Michael Benavides

Autobytel Misleading Investors On Purchase Requests? (ABTL)

Copied from my reply to the other related post from Mr Goodwin:

The practice of arbitraging purchase requests ("leads") in the industry is commonplace and is actually used by some providers as a competitive advantage (when the leads come from reputable third party automotive research sites).

In fact, of the four major networks (AutoNation/AutoUSA, The Cobalt Group/Dealix, Internet Brands/CarsDirect.com and Autobytel.com), all of them source the majority of their leads from third parties.

The differentiating factor is who those third parties are. The major auto portals provide a good quality set of leads, but open affiliate networks (programs which pay third parties for traffic and/or leads) allow some junk through the door. Spammers have been virtually eliminated from the top networks' product mix and no longer materially impact overall quality.

The questions to ask are what percentage of the leads come from native traffic, from websites with at least 1MM uniques/mo, from sites with 200k-1MM u/mo and what percentage come from sites with under 200k u/mo.

Autobytel's Acquisition of Purchase Requests -- The Evidence (ABTL)

The practice of arbitraging purchase requests ("leads") in the industry is commonplace and is actually used by some providers as a competitive advantage (when the leads come from reputable third party automotive research sites).

In fact, of the four major networks (AutoNation/AutoUSA, The Cobalt Group/Dealix, Internet Brands/CarsDirect.com and Autobytel.com), all of them source the majority of their leads from third parties.

The differentiating factor is who those third parties are. The major auto portals provide a good quality set of leads, but open affiliate networks (programs which pay third parties for traffic and/or leads) allow some junk through the door. Spammers have been virtually eliminated from the top networks' product mix and no longer materially impact overall quality.

The questions to ask are what percentage of the leads come from native traffic, from websites with at least 1MM uniques/mo, from sites with 200k-1MM u/mo and what percentage come from sites with under 200k u/mo.