If there is a recent post similar to this one I apologize - feel free to reply with the link to that thread and I'll shut up and go away 
Hello All,
This post could get real long so I am going to try and keep it as brief as possible. Our group has been with Dealer.com for 8+ years and it may be time for a change. Top 3 points I am with them and Top 3 why I want to leave.
Here is why I am currently with them .....still:
Hello All,
This post could get real long so I am going to try and keep it as brief as possible. Our group has been with Dealer.com for 8+ years and it may be time for a change. Top 3 points I am with them and Top 3 why I want to leave.
Here is why I am currently with them .....still:
- Website Editor: been using it for 8 years, its very intuitive and lets me build content the way I want to. All my sites' homepages and extra content (except for the group site which is essentially just a fancy landing page) were built by me in their composer - did not have to rely heavily on their production team. Click, drag, drop, done.
- Mobile Specific Content: went to another vendor that was 100% responsive and hated it. Could not put mobile specific content above my VLPs, Homepage, etc. Also could not build a page the way I wanted it wand was stuck using 75/25 splits, could not rearrange content on mobile specifically the way I wanted. "I want the form here dammit!!"...nope...It was a mess and a I came back to DDC.
- Back-end tool: their Control Center is very in depth and easy to use. 90% of any issue I have or question I need answered I can figure out myself using one of the tools in Control Center. Only call support when I need an inventory specific change for the most part.
- Advertising: took about 3 years but I finally have access to all my Adwords accounts including those on Shift Digital OEM programs. Their SEM is so hamstrung by being tied to their TCD tool that you are limited to running Max CPC campaigns only. No enhanced CPC, no maximize ROAS or conversions, nothing. I find that I have to monitor how my account is running on a daily basis or else I will under-spend, the used jeep wrangler I have in stock eats $300 over the weekend, I'm spending 3X the CPC that I should be on a model I only have 1 of, oh....and my ad copy keeps reverting back to the same default crap everyone else has. I pay a management fee because......??
- Being told NO: I hate it. Plain and simple. When I asked to have a particular model widget link to inventory instead of a showroom page I was told no - expected functionality. Took 3 months to get done after canceling one site for 90 days. When I wanted my homepage and mobile site to look a particular way. Nope.......except i was able to build it in composer myself and then have DEV fix a few things. It's a website, anything is possible if you really want to try.
- SEO: Their SEO is basic. Nothing fancy. Nothing advanced. Their SEO team could not build a conversion friendly landing page to save their life. No thought goes into the strategy at all, no market research, no competitive analysis. Just rinse and repeat. I am on Premium SEO for two of my stores and am with a local vendor who's fees are 1/4 that of DDC. Same organic growth YOY.
