Test - FTRF
Hi, and welcome to another episode of For the Road Ford brought to you by Autotrader Kelly Blue Book. And today, dealer.com. I have my good friend Jeremy here with me, and we are joining you live from Kansas City at the NCM Client and Friends Conference. And we're actually going to go onto the main stage for a keen talk with David Kane here in about a half hour. And so we wanted to tell you just a little bit about what we're gonna talk about today, which is closing the 92% blind spot that our dealers have.
Speaker 1:And we actually are thrilled that our brilliant marketing team named it closing the 92% blind spot, an honest conversation. Because part of closing this blind spot is our industry starting to finally be honest with ourselves that leads are not the same as deals. Leads don't pay the bills. So, Jeremy, tell our listeners and viewers a little bit about what we're gonna talk about today on stage.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Absolutely. So we're gonna be discussing multi touch attribution. And one of the main things that we think about is the first touch and the last touch attribution because that's typically what we're measuring. Right?
Speaker 2:So this is another look at all of the other things in between. Your organic search, your listings, your chat tool, the abandon rate, all of those things. And we need to be looking at a more holistic dataset. So the CRM's gonna be one source of data. You'll typically go into, like, a leads ROI source report.
Speaker 2:But I don't know if you guys have ever gone into either, like, Google Analytics or a centralized data platform where you're looking at analytics related to all of the different referral sources coming into your website. So that means, you know, the direct traffic. That's gonna be your CRM follow-up, email blasts, the salesperson sending the finance application. Like, you know, it's kinda like cheating. So that's usually typically inflated.
Speaker 2:But it's just all about going directly down that list and seeing, okay. What is my organic search doing for me? What is my form submission rate there? And then tracking that into the CRM and actually figuring out whether those deals are closing or not.
Speaker 1:Yeah. We just, as many of you know, commissioned a company called Perficient to use Clairvoy data. Of course, Clairvoy is the largest identity resolution and multi touch attribution company in the industry. And to look at a million transactions that happened last year and to help us understand the role of all of those 60 plus touch points that happened. Because in the the words of my dear friend, Nathan Jordan, who you also know well, you know, he said there is no team that has ever won any championship game that sat back the week before the championship and said, hey.
Speaker 1:We're gonna watch game film from the last 10 games, and we're gonna look at only the first play and the last play of the game. Never works. The meat is in the middle. It's what you do with all of those middle steps that are how our dealers win deals and gain profitability. So, Jeremy, one more topic that we're gonna cover today is kind of the role of marketplaces and the role of dealership websites, two of the most important and key pieces of the consumer journey.
Speaker 1:You are in dealerships every week, and you do a lot of work. And you've been on every side of the website and marketing business for the last few years. Tell us about the role of the dealership website, and then I'm gonna talk a little bit about marketplace, and then we're gonna let you get back to your day.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Absolutely. Structure is key. Right? We need to understand what elements customers are actually clicking on when they actually get to the website.
Speaker 2:So we'll have, like, a b testing, like heat mapping, widget mapping. All of those things are important to kinda measure the success of the page over time. Also, think about how the traffic is initially getting there. It's usually through Google or listings site or it's advertising influenced. So the more data that you get, it kinda has a snowball effect over time too.
Speaker 2:So we're looking at, you know, not only the Autotrader and KBB audiences, but what people are doing on Facebook, Meta, on the website. And then we can start to structure the page around that to direct the customer to the VDP where they're essentially gonna make their make their choice. I don't think they'll purchase their ad, but soon.
Speaker 1:Well, in your website, it is your digital storefront. And for you all, check out the white paper because it's gonna tell you about all of those key touch points. It's gonna tell you things like 48% of shoppers, they start their journey on a marketplace. One out of three buyers actually never have any kind of trackable form or phone call or chat with the dealership before actually making a connection and even dealership website. It's only it's 14% of the initial visits, but the number of touch points along the way is fascinating.
Speaker 1:And that's why your website, as your virtual storefront, has to be firing on all cylinders. And one more teaser, we also just released the Cox Automotive drivers of the shopper satisfaction study just came out. And it talks about consumers' expectations today related to education, transparency, collaboration, and control. When we let the consumer be in control of the journey, that's when they feel like they're buying as opposed to being sold. And that's where that that excitement and enthusiasm and emotional experience really comes from that helps you be the one that they pick in between step one and step 62 or a 162 because we know what they're doing.
Speaker 1:They're not weeding out cars. They're weeding out dealerships in the middle that are giving them the experience that they want and having those really relevant conversations with them every step of the way. So we will see you soon. Don't forget to go to btob.autotrader.com slash for the road forward where you can be one of the first to hear when new bonus episodes like this one are released as well as subscribe to be one of the first to get all those cool new studies and white papers when they come out. We'll see you soon.
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