When I first started this blog I did a dissertation about the leaks in online classifieds and the more I look around at the different automotive affiliate programs and what others are doing with personal blogs used as lead generation tools it is time to revisit leaks again.

A leak is any action that a surfer can perform on a site that does not benefit the affiliate, advertiser or encourage lead submission. Cars.com and Autotrader.com have huge leaks in their platforms that provide no benefit to the advertiser and cuts into the advertisers profit centers.

Both AutoTrader and Cars.com have advertisements for automotive financing even on premium listings. These are not minor leaks to the advertiser. I was quoted buy an executive at Cars.com that ValueClick pays them $20,000,000.00 a year for their affiliation. So not only is Cars.com making a huge profit from their dealer advertiser base they are also knocking it dead with their onsite affiliate offers.

Profit is not dirty word by any means. But let me ask you this question, If your newspaper required you to place an advertisement for the Local Credit Union on everyone of your display ads encouraging car shoppers to get preapproved before visiting your showroom would you advertise with them? If you answered no, then why would you continue to advertise with online classified providers that do the same thing? Why let a vendor cut into your profit center!!

These leaks are prevalent on every mainstream automotive providers sites. I would not dare send a surfer from one of my sites to cars.com as an affiliate unless I was paid by the click, not the paltry $1.50 they pay if they create an account when there is so many distractions for the surfer when they hit their landing page. That is why they have an almost nil EPC for affiliates inside of the affiliate networks. Adsense would be more profitable at .05 per click than the Cars.com affiliate program.

Which brings me to another leak that I see in salesperson blogs out there. Why in the world would you place AdSense on a blog that you are using to capture leads to sell cars to? I saw one such blog that an Online Automotive Guru was proud of. The only benefit that I see by placing contextual advertising on a salesperson blog is to attempt to monetize the out of area surfer that would not buy from that salesperson anyway. What is the cost? Chances are these blogs don’t generate much contextual advertising revenue, but if you loose one buyer to an advertisement about buying cars at invoice from that blog what have you accomplished?

This is what could really bite. A surfer hits your blog sees the contextual advertisement clicks it and fills out a lead form about buying cars at invoice and then you are sold the lead that now has a price whore mentality. So you made $1.00 for the click, the dealership to pay $10 for the lead that is shared with two other dealers in your market area. If you do sell that price whore lead a car you have made a minimum commission plus $1.00 in adsense revenue and your dealer paid for the lead. Not a smart scenario.

Here is an example from the Used Car Queen blog.

I know as a full time online marketer I would never place my revenue in jeopardy the way car dealers and salespeople do! My time efforts and money are more important than that. As an affiliate I may have more than one choice for the surfer that generates revenue, but when I sell my own products online there are no leaks on my sales page.

Not only do car dealers not understand online marketing, neither do the small players in the Online Automotive marketing circle. Cars.com and Autotrader have it down pat. They take dealers inventory to provide content to their sticky sites, charge the dealers for providing them content, push affiliate offers to surfers and their own lead programs and make money hand over fist while the dealers gravitate to their venues. The only reason they get away with it is because dealers do see a positive ROI if they handle the leads properly, but in the long run a dealer would be better off to reallocate that money to other online advertising to capture their own leads. They would see an improved ROI.

But for Automotive Gurus to place AdSense on a Salesperson blog is ignorance.