In the ever-changing industry of automotive, dealerships are always in search of ways to boost marketing efficiencies, leading to more leads and sales. But with a seemingly endless amount of available marketing channels, it can be difficult to know what’s working.
That’s where true attribution comes in.
Stop the Guessing, Know What’s Working
Attribution gives dealerships the visibility to understand which marketing efforts are truly delivering needle-moving results. By tracking where every dollar is spent and measuring that against real data, dealerships can stop assuming and start making smarter, data-driven decisions.
Attribution is the process of identifying which marketing channels and customer interactions ultimately turn into a lead (think a form submission or a call-to-action button on your website). Dealerships invest in a collection of ways to market a product or its brand via paid search, social media, email marketing, or direct mail campaigns, to name a few. This makes attribution reporting essential to best understand what is and isn’t working.
Your Customer’s Journey is Longer Than You Think
Historically, grasping true attribution – seeing the full customer journey from first-click to last-click attribution – has been missing in the automotive industry. A customer’s purchase journey is typically a long cycle that includes multiple touchpoints throughout.
For example, if a customer receives an email featuring a new lease offer from a dealership, they open it but choose to take no action at that moment. A week goes by and now that same customer sees a financing offer advertisement on their Instagram feed. This time they choose to click for more information and go to a landing page featuring offer details. Unfortunately, the customer chooses not to take action.
The following week, however, this same customer is now seeking you out organically. They navigate to your website, find a vehicle of interest, and request a financing quote on a new vehicle. The lead hits the dealership’s CRM and – with the right systems in place – the sales associate tasked with following up sees the full customer journey including all of those touchpoints in one place. And at an even deeper level, a dealership can see the amount of marketing dollars invested into generating that specific lead.
Seeing the full picture is possible.
Clear Data, Stronger Partnerships
First click attribution has been haunting the automotive industry for 20+ years. True attribution brings much-needed transparency to a dealership’s marketing efforts as a real source of truth. Transparency also builds trust with all of a dealership’s partners and vendors. When you can clearly see where your marketing budget is going and what it’s delivering, you further strengthen relationships and create a foundation for accountability and collaboration. With real-time data and honest insights, attribution brings more informed decision-making to the table.
Conclusion
In order to find the right partner or solution to fix this problem, it’s important to identify what a successful outcome looks like. Are you trying to get a better handle on marketing efforts? Are you looking to better understand current customer touch points? Once you define what an ideal outcome looks like, you will then be able to determine what tool is right for you.
Recently, Gubagoo revealed automotive’s first Unified Intelligence Engine –
Curator – to help supply dealerships with the tools to make all of this possible.
With Curator, dealers are able to break down complex and detailed marketing data into easily digestible insights that help dealerships better understand the full customer journey. When data is accessible and easy to interpret, it becomes a powerful decision-making tool.
This becomes the dealership’s source of truth, guiding smarter decisions, more effective spending, and ultimately, better results.