Yago Paramo

Automotive Entrepreneur

Month: November 2013

Is Craigslist’s charge change positive or negative?

For how we understand the world a “charge” a tax or any new form of payment can’t be hardly justified as positive but I think we need to look at where is CraigsList today and what could possibly happen once the change is implemented. The fact that CraigsList didn’t charge for postings made the flow of cars into their system a race for volume of postings. The dealers willing to invest the most time and or money seemed to have an advantage over the rest as their vehicles will show on the first 100 ads or they will take over a search. That race brought two problems; first it forced the rest of the dealers to either leave or also escalate their posting efforts. Dealers had to post more to remain relevant. But the resulting and second problem brought by this was that searches became less relevant and frustrating to consumers as a search for an “Audi A6″ will bring the same car from the sale dealer 45 times. Escalation of postings created a problem for customers-poor search results, a … Continue reading

PPC/SEM Investigation – 95% of Car Dealers Are Getting Cheated

Every month I try to bring value to our dealers by offering useful information that will help dealers stay on top of their internet strategies. Today’s topic is PPC (Pay Per Click)/SEM (Search Engine Marketing). With 2014 right around the corner and budget discussions starting, it’s time to get a better understanding of how your ad spend is being utilized and how to hold your vendor or in house marketers accountable! Did you know that 95% of car dealers today are getting cheated out of their ad spend? The biggest issue I see in the auto industry is companies taking advantage of car dealers because of the lack of knowledge car dealers have in this area. It reminds me of SEO (search engine optimization) companies 5 years ago preying on car dealers to spend money on something that could not be measured effectively. I have audited over 300 dealers and 95% of them have a failing grade when it comes to their digital marketing efforts. Thankfully today, PPC/SEM can be effectively measured and I’m going to show you exactly how … Continue reading

VCC 60 day trial

Virtual Credit Consultant Complimentary 60 Day Trial on DealerLab websites. Virtual Credit Consultant is a one-of-a-kind software developed specifically for auto dealers looking to pre-qualify customers utilizing TransUnion credit scores without credit impacting the consumer’s credit score or history. This application is 100% mobile adaptive! For your complimentary 60 day trial of Virtual Credit Consultant (VCC), you will receive the Lite version of the software. The Lite version of VCC is used as a lead based application. With the Lite VCC, you will receive the contact information for each visitor who fills out the application, however, there is not a soft credit pull and therefore you will not receive any credit scores. As well as their contact information, VCC is customizable, and you can choose to require many additional fields such as Date of Birth, SSN, Down Payment, and many more. First – DealerLab/PGI will be integrating this technology onto your website starting November 1st, 2013, free of charge for 60 days. The Virtyal Credit Consulatant will be replacing our standard finance application on your website. All links that previously … Continue reading