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Automotive Social Media Reputation Management

Friday, December 1, 2017

Where Do Your Car Shoppers Defect To?

Cars.com October On-the-Lot Report Cross-shopping Analysis

Which vehicles are getting the most lot visits from Cars.com mobile consumers? Our October On-the-Lot report has the answers. Based on Cars.com's patented On-the-Lot technology, we have identified the top five luxury and non-luxury brands with the most lot visits from Cars.com mobile consumers. For each of these brands, we identified the top five lots that Cars.com mobile consumers also visited. Here are some highlights of the October report:

  • Luxury shoppers were apt to cross-shop both luxury brands and non-luxury brands. Non-luxury shoppers were less likely to visit a luxury brand.
  • Cadillac and Lincoln shoppers were least likely to visit other luxury brands – with their top five cross-shopped brands all being non-luxury.
  • BMW shoppers visited Honda more than any other manufacturer. Honda also was in the top five cross-shopped brands for Cadillac and Mercedes-Benz shoppers.
  • All eyes are on Nissan in the non-luxury category. Nissan ranks in the top five most visited lots for every non-luxury brand we studied. But Chevrolet, Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram (CDJR), and Ford are all close behind. Each of those brands landed in the top five for four out of the five non-luxury brands we studied.

Honda and Nissan: October was your month! For more insight, check out the October report.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Be Familiar and Aware of Online Crime!

Key Cyber Fraud Terms and Definitions

Friday, September 8, 2017

Ten Most Notoriously Dangerous Mobsters in American History!

We decided to put it to public vote and see who you thought were the top 10 mobsters of all time. We had nearly 200 votes in which each person could pick 10 mobsters from our hit list of over 100 criminals identified by the FBI.


1. Lucky Luciano

Lucky Luciano

Top 3 Reasons

1. He restructured the Mafia after planning the assassinations of Sal Maranzano and Joe Masseria, bosses of the mustache Pete era of the Mafia. Lucky implemented fundamental changes to how the mob was run, creating a business approach to organized crime and putting an end to bloodshed which drew the attention of law officials.

2. He setup the Commission to act as governing body for organized crime on a nationwide scale which took the mob to a new level, he also split New York into Five Families.

3. Lucky also offered to help in the war effort during World War II by using his criminal connections in Italy to advance the Allies' cause.

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2. Carlo Gambino

Carlo Gambino

Top 3 Reasons

1. Carlo earned the family over $500,000,000 a year, gave the nod for many contracted hits, ran the family with an iron fist for over 20 years.

2. In 50 years of crime he served only 22 months in prison (1937–38).

3. He was low-profile, but a ruthless mob boss who came up through the ranks from the early inception of the Commission. During his reign he never had an attempt made on his life.

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3. Frank Costello

Frank Costello

Top 3 Reasons

1. He started off life as a down and out kid who rose to lead what is today known as the Genovese Crime Family.

2. Frank had many connections in the political arena which helped his influence in the underworld. By the 1940's he had virtually taken control of New York politics through his connections in the Democratic Part at Tammany Hall.

3. Despite nearly being killed in a 1957 power move attempt by Vito Genovese, Frank always preferred to swap the gun for a handshake in many of his business dealings.

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4. Meyer Lansky

Meyer Lansky

Top 3 Reasons

1. Despite being of a Jewish background in an era where Italian-Americans ran the mob, his admirable knowledge of business and finances made him a key figure in helping to strengthen the mob.

2. Between 1932 and 1934 Lansky joined Luciano and Johnny Torrio, among others, in forming the national crime syndicate and became one of its major overseers and bankers, often laundering funds through foreign accounts.

3. By 1970 it is said that the total holdings for Meyer were estimated to be at $300,000,000.

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5. Tony Accardo

Tony Accardo

Top 3 Reasons

1. Accardo controlled one family that spanned across the whole of Chicago, where New York was split into five families.

2. From 1906 until his death in 1992, he only spent one night in jail in a criminal career that spanned 8 incredible decades.

3. Accardo came to infamy as a hitman for Al Capone and allegedly participated in the Valentine's Day Massacre, the Frankie Yale hit, and the killing of two Outfit traitors at a dinner table in which he received the name "Joe Batters" from Al Capone due to his skill with a baseball bat.

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6. Al Capone

Al Capone

Top 3 Reasons

1. In 1920 during the height of Prohibition, Capone's multi-million dollar Chicago operation in bootlegging, prostitution and gambling dominated the organized crime scene.

2. Newspapers of the time estimated Capone's operations generated $100 million in revenue annually.

3. The St Valentines Day Massacre of 1929 was a plot by Jack McGurn and Al Capone to take out 7 North Side Gang mobsters. Although Capone was staying at his Miami home at the time, the public and the media immediately blamed him for the massacre. He was dubbed "Public Enemy Number One."

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7. Vito Genovese

Vito Genovese

Top 3 Reasons

1. Vito rose to power during Prohibition as one of the mobs best enforcers and would later become leader of his own family, the Genovese Crime Family.

2. His commanding presence and intimidation would see Genovese take control of the New York area for a period of time in 1957 after he worked with Carlo Gambino to get rid of Lucky Luciano's allies.

3. In 1937 after being deported to Italy, he became a friend of Benito Mussolini, financing several Fascist operations while engaged in narcotics smuggling to the United States.

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8. Albert Anastasia

Albert Anastasia

Top 3 Reasons

1. One of the most feared mobsters of all time, who helped run the mobs enforcement arm, Murder Inc with Lepke Buchalter. Due to his violent temper and work as a hitmen he was quickly given the intimidating nickname "The Lord High Executioner".

2. After the "disappearance" of his boss, Vincent Mangano, Anastasia would go on to lead what would later became known as the Gambino crime family.

3. Anastasia's brutal murder made headlines, and is still remembered as one of the mob's most gruesome killings.

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9. Vincent Gigante

Vincent Gigante

Top 3 Reasons

1. Despite failing to kill Frank Costello in a 1957 plot ordered by Vito Genovese, Gigante still managed to continue his criminal career and would eventually take over the family in the early 1980's.

2. In order to avoid being prosecuted Gigante faked mental problems for decades to protect him while on trial, often wandering the streets in a bathrobe to which the media dubbed him the Oddfather.

3. A shrewd mob leader, Gigante would demand that when a mobster referred to him that they would point to their chin so not as to be recorded on wiretaps. Chin derived from his mother's use of the Italian pronunciation of his given name, Vincenzo.


10. John Gotti

John Gotti

Top 3 Reasons

1. Gotti worked his way up to lead the Gambino Crime Family after orchestrating a hit on the present boss of the time, Paul Castellano. He would then go on to be dubbed the Teflon Don and the mob's symbol of invincibility, because charges against him "just wouldn't stick."

2. It is estimated that, while John Gotti acted as boss, the Gambino family made more than $500 million in revenue from illegal activities such as gambling, drug trafficking, extortion, and stock fraud.

3. Despite not keeping a low profile like most successful Mafia bosses, Gotti brought the Godfather to life in the public eye and become a local hero. He was the stereo typical mobster who quickly grouped together a large following.


@RalphPaglia

Friday, August 4, 2017

J.D. Power U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study

Infographic: 2017 U.S. APEAL Study Key Stats

Conducted annually, the J.D. Power U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study,SM now in its 22nd year, measures owner satisfaction with their vehicle's performance, styling, comfort, features, and usability after 90 days of ownership. It covers satisfaction, likes, and dislikes for 77 vehicle attributes across 10 categories. In the 2017 study, 245 models from 33 brands are ranked.

Categories include:

  • Exterior
  • Interior
  • Driving Dynamics
  • Visibility and Safety
  • Seats
  • Engine/Transmission
  • Storage and Space
  • Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC)
  • Audio/Communication/Entertainment/Navigation (ACEN)
  • Fuel Economy


Nine of the 10 categories measured in the study improve in 2017, with HVAC and Visibility and Safety posting the largest gain: up 12 points (on a 1,000-point scale) year over year.

In the infographic that follows, we present some key statistics and findings from the 2017 U.S. APEAL Study.



Additional Research:

Friday, July 28, 2017

Friday, July 21, 2017

Top 25 Most Expensive Google Keywords - Includes Automotive Specific!

Analysis of most expensive car sales keywords shown in final paragraphs...

top most expensive adwords keywords

The 25 Most Expensive Keywords in AdWords – 2017 Edition!

I had a little idea: What if we used data from our Free Keyword Tool to determine which keywords had the highest costs per click (or CPC's) in Google AdWords, driving up online advertising costs?

The infographic we created based on that data is still one of our most popular and most linked to pages ever, but people often ask us for updated data.

Those people, and curious people everywhere, are in luck! We've completed a new, comprehensive analysis of keyword data for five different currencies in English-speaking countries (check out for the data for GBPCADAUS, and ZAR too!).

This time around, we determined the top 25 most expensive keywords (meaning these niche markets are super-competitive) along with their average CPC – and six years later, the results are substantially different!

Ready to see what the most expensive keywords are in 2017? Here we go:

most expensive keywords in google adwords

About the data

Here's how we got the list: We pulled all the data collected from anonymous AdWords Performance Grader reports across all industries between June 1, 2016 and June 12, 2017, then looked at the top 1000 most expensive keywords seen during that time period and categorized them by core intent.

For example, we lumped the keywords "bail bonds" and "bail bonds los angeles" into a single category since the core intent is the same. Likewise, keywords involving different types of lawyers (such as "malpractice lawyer" and "injury lawyer") or insurance were grouped together. We used a similar methodology last time so as to avoid featuring too many specific long-tail or local keywords that wouldn't have broad applicability to a large number of businesses. We separated distinct services (pest control vs. termites) as much as possible.

We also filtered out keywords with less than 100 clicks from our data set. We only looked at advertisers bidding in USD, GBP, AUD, CAD, and ZAR, and analyzed different currencies separately. We also eliminated non-English ads and duplicates (where both the keyword and the CPC were exactly the same) from that set. The results you're reading about in this article are in USD.

Shout out to everyone who helped compile, analyze, and illustrate the data: our data analyst Josh Brackett, our web team leader Meg Lister, and our designer Kate Lindsay.

What are the most expensive keywords in AdWords?

The top 25 most expensive keywords in AdWords are as follows:

Top 25 Most Expensive Keywords
KeywordAverage CPC
 Business Services$58.64
 Bail Bonds$58.48
 Casino$55.48
 Lawyer$54.86
 Asset Management$49.86
 Insurance$48.41
 Cash Services & Payday Loans$48.18
 Cleanup & Restoration Services$47.61
 Degree$47.36
 Medical Coding Services$46.84
 Rehab$46.14
 Psychic$43.78
 Timeshare$42.13
 HVAC$41.24
 Business Software$41.12
 Medical Needs$40.73
 Loans$40.69
 Plumber$39.19
 Termites$38.88
 Pest Control$38.84
 Mortgages$36.76
 Online Gambling$32.84
 Banking$31.43
 Hair Transplant$31.37
 Google AdWords$30.06

 

What makes these keywords so expensive?

Generally, AdWords keyword costs get driven up in particular niches for one of the following reasons:

People have a bad problem they really need to fix now

When people are desperate for help, they're willing to spend more on services or products to get that problem solved. That means the companies doing the advertising can charge more for those services, and they can often achieve strong ROI on their ad spend even with high costs per click.

These spaces are also highly competitive, because people don't necessarily spend a long time deciding where they're going to shop – they want help NOW! For example, one of the top keywords in the "medical services" category is "emergency room near me." If the advertiser is in the right place at the right time, they can profit big. (Not that I think private companies should be profiting off people who need emergency care…)

Examples of keywords related to urgent problems include:

  • "Bail bonds" at #2
  • "Lawyer" at #4
  • "Cash services & payday loans" at #7
  • "Rehab" at #11
  • "Plumber" at #18
  • "Termites" at #19
  • "Pest control" at #20

adwords expensive costs per click

High-priced items or services

Last time around, insurance-related keywords were at the very top of the list. According to our data, insurance is no longer king of the hill. That's good news for marketers trying to drive leads in the insurance industry, right? (Sort of – they're still almost $50 per click on average. And there are outliers, like "malpractice insurance," that can cost over $300 per click!)

Now, the most expensive keywords are in the category "business services" – stuff like "data room" and "network security monitoring" – most likely because these services tend to be costly. Companies offering business services are willing to bid more per keyword because there's so much to gain when a prospect does convert, whether it's a single big purchase or a service with a high customer lifetime value.

Our last infographic showed that finance-related keywords (like loans keywords and mortgage keywords) are some of the most costly. You can see similar trends this year – see "asset management" at #5 ($49.86 per click) and "banking" at #23.

Law keywords are still way up there, and on average keywords related to legal services are even more expensive ($54.86 per click compared to $42.51 in 2011). This is part of why marketing for law firms can be a challenge.

Fulfilling your hopes and dreams (and addictions)

People will pay a lot to have their dreams come true. For some, those dreams are about getting an education. Y'all love learning and "degree" remains a very expensive keyword (too bad for those of you marketing in the higher education industry).

Once you get a degree, you can get a higher-paying job, and then reward yourself with a big vacation. Travel-related keywords like "Hilton timeshare reviews" make an appearance this year at #13 on the list.

what the most expensive keywords in adwords

But people clicking on ads haven't kicked all their bad habits – "casino" is way up there at #3 ($55.48 per click) and "online gambling" makes an appearance too, at #22. Who needs a Vegas vacation when the fun's right there in your laptop?

You're also talking to psychics and getting hair transplants. #questionablechoices

The 25th most expensive keyword in Google AdWords is … Google AdWords?

We weren't expecting this one.

Sometimes people google "google," and sometimes people bid on "google adwords" in Google AdWords. (OK, we admit it. You're looking at some of those people right now.)

Want to know what keywords are popular (and how much they'll cost) in YOUR industry?

We can help with that!

Our newly revamped Free Keyword Tool (currently in beta release) has a cool feature that lets you filter your results by industry.

For example, let's say you want to find keywords related to cars, but you're in the finance industry and you're only interested in terms that are relevant to your business. Type in "cars" and select "Finance & Banking" as your industry, and you'll see results like this:

wordstream free keyword tool

Your results include terms like "new car lease" and "new car incentives." However, if you chose "Arts & Entertainment" as your industry, you'd see results like "cars film" and "pixar cars":

free keywords

This can really help you to zero in on only the keywords that are going to help you build out your search marketing campaigns, filtering out irrelevant terms so you don't have to weed through them yourself. You can filter your results by 24 different industries.

Check it out yourself.

What about those top 25 keywords – were you surprised?

"Sent from Ralph Paglia's Lucky iPad"

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Coastal German Shepherd Rescue receives $9500 from Ken Grody Ford

Coastal German Shepherd Rescue receives $9500 Big Check from the Ken Grody Ford Cruise-for-a-Cause test drive fund raising event held on June 17th in Buena Park, California. 



(via Ralph's iPhone 7+)
@RalphPaglia

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Ford Dealer Creates the 428 Cobra Jet Equipped Mustang

How a Ford Dealer created the legendary 428 Cobra Jet engine for a higher performance Mustang...

The 390 might have been acceptable in a personal luxury Thunderbird or full-size station wagon, but under the Mustang's hood it was no match for a Camaro packing a high-winding, deep-breathing 327-cid small block V-8. And it certainly wasn't enough against the big block Plymouth GTX or Pontiac GTO. Word of its shortcoming quickly spread and sales lagged, prompting Rhode Island-based Tasca to come up with a performance fix for the heavy, low-revving 390 Mustang.

After tuning the 390 engine as far as it could go, Tasca turned to mechanic and drag racer Bill Gilbert for a solution that offered customers improved performance without costing too much. In theory, the high-performance Ford 427 V-8 could be had as a $622 option, but few young Mustang buyers were willing or able to fork over that kind of cash—the equivalent of $5,000 today—for a high-strung engine. Those who could usually opted for the Shelby Mustang. Gilbert came up with a formula that combined high-flow 427-sourced cylinder heads with a police-fleet tough 428-cid rotating assembly.

FORD TESTED AN ALL-WHEEL-DRIVE MUSTANG IN 1965

Noting that the 427-powered Galaxie got a considerable bump in performance from 1963 to '64, Gilbert reached out to an engineering contact at Ford and determined that the performance increase was all due to changes in the cylinder heads. The bad news was that 427 cylinder heads would not fit the 390 block. In a stroke of genius, Tasca ordered a factory stock 428 Police Interceptor short block assembly from Ford and discovered through creative fitting that the 427 heads would work on the 428 short block with little more than piston notching for larger valves. "I flycut the pistons right in the block," Gilbert said.

He sorted out camshaft specs and placed call to another insider at Ford—Poppa "Sully" Sullivan, who set up the machines and purpose ground a camshaft for the KR-8 combination that Tasca dubbed the C-Stock cam. The engine was equipped with a 427 oil pump and recurved 427 distributor, then topped with an aluminum dual-plane intake manifold and single Holley 735 CFM carburetor, fed by a dual snorkel air cleaner. With a modified C-6 automatic transmission and suspension modifications, the formerly sleepy Mustang became the 7,000-rpm "King of the Road."

Tasca used measured drag strip and real-world street testing over dynamometer-based tuning. "We didn't have a dyno back then, but we had our own test called the '10-Second Test,'" Gilbert said. "It didn't make any difference whether it was this car or that car or whatever car—you made the comparison test on that vehicle. Every time you did something to it, you'd run the 10-Second Test again. Was it faster or slower? That was our barometer."

Tasca Jr. said the test began with a rolling start. "I'd go 20 miles per hour," he said. "Bob Andreozzi would have the stopwatch, and as soon as I hit it, I'd count '8-9-10' and look at the speedometer." The KR-8 tested faster than baseline across the board.

Tasca Sr. drove the KR-8 from Rhode Island to Dearborn as proof of concept and for testing against some 427-powered factory specials. With a closed exhaust and street tires, the Tasca KR-8 ran a low 13-second quarter mile at 105 miles per hour. Ford officials were so impressed they wouldn't let the car head back to Rhode Island with the KR-8 powertrain. Tasca drove it home with a 427 from the Ford GT40 Le Mans program, backed by a Gilbert-modified C-6 transmission. After Ford dissected the KR-8 combination, Tasca answered any criticism of engine tolerances and piston-to-wall clearances by reminding the corporate guys that the 428 short block was a Ford factory part.

Additionally persuaded by thousands of impromptu inquiries about the 428 setup (Mustang fans simply tore out an article in Hot Rod magazine and mailed it), Ford Motor Company put the KR-8 engine into production. It was installed in the '68 Mustang as the 428 Cobra Jet. In a full-circle experience, Ford shipped Tasca Ford an early production selection of 10 Cobra Jet Mustangs in white. Bob Tasca asked Gilbert to weigh all 10 and chose the two lightest and best-running examples. One was converted by Holman-Moody into the 11-second Tasca Ford Cobra Jet Super Stock drag car; the other became the unbeatable "Street Bertha."

Editor's note: Bob Tasca Sr. died in 2010, but the Ford performance heritage that he set in motion endures today at Tasca Ford and the Tasca Mod Shop in Cranston, R.I. Special thanks to Bob Tasca Jr., who showed us around and introduced us to Bill Gilbert; Carl Tasca, who races a Ford Cobra Jet Mustang; and Bob Tasca III, who campaigns an NHRA Top Fuel Funny Car. The complete history of Tasca Ford can be found in "The Tasca Ford Legacy: Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday," by Bob McClurg.

@RalphPaglia