A question I often get asked is, “When is the right time to cut a marketing source if it does not seem to be working?”

Almost every vendor and/or marketing source requires time to perform – whether that’s PPC, SEM, SEO, TV, radio, newspaper, email, lead providers or third-party listing sites – it’s all the same. Give any source a mere 30-day judgement call before cutting them and you’ll never know whether they are performing. You could easily cut a vendor or marketing source from your budget that is actually driving sales.

Everything takes time to work. For example, lead providers. The majority of consumers don’t buy a car in the same month they submit a lead. In fact, at the point they chose to remove their anonymity and request information, many are still in the research stage of their buying journey.

My advice is to allow 3-4 months and sometimes up to 6 months to adequately and accurately measure whether that particular source is performing. Of course, to do that properly, your need to have proper measurement tools in place to judge that marketing source’s influence on a buyer.

Just like Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither is an effective marketing strategy. Give your marketing sources time to perform. Have measurement tools in place. Only after time, with these things in place, will you be able to effectively and confidently make decisions that are in the best interest of your marketing budget and, more importantly, your dealership.