Cox Automotive has been conducting the Car Buyer Journey Study for the past 14 years to determine the key changes in consumer buying behavior. The study was conducted from August to September of 2023, with nearly 3,000 respondents who purchased or leased their vehicles within the previous year.
As a leading provider of digital marketing solutions for the automotive industry, Cox Automotive has been closely watching and keeping our partners apprised of developments that affect their ability to reach consumers and grow their business.
For nearly two years, we have been anticipating a time when consumers’ desire for web browsing privacy – and regulators’ intention to mandate it – would come together to kill the tracking cookie as we’ve known it. With the September 2023 release of Google’s Chrome browser update, we’re seeing that moment inching closer.
Until recently, any website could add a cookie to a user’s browser and track them wherever they went online, storing the information on the site’s server. Often companies would partner to exchange this data to get more insights into a user’s behaviors and preferences. This allowed them to target their marketing more effectively to consumers who had demonstrated their interests.
With the Chrome update, Google now stores user behavior and activity data within the browser where advertisers cannot access it. The Google Chrome developers’ site says it is phasing out support for third-party cookies beginning in mid-2024.
Wondering what this could mean for your business? We addressed some focus areas and most asked questions that Cox is prioritizing to stay abreast of the cookieless future so our dealers can continue having success.
To address ongoing cookie loss when using third-party pixels, Cox is moving to Server-Side Data connections and APIs. This will allow us to have more durable data signals while remaining privacy compliant. We will also consider Clean Room solutions to provide a secure environment to bring data from different places together for joint analysis. Adhering to privacy parameters and creating the safest place for data sharing and transfer will be extremely important.
For first-party pixels, we’ll continue using Cox Automotive Identity Graph to help us track and use specific IDs or personal consumer information. To maximize this approach, we want to help ensure your dealer websites are focused on collecting identifiable information, like consumer email addresses or logins during browsing sessions.
Campaign Performance and Tracking
We expect to see fewer conversions being tracked overall. We also expect to see increases in discrepancies from our data verification partners since some data points that are monitored rely on cookies. (e.g., Our verification partner may see the user as being outside their geography when the delivery platform does not.)
Server-side will be able to handle signal resiliency issues for the platforms that have Conversions APIs available (mostly social platforms). For other platforms, curated solutions are in developed.
Consumer Journey Analytics
Some blocking solutions on browsers will strip some of our tracking mechanisms by default. This would impact some reporting elements for dealers. Since the consumer journey will rely more heavily on identifiable information collected during website visits such as email address or logins, it’s more important than ever to focus on first-party data activation. Read this Dealer.com article on how to collect, connect, and activate your first-party data as you prepare for the cookieless future.
Additionally, Chrome released an article in August 2023 about Related Website Sets. This may be a solution to customer journey breakage that relies on first-party cookies.
At Cox, we are committed to helping our dealers throughout the deprecation of third-party cookies. We will continue working on ways to ensure our dealers feel confident with this industry shift and will be there every step of the way to ensure maximum success. We will continue releasing information about the approach we are taking to tackle the future with no third-party cookies.
Author: Shane Unrein
Listen, I get it! Staying on top of all-things advertising can be a daunting task. This is a fast-moving space that seemingly evolves daily. From Google rolling out new campaign-types each quarter, like pMax+, to Meta offering verified business checkmarks that help customers feel confident they’re dealing with a legit brand, all these changes affect your advertising in very real ways. We constantly see new advertising capabilities surface that can help dealers reach their customers in what can feel like an endless space.
However, taking your advertising to the next level does not have to be a massive, time-consuming evolution. It is worth remembering that there is no such thing as “perfection” in this sometimes-confusing space – that is an illusion – we aim for progress!
Something I’ve learned in my years as Director of Advertising at Dealer.com is that many dealers are only on the cusp of what their advertising strategy can do. Excuse me for taking advantage of a few overused clichés, but there is almost certainly some low-hanging fruit that could mean more traffic on your website and your showroom floor. I’m not talking about reinventing the wheel here or buying a whole social media platform just to change the name to a single letter for the sake of headlines.
A stale strategy is paramount to failure. But there are steps you can take to beef up your advertising strategy, small things that we can do today can have an impact.
As we have known for decades, most organisms will grow to the size of their environment, reaching out towards the limits of their domain and then slowing their expansive growth at the edges, becoming rigid – a marketing campaign is no different. Like most successful species, innovative advertising strategies need to be elastic, have room to flex, and be ready to push your boundaries with a diversified media plan.
Allocating just 8-12% of your monthly advertising budget to evolving your marketing and communications channels can reveal a lot about the topography of your space. You’ll get a better view of what works for you – and what doesn’t – and how much room you have to grow. Try something new for 45 to 60 days, assess the results, and pivot accordingly. Avenues that you wrote off a few years ago may prove fruitful, or perhaps a channel you hadn’t considered is now blowing up because of technological strides in targeting or audience capabilities.
While doing channel discovery testing (which is distinctly different than traditional A/B asset testing) it is important to note that what works for some advertisers doesn’t always work for everyone. And what worked in the past won’t always work in the future! So many external factors affect the market and buzzy trends tend to capture industry headlines. But continued and repeated channel testing can often lead to breakthroughs, even on a seasonal basis.
In today’s ecosystem, the key to staying in front of high-value car shoppers is with first-party data and audience targeting is the keystone. First-party data allow you to:
First-party data also gives you valuable insights into audience demographics, product-interest engagement metrics, lease or financing options, and service specials, just to name a few. This data also informs us on what customer behaviors are prevalent within an individual’s web activity, which gives you the ability to not only understand more about your consumer but have a clearer picture of how you can effectively reach them at the right time. These are insights that third-party cookies or purchased list data just can’t compete with.
There are three areas that immediately come to mind when thinking about how to activate the first-party data that you probably already have at your dealership, information you’ve been collecting since the first day you opened your doors.
Your CRM – This is direct access to your customers’ behavior and can help you with lead management and marketing. Your CRM can be a treasure trove of information on your customers that you can harness to get your message in front of the right people.
Your Website – Uncover the pages that shoppers have visited on your website, what specific offerings or vehicles they’ve looked at, when they signed up for email specials or price alert notifications, or any of the other ways they’ve engaged with your site.
Your Email Engagement Strategy – Your consumer emails give you insights into what your target audience engages with. You’d be shocked if I told you most dealers don’t focus on analyzing and activating these insights. You can have a clear picture of what that consumer is interested in so you can use it to tailor your marketing to them and create those critical personalized experiences.
If you’re already advertising with Cox then you have access to our huge dataset, hyper IP targeting, and cookie-less household addresses. But setting aside just an hour per month to format and upload the info you already have, which we layer onto our own data, can help give a more accurate picture of your customer’s path to purchase, and that’s something we can really use!
We live in a visual world, now more than ever.
You heard about Barbenheimer, right?
Here’s a secret; every agency uses the same providers. Google, Facebook, Instagram, CTV/OTT, etc. are essentially the same platform no matter who is at the wheel. What sets agencies apart is their data – which we talked about above – and the ability to manage creative, especially when it comes to visual mediums like CTV/OTT and Display ads, and creative collaboration is a big part of any successful equation. Fresh, professional-looking creative can make or break the success of a campaign.
One thing we’ve seen over the years is that, despite best intentions, visual assets often become an afterthought for many clients. The focus of strategy discussions invariably drifts to campaign budget allocations, search ad copy, or keywords, but these things are slowly disappearing as our world increasingly becomes more bite-sized and visually oriented. Google’s Performance Max campaign type relies heavily on custom static creative and video messaging, as does CTV/OTT, and Cox’s proprietary audience-targeted display and dynamic remarketing.
Evergreen Visual Assets – In this new world, it has become imperative that dealers have evergreen assets that act as an anchor for these newer, visually engaging channels. Crafting an overarching message about your business, that speaks to the customer not about individual products but branding of the buying process, must be the core of these campaigns. From there, we can build on the message for more seasonal messaging that is more surgical in nature; monthly specials, limited-time deals, or rare inventory, to name just a handful.
Whether you supply your own custom assets or have our Content and Creative teams build them out, it is important not to let this slip through the cracks.
Build on momentum. Finding what works for your business can be uniquely individual. We can analyze broad consumer data to get the broad strokes, but identifying what has worked for your dealership, in your market, is the key to unlocking the inertia within the data. Using the Email Engagement Strategy above as an example, we can see what types of imagery and verbiage worked well to guide our digital strategy. Did people respond to a specific deal or phrasing, did they respond to a specific product image or color, or is the market culture focused on a specific topic that is locally relevant?
Our Barbie meme above show just how much outside “momentum” can affect outcomes.
With a little coordination, the momentum you get from a well-crafted marketing blast, physical mailer, or even signage can all be reproduced in your digital campaigns, especially as the industry moves quickly towards a more-visual mindset.
At the end of the day, though, the best way to find success is to test, fail, and test again. And make no mistake, just because an idea isn’t a homerun this time doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it! Frequent testing and refinement, combined with continually evolving audience data, is the new normal for digital advertising.
Ready to switch over to GA4? Click here to get started.
Like most dealers, you are probably eagerly anticipating July 1 – the day Google will be sunsetting its current product, Google Universal Analytics. After July 1, dealers with a Google Analytics account will no longer be processing new data.
As a founding member of the Automotive Standards Council (ASC), Cox Automotive is committed to helping dealers every step of the way, by ensuring that you have completed the pre-work necessary to ensure a seamless transition come July.
Your Site, Your Data, Your Google Analytics, Our FREE Support!
It’s your site and your Google Analytics data, but that doesn’t mean you have to go at it alone. With our dedicated Google Analytics support team, Dealer.com is ready to assist with your support needs, as well as ongoing maintenance, free of charge. If you haven’t set up your GA4 dashboard yet, let us know and we’ll help you get up and running.
We offer two ways to transition:
What You Get with Dealer.com
Now that Google Analytics 4 is finally here, Dealer.com has implemented a host of new features and enhanced event tracking. We offer two service levels allowing for quick expansion and full customization of your Google Analytics deployment.
After all of the buzz, the transition to GA4 is here. Whether you take charge of your own transition, want a dedicated partner to take the lead for you, or just need a little assistance along the way, Dealer.com and Cox Automotive are here to make this transition as smooth as possible.
Check out this quick reference guide for a snapshot on all things Dealer.com and GA4.
Footnote:
1. Please note: we expect an influx of requests during this initial transition period. We will address client needs as quickly as we can, however due to high request volume you may experience a delay before our dedicated support team is able to assist.
Having a digital presence as well as online capabilities is something every auto dealer needs in order to do business in today’s times. However, it’s not just a Field of Dreams scenario – if you build it, they will come. Today’s consumers have specific wants, needs and preferences in how they can purchase cars, and it’s reshaping the process for consumers, dealers and the industry alike on a whole.
In order to plan for the road forward, successful dealers know mid-year is the perfect time to take a look at both their current business and marketing strategies, as well as map out how they plan to step into and bridge into the eCommerce future that is already knocking on their front door.
To do this, it’s important to understand where consumers are, where they’re heading, and what your business should be moving toward for the road forward.
When thinking about today’s consumer, it’s important to remember there’s been an evolution in the way they research, shop, and purchase cars. Especially over the last few years. In-market auto shoppers have new and different considerations during the shopping journey, and you must have new and different ways of strategizing and running your business than you did in years past.
A successful strategy should be firmly centered on meeting consumers where they are. No longer a linear path, consumers follow the purchase path in different ways, at different times, and take different steps in a different order.
But by focusing on personalization and offering a frictionless purchase path that both aligns with their needs while simultaneously overcoming their pain points, you’ll still arrive at the end goal of making the sale and giving your customer the experience, they desire. Staying in front of them, no matter where they’re at in the process, is key.
With so many different types of shoppers that your dealership comes across online, it’s important to take a step back and do a deeper dive into who those customers are, what their pain points are, and how you can offer solutions to not only capture their attention, but also gain their trust and business.
Cox Automotive’s recent Car Buyer Journey Study identified five (5) segments of consumers, and the two (2) categories that they fall in – one shrinking in the market and one growing.
Comprised of two different segments, the growing category includes Efficient Independents and Guided Innovators. Efficient Independents comprise roughly 18% of today’s market, and they’re mostly Gen X’s (1965-1980) and Millennials (1981-1996). The largest sector is the Guided Innovator. They make up a quarter of in-market auto shoppers. They’re the youngest – being comprised mostly of Gen Z (1997-2012) and Millennials.
Shrinking Segments: It’s also important to note that the three (3) other segments found in the shrinking category are more likely to still buy in-person, however they still take some steps online during the purchase process. The Researchers, Traditionalists and Resisters prefer a process they are familiar with and that’s worked for them previously, that’s very straightforward and simple. These shoppers typically only complete 4 out of 13 shopping steps online.
So, what are the opportunities here for you? We can see how consumers want to do business online, but it’s important to remember it’s still new for them. Focus on educating them and bringing them along the purchase path with you. Your business and marketing strategy should be dialed into those growing segments. They’re online, and in our “Amazon world” they’re open to or moving toward buying high ticket items online, like cars, predominately online both now as well as in the very near future.
Not every in-market auto shopper wants the same things from their online experience, but one thing they all do want is options. Our research shows that consumers don’t want to follow a prescribed sales process. In fact, 9 of 10 consumers prefer a flexible, personalized car buying experience.
With a complete full service-connected digital retailing experience, like that provided by Cox Automotive, you can give them just that.
When it comes to promoting and marketing digital retailing and eCommerce, there are several different strategies that businesses can use.
It’s important to focus on creating a user-friendly experience for customers when it comes to digital retailing. This includes optimizing your website or mobile app for search engines, ensuring that customer service is top-notch, and using targeted advertising to reach potential customers. You also want to give shoppers the tools to explore the information they are comfortable researching or calculating on their own (inventory, trade-in values, financing terms/payments, F&I products) and make it easy for them to move and bridge the process to the dealership when they’re ready. Being able to easily pick up where they left off will increase their confidence, satisfaction and willingness to do business with you.
Businesses should focus on creating a visually appealing online store that’s easy to navigate as they shift toward the full eCommerce experience. Other strategies to consider include using social media to reach customers, running targeted ads, and optimizing content for SEO. Additionally, businesses should consider using customer relationship management (CRM) software to store customer data and track customer activity. Everything from the car, to add-ons, to financing, to delivery and so on should be connected and seamlessly lead into each other.
Overall, digital retailing and eCommerce are two very different forms of retailing. However, both can be successful if dealerships take the time to properly promote, market, and educate the consumer on them and how their business integrates them. By taking advantage of strategies such as SEO optimization, targeted advertising, and actively using the many features of CRM software, dealerships can maximize their chances of success for their business in both digital retailing and eCommerce.
Is automotive eCommerce the way of the future?
Automotive eCommerce is becoming more and more popular as a way of retailing because it’s all about convenience. With eCommerce, customers have access to a much wider selection of vehicles and access new markets than they normally would. Additionally, they can browse through different models and features at their own pace and make informed decisions before making a purchase.
What can you do now to prepare for the automotive eCommerce revolution?
In the beginning as you work step-by-step from having a few digital retailing solutions toward being fully eCommerce enabled, it’s essential to have a strong online presence. This may sound easy, but it involves more than you may think, and it’s built brick by brick, step by step.
Sure, this strategy includes setting up a high functioning easy-to-navigate website, creating a social media presence, and using SEO and PPC, but it also includes building strategies around integrating eCommerce technology into your business plan and timeline as it is adopted within your business and how you’ll market it. When you plan for the shift, it will make it easier for you to track customer preferences and trends if you make it possible for your customers to browse and buy vehicles directly from your site.
The automotive industry is on the cusp of a revolution, and working toward stair stepping your digital retailing into eCommerce is at the forefront of this change. By creating an online presence and integrating eCommerce technology into your business model, then supporting it with a thought-out marketing and consumer educational plan, you can ensure that you’re prepared for the future of the automotive industry.
Reshaping is and will continue to happen to the auto purchase process. And as times and consumer preferences change, so must your business plans and strategy. When you leverage the power of mixing, matching and modernizing your digital retailing toward full eCommerce capabilities, you’ll not only reach more customers and streamline operations, but you’ll also have the ability to unlock the potential for your business’s future success.
Want to hear all the ways to fully activate your first party data to plan for a more successful road forward? Catch the replay of a unique webinar opportunity with Automotive News hosted by Jade Terreberry and Noah Lee. They share examples of actions you should take now, and outline strategies successful dealerships and OEMs are implementing to make the most of your marketing efforts and dollars.
Kelley Blue Book® My Wallet on Dealer.com websites received the Enterprise Retailing award during the 2023 AWA Awards. Presented by Brian Pasch Enterprises, the AWAs have been a benchmark in the auto industry for recognizing innovative products in technology, design, search marketing, social media, and digital retailing.
Kelley Blue Book® My Wallet is an intuitive tool designed to improve the shopping to buying journey and drive more quality connections between buyers and sellers.
Debuted at the NADA Show 2023, Kelley Blue Book® My Wallet automatically integrates into Dealer.com dealer websites who have Accelerate My Deal. This means dealers will have access to everything from down payment, trade-in, and financing information – the data needed to speed up the deal-making process and get more accurate leads.
When My Wallet meets Dealer.com websites, consumers will have the most comprehensive and consistent power of Digital Retailing at their fingertips.
If a shopper engages with Kelley Blue Book My Wallet on Autotrader, they’ll be prompted to enter a desired monthly payment, trade-in, down payment, credit range and term length. This gives consumers more accurate “all-in” pricing.
From there, their entire search will be customized. Consumers gain budget guidance to help them better understand purchase power and can shop by payment which opens a whole new world of possibility. Dealers Get insights into the consumers financial profile on more leads to provide a personalized sales process with less friction.
80% of consumers think it is a good or great idea to buy entirely online. And with Accelerate My Deal, consumers can complete even more steps online, speeding up the deal for everyone.*
When shoppers enter their information into Kelley Blue Book® My Wallet it’s automatically transferred into the Accelerate My Deal experience. Accelerate My Deal leads on average close at a 48% higher close rate compared to other internet leads helping dealers get more highly qualified leads and boost their profits.** My Wallet gives shoppers a personalized shopping journey and Accelerate My Deal moves the shopper from journey to purchase.
Want to transform digital retailing with a truly connected, end-to-end experience for consumers? Click here to learn more about My Wallet today.
*2022 Car Buying Journey Study
** Cox Automotive Product Analytics. Accelerate My Deal Lead to Close Analysis using VinSolutions sales data. Data from Jan 2020-Nov 2020. Analysis performed January 2021
Summary: Kelley Blue Book® My Wallet, a personalized shopper tool on Autotrader US and Kelley Blue Book, will now be automatically integrated into all Dealer.com dealer websites. Learn more about this exclusive lead-driving tool.
To compete in today’s challenging automotive retail environment, you deserve a data-driven partner who helps create a successful digital marketing strategy with innovative tools and technology. With the NADA Show 2023 just around the corner, Dealer.com has been working hard to bring you new products and enhancements to the products you know and love.
Watch this video as Noah Lee shares a few new products and enhancements being unveiled at the NADA Show 2023, including:
• Accelerate My Deal — the industry’s most trusted and user-centric digital shopping experience.
• Local SEO – dominate the search engine results page and get improved dealer rankings for local search terms.
• Automotive Marketing Platform powered by VinSolutions–now available to Dealer.com customers to send personalized, automated marketing across the car-buying journey.
Visit the Dealer.com booth to get a full rundown of all the advanced digital marketing solutions we’ll be highlighting
Current inventory shortages have caused dealers to look inward to find other sources of revenue. The most natural place for most dealers to look is the fixed ops department, which accounts for about half of the average dealer’s revenue, but only about 1/10 of the overall marketing focus.
Dana Ayer, manager of Performance Management at Dealer.com, recently spoke to dealers about how to find hidden profits through fixed ops merchandising. He shared how dealers can increase customer engagement, boost auto sales leads, and drive revenue with the right fixed ops messaging. Key takeaways from the presentation included:
Watch the webinar to see how your dealership can drive operational efficiencies, outpace your competitors, and improve profits by amplifying your fixed ops messaging.
Automotive internet marketing is changing. Third-party cookies—data used to display personalized ads and track internet users between websites—are going away for good. Advertisers will no longer be able to track and target shoppers the way they always have. They will have to rely on their own first-party data to deliver the personalized shopping experiences customers expect. So, what does that mean for your dealership?
The more you know about your customers, the better you can serve them. If you know that a particular customer keeps looking at a particular vehicle online, you can take action to advertise specific makes and models to that customer. You may also be able to identify that customer’s current vehicle, price range for a new vehicle, propensity to buy, and more. All this data makes automotive digital marketing more effective. But as third-party cookies go away, you’ll know less about your customers, and your advertising has the potential to be less personalized and less effective.
If your dealership doesn’t have a way to track consumers outside of third-party cookies, your advertising audience is about to get smaller. Dealerships that have access to first-party data have a better chance of coming out on top in this new landscape. But what is first-party data exactly? First-party data—data that you have the right to collect and access—includes the following:
Your dealership can approach auto advertising and take advantage of first-party data in one of three ways. You can: 1) manually provide advertisers with your first-party data, 2) purchase first-party data to create audiences, or 3) partner with an advertising provider that already has access to large amounts of first-party data.
When your dealership advertises with Dealer.com, you get access to exclusive first-party Cox Automotive data throughout the entire buyer’s journey. That includes first-party signals from three out of every four car shoppers. That is the biggest basket of first-party data available to dealerships today. This data allows you to track customers and households based on their browsing data from Kelley Blue Book, Autotrader, and Dealer.com websites to create targetable profiles that make your dealership’s advertising more effective.
As third-party cookies go away, it’s time to meet with your advertising team to reevaluate your advertising approach. Whether leveraging your DMS and CRM data, purchasing data, or partnering with Dealer.com to leverage the largest pool of first-party data in the industry, create an action plan now that can help you personalize your customers’ experience and keep them coming to your dealership.
To learn more about the importance of first-party data and how your dealership can gain an advertising advantage in the coming months, watch our detailed video all about marketing in the cookie-less future.
