Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick, powered by CBT News

Blind Spots in Dealer Marketing

• Jim Fitzpatrick • Season 1 • Episode 19

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Cox Automotive commissioned a white paper with Perficient that reveals startling insights about automotive marketing measurement and the massive blind spots most dealers face when evaluating marketing effectiveness.

• Research shows car buyers engage with 62 touchpoints before purchase, yet most dealers only track first or last touch
• 92% of the customer journey remains invisible to dealers relying solely on CRM data for measurement
• Only one in three sales involves any type of lead contact throughout the entire shopping journey
• 48% of consumers start their car shopping journey on marketplace websites
• Cost per lead metrics often mislead dealers, as poorly performing stores frequently have the lowest cost per lead
• Technology now enables tracking across the full customer journey, connecting marketing activities to actual sales
• Dealers should shift from cost per lead measurement to ROI models that weight all customer engagements
• Close rate provides the most reliable comparison across stores, vendors, and salespeople

Dealers can access the white paper at b2b.autotrader.com or find it on the AutoTrader podcast page at b2b.autotrader.com/fortheroadforward in the resource tab.

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Announcer:

Welcome to Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Hey everyone, Jim Fitzpatrick, thanks so much for joining me this morning on another edition of Inside Automotive right here at the CBT Automotive Network. Jade Terreberry, Senior Director of Strategic Planning for AutoTrader and Kelley Blue Book with Cox Automotive, joins me in the studio once again. You've seen her here before on CBT News. So, Jade, thank you so much for taking the time of your busy schedule at Cox Automotive to join us here. We always appreciate that.

Jade Terreberry:

Love being here, Jim, thanks for having us.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Sure. So recently Cox Automotive commissioned Perficient to conduct a white paper focused on marketing measurement. And can you share what prompted this type of research and why it was important to take a deeper look at how dealers are tracking sales and ROI?

Jade Terreberry:

You bet. So you know. I have believed for many years that the biggest challenge our dealers have across the industry is measurement yeah, how to know what is working and what is not, and across AutoTrader and Kelley Blue Book.

Jade Terreberry:

We have 20,000 dealers and we have been looking at data for years, trying to understand the role that marketplaces play, the role that dealership websites play, how all of the pieces of the journey fit together, and so we looked at our own data, looked at third party multi-touch attribution data from companies that are focused on identity resolution, and we found Perficient and engaged them to go out and use third party data not our own, but to really answer some of these questions that we had, and the findings were. Some were shocking, some were validations of things that we already knew and believed, but we believe that the biggest service we could do to our clients is to help them really understand where their consumers are, what's working and what's not, and how to get better with efficiency and effectiveness of every dollar that they spend.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, no question about it. Can you tell us a little bit about those key findings and what really surprised you or stood out especially important to dealers and the things that they can do or should pay attention to today?

Jade Terreberry:

Yes. So four key findings in my mind. The first one is and you have heard me say on this show whether a consumer has nine clicks or 250 clicks between click and close. So we know there are a lot, but the study validated the average consumer now has 62 clicks, 62 touch points between the start of their journey and when they actually make a deal, and so the majority of dealers they're tracking either first touch or last touch or in a few cases, both. But even for the dealers that are tracking both, that's two out of 62 touch points, 3% of the overall journey that they are seeing. 3% of the overall journey that they are seeing. The next really big finding was that 92% is the size of the blind spot for dealers that are using their CRM to measure and understand what is really working for them. So you think about trying to run a business with a 92% blind spot. You can't do it.

Jade Terreberry:

There's no way you can optimize, with the majority of what you're decision making on not being relevant to what's actually driving profit in your door. The next one was that only one out of three sales had any type of lead contact at all throughout their entire journey. So that just tells you again, if you are using a CRM which you've said it for a long time it's not a measurement tool, it's a customer relationship management tool. But if our dealers are using that because up until recently they didn't have a better way, Now technology has opened all of these new opportunities for them to measure better. And then, lastly, the big finding which is not shocking to us, but exciting validation is that 48% of consumers are starting their journey on a marketplace, and I saw a post from Clairvoy earlier today on LinkedIn that they're saying over 90% of consumers now are touching marketplaces somewhere within their journey.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay, that makes sense.

Jade Terreberry:

Yeah, we all knew that it was a lot but as Google and AI and search engines change, you have to be where the customers and the eyeballs are so marketplaces are playing that first spot and that last spot.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So what recommendations came out of the white paper that dealers can act on now to improve their marketing performance overall?

Jade Terreberry:

No surprise focus on those high value and value being what drives deals and profit into your store. We again always say you can't pay the bills at the end of the month with a stack of leads, that's right. Get away from cost per lead measurement and start shifting to a true return on investment, return on advertising spend model that weights all of the engagements that happen across, all of those touch points, so that you can flip that blind spot on its head.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

And really that's the only thing that should matter, right? I mean, the notion that you're focused on a cost per lead is kind of irrelevant really when you think about it.

Jade Terreberry:

Yeah, I have seen so many of our clients small groups, mid-sized groups, the publicly traded companies.

Jade Terreberry:

We've spent years doing these kind of top 10, bottom 10 exercises within their organization.

Jade Terreberry:

Take the top 10 rooftops for best practices that you try to get everybody else to adopt.

Jade Terreberry:

Take the bottom 10% and understand what's not working. And it's a light bulb moment for them when they see that those generally poorest operators, poorest from a profitability perspective, are the ones that have the lowest cost per lead and they're confused by it. And you know it's really common sense when you look at that and say, Jim, if it takes 35 leads for one store to sell the same car because they have poor quality leads or they're doing a poor job working them, or it takes more of those to close in the sister store down the street that can close a deal with five or six leads on that single car, their cost per lead is going to be much lower at the poorly performing, poorly operating store. And so cost per lead. It was something that we could sink our teeth into as an industry or as leaders within our organizations because it felt real and tangible, when in fact it's one of the most misleading things we have done to our own business for how we decision make for the past decade.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, for sure. So you mentioned earlier that AutoTrader and Kelley Blue Book have over 20,000 dealer partners, which is incredible. You really have your hand on the pulse of what's going on and you're in and out of dealerships of all sizes each week. I know that. So what pain points are you seeing most often right now, and how is the data helping solve those challenges?

Jade Terreberry:

Well, we still have this detachment between marketing and sales. We have not yet closed the gap, although, I will say, the entire industry, not just marketplaces, not just data companies have really opened their eyes over the last six to 12 months and everybody is starting to understand that technology that now allows tracking across the full journey, whether that is the lender's website, the OEM's website Hopefully you saw the great news we just launched the Auto Trader-powered marketplace on Car and Driver, srp, vdp carousel that follows the consumers around 10 million additional monthly visitors, Wow.

Jade Terreberry:

But you think about how all of that rich consumer data starts to connect and give us the ability to help our customers understand the full journey and all the touch points and where the consumer is? So not only do you have the need to connect with partners who have that type of data, but that's the only way you can start to marry what your marketing teams are doing with what's actually driving the transactional outcomes and profitability within your organization.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right, right, and it's really technology, as you pointed out earlier. Here we are chasing the wrong information, thinking that we have our hand on it, but the technology has changed so much that now allows us to really zero in on the things that matter most in tracking that right.

Jade Terreberry:

And I have a lot of dealers that say I can't afford to go out and spend money on multi-touch attribution and identity resolution tracking.

Jade Terreberry:

I'm not going to go spend money on a full consumer data platform where I can track it myself and that's where making decisions not only about the partners that you work with is a big piece but also now looking at all of this rich data that sits out there in the white paper where we commission Perficient to do that and again, not our data, but using a million plus transactions and start to work backwards from conversion and close rate, Because close rate is what you can compare apples to apples across all of your stores, all of your vendor partners, all of your salespeople within a single store. You should be optimizing and weighting everything against close rate, because only close deals pay the bills.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right and those are the numbers that matter as we close out this particular segment for dealers, looking to close out 2025, strong, as that's probably everybody that we're talking to right now. What's your biggest piece of advice, based on everything that you just shared with our viewers?

Jade Terreberry:

I'd say don't wait. Invest to know the guessing game in our business is done and the savings that dealers can have by making the right investment choices to be able to connect the dots and understand their consumer journey. It will save them more. So don wait. Your competitors are doing.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

You want to protect the market share that you have and gain more market share. You've got to get on that wagon, no question about it. Jade Tara berry, senior director of strategic planning for auto trader and Kelley Blue Book with Cox automotive. Thank you so much for stopping by CBT news. You always bring the goods and our viewers are very appreciative of it, so.

Jade Terreberry:

Well, we always love being with you, Jim, and we would love for your viewers to check out the white paper. Sure, of course, they can go to b2b. autotradercom, and they'll see a banner right at the top where they can check out the white paper findings. Or, of course, they can go to our podcast page, of which you have been a guest previously.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, it was so much fun, Yep b2b. autotrader. com/ fortheroadforward and they can find it on the resource tab and right below this we'll also have a link to it as well, so can't make it any easier for you folks. So get the information that you need to close out 2025 strong. Thank you so much, Jay, for stopping by.

Jade Terreberry:

Thanks for having us

Announcer:

Thanks for watching Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick.