Car dealers: the cost of living inside one portal
Dependency is a pricing problem before it is a marketing problem. A dealer whose enquiries come almost entirely from one portal has no negotiating position when the portal changes its terms, and the fix is a second channel that produces enquiries at a known cost. The measurement comes first.
Why dependency is expensive even when it works
A portal that delivers most of your enquiries is delivering something real. The problem is not the quality of the channel, it is the absence of an alternative when the terms change, and terms change.
Without a second source of enquiries you have no position in that conversation. With one, you have a number: this many enquiries at this cost from somewhere else, which is the only argument that carries weight.
So the first task is not leaving the portal. It is finding out what share it actually supplies, and that requires counting rather than remembering. A sheet with date, channel, outcome and value settles it in a month.
Most dealers who count discover two things: the portal share is high but not total, and a meaningful number of enquiries arrive through the profile or by telephone from people who saw the car on the portal and searched the dealer afterwards. The second group is the one worth building on.
Building the second channel
The second channel is the same one every other local business uses: your own profile and the sources people compare. Consumers consult an average of six review sites, 68 percent require four stars or better and 74 percent want reviews from the last three months.
The arithmetic is unusually favourable in this trade. At a gross margin per vehicle of 1,200 euros and a closing rate of one in 4 enquiries, an enquiry is worth 300 euros. Against 250 euros a month, break even is 0.83 enquiries a month.
And the review supply is there for the asking. A dealer completing 12 sales a month who asks at handover with a one in four response gets 3 reviews a month, which holds 9 in the window buyers actually read.
| Question | How to answer it | Time |
|---|---|---|
| What share comes from the portal | One sheet, one month | 30 seconds per enquiry |
| What is an enquiry worth | Margin times closing rate | 10 minutes |
| What would a second channel cost | Monthly investment divided by that value | 5 minutes |
| Can I supply the reviews | Sales per month times response rate | 5 minutes |
What to change first
Count for one month. Then, and only then, decide whether the portal share is a risk worth spending money on.
Start asking at handover this week regardless of what the count shows. It costs nothing, it takes thirty seconds, and it builds the asset that makes the second channel possible at all.
Questions and answers
Should I leave the portal?
What counts as a second channel?
How many reviews can I realistically get?
What is the enquiry worth?
Sources
- BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 Thresholds, recency and the six source average
- Seer Interactive, AI traffic conversion study Closing rates by source for the value calculation
