Lead, Test Drive and Sales by Source May 2020 (vs April 2020)

For the last few months we’ve been heavily affected by the COVID-19 shutdown.  With lead volumes dropping to a fraction of normal rates we made the decision to take a break from our monthly publication of Lead Source stats for the NZ market. 
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At the time of writing this article it is now the end of May.  Although Lead, Test Drive, Appraisal and Sales volumes are still below what they were in pre-COVID-19 times, we have seen a strong rebound of activity in the last 2 weeks of March to almost pre COVID-19 levels.   

April 2020 was completely dead as dealerships were shut down during the Level 4 restrictions.  Similarly, the first few weeks of April there was very little activity, with the real activity only commencing on the 28th of April – the first day of Level 3 restrictions.  This flurry of activity continued throughout May as dealers found a way to generate leads.  As NZ moved into Level 2 on the 14th of March we’ve found Test Drives and Sales have steadily grown. 
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Overall compared to April the contrast is staggering.  Whilst at Level 4 there was almost no activity except limited website leads, May 2020 saw a 285.8% increase in the volume of Leads from the previous month – whilst Test Drives increased by 829.3% and Sales increased by 235.6%.

The top 3 sources of leads was unsurprising as the typical lead sources remained strong and online sources rebounded more quickly.  The most common source of leads in May 2020 was ‘Web – Classified’ with 152.1% more leads generated than in April.  ‘Web – Dealer’ was the second most common source of leads – increasing by 221.1%.  Leads generated by the ‘Brand’ OEM group represented the third most common source of leads in May and increased by 893.8% as Brand Groups lurched back into life.

Test Drives were logically the most impacted by Level 3 & 4 shutdowns as evidenced by the massive increase in Test Drive volume as soon as dealers were able to safely do so.  As with Leads, online sources remained strong as dealers converted some of those to Test Drives as soon as they were able.  Test Drives from ‘Web – Dealer’ sources increased 664.2% whilst Test Drives from ‘Web – Classified’ sources like Trade Me, Driven and Autotrader increased by 756.3%.  Test Drives attributed to ‘Direct’ sources were the third most common source of leads with a sizeable increase of 1187.7% from April to May – reflecting more customers potentially walking in without previously enquiring in late May as confidence in Level 2 restrictions grow.

During the Level 3 & 4 restrictions we still saw Sales being made as many canny operators were able to record forward orders during the shutdown.  The top source for sales remains ‘Web – Classified’ sources with 298.9% more sales attributed to these sources in May than April.  ‘Web – Dealer’ sales increased by 359.8% and sales to ‘Repeat’ customers increased by 81.2%.
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Make sure to check back next month to see the top sources of leads, test drives and sales in June 2020.