My previous post explained the importance of converting your vendors to a pay-for-performance ad model. That is, knowing your cost per lead across your various online traffic sources. When it comes to measuring your cost per lead, we see top performers achieve at $70 while typical dealers perform around $100. But once you have those […] [Read More]

Edmunds.com announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with Humankind Design, which stood accused of fraud and breach of the Edmunds.com membership agreement in a lawsuit filed last month in Texas. The site recapped on Wednesday that it filed the suit after it investigated what it said was Humankind’s registration of almost 2,200 fake […] [Read More]

Dealertrack Technologies announced Tuesday afternoon that it will acquire Customer Focused Marketing, a customer relationship management and marketing services provider. Dealertrack entered an agreement to purchase “substantially all the assets” of the company in a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. [Read More]

TrueCar revealed Monday it has hired a new vice president of investor relations and administration. Filling the VP role is Alison Sternberg, who will manage investor relations and serve as the conduit for all investor communication with TrueCar in the newly-created position, the company shared. Moreover, she will also develop the company's administrative functions, working […] [Read More]

Auto/Mate Dealership Systems announced this week the full integration of its AMPS Dealership Management System with yet another vendor, providing real-time data exchange between the two systems. Dealer-FX is the most recent vendor to integrate its automotive retail marketing and software solutions with AMPS as part of Auto/Mate’s Open/Mate program. Dealer-FX offers auto dealers service […] [Read More]

Automotive digital marketing company Strathcom Media recently promoted a new way for Canadian dealerships to increase their online exposure. With its new syndicated data service, the company says dealers can  “increase the online exposure of their inventory without increasing their budgets.” The Used Cars Canada (UCC) Network (usedcarscanada.com), allows dealerships to post their vehicle inventory […] [Read More]

Reynolds and Reynolds revealed an acquisition for the second time this week on Thursday. This time, the company announced its documents services division acquired Virginia-based Orlando Business Systems, which provides business forms to dealerships. Terms of the acquisition were not released. “Orlando Business Systems has built a solid presence in serving automobile dealerships with business […] [Read More]

You probably know that 50 percent  of your new-car buyers and 59 percent of your pre-owned buyers found your dealership online. Your online vendors are likely bringing you reports and presentations justifying all of the money they are charging your dealership to attract those buyers online.  These reports show an alphabet soup of metrics (“SRPs”, […] [Read More]

Identifying dealership assets, and generating more revenue — those are among the goals of a new product introduced by Dealer Live this week. The company says its new automotive BDC is designed to help dealership management identify dealership assets, maximize revenue-generating opportunities, build customer loyalty and increase sales initiatives by pulling information from various sources. […] [Read More]

Sirius XM Radio has officially launched its Service Lane program that aims to build on the momentum of the SiriusXM Pre-Owned Vehicle program while providing participating dealers an extra selling point for their service shops and a chance to drive customer loyalty. Service Lane offers a free two-month subscription to SiriusXM for qualifying customers who […] [Read More]