Lead generation companies for car sales are numerous.  They can be a good choice for boosting car sales.   Again, success with these leads depend on many factors.  The type of lead is also a factor.  These leads can be generated by all of the above mentioned paid ads.  You are just passing on this responsibility to someone else, and just receiving the lead that you can hopefully convert.  There are two different types of car sales leads, so make sure you buy the ones that will work best with your goals and processes.

Subprime Leads

If you serve the consumer with less than perfect credit, these leads can help you sell more cars.   Working these leads does take effort, but if you have a good process, lenders, and inventory, you will be successful.  Focus generates more subprime leads than any other provider, and our customers are having success.

Prime Leads

These are often called internet leads, but there are others, such geotargeted leads, facebook leads, or inventory leads like the ones sold by Autotrader or CarGurus.    These leads are the most desirable, but hard to obtain in any type of quantity.

No matter what route you choose, you will need an agency to help you unless you have fully functioning marketing department.    You will also need a lead provider.   We are the only agency (we know of anyway), that sells both advertising and leads.  Let us know if we can help you increase your car sales.