The Marketing Cost of Missed Customer Calls in the Automotive Industry

As an automotive marketer, driving phone leads is only half the battle. Your ROI also depends on your sales agents’ ability to answer those calls and convert them to revenue. Do you know how many of the phone leads you drive are going unanswered? And do you know how much revenue those unanswered calls are costing you? The answer may surprise you.

Automotive Marketers Are Spending More Each Year to Drive Leads

The automotive industry will spend over $17 billion on digital advertising in 2022 - 1

The automotive industry will spend over $19 billion on digital advertising in 2023 - 1

The average cost for an automotive lead is $250 - 2

Automotive Leads Often Call During Their Buying Journey 

68% of consumers prefer to communicate with businesses via phone more than any other channel - 3

44% of consumers call because they need more information to make a purchase - 3

30% of consumers call because they’re most comfortable completing high-stakes purchases over the phone - 3

Leads Will Abandon Their Calls If You Don’t Meet Their Experience Expectations

74% of consumers have hung up after being placed on hold - 3

75% of consumers hang up after hearing a message about long wait times - 3

Nearly ⅓ of Callers Will Hang Up Within 5 Minutes of Being Placed on Hold - 3

Phone Leads Are Often Your Most Valuable Marketing Conversions

84% of marketers say phone calls have higher conversion rates with larger order value (AOV) compared to other forms of engagement - 5

Callers convert 30% faster than web leads - 5

Caller retention rate is 28% higher than web lead retention rate - 5

41% of organizations report having increased phone conversion rates by 25% or more in the past 12 months - 5

These Marketing Sources Drive Calls with the Highest Sales Opportunity Rate

• TV and Radio: 50% sales call opportunity rate
• Call Extension: 50% sales call opportunity rate
• Google Organic Search: 46% sales call opportunity rate
• Listing Site: 43% sales call opportunity rate
• Google Paid Search: 33% sales call opportunity rate
• Display Advertising: 20% sales call opportunity rate
• Print Advertising: 17% sales call opportunity rate
• Paid Social: 10% sales call opportunity rate - 4
  

40% average automotive sales call opportunity rate across all channels - 4

These Marketing Sources Drive the Highest Automotive Sales Call Conversion Rate

• TV and Radio: 48% sales call conversion rate
• Email: 43% sales call conversion rate 
• Google Organic Search: 36% sales call conversion rate
• Google Paid Search: 36% sales call conversion rate
• Listing Site: 34% sales call conversion rate
• Print Advertising: 33% sales call conversion rate
• Display Advertising: 26% sales call conversion rate - 4
  

34% average automotive sales call conversion rate across channels - 4

You May Be Missing More Phone Calls Than You Realize

The automotive industry has a 23% average unanswered call rate - 4

The automotive industry has a 2% average voice mail rate - 4

And Those Missed Calls Are Costing You

The Revenue Cost of Unanswered Calls

Example: Automotive Dealer Customer

Average profit per vehicle sold: $2,337

Average 23% unanswered call rate: 276,000

@34% opportunity conversion rate: 93,840

@2% hot lead rate: 1,876

1,876 x $2,337 = $4,400,000/month unrealized profits - 4

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The Marketing Cost of Unanswered Calls

Average Google Ads CPC: $2.46

Monthly PPC call volume: 840,000

Average 23% unanswered call rate: 193,000

@33% sales opportunity rate: 21,667

@34% sales opportunity conversion rate: 3,756

21,667 x $2.46 = $53,300/month wasted marketing spend - 4

Case Study: How A National Tire Repair Chain Used Invoca to Recapture Revenue from Lost Calls

The Tire Chain Knew These Metrics About Its Performance

• 1,200 locations
• 670,000 monthly call volume
• 40% sales opportunity conversion rate
  

But Invoca Revealed the Cost of Its Missed Calls

• 8,000 missed calls
• $220 lost revenue per call
  

The Tire Chain Used Invoca to Reduce Missed Calls, Driving These Results

• $1.3 million in additional revenue per month
• 6,000 additional calls per month
• 75% reduction in missed calls
  

Want to turn your missed calls into revenue opportunities? Request your personalized walkthrough of Invoca today.

Sources:

1. eMarketer
2. Lion Tree Group
3. Invoca Buyer Experience Benchmark Report, 2021
4. Invoca customer platform data, 2021
5. Forrester