Attribution's Role in Auto Dealer Online Marketing

In digital marketing, attribution data may refer to any of the following: 

• Lead attribution
• Sales attribution 
• Traffic attribution 

Lead attribution helps your vehicle dealership understand and map the offer which converted a lead. The dealership’s CRM system can present this data accurately.

Traffic attribution refers to figuring out which sources, such as organic search, ads, social media etc, are bringing the highest converting traffic to your auto dealer site. These details can be easily tracked and measured by using platforms such as Google Analytics. 

Sales attribution is considered by many to be tricky to keep track of, since it is all about understanding which touch-point made the customer actually close the deal.

Single-touch Attribution and Multi-touch Attribution

A prospective buyer closing a sale based only on one single interaction is very rare indeed. Due to this reason, most car dealers have moved away from single-touch attribution, in which case all the credit for the sale closure is given to just one source. 

The new method being adopted is multi-touch attribution, where multiple interactions are taken into account and credited for completing the sale.

Usually, when it comes to lead attribution, the first conversion gets credit. But what happens if an interested customer converts on the second or even third interaction with your auto dealership? 

As you can see, it makes absolutely no sense to always give credit to the first conversion only. With car shoppers doing more vehicle purchasing research online than ever before, all auto dealerships naturally are looking for ways to get multiple engagements. Every opportunity to move a lead further along the sales funnel must be taken advantage of.

Did You Know that Google Analytics Can Help?

Apart from analyzing the data that an online marketing professional needs, Google Analytics is also a very effective platform for keeping track of and measuring attribution data for your vehicle dealership. It even provides dealers with various models of attribution that assigns credit to different aspects. 

While some models provide the last touch-point with more weightage or equal weightage to each touch point, other models give higher priority to the most recent touch-points. The dealer can then decide which model works best, depending on their requirements.

Nowadays, there is also a model that splits 80% of the weightage equally between the first and last touch points, and distributes the remaining 20% equally between all the remaining touch points. 

Spoilt for choice and confused about what to do? Our recommendation is to compare multiple attribution models at once, instead of relying on just one model to give you all the information you require. 

This method will provide much deeper insights into how an auto dealer can attribute conversions properly to their marketing initiatives.

Using Attribution to the Advantage of Your Auto Dealership

Vehicle dealers need to understand a simple truth –these days, multiple conversions are the key when it comes to effective online marketing. 

Right from the top of the sales funnel to the bottom, a customer will come into contact with multiple touch points across different channels. Only by understanding the value that each of these channels adds to the sales process can car dealers optimize their marketing campaigns for maximum returns.

What Other Benefits Does Attribution Offer?

Using tools such as Google Analytics will provide all the details of how to properly attribute conversions to the marketing efforts at the dealership. Quantifying how marketing affects an auto dealer’s bottom line is critical to its success. It’s helpful to look at real time data so as to identify trends instead of only trying to spot absolute winners or losers.

The questions that auto dealers must ask themselves are: which sources usually bring in better leads, which sources perform well overall, and which ones perform below expectations? 

Thinking of attribution from these angles is a far more guaranteed way to pick up inflection points to fine tune your marketing mix. Vehicle dealerships can then work with a more focused effort on them in order to increase the revenue generated and profits earned. 

The value of attribution also raises the chances of repeat purchases happening from your client base.

Having a clear picture of which marketing strategies and campaigns of your auto dealership are actually causing your leads to convert is very important. This is because it highlights from where your marketing dollars are receiving the highest returns, enabling you to take well informed decisions for your car dealership.

For more information on attribution for auto dealership online marketing and to know how izmo can support it, Contact Us.