Dealer's Gone Lead-Gen Crazy

[Jason@nabthat]

Someone in our space needs to create an attribution model that can predict a dealers sales. When we cross that threshold we can finally understand what sells cars and a new era will be born.

If we are looking at Leads, CTAs, Sites, Attribution, etc. Then we need to start segmenting audiences and understanding what each audience type is doing (that is just to start in order to get to an attribution model that can predict dealers sales).

For our sites (yes, we build automotive websites) and our dealer partners we look at the following Segment Types:
Desktop - Mobile - CPC - Direct - Organic - Returning Desktop - Returning Mobile - Location

Your most important Audience above is your CPC...Clear. Simple CTA's are ideal.

 

[joe.pistell]

we look at the following Segment Types:
Desktop - Mobile - CPC - Direct - Organic - Returning Desktop - Returning Mobile - Location

Jason,
CPC? Not sure what that is. Maybe PPC?

 

[Jason@nabthat]

Jason,
CPC? Not sure what that is. Maybe PPC?

Yes, can be referenced either way. Google will show your paid traffic in Analytics as "google/cpc"

 

[joe.pistell]

Your most important Audience above is your CPC

Jason,
CPC is a source of traffic, how does one connect a traffic source (paid search ads) to the ability to forecast a dealers sales (or forecast what the most likely units to sell)?

 

[Alexander Lau]

Jason,
CPC is a source of traffic, how does one connect a traffic source (paid search ads) to the ability to forecast a dealers sales (or forecast what the most likely units to sell)?

Google/CPC
Google is Traffic Source and CPC is the medium, with CPC being (Paid Search) Cost Per Click, guessing you guys know this.

Most Sales Attribution tools look at the following channels:

• chat
• cross family
• direct
• direct mail
• display
• email (internal and external)
• equity mining
• organic search
• other
• outbound phone
• paid search
• reputation management
• social
• text
• tier one
• tier two
• video
• walk in
• website

etc,.

 

[joe.pistell]

Most Sales Attribution tools look at the following channels:

• chat
• cross family
• direct...

etc,.

Back-of-the-napkin thoughts...

Attribution uses more than traffic source, it'll record and weigh engagement too.

Marketing Attribution: The process of identifying a set of user actions (“events” or “touchpoints”) that contribute in some manner to a desired outcome, and then assigning a value to each of these events. ( Wiki)Apr 11, 2017​

Gut Call time*!
IMO, the traffic source (alone) has less weight than engagement (alone). But, engagement + traffic source stats should produce superior prediction models versus traffic source or engagement alone. About 6-7 yrs ago I ran surveys at delivery (>5,000) and found eye-popping evidence that proved to me that my most important sales tool was my dealer website. I made several posts about this all over DR.

Prediction of a sales action...
I'd love to see a holistic model that'll predict which cars are most likely to sell (example: "in the next 50 floor ups, > x% will be about the following units: _____). Or, what the store's total sales will be (example: "in the next 15 days we expect your floor ups to increase by > x% and, based on your prior sales history, your sales should increase by x units).

If the prediction output is reasonably stable (i.e. not wrong often), then it could become the basis of an intelligent real-time pricing tool. Bonus! lead-gen obsession would diminish too



*20,000 hrs as a dealer CMO

 

[Alexander Lau]

Back-of-the-napkin thoughts...

Attribution uses more than traffic source, it'll record and weigh engagement too.

Marketing Attribution: The process of identifying a set of user actions (“events” or “touchpoints”) that contribute in some manner to a desired outcome, and then assigning a value to each of these events. ( Wiki)Apr 11, 2017​

Gut Call time*!
IMO, the traffic source (alone) has less weight than engagement (alone). But, engagement + traffic source stats should produce superior prediction models versus traffic source or engagement alone. About 6-7 yrs ago I ran surveys at delivery (>5,000) and found eye-popping evidence that proved to me that my most important sales tool was my dealer website. I made several posts about this all over DR.

Prediction of a sales action...
I'd love to see a holistic model that'll predict which cars are most likely to sell (example: "in the next 50 floor ups, > x% will be about the following units: _____). Or, what the store's total sales will be (example: "in the next 15 days we expect your floor ups to increase by > x% and, based on your prior sales history, your sales should increase by x units).

If the prediction output is reasonably stable (i.e. not wrong often), then it could become the basis of an intelligent real-time pricing tool. Bonus! lead-gen obsession would diminish too



*20,000 hrs as a dealer CMO

It does use a lot more than what I had mentioned and I agree with you. I was commenting on the channels that are used. You two were discussing Google/CPC.

There's clearly a difference between web traffic attribution and sales attribution and definitely multi-touch attribution has to be executed properly across both. Here's a nice article on assisted conversion attribution within GA (WTA).

I'm just going to copy and paste my own quote from https://forum.dealerrefresh.com/thr...average-cost-per-lead-to-get-a-customer.5619/

Cost Per Lead (CPL) and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) are important metrics (can be calculated via Web Traffic Attribution), but a lot of dealers are more interested in Cost Per Sale (can be calculated via Sales Attribution).

Web traffic attribution evaluates the true cost per engagement and cost per lead model (multi-touch) so you no longer need to rely on last-click attribution. Sales attribution holds vendors accountable for their performance by measuring what really matters – what’s driving sales, not just clicks. Do they sell cars?

 

[joe.pistell]

Cox is looking for betas

https://www.coxautoinc.com/attribution-beta-signup/
"Sign-up to be a part of the Beta Attribution Program from Cox Automotive to connect anonymous online activity directly to sales."

 

[Chris Leslie]

 

[Ryan Everson]

Cox is looking for betas

https://www.coxautoinc.com/attribution-beta-signup/
"Sign-up to be a part of the Beta Attribution Program from Cox Automotive to connect anonymous online activity directly to sales."

Autotrader ran a Transparency.ai attribution report on our group and accidentally did some stores that were not utilizing any Autotrader or KBB products.

The stores that weren't using Autotrader/KBB had the same % of sales attributed to Autotrader/KBB as those that were spending $10K+ /month.