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How do you gauge the effectiveness of your advertising efforts?

tnfly

Full Sticker + Prep
May 7, 2021
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Alex
Hi everyone,

I run a classified advertising platform in the South and a couple of years ago I introduced feed import for auto dealers, charging a subscription fee. I asked for input from you guys as I developed this feature and want to say thanks to all who helped, especially @Tallcool1.

The small group of dealers I've been working with have reported great success and for these dealers, I often outperform national services at a fraction of the cost. I have visibility in their measurements and am grateful for their continued partnership.

Right now, I'm not pursuing new business as I'm focusing on coming website updates that will help with inventory organization. For the past year, I've been working on increasing value for my current dealer partners through additional exposure, features, and better reporting, with great input from them.

As we get closer to the site update, I'm planning to hit the sales trail to introduce the product to more dealers. I don't like telling dealers how to measure their marketing efforts, but through feedback from my current dealers, I have insight into where dealers should look to measure our results. Our users can drive to most of our dealers, so they ask the buyer where they found the car. I can show dealers that we displayed 1.2 Million impressions for their listings, with 6k VDPs and 120 referrals to their O&O site (check your UTM campaigns!), etc. And some love that.

However, I want new dealers to measure us the same way they would local print media and other traditional advertising too... by asking the buyer. I know that takes additional work. How do I encourage that effectively?

I appreciate any input!
 
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I thought I would consult ChatGTP today about attribution.

Here are a couple of my prompts:
  • How do car dealers attribute sales to billboards, radio, and print advertising?
  • How does a business attribute in-store traffic to advertising efforts?

Along with unique codes, coupons, and unique phone numbers for tracking, Here are a couple of overlapped responses for those prompts:

  • Survey customers: Car dealers can survey customers to determine how they heard about the dealership or specific promotions. This can provide insight into which advertising channels are driving sales.
  • Conduct customer surveys: Businesses can conduct customer surveys to determine how customers heard about the business and whether advertising played a role in their decision to visit the store.

Do surveys work? Do you trust them? I've had dealers tell me that's how they attribute sales to my service. I've had others tell me it's not worthwhile because buyers may say something to the effect of "I saw it online" which could be any number of channels. Are there "best practices" that should be implemented for surveys?

On another note: With the coming deprecation of the third-party cookie in Chrome and the reduced signals for attribution, will surveys become more important for attribution? We're already half-blind on iOS...