After almost two years of brainstorming between the leadership teams of the New Car Dealers Association San Diego County and The San Diego Union-Tribune, San Diego DRIVES launched just over six months ago, creating an exciting new digital platform that transformed how San Diego new car dealers could buy used cars from private parties and sell new and used vehicles to retail customers.
This new platform, available only to NCDA members, was built to enable San Diego County’s new car dealers collectively to capture a much larger percentage of private party vehicle acquisitions and make it effortless for consumers to search new and pre-owned vehicle inventories.
On the vehicle acquisition front, San Diego DRIVES appeals to consumers as a trusted single point of contact to reach many dealers at once: “Why go to just one dealer when up to 100 can compete to give you the best offer?” Consumers post their vehicles on the platform, providing photos and vehicle data that enable participating dealers to make informed decisions and submit offers. Within 24 hours, consumers are provided the best offer and are connected directly with the “winning” dealer to transact should the offer be accepted. In the eyes of a consumer, this provides a significant competitive advantage over traditional and online used car retailers, which are limited to just a single offer each.
As for selling new and pre-owned inventory, San Diego DRIVES aggregates new and pre-owned inventory from each participating new car dealer in San Diego County, providing one-stop shopping for car buyers. Clicks on dealer listings go directly to the dealer’s website, with a UTM code to facilitate attribution, so there’s no middleman manipulating leads. The site will automatically update available inventory from dealer sites on a daily basis.
As a valuable member benefit, NCDA members can join the platform for FREE; there are no subscription fees, and dealers only pay a flat $300 for each vehicle purchased using the platform.
During those first six months, the San Diego DRIVES platform has achieved some notable results.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
In the first six months, 82 local dealerships have opted-in to have their new and used inventory syndicated and hosted on the San Diego Drives platform, where consumers can shop for a car in one convenient location.
WEBSITE TRAFFIC
Since the launch of the platform and through the strategic marketing efforts of both teams, 242,747 new users have visited San Diego Drives. Equally impressive, the platform’s bounce rate is an exceptional 22.74%. As you all know, this is a leading indicator that our marketing and targeting efforts are strategically placed to “auto intenders” and that the user experience is easy to navigate on all devices.
See Google Analytics Snapshot:
Of the 242,747 visitors to the platform, our participating dealers’ inventory has appeared in 2,487,559 search impressions on the platform. This has translated to 6,715 visitors to the VDP pages of our participating dealers’ websites. The platform is built with full transparency, with each car having a UTM, or Urchin Tracking Module, a simple code that is attached to the URL to generate Google Analytics data. This allows our local dealers to see the traffic and post-click attribution in their own Google Analytics accounts. This is automatically included with each car in our feed as part of the service.
AUCTION NUMBERS & FEEDBACK
In our private auction for NCDA members, 305 cars have been submitted by local residents for our dealerships to bid on. Of these 305 cars submitted, we have had over 712 bids on the platform, and 56 cars have been purchased.
Feedback from consumers has been quite positive, with numerous users reaching out and sharing how thankful they are that we offer this as a community service. The consensus is that it is simple and convenient to post their car and simplifies the process without having to drive all over town to field offers.
MARKETING STRATEGY
The San Diego DRIVES marketing plan leverages the established resource of SanDiegoUnionTribune.com, the largest local news website in San Diego County, with over four million unique users every month. In addition, the San Diego DRIVES marketing budget includes an estimated $100,000 per month in media, with the following assets driving traffic for our local San Diego County dealers. See details and strategy below.
- Local television. See image A.
- Local radio See image B.
- Streaming audio (Pandora, Spotify, Iheart)
- See image B.
- Connected Streaming Television. See image A.
- Programmatic digital (Behaviorally targeted to auto intenders in San Diego)
- Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.
- Social channels.
- Email and newsletters
- Print (Weekly advertisements in San Diego Union-Tribune, and Direct Mail).
Premium placements on SanDiegoUnionTribune.com, are not available through programmatic efforts. See Image C.
Image A:
Image B:
Image C:
ORGANIC SEO
Organic SEO results have been impressive in the short period of time since launching at the end of April. The SEO results can be attributed to our platform being associated with The San Diego Union-Tribune’s authority in the Google Algorithm. This is more keyword optimizing to come, but the team is excited for this early success that will ultimately benefit the San Diego dealers.
- Sell My Car at Auction San Diego, Page 1, Position 3
- New Cars for Sale in San Diego, Page 1, Position 9
- New 2022 Cars for Sale San Diego, Page 1, Position 2
- New SUVs for Sale San Diego, Page 1, Position 9
- Best Dealerships in San Diego, Page 1, Position 5
- 2022 Pickups for Sale San Diego, Page 1, Position 2
- New 2022 SUVs for Sale San Diego, Page 1, Position 3
- San Diego Car News, Page 1, Position 1
- New 2023 SUVs for Sale San Diego, Page 1, Position 1
HOW CAN OUR MEMBERS PARTICIPATE ON THE PLATFORM?
Auction:
There’s no charge for NCDA dealers to shop and bid on cars in private auctions. Dealers only pay a $300 transaction fee if you are the winning bidder and you and the seller complete the transaction after the inspection. No sale, no fee to you. To register for bidding, call the San Diego DRIVES customer service team at 619-674-7652 or email drives@sandiegouniontribune.com. They will issue you a private username and password to log in and bid.
Inventory:
New and used Inventory is hosted on the platform for the community to shop at no charge. This is a member benefit from NCDA to our members. To have your new and pre-owned inventory appear on San Diego DRIVES, simply opt-in by filling out a simple form at https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdtncdadealeroptin. If you have questions, call the San Diego DRIVES customer service team at 619-674-7652 or email them at drives@sandiegouniontribune.com.
Advertising:
To increase the traffic of leads to your VDP pages, email, phone and/or foot traffic, over and above the organic traffic from the platform, San Diego DRIVES now offers two options:
1. AUTOMOTIVE BRAND SPONSORSHIP
Only two dealers are able to sponsor per brand.
- Your digital ad units will have premium placement, adjacent to the brand/make search you are sponsoring
- Your organic inventory will be featured and prioritized to the top of search results over other dealerships.
50,000/MONTH IMPRESSIONS GUARANTEED ON THE PLATFORM, INCLUDING:
- Premium placement on SanDiegoUnionTribune.com, behaviorally targeted for auto intenders, sports, business + geo targeting by ZIP code.
- Your inventory featured on special Home Page inventory placements.
2. FEATURED DEALERSHIP POSITION
- Your dealership will be promoted as ‘featured dealership’ on the homepage of the platform.
- 25,000 impressions guaranteed on the platform, including SanDiegoUnionTribune.com, behaviorally targeted for auto intenders, sports, business + geo targeting by ZIP code.
With any questions, reach out to Howard Kurtz at howard.kurtz@sduniontribune.com or 619-293-1431, or our customer service team at San Diego Drives at 619-674-7652, or email Drives@sandiegouniontribune.com.
